Naviate Discover - Excel Export/Import | Naviate website Help Center

In this article you can find:

Excel Export/Import video
About Excel Export/Import
Workflow
Export Selection
Extracted Excel Format
Import

Excel Export/Import

To see this feature in action check out the video below!

About this feature:

This feature allows a user to Export parameter data from Revit to an Excel document, modify that data in Excel, then Update by importing the data changes back into Revit for a full round-trip data service.

There are two ways to Export data:

Export by selection - this works when you pre-select elements before running the feature.
Export Schedule - you can choose one more schedule to export.

Workflow

Below explains the quick workflow for Exporting and Importing modified data.

Select elements in Revit.
Click the Export/Import button in Naviate AC ribbon.
Select the settings for your export in the Export Selection tab and click the Export button.
Choose a location and file name for the Excel File that will be saved.
Make changes in Excel, but don’t change the gray/blue read-only columns.
Save your changes. It is okay to leave Excel open.
Open Export/Import again and navigate to Import tab
Select the modified Excel file.
The import will occur, and any errors will be saved in a separate Excel file.

Export Selection

Export Selection is the first tab that appears when running Export/Import. The user has the ability to export data from a currently selected set of elements.

In Revit:

To extract a selection, select some Revit elements.
Then navigate to Naviate AC >> Export/Import command. The following dialog will open.

Export Selection tab is used for exporting a pre-selection of elements in the active Revit model.

Settings:

One Tab per Category – One Excel Sheet/Tab will be created for every Revit Category that is exported.
One Tab per Family – One Excel Sheet/Tab will be created for every Revit Family that is exported.

Parameter filter:

Parameter Filters - allows you to select pre-existing Filters from a list
Edit or Create New Filters - this button allows you to define named filters for the Revit Element Parameters you want to export
Export Type Parameters - when checked the exported Excel file will contain a Sheet/Tab listing Type Parameters of the exported elements.
This tab can/should be used to change Type Parameter values for the Import
Hide Excel sheets for Summary and Export Catalog - this checkbox controls if Summary and Export Catalog sheets will be included in the export

Partial Preview - allows you to partially preview the excel table that will be exported.

Define New Filters:

Upon selecting the Edit or Create New Filters button, the Parameter Filters dialog pops up, which allows you to define named filters for the Revit Element Parameters you want to export.

These filters are simple Named Lists of Parameter Names.

During the process of exporting the parameters of a Revit Element, all the parameter names are checked against the list of Names in the Filter. If the parameter name appears in the list, then it will be filtered out and it won’t be exported.

When initially invoked the dialog will display a list of the Categories that the current selection of Revit Elements belongs to.

Selecting one or more of these Categories will cause the Families window to be populated with the family names of the current Revit selection that belong to the categories selected in the window above.
Selecting one or more families will result in the Parameters window to be populated with all the parameter names of the currently selected elements that belong to the families selected.
The list of parameters can be filtered by clicking the Common Parameters Only checkbox or by entering a Filter String.
To add or remove one or more parameter names to the currently Selected Parameters list you can double click a selection of parameters in the Parameters list or the Selected Parameters list. You can also do this by clicking the “+ >” or “< -” buttons between the two lists.
To save for later use the current list of selected parameters in the Parameter Filter dialog, click the Save button and enter a name for the filter, or the Delete button to delete a filter.

Export Schedules:

This feature offers an Export Schedules tab for exporting Schedules in the active Revit model:

To Export Revit elements listed in a Schedule:

Click the Export Schedules tab of the Export/Import dialog
Select one or more Schedules by checking a checkbox next to the Schedule name
Select an Output Format
Export for Re-Import - this format will enable you to edit exported data in Excel sheets and re-import the data back to Revit elements after doing edits.
As in Revit - exports with Type Parameters, Export Summary and Catalog
Simplified - hides the Export Summary and the Export Catalog and gives you a more simplified excel file.
Export Only - this is a classic export option where you will get Schedules in excel format, but you will not be able to import the schedule after modifying it
Choose export options
Export Schedules as separate Excel files - when disabled will export all selected schedules into one excel file with each schedule in a separate tab. If schedules are exported as a single file, the file name specified by the user will be the prefix, and the suffix will automatically be applied as the schedule name.
Hide Excel sheets for Summary and Export Catalog - this option will remove these tabs from the exported Excel file
Click the Export button.

After Clicking Export button, you are asked to select a folder to save the file to. Here you should also name your export. A small report with number of exported elements and the number of errors will be shown after the export is done.

Note: Some Scheduled are not supported (ie. Schedule Keys, Material Takeoff schedules.)

Extracted Excel File Format

Whether exporting a selection of entities or a selected Schedule from Revit, the exported Excel file will contain the following sheets/tabs:

Export Summary
Export Catalog Tab
Type Parameters Tab (optional, only if the Export Type Parameters checkbox is selected)
Export data Tabs

Export Summary

The Export Summary sheet is different for the One Tab per Family, One Tab per Category and the Schedule exports.

In the case of a One Tab per Family or a One Tab per Category export, the output begins with general information about the export, such as: Sort order, Format, Source Revit file name. Next, an indexed listing of all the Category, Family and Family Type names that are included in the export. The first column of this listing contains a Hyperlink that will take you to the Excel tab containing the data of the respective Family/Category.

Index page for the One Tab per Family exports:

Index page for the One Tab per Category exports:

In the case of a Schedule exports the Sort order and Format rows have a value of “None” and “Schedule” respectively.

The indexed listing contains the Hyperlink to the corresponding Excel Sheet, the Revit Schedule Name and the Category of the schedule selected for export.

Export Summary page for the Schedule exports:

Export Catalog Tab:

The Export Catalog tab contains a listing of all the Parameters for each Family Type contained in the export.

The included columns contain the following information for each parameter:

CategoryName
FamilyName
ParameterName
ParameterInstanceOrType
ParameterSharedOrNotShared • ParameterProjectOrFamily
ParameterStorageType
ParameterDisplayUnitType
IsUpdateable
ParameterGuid

Export Data Tabs:

For One Tab per Family exports, the export data tabs are named with a number that is generated sequentially for each family export.

For One Tab per Category exports, the export data tabs are named after the Category whose exported data it contains.

The first four columns and the last two columns of these tabs contain data that identifies the element:

CategoryName
FamilyName
TypeName
ElementId
TypeUid
ElementGuid

These columns are read-only, and they have a gray background.

The remaining columns contain values of the parameters that belong to the elements exported into the given tab.

Cells with a blue-gray background contain read-only parameter values that will not be updated on the import.
Cells with a light-yellow background are for parameters that do not belong to the element in the row, but they have valid values for elements in other rows.
Cells with a white background are read/write parameter values that will be imported to Revit during an update.

Import

User has the ability to update the parameter data in Excel by importing that data back into Revit for a full round-trip data service.

Run the feature from Accelerate tab and navigate to Import tab
Click on "three dots" button to select a file
Select the file you previously exported and edited and click Open. The file can still be open in Excel, but it must have your changes saved.
Click on Import button. Wait for the Import to finish. There will be a message box displayed when the operation is done.

Below is an example of a successful Update:

Notes and Tips:

Type Parameters are exported as read-only.
When selected in the Export options, Type Parameters can be edited in the Type Parameters tab of the exported Excel file.
In the exported Excel file, the Project Level parameters will appear with a “(Project)” suffix appended to the name of the Custom Parameter. This is necessary because Revit will allow you to have a custom Family Parameter added to your elements with the same name as a custom Project Parameter.
In addition, if the parameter is a Shared Parameter, the header cell of the column will have an Excel Comment containing the Shared Parameter GUID as shown in the image below:

Schedule Exports will be formatted to match the appearance of the Revit Schedule:

Compare Excel schedule below with Revit Schedule above:

For Schedules in Revit utilizing Sorting/Grouping and the Itemize Every Instance is not checked, the Excel export will still contain the itemized instances of the corresponding groups. These instances will be exported as a collapsed Excel Group.

Example of exported schedule:

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