Ideate BIMLinkHow to...Create NEW Elements
  • Create New Object Styles

    • Create New Object Styles

    Object styles are near the top of the graphic control hierarchy within Revit (below View Templates). If the list of custom object styles (custom subcategories) is consistent, then view templates can function as a powerful control over the graphic and visibility controls. 

    With Ideate BIMLink you are able to create new and edit existing Object Style properties, such as Line Weight, Line Color, Line Pattern and Material (where applicable). This is a useful alternative to Transfer Project Standards because you can be more selective about the Object Styles AND because this will not make duplicates. While it’s possible to use BIMLink to create new object styles (aka Subcategories) within a Revit project (RVT), generally it’s more valuable to use this function within a family file (RFA), which is demonstrated in the example below.

    Create an Excel File 

    1. Open your Revit family file.
    2. Launch Ideate BIMLink
    3. Select New…
    4. From the Browse tab, select the 04 Create Elements folder
    5. Select the link definition called “Object_Styles_RFA-Create_NEW” as shown below.
    6. Select Next> then select Done to complete the creation of the new link.
    7. From the main page in BIMLink, use the Export button to create a new Excel file from this link definition.

    Create new Revit object styles

    Modify the Data in Excel

    1. Open the Excel file created from the process above.
    2. Add a new row of data and type “NEW” in the Id column.
    3. Fill out the name and other values as appropriate. You can also copy paste results from another file. In the example below, designed for any family file that is a Window category, any existing category will be modified per the details while any object style subcategory that does not yet exist will be created per the details.

    Create and modify object styles from Excel into Revit projects or families

    NOTES:

    Import the Data to Create Specified Object Styles

    1. From the home page in Ideate BIMLink, select the Import… button.
    2. Select the modified Excel file.
    3. During import any changes will be identified. When “NEW” is specified but the object style name already exists, Ideate BIMLink will modify the existing object style with the specified properties and NOT make a duplicate style.

    Once the object style (subcategories) are created then need to be manually applied within the family to the appropriate Revit elements.

    This process can be applied to mutliple files via Ideate Automation. See related help topic: Batch Import Data From Excel to Revit

    To merge, delete and analyze the usage of Object Styles, both within a family or Revit project file, see related help topic: Object Styles

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