Pinning Protection

In this article

• Why you need Pin Protections
• Customizing Pin Protections
• Protected Pins Elements menu
• End user experience

Utilizing Revit’s native pinning command, Guardian’s Protected Pins allows Project Administrators to add Guide & Prevent protections to pinned elements. Once activated for the project model, model elements pinned with Protected Pins will display a customized Guardian Command Message when unpinned, requiring the end user to enter a comment and/or a password to continue to unpin the model element.

Why you need Pin Protections

We have heard from our customers many times over how they have pinned elements only for others to unpin, causing setbacks to the development of the project model. Revit’s native pinning command relies on all users to understand the importance of and why certain elements are pinned an allowing all to unpin even if they don’t. While Revit’s Select Pinned Elements adds a layer of protections, we have heard most user just turn it off anyway. Guardian’s Protected Pins solves this problem and provide a layer of protections in a manner only Guardian can.  

Customizing Pin Protections

When Protected Pins is first enabled within Project Configurations under the Custom Interactions tab, it will be adopted by each project model once the model is registered. If needed, Protected Pins can be disabled within Project Settings on the Custom Interactions tab on a model-by-model basis.

The default Protection Mode can be set by selecting the Gear icon.

In these settings, the option to allow users to apply protection to pinned elements can be enabled.

Pro Tip: Elements in the Project Browser can be protected from deletion by applying the pin protection. This can be done by selecting a family type, view, sheet, schedule, or legend in the Project Browser and then using the Pin button in Revit's Modify tab.

After being enabled, the Project Administrator can apply Protected Pins to any model element by simply using the Pin command within Revit. Please note, only Project Administrators have permission to apply the Pin Protection.

Pro Tip: Select multiple model elements (i.e., Grids or Levels) at once to apply Protected Pins and the level of protections and comment to all.  

When a Project Administrator pins an element, Guardian will prompt them with a decision regarding the degree of protection:

• Allow users to unpin: This option forgoes advanced pin protection and will default to Revit’s normal pinning behavior. ‍
• Warn users when attempting to unpin: This will enable Protected Pins for the selected model elements and prompt the User Message dialog.

For each element selected, a custom message and protection mode can be applied. After selecting Warn users when attempting to unpin, the protection can be configured in the dialog shown below.

Pro Tip: Have fun with the messages! Users understand the value of quality work and will appreciate being reminded of the potential risk of unpinning protected model elements in a fun way. All Guardian Command Messages are rich text format so you can customize as much as your creativity will allow. Images and GIFs are always a big hit!

In this dialog, the following options can be utilized:

Require user to enter a comment

• Checked: Requires the end user to provide a comment to proceed with unpinning the protected model element.
• Unchecked: Does not require the end user to provide a comment to proceed with unpinning the protected model element.

Require user to enter the password

• Checked: Requires the end user to provide the Project Password or One-Time Password to proceed with unpinning the protected model element.
• Unchecked: Does not require the end user to provide password to proceed with unpinning the model element.

Notify by email when unpinned

• Checked: The Project Administrator will receive a detailed email notifying them that an end user has unpinned a protected model element. This can help create a dialogue between Project Administrator and end user.
• Unchecked: The Project Administrator will not receive an email notification when a user unpins a protected model element. See Project Administrator Notifications below.

Protected Pinned Elements menu

The Protected Pinned Elements menu, found in the Guardian ribbon, is the control center for Pin Protection. This menu will remain empty until an element is pinned with protection in your model.  

Within the Protected Pins dialog, the following information is displayed for each protected element in the active project.

• Families: The model element in which Protected Pins have applied.
• Pinned: Shows if the element is currently pinned. Unpinned elements can be re-pinned by selecting this checkbox.
• Mode: The Protection Mode applied.
• Send Email: Shows if email notifications are enabled.
• Req. Comment: Shows if a comment is required by end user when unpinning.
• Message: Message entered by Project Administrator that is displayed to the end user when attempting to unpin the protected model element.

Pro Tip: Any protected elements unpinned by an end user will have the protection automatically re-applied when it is pinned again (by either an end user or administrator).

End-user experience

When an end user attempts to unpin an protected model element, Guardian will alert them with the custom message provided by the Project Administrator. Depending on the configuration of the protection mode, the end user may need to enter a comment and/or password before proceeding.