Scope Boxes

Scope boxes are essential components of multi-disciplinary view coordination, and they should be highlighted within the <Ideate Audit> Filter. You can keep an eye on the scope boxes in your projects with Ideate Explorer by selecting and zooming to a scope box by the name and easily transferring them from one project to another.  

To copy all scope boxes between project files: 

1. Set Display to "Entire Project"
2. Set Filter to <Ideate Audit>
3. Select all scope boxes to be copied
4. From the Modify tab in Revit, select “Copy to Clipboard”
5. Open the new file
6. Use Paste to transfer to all the scope boxes into the new project

Plan Regions

A plan region is used to apply a different view range to part of a floor plan view so a model element that might typically be invisible due to the cut-plane height can be indicated on the plan. Unlike scope boxes, plan regions are view-specific, and they are easy to lose within the Revit project. Use Ideate Explorer to delete unwanted plan regions or to copy them from one view to another.

Grids, levels, and reference planes are considered datum elements within the Revit database, meaning that they can be used by other elements to drive geometry. They need to be carefully reviewed using Ideate Explorer as your project progresses.

Grids

Grid lines can duplicate via Copy/Monitor or other methods placing two identical grid lines in the same file and in the same location. When this happens, the grid number can’t be used, and it may cause other unintended results. 

Fortunately, you can use Ideate Explorer to quickly review the list of grids. If you find a potential problem, simply double-click on the grid instance to open a view where it can be viewed. Once selected, it can be moved or deleted using Revit methods.

Levels

Model managers need to keep control of levels, because when deleted, level lines can take certain hosted elements with them without warning. Use Ideate Explorer to look for newly created level lines and carefully move elements that have been placed on incorrect level (before the level can be safely deleted).

To move elements from one level to another using Ideate Explorer:

1. Set the Display to "Entire Project"
2. Set the Sort By to "Level"
3. Set the filter to <Model>
4. Select the elements to move
5. Look at the Properties palette for the Level property
6. If Level is an editable property for all elements, switch the level to the proper name. This is easiest with non-hosted elements, such as furniture, casework, and equipment
7. If the Level is not available, you may need to de-select some of the elements and do them in batches. For example, if the selection contains walls and casework, you can move the wall using the Base Level property and then move the casework via the Level property.

NOTE: In-place families won’t have a Level.

Reference Planes

Unnamed reference planes make selection difficult and are a visual distraction. Use Ideate Explorer to quickly delete all unnamed reference planes.

Ready for a deep dive into how to use Ideate Annotate to support Revit design documentation and quality control activities through enhanced browse, review, and intelligent tagging workflows? Watch the recording of this webinar.

In this 45-minute webinar, which we developed to provide a thorough lesson for both new and experienced users, we demonstrate how to use each of the three tabs in Ideate Annotate:

1. Browse – Browse all 2D annotative elements, align and distribute text, create powerful rules to isolate the exact elements to see, and more
2. Review – See problems with annotation elements, such as clashes, blank tags, duplicate tags, orphaned tags, and elevation marks with no elevations
3. Tag – Implement powerful intelligent tagging, such as tagging duct work that is over or under a certain length

After this course, you will have the information you need to expedite production documentation work with easy access to all annotative elements and to reduce liability by ensuring the legibility of tags, text, dimensions, and other annotative elements.

Visit our Events page for more opportunities to connect with our team in person and online.

Since we launched Ideate Annotate in June of 2022, so many customers have let us know that this tool, which is part of the IdeateApps collection, has dramatically reduced the time they spend on documentation work and helped them ensure that clients and other stakeholders who review the 2D documentation can clearly see all annotative elements. 

In our last release of IdeateApps, we made Ideate Annotate even better. Now, users can batch add tags to Revit projects, decreasing the time it takes to manage tags and improving their accuracy.   

With this feature, users can: 

• Tag elements that are only in the new construction phase
• Tag or ignore nested elements
• Assign different tags to different element types, even within the same data category
• Exclude elements based on family and/or type name
• Tag elements based on their properties, such as length or area
• Control the location of tags relative to the tagged element as a default or an override
• Tag the active view or all open views. This also works for tagging elements from linked files!

Watch this short demonstration video to see how easy it is:

Read this detailed Help file for more information.

Subscribers can get the latest version of IdeateApps from the Download page. Non-subscribers can learn more on the Ideate Software website and download a free 30-day trial.
 

At Ideate Software, we believe in empowering our users to streamline their workflows. One such workflow that may have flown under the radar is our capability to utilize Project Information parameters as variables within Ideate Automation scripts. This feature becomes very useful when trying to process multiple Revit files across multiple projects, enabling project-specific export folder locations.

One use case of this workflow came to us as a request directly from one of our customers, Jan Leenknegt, BIM Director at BIG stating: “We would like to push different pdf exports to different project folders for ultimate ease by the teams.” We understand that this feature is a game changer for project organization, efficiency, and workflow management. 

So, how does it work? It's elegantly simple. 

You need to create a custom project parameter in your Revit model—in this example below: “Project-Folder” —and place the desired PDF export path in that field per image: 

 
This parameter and value will always reside within the Revit model in Project Information. Users can now specify exactly where they want their PDF exports to go. 

The magic happens when running Ideate Automation and utilizing the proper syntax for Export Folder field to call that value that exists in the Revit model.  The value when creating the automated task will be: ${Revit.CurrentFile.ProjectInfo.Project-Folder}

 
Utilizing this method enables the creation of tasks that utilize multiple models as input. Upon the execution of the export to PDF task, Ideate Automation seamlessly directs the output to the designated export folder of the respective model, ensuring organization without additional manual intervention.  This workflow finds application in various scenarios, including:

1. Automated exports of PDF/DWG/IFC/NWC files, with export destinations residing within the Revit project
2. Automated project Save-As operations, leveraging project information parameters for specifying Save As locations
3. Automated Health-Check exports, with export destinations managed within the Revit project parameter

Below is a practical task setup demonstrating the utilization project information to define paths for Save As operations for a list of Revit models. Additionally, this example incorporates the creation of subfolders corresponding to the project name, thereby streamlining the placement of exports within the designated directories.

1. File list is a .txt file containing a list of Revit models utilized in this task
2. SaveAs variable name identified in this task to be the file name
3. Remarks is a Project Information parameter setup in each model in the list, facilitating save as to designated locations
4. An option to include subfolders into the location parameter, which can serve both as a parameter and a standalone entity. In this demonstration, it is represented by the Revit filename parameter.

Here is a diagram illustrating the output resulting folder structure:

 
Please note, with this workflow, folders will get generated by the task in the event they do not already exist. 

We're excited to deliver this solution to our customers, helping them streamline processes and achieve even greater success in projects. Try it out today and experience the difference firsthand. If you love the idea of using Project Information parameters for export locations, you will find this blog post on using Project Information for export file naming useful. 

For additional training tips, check out more posts in our Training blog series.

Browse our website to learn more about how Ideate Software add-on products help Revit users save time, increase model accuracy, improve deliverables, and elevate design. You can give them a try by downloading trial versions or purchasing the bundle for access to the Revit plugin solutions Ideate BIMLink, Ideate Explorer, Ideate Sticky, Ideate StyleManager, and IdeateApps for six months. 

About the Author

Nivin Nabeel, Customer Success Manager, Americas

Nivin has a background in architecture, visual arts, and computer science and has extensive experience in managing and manipulating BIM data, developing and implementing BIM standards and workflows, and applying BIM workflows to ancillary project components for improved efficiency. Before joining Ideate Software, Nivin worked at several architecture and design firms where she learned about Ideate Software products, used them, advocated for them, implemented them, and trained others on how to use them. She earned her Bachelor of Architectural Science degree from Toronto Metropolitan University. Follow Nivin on LinkedIn.