Being able to find, access, and modify families quickly in your Revit® library is essential to working efficiently with Revit®. This is the purpose of Smart Browser Manage, the tool whose usefulness and power have been amplified in the latest release (versions 2016.3 and 2017.2).
Never used Smart Browser Manage? If you want a way to efficiently and manage all the content in your Revit® library, SBM is the tool for you, your go-to assistant when it comes to browsing, sorting, managing, and controlling items in your library.
If you are already an SBM user, the updated version speeds up your Revit® content management even further and brings new options to life that increase the accessibility of items in your library.
What exactly are the extremely useful changes in the updated SBM?
- Type catalogs are now fully supported.
- “Create Subcategories” works for multiple families at the same time, not just the selected one.
- A new function upgrades selected projects to the current Revit version.
- You can transfer the units from one template family to other selected families. A huge time-saver!
- The Assembly Code for a batch of families can be modified.
- There is a new option to modify the materials of selected families.
- The “Organization” dialog includes more options.
- When making modifications in the library, values are displayed in the same units as the current project.
- The synchronization process will not automatically override your custom PNG files being used as browser thumbnails.
Read on!
1. Type catalogs are now fully supported.
You can easily make changes to types that come from an external .txt file:
Families can have catalogs containing all information about types and parameter values. This feature decreases project size and minimizes the length of the Type Selector list when selecting family types:
Now you can make any modifications to Revit families using Smart Browser Manage:
You can create new types, add new parameters, change values, etc.:
When you run the modification process, Smart Browser Manage opens every family and makes the necessary changes:
The new type is created, and values are changed:
The new type can easily be loaded into the Revit project using Smart Family Browser:
Or, the new type may be loaded via the usual Revit command → Insert → Load Family:
2. In the new version of Smart Browser Manage, Create Subcategories works for a bunch of families at the same time, not just for the selected one.
The Create Subcategories option is in the Modify Families dialog, which allows you to filter many families from the library and perform tasks, including the possibility of creating needed subcategories: 
Here you can select the subcategories from the list. This list can be modified and adjusted according to need: 
The families will change color if you add a task to create subcategories: 
After running saved modifications, every family will have a list of subcategories, which can be easily assigned to the appropriate solid:
3. A new function has been added which upgrades selected projects to the current Revit version.
Simply select the folder with projects and all of them will be updated. Additionally, backup files can be deleted automatically.
4. The updated version of Smart Browser Manage also includes a new function that transfers the units from one template family to other selected families. This can save you boatloads of time when standardizing families in your library!
First, you need to select the folder containing families whose units need to be modified. Then, select the template family – the family with the “good” units you want to transfer. Then Smart Browser Manage will do its work! The units in the selected families will automatically be changed to those of the template.
5. The possibility of changing the Assembly Code for a batch of families has been added:
6. There is an option to modify the materials of selected families: 
7. The Smart Family Browser Organization dialog includes more options.
Now you can select not only predefined parameters but also parameters which come from elements in the library:
8. When making modifications in the library, values are displayed in the same units as the current project.
This is more convenient to the user because values in the library can be selected and modified in the same unit system as the current project. Even after running saved modifications, though, Smart Browser Manage will not change the family’s original units.
9. The synchronization process will not automatically override your custom PNG files being used as browser thumbnails:
In summary, Smart Browser Manage has become even smarter and better at browsing and managing your Revit® library. Try it out to see the difference it can make it handling your Revit® tasks!
FREE TRIAL
We welcome you to download a FREE TRIAL and experience Smart Browser Manage benefits by yourself. You can also request a live demo with our BIM Application Engineer.
FREE WEBINAR
