Create a Power BI Dashboard

NOTE: Please see Migrating to Automation 3.2 and PowerBI 3.2   

This help file outlines how to export model health data from a Revit file using Ideate Automation and display it in Power BI. This process will reduce the amount of hands-on time needed to ensure stability and consistency across your Revit project files. The Power BI template from Ideate is a starting point that you can modify to suit your company’s needs.

Contents:

Software Requirements
Initial Setup
Ideate Automation
     Create the Ideate Automation task
     Set the script variables
     Start Automation task
Power BI
     Loading data into PowerBI
     Using the PowerBI template for different projects
     Visualizations 
Migrating to Automation 3.2 and PowerBI 3.2   

Software Requirements

Before you begin, check that your setup can meet these requirements:

Initial Setup

The PowerBI template and associated files can be requested by Ideate Software subscription customers. You will receive an email from Ideate Software support with a download link.

Download the zip file, double-click on it and choose ‘Extract All’ and replace all.
IMPORTANT! The files must be unzipped directly to the ‘C:\’ drive, in order for this workflow to function correctly. 

The Ideate Health Check folder will be created on your ‘C:\’ drive, containing the following subfolders:

Ideate Automation

Create the Ideate Automation Task

  1. Launch Ideate Automation. The shortcut can be found on your Desktop after installation.
  2. Select Create to start a new task.
  3. Pick the script “ISW-Health_Check-PowerBI” in the “C:\ProgramData\Ideate\Ideate Automation\Custom Scripts\PowerBI” library. This script was placed here in the Initial Setup step.
  4. Review the description of this task and note the product requirements, then pick Next.

Set the Script Variables

Fill in the required script variables:

Review the defaults and the optional variables:

Select Next, then review the script inputs on the Confirm Task Selections page. 

Start the Automation Task

  1. Before you start the task, ensure that all changes have been Synced with Central. When you are ready to proceed, pick ‘Save and Run’. This will start Revit and proceed to export data. The Status field will indicate the task is Running.
  2. Once the task is finished, you should see a ‘Completed’ status on the Home page. At this point you can use the right-click menu or the Schedule button to set a regular repeat of this task, or pick ‘Clone’ to change some of the variables as needed.
  3. The result of this process is a uniquely named Health Check Excel file for each of the selected Revit files, located in the Data Folder.

Power BI

Loading Data into Power BI

The Ideate Dashboard — v3_2.pbit  is the template file containing the dashboard visualizations. It is found in C:\Ideate Health Check\Dashboard Template.

  1. Open the .pbit file with Power BI, either by double-clicking on the file or in Power BI, select File>Open Report>Browse Reports.
    • Be sure to change file type to Power BI template files (.pbit) when browsing for the template.
    • After starting Power BI, a dialog shown below will appear.
  2. Enter the Data Folder path (custom or C:\Ideate Health Check\Time Stamp) and Select ‘Load
  3. If you see a pending change to queries, select Apply Changes.
  4. It is a best practice to refresh the data in Power BI — Home Tab > Queries Panel > Refresh.
  5. Once the data loads, you can save it with a name that follows your company standards as PowerBI files (.pbix) to a folder associated with a specific project
  6. When opening the .pbix file, you need to Refresh the data to add any newly created exports into the visualization list.

Using the PowerBI template for different projects

The automated exports for different projects should be set up to be saved to project specific folders. Please make sure to not store any other files in these or the Power BI query will not function correctly.

  1. Create your folder structure like this:
  2. Open the Ideate_Dashboard template file 
  3. Set the Folder path to the project-specific data folder
  4. Once the data is loaded, save as a .pbix file. Save it in a different subfolder from your data exports!
  5. Now you can make a project-specific shortcut to the .pbix file directly on your desktop or put them all in a holding folder. 
  6. The two paths necessary for the template to function are managed here:
    • The visualization Metric file:
    • The Data Source Folder (/Time Stamp by default)

 

Visualizations

NOTE: After importing your own data, make sure to toggle the Date dropdown to a day that contains data, otherwise the visualizations may be empty!

 

Migrating to Automation 3.2 and PowerBI 3.2 Template

The version 3.2 contains major updates to the data exports utilizing the June 2024 release of Ideate BIMLink, Ideate Explorer and IdeateApps>Annotate. There are several changes within the content that required a change to the PowerBI template:

  1. Ideate BIMLink — to improve performance both during data export from Revit and within the PowerBI template the HC-Ideate link definition has been modified to filter out data that is unneeded by the PowerBI KPIs. The new filter displays only data relating to In-Place Families OR Detail and Model Groups. 
  2. Ideate Explorer — Warnings data has been streamlined to improve performance; fewer columns will be exported to Excel.
  3. IdeateApps>Annotate — All possible clashes are newly exported, independent of the Clash Sensitivity settings. This allows the PowerBI template to be adjusted to reflect the desired sensitivity, independent of the file setting, ensuring consistency for the data. 

 

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