Delete Imported Categories (DWG)

[Anonymous]

I have many left over DWG imported categories in my template and they do not appear in purge unused.

I would appreciate some help to delete them.

Thanks in advance.

[vancikv]

It's hard to get rid of those. If you import a DWG they show up and if you then delete it they disappear by themselves. However, once you explode the DWG for example, they don't disappear even after you delete all of the exploded elements. The only thing you can purge via Purge Unused are the dummy Materials "Render Material xxx-xxx-xxx". I think the only thing you can do is remove all the imported instances you can find and hope for the best. If your template is relatively old though, I wouldn't be very hopeful and wouldn't waste too much time on this.

There are some 3rd party tools for cleaning Revit projects, that work directly with the database. I have never used one, but once we had a specialized company fix a broken project and they used something like that.

[constantin.stroescu]

How I'll do it:

• first, in an overall View as Site or a 3d - VGO > Imported Categories you'll be able to see if there are imported entities..this step is not necessary if you know you have imported CAD entities.

But in order to clean the CAD files I'll use Dynamo combined with Revit as follows:

• in Dynamo > use Plissken Collection Package to Collect data and to find their ID:

• then in Revit > Manage>Inquiry>Select by ID - paste the ID Element value obtained from Dynamo (that with the green region)

• then right click and Delete ...you will see that his file will disappear from the Watch List (Dynamo) too
• repeat the select by ID for every CAD instance and delete again ...

[constantin.stroescu]

you can also do it entirely in Dynamo (more quickly) using ST.Tool.Eraser from Synthesize.Packages.SteamNodes.Tool , for instance.

[pics.munmun]

i am facing the same issue. i m using revit 2020. and the package mentioned about is not available for this version. 

[constantin.stroescu · Accepted solution]

You can also use Bimorph Nodes Package to select the import/linked .dwg and Archilab Package to delete the file(s)

have a look at this post:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-architecture-forum/how-can-i-delete-an-empty-cad-family-type/td...

[pics.munmun]

where will i get CollectCADimport?

[constantin.stroescu]

[michaelrosada]

I don't think this is what the OP is asking for. This just selects and deletes imported CAD files. The problem arises when you import a CAD file, exploded it, then delete those elements. What remains is CAD import categories.

[EbbieAzimi]

BimorphNodes: Did not recognize ACAD in Drafting views and gave no results

[IMCornish]

If I could actually understand Dynamo then this might be easy but just reading the Dynamo User Guide is completelly impossible since it uses descriptioms that I, as an Archiect of many years, have no idea what they mean.  Surelly there must be an easier way of getting rid of unwanted "Imported Category" items?

[IMCornish]

Where does "CollectCADImports" come from because I cannot find it?

[constantin.stroescu · Accepted solution]

you can Delete CAD imports directly from Dynamo...

if you work in  Revit 2023 ,then:

if you work in a previous version:

[constantin.stroescu]

...or, if you want to select only one or several imported items to delete , then use this:

[SGA-jared.singer]

This is great for deleting imported CAD files in R2023, but is there a way to delete the "leftover" Visibility Graphics for the .dwg's on the "Imported Categories" tab?

[ChisB]

I am looking to do the same. I do not have any imports in my template file, yet it is full of "import categories" in VG. Has anyone been able to delete the import categories?

[EbbieAzimi]

Used the Gerneral guideline provided in this thread to create the Dynamo script ... took a few tries but it worked.

The challenge is that the dynamo routines got outdated and to do the same now, we have to update our nodes for the latest version.