Ideate AutomationGetting Started
  • What's New

    • What's New in Ideate Automation

    September 2024 Release (3.3 Update)

    Ideate Automation 3.3 includes an important addition to our IFC-related workflows. With this version the ability to dynamically define one or more views in a project for export to IFC is possible via the IBL-Export_IFC_Dynamic script. The concepts related to dynamically defined sheet and view lists are detailed in this related Help Topic: Use Dynamic Sheet/View Lists

    This version also has improvements that further refine task feedback, providing more user-friendly details about tasks that did not complete as expected. 

    We’ve also made several improvements for our customers who are not using the English version of Revit: 

    Lastly, per customer request, we have added the audit function to the File Open scripts. 


     

    June 2024 Release (3.2 Update)

    Ideate Automation 3.2 addresses many customer requests for enhanced usability, improved feedback, performance improvements, fixes, and last but not least new workflows.  All improvements, unless otherwise noted, are designed to support Revit file versions 2020-2025. Existing Ideate Automation customers who have created custom scripts should be sure to review the 3.2 Script Change Summary

    New Workflows

    Same Session

    Unlike the AUT-Open_RVT_Files, the new script called AUT-Open_RVT_Files-Same_Session supports opening multiple Revit files within the same Revit session. This customer requested script is designed to support the need to use Transfer Project Standards between files.

    Multiple PDF Exports

    Export multiple sheet sets to PDF from within the same Revit file, saving time. The existing scripts IBL-Export_PDF_Combined_Dynamic and IBL-Export_PDF_Individual_Dynamic now support the selection of multiple sheet lists. Each sheet list is defined via an Ideate BIMLink Link definition. Sample link definitions are included with Ideate Automation. In the example below three link definitions are listed, which will results in three separate combined PDF files being created for each selected Revit file.

    NOTE: Sheets_M1 and Sheets_S1 are also included in the content, which is located at the location noted in the image.

    Improved Feedback

    Our biggest effort in this release was to provide valuable information related to the completion or error state of a task. This effort includes three specific improvements outlined below.

    Show Details 

    The new Show Details button on the Home page will open the Task Log Details window for the selected task. If the selected task has a Completed with Errors or Failure status, the Task Log Details will be scrolled to the primary error code, which will be highlighted with color as shown below. At the top of this dialog will be listed the primary error code for each file. Each of these can be selected to jump to the relevant part of the log details.

    Related topic: Understanding Log Files

    Task Summary

    Now when a task is selected from the task list, the Task Name and a summary of the outcome is displayed at the bottom left. In the image above the selected task Completed with Errors and completed 0 of the requested tasks due to the fact the that BIMLink definition did not exist at the specified path.

    Improved Schedule Task Data

    The Scheduled Tasks dialog has been updated to include a “Missed” status to reflect the condition when a scheduled task is unable to run due to the state of the computer (off or locked). 

    Improved Performance

    We also took the time to speed things up for you. In this release you will find that the script called AUT-Families-RFA is almost 6x faster than the previous version. It’s also a lot more resilient. See below for other performance-related improvements. We have also added the ability to open Revit files with specific worksets closed and made many improvements to the IFC export process, all of which will result in shorter and more predictable outcomes for your Ideate Automation tasks.

    Open with Specify Worksets

    In the previous version of Ideate Automation, we enabled the ability to open a Revit file with specific worksets (closed) only within the PDF export-related scripts. In this version we’ve made this possible for all Revit file open scripts. The benefit of this improvement is that you can ignore unneeded content, improving the file opening time and also ensuring that the output, whether it’s PDF, DWG, NWC, or IFC only includes the intended data. Look for this option in the updated scripts.

    IFC Export Improvements

    Due to customer and beta tester feedback we’ve made several improvements to the existing IFC script called AUT-Export_IFC. One of the aspects of an IFC export is that depending upon the IFC settings, the IFC GUID data may be updated during the process. When this happens, the elements are borrowed. In this version we wanted to enable these important options:

    Additionally, we have added the ability to export to a specified View Set. This new option lets you export multiple views from each selected Revit model and can be used to export slices of the model based on the view cropping. Lastly, we have added the option to Open with Specify Worksets to the IFC script. This can improve performance by excluding unneeded elements or linked file content. If you have a point cloud or non-critical CAD linked data, for example, these should be in a separate workset(s) that should be closed. Related topic: How To...Export to IFC

    Enhanced Usability

    In this release we have made several improvements aimed towards improving the customer experience. The Home page has been re-designed to collapse the Getting Started Guide for existing users. This will free up more room to review the existing task logs and creates a space at the bottom for important feedback as described further down. On the Task Script Variables configuration page, the Additional Options toggle has been added to display more task choices. Tasks can be designed to offer fewer user choices, making Ideate Automation simple for the average user, or advanced users can delve into more detail.

    Schedule a Task, Now!

    In the previous version the process for scheduling a task involved first creating and running the task; only after the task completed could it be scheduled. The intent was to ensure that a task was not scheduled until it was proven to first be successful. However, so many customers have asked, we have now added the ability to go directly to the Schedule part from the Confirm Task Selections dialog as shown below — enjoy!

    Sync with Comments

    Per customer request, scripts such as AUT-Export_IFC and AUT-Audit_Compact_RVT now support the option to add a comment related to the Sync with Central process as shown below.

    Fixes

    We fixed a bug in tasks using the File List option to execute on multiple Revit models. Any task creted in the previous Automation version 3.1 and using the File List option needs to be recreated using the sequivalent script in version 3.2, otherwise the task will fail with the error shown below. Custom scripts using the File List option also need to be fixed. Please contact Ideate support if you need help with specific custom scripts. Learn more in Understanding Log Files

     

    Script Change Summary

    In addition to the changes noted above, many of the scripts from the previous version of Ideate Automation have been changed to improve performance. See below for a summary of those changes.

    New Scripts

    Modified Scripts

    All scripts have been modified in this release to improve reliability and to simplify the user inputs through the use of  Additional Options. All scripts that open Revit files have been updated:

    Retired Scripts

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