BIM Blog

March 4, 2023

MEP Hangers 101: Place, Manage & Customize Supports in Revit [WEBINAR]

Placing hangers and supports for mechanical, electrical, and plumbing services in Revit is important to get right. That is, if you want to deliver a proper BIM project. Problem is, that’s hard to do if you’re working in plain Revit because there isn’t a built-in feature for placing hangers (except rarely-used Fabrication Parts).

There are three ways to deal with this difficulty.

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February 23, 2023

DPI Structure expands wood capabilities with AGACAD tools and Arkance support

AGACAD’s Wood Framing Suite for Revit, backed by local partner Arkance Systems France, has helped a structural engineering firm based in Lyon bolster its capabilities and efficiency in work with wood-frame projects.

Client profile

DPI Structure is a Lyon-based structural design and civil engineering firm unique for its multi-material expertise. It works on concrete, wood and/or metal construction and renovation projects across France and beyond. The company was an early adopter of 3D design and BIM, recognizing the potential of building information management to enable more holistic construction solutions.

Partner profile

Arkance Systems France is a national leader in digitalization solutions for construction and industry. It is part of the rapidly growing ARKANCE group, which now operates in 14 European countries.

Business need

DPI Structure got started over three decades ago as structural specialists in reinforced concrete for buildings and civil infrastructure. Over time it saw opportunities to develop expertise with other building materials as well, to be able to offer more holistic solutions: from foundation to roof, and from early architectural sketches to commissioning the built asset and even its later renovation.


Looking ahead to expected future regulations and evolving industry attitudes, DPI Structure saw work with wood, in particular, as necessary and an opportunity to stand out from competitors. It thus sought to build up its own capabilities for working with modern timber structures. The company was already using Autodesk Revit for design.

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February 14, 2023

New feature for Sort Mark Revit plugin: Differentiate similar elements by geometry

Sort Mark is a handy tool for Revit that can help you deal with numerous element parameters instantly. Although this plugin may look simple at first glance, it packs quite a punch, as it can apply parameter value systems to multiple elements simultaneously, saving lots of time and doing it error-free.

Most of our clients are aware that Sort Mark’s functionality is included in our Wood Framing, Metal Framing, and Precast Concrete solutions as well as Smart Documentation toolset for Revit. So, in this blog post, we’re pleased to announce an update for Sort Mark that helps you easily tell similar elements apart according to their geometry.

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February 6, 2023

How to Restore Lost Elements Using Revit® Backup Files or Copies

Last time, I explained how to transfer views, family types, elements, etc. between different Revit® projects. This time I would like to show how to restore lost elements using Revit backup files or copies.

Imagine you’re working on a big project, and you notice that some Revit® elements that had been modeled a few hours or even days ago are missing. That might happen on workshared projects when team members don’t own worksets, and everybody can edit anything. So, sometimes someone might accidentally delete someone else’s elements.

To transfer the missing elements, you need to find a backup file where the elements are still in their place, or a local copy of the project that wasn’t synchronized with the central file for some time (and has the missing elements in it).

Now you have to open both projects in Revit. The best way to transfer elements is in plan views, so activate in both projects same-level plan views. Mark the elements in the project where they are still in their place (you can use right click and Select All Instances >Visible in View or just select all and filter the required elements).

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February 3, 2023

Transferring Views, Family Types, Elements, Etc. Between Different Revit® Projects

Autodesk® Revit® can save a lot of time when you’re working on large projects or multiple similar projects. What you want to use here are Revit project templates.

Revit users can save system families (walls, floors, etc.), component families (doors, windows, furniture, etc.), sheets, schedules, annotations, graphics, and so on to their project templates. This can save a lot of time when starting a new project because you skip over the creation of schedules or importing needed families. Each project is different, however, and we can’t create a template that will suit all projects. Even if we create a few templates to choose from for a new project, the chosen template won’t fit it 100%.

There are even situations when, for example, schedules from multiple different projects have to be used in a new project. Also, sometimes beginners forget to use the required project template and have problems transferring their work to a project template. There is a partial solution for that using Revit project linking, binding it afterward, but losing annotations, detail items, views, etc., but that’s a topic for another post.

First of all, let’s see how the system family types, annotations, tags, view templates, etc. can be transferred between projects (those are just types, not designed elements of the project).

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February 1, 2023

AGACAD Advances | 2023 No. 1

The ‘I’ in BIM is the item of interest in the latest installment of our newsletter AGACAD Advances for AEC professionals.

But there’s more besides, like client stories and upcoming webinars. Plus, our Global BIM Survey continues.

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January 30, 2023

Classification: The key to getting more out of BIM [WEBINAR]

So, let’s say you made the transition from designing in 2D to 3D some time ago. You and your team have become confident in using BIM workflows. Check.

But, are you using BIM to its full potential? The time, effort, and financial resources invested into implementing BIM demand that you get as much as possible out of it.

BIM data classification is precisely where you can get more out of BIM. In fact, it’s the key to unlocking its full value. That’s because BIM data classification makes data easier to understand, ensuring accurate and timely budgeting, planning, building, and management of a given asset.

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January 30, 2023

Wood/Metal Framing for Revit: The Most Significant Enhancements of 2021/2022 (Pt. 2)

As promised, here’s Part 2 of our Annual Framing Summary covering updates and improvements that were implemented for our Wood Framing and Metal Framing BIM software for Autodesk® Revit®.

While Part 1 covered new products, sample projects, and tutorials, this second installment will get into the nitty-gritty of new features that were released from the tail-end of 2021 and during 2022, including client requests that benefit lots of users.

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January 24, 2023

8 Ways Architects Can Optimize the Drawing & Documentation Workflow in Revit

Architects know how important it is and how time-consuming it can be to generate accurate project drawings in Revit. To some degree or another, reworking drawings is always necessary, things like dimensions, tags, and other data, in order to end up with high-quality documents.

In this article, you’ll see how our Smart Documentation plugin for Revit can help architects optimize their workflow.

building floor plan in Revit
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January 18, 2023

New version of Smart Browser Revit plugin: Create your Revit family library in 3 easy steps

We’d like to introduce the latest updates made to our Smart Browser plugin for Revit. In brief, the UI has been reworked to make creating Revit family libraries more straightforward. And, there’s a new feature that lets you see at a glance if families have recently been added or updated when family browsing.

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