CBT Architects Maintains Revit Model Health with Ideate Explorer

Established in 1967 in Boston, MA, CBT Architects is a leading design firm. Its 230 professionals play an important role in a broad range of local, national and international projects in architecture, interior design and urban design. They use Ideate Explorer to keep their Revit models clean and accurate by finding, editing and deleting elements; viewing all elements in a Revit model; and auditing Revit warnings.

“Ideate Explorer give us deeper insight into Revit model elements and allows for enhanced selection options,” said William Paquette, CBT Design Technology Team. “This significantly aids in model management, allowing us to quickly identify where issues may be and areas that can be cleaned up.”

CBT uses Ideate Explorer to find and fix problems that could impact model size, sync time and performance in several ways, including to:
• Identify and delete views that aren’t on sheets
• Find and remove CAD files inadvertently imported into Revit
• Sort by workset, note elements in the wrong place and move them
• Update outdated standards on older models
• Verify that users adhere to standards
• Clean up Revit warnings
• Align worksets after binding a model

William provided a few detailed examples:
• “We reused a model with thousands of instances of a non-standard pen. With Ideate Explorer, we updated them all at the same time. It would have taken a long time to update them one by one.”
• “When cleaning up some design options that purged into a model, we found some overlapping mullions. Coupled with some Revit features, we used Ideate Explorer to create a section view, narrow it down, and easily determine which mullions needed to be deleted.”
• “We binded some information into a model, which means we lost the phasing and workset information. Working with a script we made to assign the phase created or demolished and the worksets the original element lived on, we aligned those things in the model after the fact by selecting that set and changing that property. In one instance, Ideate Explorer told me that I selected 600 elements that were original conditions, but by narrowing the search with Ideate Query, we could see that 173 were actually new construction. We easily fixed it.”

“We are proud to be associated with CBT, an award-winning company that places a high value on creativity, collegiality and social responsiveness,” said Glynnis Patterson, Director of Software Development, Ideate Software. “It’s rewarding to know that the products we develop help CBT move past persistent Revit challenges to focus on designs that elevate each client’s image and brand.”

About Ideate Software
Ideate Software empowers Revit users to gain unprecedented control over their data. Ideate BIMLink, Ideate Explorer, Ideate Sticky, Ideate StyleManager and IdeateApps were all developed to solve persistent problems in architecture, engineering, construction and owner (AECO) workflows. Ideate Software solutions enable Revit users to save time, increase accuracy, improve project deliverables and elevate design. Autodesk, the Autodesk logo, ATC, and Revit are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries.