By Dennis Collin
Managing Revit content can be a challenge to any office, but fortunately there are several useful add-ins available on the App store that make this task much easier.
One of these is the Librarian add-in that enables users to easily sort and access and check content not only within the current project, but also the nominated library locations specified within the options command. Family sorting options include by library location, category, Revit version, date updated and folder location. At the time of writing the librarian only works with component families not system or in-place families.
The librarian interface sits adjacent to the project browser by default, but can be undocked and relocated as desired. Loading families is straightforward, simply browse to the required library, choose the category and then select the family to load. This is all graphically done instead of the load family and browse option. There are also options to be able to query family properties, parameter types as well as opening the component in the family editor.
As well as component checking, loading and editing, the Librarian app also lets users diagnose and check project settings such as save intervals, warning error messages and family usage. These functions can be accessed by the Stats tab and can display this information in several graphical ways.
This add-in is useful for anyone who wants to keep tight control on a project and keep warning messages to a minimum. If more detail is required, then click on the project summary dashboard. In my opinion it would be great if this level of functionality was included with Revit as a standard feature.
The Librarian add-in is available for Revit versions 2018 to 2020 and can be downloaded from the app store link below (login required).