This new release brings you a brand new Guardian Messages™ capability right inside of Revit! We’ve heard from our users just how difficult it can be to message all users of a project or even the company. Sure, there are other tools, but managing the lists of users is tedious. We’ve solved this and are excited to share more about it here.
But there’s more! This release represents a ‘rounding-out’ of some existing features, interface and automations. You’ll see a more consistent ‘rules’ experience which greatly expand existing capabilities. It is important to us that we continually improve what we already provide while also adding new capability. That is a big part of Guardian 3.2.
Guardian Messages™
Messages in Guardian are easy to use. Intended as a broadcast system, users and administrators can send a message from the ribbon or from Project Central. The messages will show up in Project Central and as a popup dialog if the user is actively working in Revit.
The feature is designed to help communicate project needs or share broad Revit instructions where it isn’t as natural via other tools. Messages also support Windows Notifications.
When composing a message to a project users can include a screenshot thumbnail which acts as a link to that current view.
The ribbon buttons for sending and viewing messages are conveniently available for all user types. When sending a message the user will be able to chose to send it to the project, project group (if a project administrator) and company (if company administrator).
There is a new panel in Project Central for Messages. From here the Unread count will dynamically update as well as the unread state of messages. Click on a message to view it. Icons on the left convey the scope of the message (project, group, company).
A sample message is shown. These support normal hyperlinks but you can also include a thumbnail for your currently opened view (icon on right). Users can also choose an expiration window for the message. They will disappear once expired.
Customizable Rules: Copy, Mirror, Delete, Group
At first glance the Custom Interactions list appears little changed. However, entering the settings of several features there will reveal the new rules interface for features like Delete Protection, Copying, Grouping, etc. This allows for much expanded use and creativity - especially because there are so many condition types to choose from. We’re excited to hear how you’re using these new capabilities.
Keep in mind that these settings are technically NEW features. Changes to the settings will not affect previous versions.
Grouping and Copying protections existed before but the settings only allowed a static checkbox list of categories to choose from. You can now do things like prompt users if they are copying drafting views in older projects. (i.e. steer them towards your library).
The Delete protection before was focused only on identifying other elements that would also be deleted when a selection is deleted. That is still possible and your settings will default to this. However, now you can greatly expand protection for anything being deleted and build out custom logic and messages.
The Rules interface mimics Revit’s for View Filters. Here you can add checks against many new conditions and nest those checks into AND and OR statements. With a little practice you can achieve very focused instruction to your users that is highly relevant to the action they are intending. Once your logic is built you can customize the Mode including message and email.
Each of the new/modified Custom Interactions have an extensive list of conditions that can be used in your rules. FYI, Mirroring and Hiding Elements in View has additional conditions to choose from now.
Pin Protection Automations
The Pin Protection of Guardian has been very popular. We’re expanding its capability with three new settings indicated above. This should increase the effectiveness of already applied protection (ensuring that elements become pinned again) and naturally encourage applying protection to more elements that typically require the protection.
Re-pin protected elements when opening projects: Un-pin protections remains with the elements even if they are unpinned. When this is enabled, Guardian will automatically repin these protected elements the next time the file is opened. This will ensure that elements get pinned again if a user had bypassed initial protection.
Prompt to pin and protect after importing or copying CAD: When importing CAD Revit automatically pins those instances. This setting will simply ensure that Guardian will prompt to protect those instances. You can chose ‘Warn users..’, and then reposition afterwards if needed. #1 above would ensure the next time the file is opened it will become re-pinned.
Prompt to pin and protect after copy/monitor: Copy/monitored elements often represent placement that is closely coordinated with a linked model element. This setting will prompt the user to protect the elements after copy/monitor mode is finished. (See #4)
This standard dialog will now appear for settings #2 and #3 above, following those actions.
Project Central for Users
Project Central has been a very popular tool for Project and Company Administrators alike. It has proven a helpful companion towards ensuring a coordinated standard and that best practices are followed on projects. We’re excited to now allow this for your end users. Now users can themselves keep an eye on things like file size over time, user sessions charted out over time, who is currently in the model, areas for improvement in the model, important messages for the project or company, etc. This can be toggled on/off from Company Settings. We have included settings for which parts of this should show up to users. We’re interested if these go far enough?
UI Improvements
We are excited about a new UI refresh in a few areas of Guardian! Sometimes it’s the little things.
The prompts to users interfaces have all been updated to a more modern, clean, minimal interface. The logo is now a smaller element and the command name (AND rule name, if applicable) is included in the header. This makes your message more front-and-center. We hope you like it! The new square shaped logo can be updated inside Company Settings > Profile tab.
We added new labels to the Custom Interactions tab. The list of settings has continued to grow and we hope that these will help you find what you’re looking for quicker. You can select multiple at a time. The ‘New’ label should help identify areas we have recently added or modified.
We have done some consolidation on the Project Configurations dialog by eliminating the ‘Frequency’ tab and placing these options within a new ‘Mode’ button foreach command. The button will display the overall mode and frequency together, which should make everything more clear.
Project Configuration Permissions
We have a new way to protect your Project Configurations ensuring only certain individuals are allowed to make changes. We know this is important because of the possible impact of changes to a single configuration affecting many projects and teams. Now only Project Administrators which have been added to the new Administrators tab will be able to make changes to the configuration. Company Administrators can still continue to make changes to any project configuration.
Guardian Sync Properties™: New Categories
We have added the following property support to Guardian Sync Properties™:
Callout Tag
Elevation Tag
Section Tag
View Reference
Viewport
Tag Label
Multi-Rebar Annotations
These properties can by uploaded to the cloud, downloaded, synchronized, compared, edited, etc. We look forward to hearing how you are using these.
General Improvements
Check out some of the more notable general improvements we've made to Guardian!
Supports Revit 2025
New support for multiple languages: English, French, Spanish, German
This area will now display the user who last modified Project Configurations:
On the Sync dialogs, it will now remember the expanded/collapsed state of ‘Advanced Options’:
In the comment field, it will now indicate to the user if it is required or optional.
We are now capturing relevant information for when a dialog is cancelled. For example, if a user cancels a delete protection prompt, the data will also indicate what elements were selected.
A new field is being captured for ‘rule name’. For Custom Interactions which are rule based, this will be valuable information for understanding what rule of the command was triggered by the user.
You can now enable administrators to have the same experience as users. This will also allow for easier testing of the end user experience when configuring settings (without having to log out).
The following User Commands were added: (you can add them to be Monitor/Guide/Prevent from the User Commands tab of Project Configurations).
Dynamo Player
Dynamo
Create Assembly
Copy/Monitor
Coordination Review
Reconcile Hosting
Interference Check
The ‘Users at a Glance’ area of Project Central has been overhauled. Now, all users who have had a session in the file will appear in the list, regardless if any Guardian actions took place. You’ll also notice the following:
A new menu for selecting which columns appear. Guardian will remember the selection, size and position of the columns.
A new menu for selecting the look back period. This improves the loading performance and allows you to see only recent data.
A new column for ‘Sessions’ count and total time.
We are now capturing and displaying install versions of Desktop Connector.
There is now an option to fully remove a Shared Parameter during the import process, either through mapping rules or as a one-time action (previously, it would be converted to a Family Parameter. Now, it can be removed entirely if desired).
Bug Fixes:
The workset manager dialog wasn’t closing on click of OK in some cases.
Guardian Sync Properties™: Certain view filters were showing empty conditions in some cases.
Guardian Sync Properties™: Now showing and in relevant dialogs.
Guardian Sync Properties™: In some cases, some Line Patterns, when deleted from the Guardian Sync Properties™ dialogs, were not fully getting deleted.
Guardian Sync Properties™: In some cases, Line Patterns were reverting to ‘Solid’ when Line Styles that used them were uploaded to the cloud.
In Project Configurations > User Commands tab, when scrolling down in the list and clicking on an item, it was scrolling to the top.
