By Dennis Collin
The ‘Show ID’ Utility is a small but helpful tool for Autodesk® Revit® users. The tool extracts element ID numbers from the Revit project file and stores the value as an instance based Project parameter , which is shown in the Properties Panel of a selected object.
Often during the communication and collaboration between architects and engineers, there is a need to identify the clashing elements. To communicate more effectively about how a pipe needs to be rerouted or similar.
Revit's own tool display and select by ID is a little limited so having the Show ID application, after doing a global extraction, displaying the ID of selected element in the Properties dialogue is very useful. The same ID reference can also be used in the Clash Report generated by Navisworks® or 360™ Glue ® . Show ID helps you to find the right element and enable engineers and architects to ensure that the correct element is moved to resolve clashes in a more timely manner.
When the Show ID Command is triggered, a dialog box will be displayed. The user can choose whether to select all element IDs from the active Revit document, or use current selection set.
After the "OK" button is clicked, Show ID will read all elements (or the selection set if “Applied to the selected element” option is selected) from the Revit file and extract the Element ID fields. A pop-up dialog will be displayed to notify the user once the process is complete.
The extracted Element ID field will be automatically shown in the Properties Panel of each element and if necessary can be scheduled.
The highlighted ID is what you would quote or refer to dependent upon ones position within a BIM project. Having the ID number to hand is very useful and compliments well the standard clash detection tools along with the Select by ID number function.