Search within models

[KsmithTU58F]

Hi, I would like to be able search within multiple models for specific details or content. Many years ago Autodesk had software called Content Service which worked for indexing CAD drawings on the server and gave instant hits when searching for certain words/content.

Does anyone know if there is something similar for Revit? Does BIM 360/Docs have a "search within" function that could do this? 

[mhiserZFHXS]

You could probably do this with Dynamo, though I've never tried. Not sure about any other existing services.

[barthbradley]

How would that work?  

How do you do it manually? By opening random RVTs and searching the Project Browser?  What about Transfer Project Standards? Or is that how you are doing it now?  

[KsmithTU58F]

We have a lot of models with a lot of details within them. Some more job specific detailing but the question that always arises is "what project did you do that detail in, I could do with using it?" Be great to be able to do a quick search of details across multiple models without opening them individually or looking through the PDF exports of the sheets.

To also create a library of details and catalogue them for people to easily find/copy/insert and view them.  I can spend time manually doing this but my mind always likes to think there is a quicker more automated way of performing such tasks. 

[barthbradley]

I get it and I agree it would be great.  I was just wondering how that manual process could be automated.  I heard Dynamo mentioned, but in order to write a routine, I would need to know the logistics.  Frankly, it sounds more like a haphazard search.   

[RLY_15]

I wrote a crude version of a similar workflow back when our company first started large adoption of Revit and we needed to collect and categorize all of our floating details into a more organized detail library.

The issue that I was running into with just node usage (no python experience) was the sheer number of potential elements that required searching. Our details usually float around 10+ text notes, and we were sifting through several thousand. The script winds up needing to inspect an large number of Text Notes, and it sounds like from your workflow that you'd be incorporating string comparisons which means inspecting the substrings inside the Text Notes as well...all of this is far easier if your company uses Detail Items which are parameterized to construct your details but that does not appear to be a popular practice.

There's also the issue of querying open models versus a library of models - the Orchid package exists and allows for processing through multiple models, but that's just another level of multiplication.

If you have a details library established, it might be a useful project workflow at deliverables to kick the details back out to a 'holding area' inside the details library where they can be compared against similar details for modification and then ultimately categorized and kept/eliminated.

[ToanDN]

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@KsmithTU58F wrote:

We have a lot of models with a lot of details within them. Some more job specific detailing but the question that always arises is "what project did you do that detail in, I could do with using it?" Be great to be able to do a quick search of details across multiple models without opening them individually or looking through the PDF exports of the sheets.

To also create a library of details and catalogue them for people to easily find/copy/insert and view them.  I can spend time manually doing this but my mind always likes to think there is a quicker more automated way of performing such tasks. 

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A quick search using what criteria?  View name?

[KsmithTU58F]

Sounds a lot like what I am after. We use Detail Items for all of our details along with sections. My other idea was using DWF's as they are much more manageable than PDF's and compiling a large DWF of details for people to open and perform a search which will point them to the project or info they need. But exporting details using the "save to file" is another idea I've pondered over, however, that relies on people to actually remember to do it once the project is complete. But tightening QA procedures will be the answer to that I suppose!

[ryley.g.h]

What I've seen in the past is a company made a detail warehouse project. At the wind-down of each project they would go through all the drawings to see what they wanted to put into a separate project file on the server which would contain all their details which could easily be copy/pasted from. It worked pretty well, just takes time to setup the initial warehouse of details. After that, just a little bit of maintenance.

[RLY_15]

A technique that I shamelessly copied from a web contact in setting up our details library was to cram as many relevant keywords as possible into the View Name, with the Deliverables-quality Name On Sheet filled out per detail. In the context of my field it's stuff regarding equipment location, anchorage method, conveyance material of interest, etc.. basically anything that filled out the sentence 'what was that one detail with the _______?'

The workflow for keyword checking a View Name is essentially the same as inspecting all the text notes, but it significantly reduces the number of elements checked.