Additional Options

The purpose of the Additional Options is to support the design of scripts so that only the most commonly modified variables are displayed by default, while less frequently needed variables remain hidden until needed. The goal is to keep the customer experience as simple as possible. To access Additional Options, from the Ideate Automation>Create tab, select a script, then pick next. From this dialog, which is called the Task Script Variables page, you will see the Additional Option toggle at the upper-right hand corner as shown below.

Topics in this Section

Related topic: Anatomy of an Ideate Automation Script

Move an existing script variable to Additional Options

To make a script have fewer choices for the average user, you may want to make an existing variable display only when the Additional Options is toggled. For example, the PDF scripts display the variable for the exported PDF file name.

If the naming of your PDF exports is consistent, it may be unnecessary or even confusing to offer this choice to most users. This is a perfect example of a variable that could be ‘moved’ to Additional Options. In the example below we will use the script called IBL-Export_PDF_Combined.def

  1. Find the script using Windows Explorer, which is at C:\Program Files\Ideate\Ideate Automation\en-US\Samples\Ideate Software Scripts\01 Publishing - Dynamic by default.
  2. Open the script called IBL-Export_PDF_Combined_Dynamic and save this script to a new name and location: C:\ProgramData\Ideate\Ideate Automation\Custom Scripts\IBL-Export_PDF_Combined_Dynamic-simple.def
  3. Open the new file with a text editor, such as Notepad or Notepad++ 
  4. Find the variable by using Ctrl+F to search for the variable name, in this example, look for “Combined PDF File Name”

  1. Change the text shown in yellow above to include “advanced”.

Existing text:

prompting="${combinePDF}">${revit_file:RevitFilenameNoExtension} - ${link_name}</export_file>

New text:

prompting="advanced">${revit_file:RevitFilenameNoExtension} - ${link_name}</export_file>
  1. Save the script.
  2. The standard for Settings is to include the C:\ProgramData\Ideate\Ideate Automation\Custom Scripts file path, so when you start Ideate Automation, you can select the Custom Folder and try the new script.

This newer and cleaner version of the script will no longer display the variable for the file name, but you can still see and edit the value from Additional Options. 

Hardwire and Hide Variables

In some cases you may want to take action to further prohibit changes within a task by hiding variables. Continuing along with the same example as above, let’s assume that never want anyone to adjust the name of the exported file. In that case you have two choices:

  1. HARDWIRE — Remove the variable from the top portion of the script and then replacing the variable with the value in the lower part of the script
  2. HIDE — Or, change the prompting from “advanced” to “false”

The second option is easiest to do and is recommended to allow for easier editing later. The first option is cleaner and results in the removal of the variable from the Confirm Task Selection page.

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