(NEW!) Content Sharing with ACC Bridge
Previously, architects and other consumers needed direct access to the ACC project folders where Informed Design products were published. This required product manufacturers to invite each individual to their project folders, and design teams had to navigate through unfamiliar folder trees in multiple ACC projects to find products for Revit usage. Product manufacturers could also publish products to consumers’ projects, but this meant repeating the publishing and version management processes for each publish location in ACC.
With Informed Design’s ACC Bridge integration, manufacturers can publish products to their own project folders, then easily share these folders across other accounts and projects in ACC.
When a folder is shared via Bridge, a copy is created in the recipient’s project, with updates synced automatically from the sender. Recipients can organize and manage access to these folders within their project, allowing the design team to browse products from various manufacturers in one location. This saves manufacturers time and effort by allowing them to publish products only once – to their own project. All recipients get the updates through Bridge, streamlining content management tasks.
For more details on the Bridge integration, see Informed Design and ACC Bridge.
(NEW!) BIM Definition Workflows and Integration with Informed Design
The Informed Design Add-ins for Revit and Inventor supplement products with manufacturing constraints, helping to guide architects’ design choices. However, these constraints alone don’t provide all the necessary behavior and metadata for using products in the BIM context. With the BIM Definition Add-in for Inventor, product engineers can properly define crucial model aspects such as the BIM classification and properties, insertion point, orientation, placement plane for interaction with a host, MEP connections, and more – to ultimately result in higher quality Revit Families.
Previously the BIM Category and Family were set in the Informed Design Add-in for Inventor, on the product definition’s Outputs tab. Now, these are defined in the BIM Definition Add-in’s BIM Properties Panel, which populates the Category and Family fields for the Inventor model's product definitions. Other BIM Definition workflows are optional but highly recommended for Informed Design products. To access the BIM Definition Add-in, update to the latest version of the Informed Design Add-in for Inventor and ensure that both add-ins are loaded. This adds the BIM Definition tab to the Inventor ribbon.
To learn more about these new workflows, check out the BIM Definition Add-In Overview.
(IMPROVED!) Generate Outputs Experience
In the Informed Design Web Portal, the request for output files (or RFO) includes the file types requested from Informed Design products, and the ACC or Fusion Team folder for uploading the generated files. Previously, product engineers had to define these requests on a separate Job Settings page after selecting instances from a Revit model. Now, the RFO setup process is streamlined into a three-step modal dialog: File types, Upload location, and Checkout.
Before, under each output type like “Drawing 2D” there were expandable sections for each drawing template file, with nested checklists for specific file types like .dwg and .idw. BOMs and Neutral Formats had similar structures, with file types grouped into sections for each model state representation. In the new setup experience this hierarchy is reversed. Under each output type, the controls for each file type allow for selection of all the necessary drawing templates or model state representations. This approach is more scalable as we expand our support for additional output types. The Upload location step remains similar to before, but now shows any relevant Bridge information for each folder (whether the sync is incoming or outgoing, and which ACC projects are involved.)
File types and Upload location steps can be completed in any order. After these steps, an itemized invoice is generated for the Checkout step, showing the token consumption per document along with the request’s total file count and token cost. (Don't worry – there is still no token consumption associated with generating output files!) At Checkout, the invoice lists the number of tokens to-be-consumed with a strikethrough, indicating that the functionality is currently at zero cost. A summary of the request is available to review and confirm before submitting.
Currently, requests for output files are created only from the Instances tab based on Revit model selection. In the future, this RFO process will also be available for generating output files outside the building design context.
(IMPROVED!) Applicable Property for Adopted Parameters
An input parameter adopted in the Informed Design Add-in for Inventor might not be applicable for all product configurations. For instance, if handrails are omitted from a staircase, selection of a handrail material becomes irrelevant. Previously, product engineers used the Visible property to hide irrelevant options on customization forms based on certain conditions (e.g., If Handrails.Value = False, then HandrailMaterial.Visible = False). However, this doesn't work well when many product variants are listed together, such as the variant comparison tables in the Informed Design Add-in for Revit or the instance selection tables on the Web Portal's Instances tab. In such tables variant rows would show the product’s default value for an inapplicable parameter, causing confusion. For example, if the default configuration included handrails and a handrail material, the HandrailMaterial cell might display "Stainless Steel" even for variants without handrails.
To solve this, we've added an "Applicable" property to our Parameter codeblocks in the Input rules workspace. This works similarly to Visible (e.g., If Handrails.Value = False, then HandrailMaterial.Applicable = False). When Applicable is False, the parameter is read-only and its value is an em-dash (—) to indicate that it does not participate in the configuration. A Visible rule may be used alongside the Applicable rule to hide the inapplicable parameter on the form. In variant or instance tables, an em-dash will appear in cells where the parameter is not applicable. This also applies to release details in the Web Portal's Releases tab.
With this improvement we hope to clarify parameter relevance and dependencies, aiding in the configuration and selection of product variants.
(NEW!) Publish Prerequisite Checks
To publish a product with the Informed Design Add-in for Inventor, you must meet specific requirements in the product definition, BIM definition, and Inventor model. Unmet requirements will now be listed before publishing to help prevent failures. After selecting Output types, any incomplete prerequisites will be flagged with instructions on how to resolve them. You'll be able to proceed to the Publish step once all prerequisites are met. In some cases, issues in the Inventor data set – such as relationship errors between components or unsupported iLogic code snippets – can't be diagnosed by the Inventor Add-in. In the Input Rules workspace you'll now be reminded to check for these potential issues.
For more details, see Inventor Add-in Publish Prerequisites & How to Resolve.
(NEW!) Release Notes for Products and Releases
With release notes, manufacturers now have the option to supplement their published products with additional details for designers and other project collaborators. When using the Informed Design Add-in for Inventor to publish a new product or a new release of an existing product, product engineers can use Release notes field to describe the release for those who will utilize it in Revit. Release notes can contain up to 500 characters, and URLs are supported for those who wish to link to their company's online resources. These release notes will be visible in the Informed Design Add-in for Revit during browsing, and when configuring or selecting product variants to insert or replace.
Noticed an error in a published product's release notes? Want to add release notes to products that were published before this feature was available? Don’t worry, there’s no need to re-publish from the Inventor Add-in. Release notes of existing products can be edited quickly and easily from the Releases tab in the Informed Design Web Portal.
Note: Project Administrator permission is required to access the Releases tab.
Can we enable the hyperlinks to the additional content?
Is it possible to publish a link on a companies website that has all their products in an ACC Bridge for potential customers to use?
This update is truly a game-changer! The new ACC Bridge integration and streamlined workflows for Informed Design are a massive step forward for content sharing and management. It's like putting on that iconic Fight Club Red Leather Jacket—suddenly everything feels more powerful and efficient. The ease of syncing updates and managing projects, combined with the improvements to the BIM Definition workflows and output processes, is bound to save time and reduce complexity for everyone involved. These features clearly show a deep understanding of user needs and the evolving challenges in the field. Great job!
