Hide Elements in View Protections

Feature Description:

The command Hide Elements in View has always been a thorny Revit feature with BIM managers and designers. Although using this command is commonly discouraged, there are cases where it can be used and others where it absolutely must not. Guardian has taken this into account and created customizable settings for applying the protection against the use of hiding elements in view.

Why We Created This Feature:

We have all seen the help document 30 Ways to Find Hidden Elements in Revit. 30 ways? That’s crazy.

Users spend hours a week trying to find hidden elements in Revit. Let’s be honest, it’s because it’s much easier to click the Hide Elements in View than it is to manage view templates,create filters and setup your entire Revit family library in a uniform standard (Guardian’s Project Properties solves this too!) to make View Templates and View Filters easy. Thus, users abuse the Hide Elements in View command. Hide Elements in View Protection provides you the means to communicate your best-practices around the use of the command, ensuring everyone is doing it the same way.

How to Customize This Feature:

When Hide Elements in View Protections is first enabled within Project Configurations under the Custom Interactions tab it will be adopted by each project model once the model is registered. Hide Elements in View Protections can be further customized at the project level within Project Settings on a model-by-model basis.

Editing and creating rules under Customize behaviors when hiding elements in view will activate Hide Elements in View Protections.

Select the Settings Cog to configure rules that will automatically apply the Hide Elements in View Protections to any elements that meet the rules conditions:

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Select the New button to create a new rule to identify which modeled elements that will be protected by the Hide Elementsin View Protections. Create as many rules necessary for the elements thatneed to be protected. Please note the rules will be processed in the order in which they are displayed. Use the arrow buttons to arrange the proper order of the rules.

Different AND/OR condition types can be used to create rules to meet specific needs for the Hide Elements in ViewProtections.

The different conditions that can be utilized include:

Category conditions can be used to specify categories that should be protected. Administrators can also specify categories that should be ignored by the rule.

The protection mode can be customized for each rule:

• Set the Guardian Protection Mode to: Monitor, Guide or Prevent

• ‍Send email: If checked, will notify the Project Administrator when an end-user attempts to Hide Elements in View.

• ‍Req. Comment: If checked, requires the end-user to provide a comment to proceed with Hiding Elements in View.

• ‍Edit Message: Allows the Project Administrator to customize a Command Message that the end-user will see when they attempt to Hide Elements in View.

The category and element parameter conditions can be used tospecify specific elements that should be protected from being hidden in a view. The various View conditions can be set to specify a specificview in which all elements must be protected from being hidden within that view. The username condition can be used to target the protection to certain users or even to exempt users from the rule.

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End-user Experience:

When an end-user attempts to Hide Elements in View, Guardianwill alert them with the custom Command Message provided by the Project Administrator (If the Protection Mode is set to guide or prevent).

If set within the Custom Interactions settings for Hide Elements in View Protections, the end-user will be required to provide a comment to proceed with Hiding Elements in View.

If set to Prevent mode, the end-user will be required to provide the Project Password or One-Time Password to proceed with hiding the element.

Project Administrator Notifications:

There are two ways for a Project Administrator to receive notification; Project Central and Email Notifications.

Any Hide Elementsin View rule that have been triggered will appear automatically within Project Central’s activity feed.

Enable email notifications in the individual rule set dialog by checking “Send email”. When an end-user attempts to hide an elementthat has been protected, the Project Administrator will be notified with an email containing the pertinent information.  

Common Rule Set Examples:

Creating effective AND/OR rule sets can be a bit challenging at first. To help you get quickly started, we've developed a set of pre-configured Hide Elements in View Protections rule sets. These templates serve as both practical examples and ready-to-use solutions, allowing you to implement robust protections right away while you familiarize yourself with the system.

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Prevent: Annotation

Used to prevent certain annotation elements (tags,dimensions, text notes, etc) and lines from being hidden in view. As seen in the example below, Any Except is applied to those element types selected, which is addressed in other Rule Sets listed below.

Prevent: Levels & Grids:

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Prevent: Revisions

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Prevent: Matchlines:

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Prevent: View Callouts:

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Prevent: Detail Items:

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Prevent: Linked CAD and Revit Models:

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Prevent: Scope Boxes:

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Guide: All Model Categories:

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Monitor: All Hide Elements:

Feature Description:

Guardian Messages provides Digital Practice Leaders, BIM and Model Managers the ability to communicate to users directly within Revit. Company Administrators have the ability to send messages to all Guardian users or to specific projects. Project Administrators can send messages to projects in which they are assigned as an administrator.

Guardian Messages utilizes rich-text formatting and images for maximum creativity to properly communicate to your users. Within the message editor, the text font, size, color, style, and formatting can be customized. Hyperlinks can also be added into the message, including links for websites, email addresses, and folder locations.

Here are just a few ways Guardian users have started to utilize Guardian Messages:

• Notifying users when there is a disruption to BIM360 or ACC service.

• Notifying users when there are important software updates to be installed.

• Communicating to new employees of Digital Practice Knowledge Base resources and onboarding opportunities.  

• Sending welcome messages to new project team members with information regarding project best-practices and links to the project BIM Execution Plan.

• Reminding users to sync and close their models before leaving.  

Why We Created This Feature:

We’ve heard from clients that the traditional communication platforms, email and chat, are overused and important communications from Digital Practice Leaders and BIM Managers just become another communication to be ignored. So, we developed Guardian Messages to provide you with the means to communicate directly within Revit in ways users can’t miss.  

How to Customize This Feature:

There’s no setup for Guardian Messages. It’s ready to use once Guardian is installed.

There are multiple ways to send a message.

From the Ribbon:

From the Guardian button on the ribbon, select Send Message.

Company Administrators will be presented with two options while Project Administrators will only be permitted to send a message to the active project.

• Send to Project : This will send the message only to the users within the active project.

• Send to company: This will send the message to all Guardian users.

From Projects:

Sending messages through the Projects dialog will permit Company Administrators to select specific projects to send a message to or to send company messages. Project Administrators can select only the projects in which they have been assigned as project administrators. One must select the individual projects or multi-select projects to send the message and then select Send Message.

From Project Central:

Both Company and Project Administrators can send messages directly through Project Central and have the message options as listed above.

Drafting a Message:

Guardian Messages provides many features to ensure the right message is communicated to your users:

• Enter a subject to display when message prompts are displayed within Revit and Project Central.

• Craft a message within the message editor and customize the font, size, color, style, and formatting.

• Set an expiration date for the message to be automatically removed from View Messages and the Project Central list of sent messages.

• Select the Preview button to see the end-user perspective before hitting send.
  
  

• Select the Include Screenshot button to capture a screenshot of the current Revit view that will also serve as a hyperlink to that view when users click on it.
  
  

Managing Sent Messages:

Company and Project Administrators will have access to all messages sent and can edit the messages they have sent under the View Messages option.

Company Administrators have the ability to edit all messages and project administrators can edit only messages they have sent. The following editing capabilities are provided and will automatically update any message that has already been sent.

• Edit Message will update when users open the message the next time. User will not be notified when edited message have been modified other than an “Edited” label being applied in View Messages and Project Central.

• Re-send allows administrators to resend the message as if it was a new message.

• Delete will delete the message from View Messages and Project Central.

End-user experience:

Getting New, Unread Messages:

Revit users will instantly get a Guardian Message prompt notifying them that they have received a new message. The users will also receive a Windows notification that a message has been sent.

If the user is not in Revit at the time the message was sent, the user will get a prompt saying they have a new unread message next time they open a Revit model.

Accessing Past Sent Messages:

Users have two ways to access past messages, View Messages and Project Central. As Project Central is now available to all users, they can access all messages, both Company and Project specific messages.

Copy & Array Protections:

Feature Description:

This feature provides Company and Project Administrators the ability to add Guide & Prevent protections to predefined elements that are not to be copied or arrayed.  With rules-based settings that provide almost infinite customization, administrators are given the control to prevent elements from being copied or arrayed. To assist administrators, Guardian comes pre-loaded with Copy and Array Protections Rules predefined for the most common elements that are known to cause model performance problems.

Why We Created This Feature:

Let’s face it, there are certain elements that should not be copied or arrayed, intentionally or unintentionally. As an example, copying In-place families is not a best-practice as they significantly increase the file size of the model relative to the same family created as a loadable family. As for an unintentional example, we’ve all seen it before, there are duplicate instances of a Linked Revit model or Linked CAD file in the same place.  

How to Customize This Feature:

When Copy/Array Protections is first enabled within Project Configurations under the Custom Interaction tab, it will be adopted by each project model once the model is registered. Copy/Array Protections can be further customized at the project level within Project Settings on a model-by-model basis.

Editing and creating rules under Customize behaviors when copying or arraying elements will activate Copy/Array Protections.

Select the Settings Cog to configure rules that will automatically apply the Copy/Array Protections to any elements that meet the rules conditions:

Select the New button to create a new rule to identify which modeled elements are to be copy/array protected. Create as many rules necessary for the elements that need to be protected. Please note the rules will be processed in the order in which they are displayed. Use the arrow buttons to arrange the proper order of the rules.  

Different AND/OR condition types can be used to create rules to meet specific needs for the Copy/Array Protections.

The different conditions that can be utilized include:

Category conditions can be used to specify categories that should be protected. Administrators can also specify categories that should be ignored by the rule.

The protection mode can be customized for each rule:

• Set the Guardian Protection Mode to: Monitor, Guide or Prevent

• ‍Send email: If checked, will notify the Project Administrator when an end-user attempts to copy or array a protected element.

• ‍Req. Comment: If checked, requires the end-user to provide a comment to proceed with copying or arraying a protected element.

• ‍Edit Message: Allows the Project Administrator to customize a Command Message that the end-user will see when they attempt to copy or array a protected element.

End-user Experience:

When an end-user attempts to copy or array a protected element, Guardian will alert them with the custom Command Message provided by the Project Administrator (If the Protection Mode is set to guide or prevent).

If set within the Custom Interactions settings for Copy/Array Protections, the end-user will be required to provide a comment to proceed with copying or arraying the selected element.

If set to Prevent mode, the end-user will be required to provide the Project Password or One-Time Password to proceed with copying or arraying the protected family.

Project Administrator Notifications:

There are two ways for a Project Administrator to receive notification; Project Central and Email Notifications.

Any Copy/Array Protections rule that have been triggered will appear automatically within Project Central’s activity feed.

Enable email notifications in the individual rule set dialog by checking “Send email”. When an end-user attempts to copy or array the protected element, the Project Administrator will be notified with an email containing the pertinent information.  

Common Rule Set Examples:

To be fair, creating AND/OR rules sets can take a bit of time to wrap one’s head around. Thus, we have provided the following Copy/Array Protections rule sets to help get started.

Prevent: Revit Links

Used to prevent Revit links from being copied or arrayed.

Prevent: CAD Links & Imports

Used to prevent CAD links and Imports from being copied or arrayed.

Prevent: In-Place Families

Used to prevent In-Place Families from being copied or arrayed.

Guide: Levels and Grids

Set to Guide to provide users a Command Message best-practice when Levels or Grids are copied or arrayed.

Monitor: Rooms

Set to Monitor to keep track of when Rooms are copied or arrayed in Project Central and Guardian Backstage to know if future protections are required.

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Monitor: Room and Space Separations Lines

Set to Monitor to keep track of when Room and Space Separations Lines are copied or arrayed in Project Central and Guardian Backstage to know if future protections are required.

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Monitor: Area Boundary Lines

Set to Monitor to keep track of when Area Boundary Lines are copied or arrayed in Project Central and Guardian Backstage to know if future protections are required.

With a little training users can clean up content as it is loaded.

One of the most compelling things about Guardian is how simple it is when it comes to end user management; there are no decisions for end users or complex training required to successfully deploy firmwide. BUT, with a little upfront training you can leverage Guardian and empower users to clean up content as it is loaded into their projects.

We have heard from some of our largest firms that they have successfully enacted this workflow and rely upon it to disperse their administrative workload. Not only does this multiply your efforts, but actually helps end users become better Revit users by exposing them to the inner workings of content and their properties.

From the Project Configurations, you can control the End User Experience for a list of default transactions, like Load Family and Transfer Project Standards. For this workflow, select the options for Load Family.

Silent Mode: Does not show any dialogs to regular users. (DEFAULT)

Show Dialogs - One-time mappings: Show dialogs to regular users when new properties are recognized. Users can remove properties and map to existing properties, but these actions won’t be remembered. (INTERMEDIATE)

Show Dialogs - Full Mappings: Show dialogs to regular users when new properties are recognized. Users can remove properties and map to existing properties AND these actions with be remembered by Guardian, adding them to the Mapping Configuration. (ADVANCED)

Both Show Dialog options will require a training session to introduce users to the workflow. Since this setting is controlled at the Project Configuration level, you can try it at a small scale with a pilot project. We would love to hear your thoughts and feedback on this methodology.

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If you only have one or two admin licenses, you can disable the auto add function to keep everyone in the loop.

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If you are only using a few Guardian admin licenses, we recommend disabling the Auto-Add option from the Administrators tab in the Company Settings. If no admin are assigned to a file, Guardian will broadcast notifications to all admin. This will ensure that everyone is kept in the loop and receives notifications for all registered files.

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Control the width of your command message dialogs by inserting an image of white space at your desired width.

Our command message dialogs are a one size fits most approach; but what if you want to control the formatting of your dialogs and have a custom width?

It's a very simple fix and somewhat of a hack, but it works perfectly. The dialog width is dictated by the width of an image that is pasted into the editor. We can use this to our advantage by pasting an all-white screengrab to manipulate the width. The white rectangle only needs to be a few pixels high to achieve the desired result.

Pausing Guardian

Feature Description:

The Guardian Pause feature allows administrators and users (when enabled in the settings) to pause certain features and tools of Guardian temporarily. The settings of the Pause feature can be adjusted to only suspend certain aspects of Guardian so that other features can still be utilized.

Why You Need This Feature:

Guardian has many helpful features and tools, but there are times when it can be a hinderance. When loading in multiple families at once from a cleaned library, it can be quicker to pause Guardian's scanning and processing function rather than to create a rule in the Approved Sources feature. Similarly, while demoing a feature or performing a training session, it may be better to suspend any Guardian pop-up dialogs.

How to Customize This Feature:

The Pause button/menu can be found in the Guardian tab of the Add-Ins ribbon.

Toggling the 'stop light' button (A) will pause any of the Guardian features that are selected in the menu below (B).

Users can also be granted the ability to use the Pause feature. This can be enabled in Company Settings.

Enabling Allow users to pause Guardian will enable the Pause feature for all end-users.

In the settings cog, administrators can set a Protection Mode and Command Message for end-users when they activate the Pause feature.

Sync Traffic Control

Feature Description:

The Sync Traffic Control feature allows administrators to prevent sync conflicts and decrease downtime. This is done in two major ways: by allowing admins to keep track of user sync behavior and to create tailored sync reminders. This feature also has protections that can prevent users from trying to sync a file at the same time as another user.

Why You Need This Feature:

Sync times are critical for firms when trying to limit down time. It can be difficult to train users on the importance of syncing files regularly and have them keep to it; but to keep sync times down and increase productivity, it is crucial. The new Sync Traffic Monitor allows administrators to not only keep an eye on the sync activity of users, but to also create custom sync reminders.

How to Customize This Feature:

This feature can be enabled and customized within Project Configurations. This can also be enabled on a project-by-project basis by using the Project Settings.

The settings can be modified by selecting on the cog icon.

There are many settings that allow for full customization of the sync reminders:

(A) - In order to prevent users from syncing a file while another user is currently syncing, the protection mode can be set to Guide or Prevent with a custom Command Message.

Should a user encounter this situation and be prompted with a Guide or Prevent dialog, they will have the option to add themselves to a queue that will notify them when the file is free to be synced.

(B) - By selecting the checkbox, the Guardian Sync Reminders will appear to users in place of the standard Revit sync reminders.

For the reminders, the message in the dialog can be customized.

The time interval between reminders can be set to different intervals. After syncing, or opening a workshared file, the next reminder will occur at the first-time interval. Should the user cancel, or snooze, the reminder will occur again at the next set time interval. This will continue until the file is synced.

The last time interval will repeat until the file is synced.

For the reminders, there is a time-out for the dialog. This will automatically snooze or sync the file based on the settings.

(C) - The behavior of the Sync Reminders can be customized with the following options:

• Automatically synchronize after the last reminder times out: Guardian will automatically synchronize a file if the last reminder times out. The last reminder is the one that appears when the last set time interval comes up. This is a useful feature for users who are away from their machine for an extended period of time.
• Prevent users from snoozing the last reminder: When the last reminder occurs, the Snooze option will be disabled, and the user will be required to Synchronize the file before continuing. The reminder can be snoozed if a password is entered.
• Enable the 'Compact model' option after 'X' syncs: In the Synchronize dialog, the Compact model option will automatically be enabled after a specified number of syncs have occurred.

(D) - The time-out duration for the Sync with Central dialogs can be set.

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Sync Monitor

Administrators can monitor user sync activity for any registered workshared file through Project Central in the Sync Monitor drop-down tab.

The Sync Monitor will show all users who are currently in the file and their sync data.

The history of syncs by users can be seen in the Timeline: Project Sessions.

Administrators can select one of the users in Project Central and use the Set user as next to sync option to set that user as next in the queue to sync. If the queue is free, then that user will get a sync reminder prompt.

Apply protections at the .rfa level.

This workflow will allow you to bake in protections for families that aren't part of your template.

Create a new project or 'sandbox' file that you can batch load your families into.

Apply protections to those families in the Guardian "Mirror Protection" and "Protected Families" dialogs

Locate the families you selected in the Protected Families dialog in the Project Browser and 'right click + save' them back to your library

Those families will now have Guardian level protection baked into them!

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Save time when mapping duplicate properties using this indirect, but more efficient, workflow.

In the screenshot below, I have already scanned the Line Styles tab for duplicates. Guardian reported there are 3 styles that are the same.

In this example, ACME_05 represents my companies standard naming convention and the one I ultimately want to remain in my template.

After scanning duplicates, the next step is to scan the usage of these three line styles.

Instead of mapping OLD_5 and 5 into ACME_5, we will reverse the operation by mapping everything into OLD_5 to minimize processing time and then simply rename it..

After mapping 5 and ACME_5 into OLD_5 we have a combined usage of 803. Now all we need to do is rename OLD_5 to ACME_5 and we are done and saved ourselves a considerable amount of time.

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Access additional standard worksets from the Workset Manager.

Guardian's Workset Manager is multifaceted in its approach to workset management.

One of its great features lies is in its ability to allow you to pre-define a list of worksets that can be "on deck" in a non-workshared file, just waiting for you to enable worksharing.

As soon as you enable worksharing, Guardian will automatically write your standard worksets to that file, even incorporating a seamless renaming of Workset1 and Shared Levels and Grids.

Furthermore, Guardian enables you to include those additional worksets in the same list. Admins and end users alike can choose from that list to add those worksets to their project file as needed.

Use this approach in conjunction with a Guided Message triggered when Users attempt to access the Worksets button from the Collaborate Tab.

Configure the Message end users will see from the User Commands tab from your Project Configurations.‍

When an end user accesses the workset button from the ribbon you can remind them to add worksets from the Workset Manager.

Revit Warning Tracking

Feature Description:

Revit Warnings can now be tracked through Guardian! You can specify which warnings to track along with their severity. You can track these warnings by enabling email notifications or by checking in Project Central.

Why You Need This Feature:

Resolving Revit Warnings is now much easier than before! You can customize which warnings are most crucial and get notified when they occur. These warnings can also be tracked through Project Central with additional information to help you track down and correct them.  

How to Customize This Feature:

This feature can be enabled and customized through the Project Configurations.  

The specific warnings to be tracked can be customized by selecting the Gear icon.

In the Warning Tracking dialog, the monitored warnings can be seen and edited. Here each warning can have their priority set (Low, Medium, and High) and email notifications can be enabled. The priority for the warnings will be reflected in Project Central when they occur. The Low, Medium, and High priorities will show the warning icon in Project Central as green, yellow, and red respectively.  

New warnings can be tracked by selecting the New button.

Select any warnings to be tracked and hit Add.

Once added to the list of warnings to track, the priority and notifications settings can be set.

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Project Configurations

Feature Description:

Project Configurations brings you a new way to customize Guardian’s behavior and protections for each project file. These ‘Templates’ can be used on different project types or disciplines. Each template will have its own unique set of settings and protections while still being able to be maintained globally.  

Why You Need This Feature:

This feature takes Guardian a step further and gives more power to administrators to customize and maintain Guardian features on a more granular level.  

How to Customize This Feature:

Project Configurations can be found under the Settings within the Guardian Add-In tab.

Within Project Configurations, templates can be added or modified.

When upgrading to the newest version of Guardian, your Company Settings will automatically be transferred into a new template called Company Default. This is done to help with smooth transitions into this new release.  

The Project Configurations can also be locked from editing by any Project Administrators. Only Company Administrators have the ability to enable/disable the locked feature. Any Project Configurations that are locked will be shown with a lock icon.  

Project Configurations can also be designated with the ‘Star’ icon to mark them as the default option when files are registered manually. For more information on manually registering files, see Project Registration.

Project Configurations can either be applied to existing registered models through the Projects dialog (See Project Registration) or to newly registered models through the Project Registration Rules (See Rules).  

The Allow screenshots option can be disabled to prevent screenshots from being collected for Administrator notifications on end-user activity of monitored commands and protections.

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Project Central

Feature Description:

Project Central is a dashboard native to Revit that provides a glance into the activity and health for each registered model. The Project Central Activity Feed includes monitored user commands, transactions, Revit warnings, and syncing with the central file. The Project Central dashboard has sections for project health to bring to light any instances that may need to be resolved.  

Why You Need This Feature:

Project Central gives administrators a more advanced look into models allowing them to easily and quickly identify conflicts of company standards and rectify them. To help maintain project health, Project Central shows administrators when there are unused groups, unnamed groups, in-place families, instances that have been mirrored, duplicated families, and more.  

Timelines are included in the dashboard to show changes to file size, time to open, time to synchronize, Revit warnings, and project sessions over time.  

How to use this Feature:

The different sections within Project Central are shown below:

Activity Feed

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Within the Activity Feed the following commands/actions are shown:

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User Commands:

User Commands are represented with the ‘hand tools’ icon. The protection mode for each user command will determine the color of the icon. For Monitor, Guide, and Prevent the icons will show as green, yellow, and red respectively. Clicking on these records will show additional information on the user command that was used and any affected elements.  

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‍Transactions:

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Transactions are represented with the ‘download’ icon. The different color designations for these records refer to the number of individual properties affected in the transaction. As the number of properties affected increase, the icon will change accordingly from green to yellow to red. Clicking on these records will open the Project Properties dialog and filter the history to show the specific transaction.

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‍Warnings:

Warnings are represented with the ‘caution sign’ icon. The different color designations for these records are dependent on applied settings for Revit warning tracking in the applied Project Configuration. For more information on this, see Revit Warning Tracking. Clicking on these records will show additional information on the Revit warning and the affected elements.  

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Sync with Central:

Sync with Central logs are represented with the ‘central model’ icon. The different color designations for these records indicate the length of time it took to synchronize the file with the central model. As sync times increase, the color of the icon will shift from green to yellow to red.  

Project at a Glance:

The Project at a Glance section will provide helpful information pertinent to model health.  

This section will show any instances within the active model that meet the following criteria:

• Groups without Names: any groups that use the default Revit naming convention. i.e., Group 1
• Groups with Limited Usage: any groups that have 1 or fewer instances placed.
• In-Place Families: any in-place families that have been placed.
• Mirrored Family Instances: any elements that have been mirrored.
• Duplicated Families: any detected family duplicates with an integer following the name.
• Protected Elements Unpinned: any family instances that have protected pins enabled and have been unpinned.
• Missing Links: any linked elements that have lost their path.

Users at a Glance:

The Users at a Glance section will provide general information about the activity of the various users for the active model.

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This section provides general information on the number of properties that have been added, modified, and deleted as well as user commands. The Guardian and Revit version used for each user is also shown.

When selecting on one of the elements in this table, it will filter down the activity feed accordingly.

Timeline:

The timelines available in Project Central include Time to Open, Time to Sync, Warnings, Filesize, and Project Sessions. The displayed time duration for each of these can be set between 1 day and All Time.

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Each node on the timeline offers tooltips to show further information for that data point. The Project Sessions graph shows the duration of each user session for the active model. In this graph, a dotted line is used to show when the file was synced.

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Sync Monitor:

Administrators can monitor user sync activity for any registered workshared file through in the Sync Monitor drop-down tab.

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The Sync Monitor will show all users who are currently in the file and their sync data.

The history of syncs by users can be seen in the Timeline: Project Sessions.

Administrators can select one of the users in Project Central and use the Set user as next to sync option to set that user as next in the queue to sync. If the queue is free, then that user will get a sync reminder prompt.

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Involving Users in Standards Efforts

A great way to get your Revit users to keep to your standards and practices is to make them as involved as possible. Guardian features allows users to be apart of the process in keeping projects clean and up to company standards. Guide messages can be used to describe best practices and why they are important. Incoming properties can be enabled to be viewed by users when loading files to help educate them on the types of properties that are being brought in. They will also be able to view/edit applied mapping rules. This will help to illustrate the types of properties that are being mapped and to which standards they belong.

How to Customize:

Command Messages:

Guardian Guide and Prevent messages for monitored commands can be a great way to educate end-users on when and where it is appropriate to use certain commands. Links and images can also be included in these messages to further customize your message!

For more information on how to create and edit messages, see Command Messages.

Incoming Properties:

When loading or copying over elements into files, administrators have the opportunity to view the new incoming properties and can apply mapping rules to them. Users can also be granted this ability through the Transactions tab in Project Configurations.

Within Transactions, administrators can enable the Show Dialogs options to allow users to view the incoming properties and also to create either One-Time Mappings or Full Mappings.

The same user experience can be customized in the rules for the 'Loading Families that meet rules' feature within Custom Interactions tab in Project Configurations.

Pin Protection:

Users can also be granted to ability to apply pin protection to elements. This can be enabled in the Pin Protection settings within Custom Interactions.

How to work with many Mapping Rules

Do you have hundreds of rules in your Mapping Configuration? Does it deter you from reviewing and processing outstanding changes in your template or project files?

The good news is it doesn't have to be all or nothing. You can easily pause all mappings and address an acute problem or delete a few properties without having to process your entire mapping configuration.

This works great for taking "smaller bites" and processing changes on a handful of rules or going tab by tab.

In the screenshot below, I have whopping 608 changes to review for this file

Navigate to the upper right hand corner of the Project Properties dialog to the Settings dropdown menu. At the very bottom of the menu is an option to "Remove all Mappings from rules (session only)".
This setting will temporarily remove the mapping rules that are applied to this project, freeing you to create a few new mappings and process them immediately or to systematically reinstate rules a few at a time. See Screenshot below:

Notice that after I select the "Remove mappings..."  button, all the properties that had mapping rules applied above have been removed and replaced with [This time only] and the number of changes to review is "0"

With a clean slate, I can pick and choose a handful of mappings to process, in the screenshot below I have selected three patterns to review and process.

After I selected those 3 patterns, I used the "Remove mapping" button to reinstate the temporary removal in this case. Those rules were then reapplied and now we have  just 3 changes to review, instead of 608.

Utilizing the Dashboard

Guardian analytics can be a powerful tool for BIM managers to monitor project health, maintain company standards, and also to find problem areas that Guardian can address. The provided Power BI template file provides many visualizations to give insights into the different projects and user activities. More advanced users can take it a step further and create their own data tables and graphs to better suit their specific needs. This section will go over the basics of how to utilize the dashboard and the data gathered by Guardian.

For information on how to setup a Power BI report, see Setting up your Dashboard.

The Power BI template provides many different pages that utilize the different types of data captured by Guardian. Below is a list of the supplied pages and the data they provide:

Overview

• A general overview of how Guardian has been utilized.

License Usage

• Shows the Guardian license usage on a monthly basis.

Installations

• Shows the Guardian versions in use for each installation. Any outdated installs can be found here.

All Projects

• An overlook at all registered projects.

Activity by Project (Properties)

• Shows general activity for each registered project. This page specifies the properties that are added, modified, and deleted through user transactions.

Activity by User: Transactions

• Specific data on each users' interactions can be seen here.  

Activity by User: Commands

• Specific data on each users’ use of monitored commands can be seen here.  

Commands-All

• General overview of all monitored commands.

Commands-Dialogs

• Shows all processed and cancelled commands.

Commands-Completed w Dtl.

• Shows more detail on monitored command use including the affected elements, active view, and screenshots (where available).

Loaded Families

• Shows all families that have been loaded/added to registered projects. Different pre-set filter options can be used by Ctrl-Clicking the buttons (Desktop Folder, Download Folder, Custom, All) at the top right of the page.

Mappings by Project

• Quick glance at all mappings performed in registered projects.

Mapped Properties

• A list of all properties that have been mapped. Includes information on the transaction type, original and destination property names, and the type of mapping used.

Mapped Types

• A list of all types that have been mapped. Includes information on the transaction type, original and destination property names, and the type of mapping used.

Mapped Families

• A list of all families that have been mapped. Includes information on the transaction type, original and destination property names, and the type of mapping used.

Purged

• Shows all unused properties that Guardian has automatically removed from incoming properties.

All Added

• Shows all properties that have been added to registered projects.

All Modified

• Shows all properties that have been modified in registered projects. Different pre-set filter options can be used by Ctrl-Clicking the buttons (Materials, Line Patterns, Fill Patterns, etc.) at the top of the page.

All Deleted

• Shows all properties that have been deleted from registered projects.

Mapping Rules

• Shows data on all of the mapping rules that have been created. Data on ‘One Time Mappings’ are also shown. This data can help to show where additional rules may be needed.

Cloud Properties

• Shows all properties that have been stored in the Cloud.

Each of these pages utilize slicers at the top to help filter down the data. Most of these slicers are synced with the same ones on other pages. This allows a filter to be applied to many pages at once.

All the visualizations and tables in a page are also linked. Selecting a row within a table will filter down all the other data tables and graphs according to the selected data. For example, In Commands-Completed w Dtl. A command in the Processed User Commands table can be selected and the other tables will show what elements were affected by that command, what view it was done in, and screenshots for before and after the command was used.  

Workflows

Below are some recommended workflows to get the most out of the dashboard.

As protections are set, cancelled commands can be monitored to view unwanted behavior curbed over time. The Commands-All page can show the difference between processed and cancelled commands over time.

Command activity by users can also be monitored to find training opportunities when non-standard practices are used. The Activity by User: Commands page can show the commands used by users and their frequency.

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Shared Parameter Mapping

Shared parameters can be very useful in your projects and are essential to maintaining company standards. However, unneeded shared parameters can often enter your project through 3^rd party content. Any changes to your standard for the shared parameters can also be time consuming. Guardian helps to alleviate these issues by allowing the mapping of shared parameters.  

In addition to mapping shared parameters, Guardian Project Properties gives you the ability to see all shared parameters used in the current active file.  

Each of the shared parameters in Project Properties will show the last four digits of the parameter GUID in parentheses. Additional information about the parameter can be seen in a tooltip by hovering over the parameter. This extra information helps to identify which shared parameters are part of the company standard, especially when there are parameters of the same name.  

Guardian allows shared parameters to be mapped to each other, even if they have the same name. Mappings can be made to shared parameters in the current file, the loaded shared parameter file, or even parameters used in existing rules.  

Any shared parameters that are not needed can be de-selected. This will create a rule to change the shared parameter to a family parameter.  

For more information on the different types of mappings, see Anatomy of a Mapping.

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Family Mapping

Revit family files can be cleaned and mapped through Guardian. Mapping rules can be created to convert properties within families or the entire file altogether to meet the necessary standards. This can be especially useful when using 3^rd party content.  

Families can either be renamed or merged with another existing family. Types can also be mapped in similar ways.  

Mapping rules can be created to map families as they are loaded/copied into a project. This will happen automatically for any end-users. Admins will have the option to look at any incoming properties and apply any additional rules that might be needed.  

When processing incoming families, any new rules that are created to change the properties can either be remembered (added to mapping rules) or just run once (one-time mapping). One-time mappings are designated with a 1 next to the mapping symbol.  

When mapping families, additional types may be created when two types, to be merged, have the same parameters but different values. The new type will have the same name but will be appended with an integer.

Any unnecessary or unused families or types can be removed by deselecting the checkbox for that family/type. The usage for the families and types can be found by either selecting Scan selection for usage or the Scan types for usage under the dropdown for Scan types for duplicates.

Any duplicate families within existing projects can also be found and cleaned up through the Project Properties in Guardian.  

For more information on the different types of mappings, see Anatomy of a Mapping.

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Cleaning Your Library

Maintaining your content library can be a very tedious task and often falls by the wayside. Let Guardian act as your personal BIM assistant to clean up your library in batches or over time. Guardians mapping rules and cleanup procedures can save you a lot of time and energy in this process.

Whether company standard content is maintained in a project file or on a server, Guardian can be used to run through all of them and their associated properties.  

One recommended workflow is to start with a template file or some project that contains the current company standards as far as naming and system family types. Any family files can then be loaded into the clean standard file and have any mapping rules be applied. During the loading process, the incoming properties dialog will give the chance to look over all the properties in the families and make additional rules. Before processing the incoming families, the Export Files option should be selected. This will ensure that any changes made by Guardian will be saved back to the original families.  

This cleaning process will also help to build up the mapping rules that can be applied to any other incoming families/properties.  

Cleaning Your Template

One of the many benefits to Guardian is that it can help to clean and maintain your template files. Guardian makes it easier to remove unused properties, convert old standards to new ones, and apply protections to important families. This section will go over different ways to use Guardian to clean up your template files.  

Template files typically contain key families and properties that are crucial in maintaining a company standard. Revit has many different properties that must be accessed in different ways. Guardians Project Properties allows all of the properties to be shown in a single convenient window. Viewing the properties in this way helps to ensure consistency and to point out any old or unnecessary properties.  

In Project Properties, Guardian can scan through everything in the file to look for any unused properties or possible duplicates.  

To check for unused properties, select a property (or set of them) and use the Scan selection for usage button.  

Each tab can be scanned through by using the Scan <tab name> for usage.

Once scanned, the usage will be shown for each property. Any with a usage of “-” is unused in the current file. These can be removed from the file by deselecting the property.  

The duplicates can be scanned for each tab in the Project Properties by selecting the Scan <tab name> for duplicates button.

Once scanned, any suspected duplicates will have an integer value in the Duplicates column. Hovering the cursor over the integer will highlight any associated properties that may be duplicates.  

Any rules created through the cleanup process for your template can be remembered by Guardian and applied to other projects and families to keep them closer to the company standard.  

The template file can also be trimmed down by keeping any excess fill patterns and line patterns in the cloud.  

Cleaning as You Go

Guardian works as a great tool when cleaning up files and families, but it can also easily integrate into your normal workflows. Families can be cleaned/modified as they are loaded into projects and mapping rules can be created just by renaming properties in the Project Browser.

Users with admin accounts are able to see the elements that are brought into a project when loading a family. Once a family is loaded, a dialog will prompt to see the incoming elements or to process them as normal.  

Selecting Let me choose which properties to keep will open the following dialog.

In this dialog, admins can map, remove, or rename any of the properties being brought in by the loaded family. Any elements that are flagged as unused will be set to be removed. This is designated by the deselected element and the one-time mapping rule to remove.  

When renaming elements in the project browser, Guardian will ask if the rule should be remembered as a new mapping rule. This feature can be activated by selecting the option in Project Configurations or Project Settings.  

When renaming a property in the Project Browser, Guardian will give the following prompt:

Selecting the Remember (update rules) option will save the new rule in the applied Mapping Configuration.

Rules

Guardian utilizes rules for a few different features; workset manager, project registration, and loading families from non-approved sources. This section will go over how these rules work and can be utilized.

The rules can use either AND or OR conditions depending on the feature and where it is being utilized.  

• AND conditions will require all conditions to be true in order for the rule to be utilized.  
• OR conditions will allow the rule to be used if any of the conditions are true.

There are many different condition types that can be used to build out and specify your rules. These include using filenames, file locations, type names, family categories, and also parameter values. The available condition types vary for each feature.

Workset Manager Rules

Rules can be created within the workset manager to allow for elements to be assigned to certain worksets. Multiple rules can be created for different situations for each workset. For the different rules created, they work as OR conditions. Within the rules, multiple conditions can be set to further define when the rule is utilized, these are AND conditions.  

For workset rules, the available condition types are category, parameter, filename (RVT links, CAD), family, and family type.

An example of how these conditions can be used to include interior walls is shown below:

In this example, the rules will only apply for families that have the Category set to “Walls” and have a text parameter called “Function” with a value that equals “Interior”. Unless all these conditions are met, the rule will not be applied.

Project Registration Rules

Rules can be created to specify which files get automatically registered when opened or created. Many rules can be created to register different files each with their own specific set of default Mapping Configurations, Project Configurations, Workset Sets, and Administrators. These rules will be run in order from top to bottom until a match is found. The rules can be reordered by using the up and down arrows. Any rules set to register files automatically will have [Automatic] at the end of the rule name.

Many different condition types can be added to fully customize the registration rules.

The conditions can be added in AND and OR sets similar to Revit View Filter rules.

The Manual registration only option can be enabled to prevent the rule from registering files automatically. The selected configurations will instead be applied when files that match the rule conditions are registered manually.

Customize User Experience when Loading Families

Rules can be created to customize the loading experience for users. Using these rules, scanning and processing can be skipped for approved/cleaned content. Guide or Prevent dialogs can also be introduced to users when loading content from non-approved sources.

Multiple rules can be created for different loading scenarios and desired user loading experiences. For each rule, the Scanning/Processing experience can be customized and the option to Guide or Prevent the action is also possible.

In this example, a rule has been created to try and prevent users from loading in families from their desktop. For this rule, the protection mode is set to Guide with a message to inform the user about approved content locations and to contact their project BIM manager about any other required content.

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Delete Protections

Feature Description:

Guardian’s Delete Protections helps ensure critical elements placed within the project model will not be accidentally deleted. By adding Guardian’s Monitor, Guide & Prevent protections to the delete command, administrators can add protections to help prevent pre-defined elements from being deleted while communicating to the user why the deletion of those elements may cause issues or inform them of all the additional hosted/dependent elements also being deleted.

To assist administrators, Guardian comes pre-loaded with Delete Protection Rules predefined for the most common elements that are known to cause the most amount of time fixing when deleted.
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‍Why You Need This Feature:

In Revit there are many instances where you can delete additional elements without really knowing. Yeah, the yellow warning box does inform users, but they’ve become conditioned to ignore that out of hand. This can include hosted elements and associated views. To help prevent this problem,Guardian’s Delete Protections let you and your users know when protected elements are being deleted.
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How to Customize this Feature:

When Delete Protections is first enabled within Project Configurations under the Custom Interactions tab it will be adopted by each project model once the model is registered. Delete Protections can be further customized at the project level within Project Settings on a model-by-model basis.

Editing and creating rules under Customize behaviors when deleting elements will activate Delete Protections.

Select the Settings Cog to configure rules that will automatically apply the Delete Protections to any elements that meet the rules conditions:

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Select the New button tocreate a new rule to identify which modeled elements that will be protected by the Delete Protections. Create as many rules necessary for the elements that need to be protected. Please note the rules will be processed in the order in which they are displayed. Use the arrow buttons to arrange the proper order of the rules.

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Different AND/OR statement types can be used to create rules to meet specific needs for the Delete Protections.

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The different conditions that can be utilized include:

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Category conditions can be used to specify specific categories that should be protected. Administrators can also specify categories that should be ignored by the rule as well.

The protection mode can be customized for each rule:

·       Set the Guardian Protection Mode to: Monitor, Guide or Prevent

·       ‍Send Email: If checked, will notify the Project Administrator when an end-user attempts to delete protected elements.

·       ‍Req. Comment: If checked, requires the end-user to provide a comment to proceed with deleting protected elements.

·       ‍Edit Message: Allows the Project Administrator to customize a Command Message that the end-user will see when they attempt to delete protected elements.

The category and element parameter conditions can be used tospecify specific elements that should be protected from being deleted.

The Deletes Other looks for the hosted or dependent elements that will also be deleted when the primary element is deleted. This is important to use when wanting to notify user of all the secondary elements being deleted by listing those elements in the Command Message.

The username condition can be used to target the protection to certain users or even to exempt users from the rule.

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End-user experience

When an end-user attempts to delete an element, Guardian will alert them with the custom Command Message provided by the Project Administrator (If the Protection Mode is set to guide or prevent).

If set within the Custom Interactions settings for Delete Protections, the end-user will be required to provide a comment to proceed with deleting the protected element.

If set to Prevent mode, the end-user will be required to provide the Project Password or One-Time Password to proceed with hiding the element.

Project Administrator Notifications

There are two ways for Project Administrator to receive notifications; Project Central and Email Notifications.

Any Delete Protections rules that have been triggered will appear automatically within Project Central’s activity feed.

Enable email notifications in the individual rule set dialogby checking “Send email”. When an end user attempts to delete an element that has been protected, the Project Administrator will be notified with an email containing the pertinent information.

Common Rule Set Examples

Creating effective AND/OR rule sets can be a bit challenging at first. To help you get quickly started, we've developed a set of pre-configured Delete Protection rule sets. These templates serve as both practical examples and ready-to-use solutions, allowing you to implement robust protections right away while you familiarize yourself with the system.

Prevent: Levels & Grids:

Prevent: Revit Links:

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Prevent: Linked CAD:

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Prevent: View Callouts:

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Prevent: Scope Boxes:

Prevent: Matchlines:

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Guide: Delete All:

Used to show all hosted or dependent elements being deleted with the selected items has been deleted.

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Monitor: All Other Deleted Elements

Used to keep a data trail of all elements deleted not covered by the previous rules to help troubleshoot when needed.

Protection Mode

Feature Description:

As described below, most Guardian’s features and protections offer three levels of Protection Modes; Monitor, Guide, and Prevent.  

Why You Need This Feature:

We understand a one-sized-fit-all approach is not appropriate for all situations and commands. Thus, by providing three levels of Protection Modes the administrators can customize Guardian and interact with end-users in a manner that best suites the firm.

How to Customize This Feature:

Monitor

Monitor mode will register the Revit transaction without providing any Command Messages or interrupting end-user workflows. In Monitor mode, Guardian collects analytical data to be accessed through Guardian Backstage and, if enabled for the specific feature, Guardian will send email notifications to Project Administrators when the selected command or feature is used by an end-user. Monitor mode is recommended as a minimum Protection Mode for all features and the default selection for all new accounts.

Guide

Guide mode will provide the same data-analytics and Company/Project Administrators notifications as with Monitor mode but will introduce a Command Message to the end-user when attempting to execute a protected command or if a protection feature is triggered (Like unpinning a protected pin). The Command Message dialog will include a message that can be customized by Administrators. To proceed, the end-users will be required to hit “OK” and, if enabled, enter a Comment. If enabled through the Command Frequency, the end-user can modify the frequency in which the Guide level Command Messages are prompted.

Prevent

Prevent mode is similar to Guide mode with the Command Message, data-analytics and Administrator notifications, but the end-user will be required to provide the Project Password or One-Time Password to proceed. If enabled through the Command Frequency, the end-user can modify the frequency in which the Guide level Command Messages are prompted.

Command Messages

Feature Description:

For many features and protections, Guardian provides a custom message that will be displayed when the end-user performs Revit commands associated with those features and protections. This allows the Company/Project Administrator to assist the end-users in real-time by tailoring a message about best practices and/or potential risk associated with specific Revit commands. The Command Messages can be customized with rich-text, images, and even links to learning resources.

Why You Need This Feature:

Being able to provide the “Why” and the “How” to properly utilize specific Revit commands is central to Guardian as a whole. We believe communication is central to education and adoption of company best practices and standards. And, thus, Command Messages allows you, the Company or Project Administrator to create messages in your own voice and style.

How to Customize This Feature:

Each Guardian feature that utilizes Command Messages comes pre-loaded with messages and hyperlinks to Autodesk Knowledge resources (where applicable). But each of these Command Messages can be customized within the settings of each feature.

Within the message editor, the text font, size, color, style, and formatting can be customized. Hyperlinks can also be added into the message, including links for websites, email addresses, and folder locations. The desired link type can be added in the HyperLink dialog.  

Images can be added by pasting the images into the message window.

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User Commands

Feature Description:

User Commands provides Guardian level of protections by presenting a Command Message when an end-user attempts to execute a Revit command that has been identified to have potential adverse effects on the project model. For each User Command, the Company/ Project Administrator can create customized Command Messages to help inform end-users in real-time of best-practices and potential risk associated with certain Revit commands.

Guardian does this by providing roughly 100 Revit Commands in which the Company/ Project Administrator can set each command to one of three Protection Modes; Monitor, Guide or Prevent. The Company Administrator can set the baseline User Commands settings at the company level to be adopted by all project models once registered. As each project and project model has a unique set of needs and users of varying skill sets, these User Commands can be customized the Project Administrator on a model-by-model basis. By allowing a custom Command Messages for each User Commands, this provides an opportunity to educate end-users of risks and best-practices with informative, rich-text messages, images or even links to learning resources.

In conjunction with Guardian Backstage, each time a User Command to executed by end-users, Guardian registers these transactions, allowing for immense data on how end-users are utilizing these Revit commands to be better target training efforts.

Why You Need This Feature:

Ask any BIM Manager which Revit commands they consider to be the most incorrectly used or abused and you will see quite a few repeating offenders from hiding elements in view to exploding CAD. Improper modeling and drafting occur for several reasons like an upcoming deadline or a simple lack of experience. Don’t let these reasons get in the way of clean models and standards! Get in front of the end-user in real-time and guide them to BIM excellence with command messages.

How to Customize This Feature:

When User Commands are first established within Project Configurations under the Custom Interaction tab it will be adopted by each project model once the model is registered. If needed, User Commands can be disabled within Project Settings on the Custom Interactions tab on a model-by-model basis. The commands are organized into six categories that relate to their Revit function: Collaborate, Command, Insert, Location, Manage, and Settings.

Pro Tip: User Commands displayed in Blue indicated the Project level setting differs from those set at the Company level.

Both Company and Project level customization can be applied under the User Commands tab within Company Settings or Project Settings as follows.

Select the New button to add new commands to the list of User Commands to be protected.

For each command, setting can be applied to each:

• Set the Guardian Protection Mode to: Monitor, Guide or Prevent. By default, the Protection Mode is set to Monitor.
• ‍Send email: If checked, will notify the Project Administrator when an end-user attempts to execute the protected command.
• ‍Req. Comment: If checked, requires the end-user to provide a comment to proceed with the protected command, allowing for a two-way dialogue with the end-user and creating accountability.
• ‍Edit Message: Allows the Project Administrator to customize a Command Message that the end-user will see when attempting to execute the protected command.

Pro Tip: running each user command in Monitor during the trial period is our recommendation to effectively gather great insight while running Guardian in “stealth” mode.

Pro Tip: Humor is a great way to encourage buy-in and best practices, consider inserting a clever meme or funny image into the Command Message.

End-user experience

When an end-user attempts to execute a protected command identified under User Commands, Guardian will alert them with the custom Command Message provided by the Project Administrator.

If selected for the specific User Command, the end-user will be required to provide a comment to proceed with executing the protected command.

If set by the Project Administrator, the end-user will be required to provide the Project Password or One-Time Password to proceed with executing the protected command.

If activated for the specific User Command under Command Frequency, the end-user can set the frequency in which the Command Message is displayed, removing the need for the end-user to be reminded each time the command is executed of the best-practices and/or potential risk associated with the User Command.

Project Administrator Notifications

When an end-user attempts to execute a protected command the Project Administrator will be notified with an email containing the pertinent information. This is great insight and an opportunity to discuss with the user the best-practices and/or potential risk associated with certain Revit commands.

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Transactions

Feature Description:

Guardian’s Transactions are the means in which Guardian responds to the identified Revit commands when processing and cleaning Properties from incoming content. For each Revit command used for bringing Revit content into the project model, Guardian’s new properties dialog reacts to each of those commands by customizations based on the type of users, Project/Company Administrator versus end-user. This allows Guardian to automate the process of cleaning incoming content for end-users while providing Project/Company Administrators more advanced processing capabilities.

Transactions are Revit Commands for inserting content into the project model such as Load Family, Insert from File, Copy and Paste from another model, or even Explode CAD. Guardian comes pre-populated with the most common Revit commands users need for processing Project Properties. The user experience for each transaction can be customized for end-users.

Why You Need This Feature:

There are layers and layers of properties within Revit models and families. Understanding of how all these properties function collectively and in conjunction with your firm’s standards is difficult for even the more experienced Revit users. Thus, when content is loaded in the Revit model, Guardian’s Transactions customizes the end-users experience for how Guardian launches and/or processes incoming Project Properties.

How to Customize This Feature:

Transactions are created and modified within Project Configurations under the Transactions tab. Guardian comes pre-populated with the most common Revit commands users need for processing Project Properties. Transactions can be customized as follows:

The Monitored Transactions are based on the specific Revit command. Please note the event name and Revit command name, as identified on the ribbon, do not always align.

Pro Tip: Determine the Revit event name by completing a Revit Command (like Insert Family) and checking the event name within the History section in Project Properties.

To create a new Monitored Transaction, click the New button and enter the event name. Variables can also be utilized in these transactions.

The Restore Defaults button will remove any newly created transactions and keep only the default ones.

Each monitored Transaction can be customized for the desired end-user experience in one of the following three ways.  

• ‍Silent Mode: For the typical end-user experience. It will process all known mappings in the background and purge unused properties when new content is loaded into the model. There will be no Guardian dialog presented to the end-user.
• ‍Show Dialogs (one time mappings): The end-user will be presented with the Incoming Properties dialog where they can map the incoming properties to those in the current model. For this option, the end-user will only be able to execute a One-Time Mapping and the mapping will not be remembered.
• ‍Show Dialogs (full mappings): The end-user will be presented the Incoming Properties dialog where the user can map the incoming properties to those in the current model. For this option, the end-user will be able to execute all mapping types and the mapping will be remembered.

Pro Tip: Set the User Experience to silent mode for the most commonly used Transactions as many novice to intermediate Revit users do not understand Revit properties to the level required for proper Guardian Mapping usage.

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Project/Company Administrators will always get the Show Dialog (full mappings) option. The Project/Company Administrator will receive a dialog for two options for addressing incoming properties:

• ‍Remove new properties that are not used: This will process all known mappings in the background and purge unused properties. There will Incoming Properties dialog will not be shown.
• ‍Let me choose which properties to keep: The Project/Company Administrator will be presented the Incoming Properties dialog where all mapping capabilities of incoming properties are available for the incoming content.

For incoming content that requires a longer processing time, Guardian will present the following dialog to skip processing incoming content at that time. The incoming properties can be processed and cleaned later under Project Properties.

Guardian Sync

Feature Description:

Guardian Sync™ allows you to centrally control your standard properties in the cloud. With these features, your standard properties are stored in the cloud and synchronized across your projects. A change to a property in the cloud means that change will also be [automatically or manually] updated in the projects and families.

There are some key points of interest here related to Guardian Sync™ properties:  

• Incredibly lightweight – Downloading & uploading properties is near-instant.  

• Revit version independent – You are freed from having to worry about Revit versions. Upload a property in 2023 and apply it in older projects.  

• All relationships are maintained – Everything remains connected. Object Styles > Fill Patterns.  

• Properties will automatically begin synchronizing when matches are found.  

• All cloud properties will show preview images.  

• Guardian also helps separate Generic, Metric and Imperial properties.

Why You Need This Feature:

Guardian Sync provides an easy and quick way for BIM managers and project administrators to standardize and maintain their various project properties. Container files are no longer needed, and this also helps to save space in template files by allowing end-users to load in only the required properties.

How to Customize This Feature:

Company standard properties can be uploaded to the cloud through any Revit file where they exist. Once uploaded, they can be maintained outside of a project file altogether.

Uploading Properties to the Cloud:

This is Guardian’s new Fill Pattern dialog!  Here, you’ll be able to view a clean and large thumbnail of each pattern and upload those that are truly those you wish to standardize upon.  We’ve taken great care to style this to be like Revit’s, but with improvements.  

You’ll be able to rename or delete patterns.  When you do, Guardian will even ask if you want to create a rule for that action, just like already does elsewhere:

Also, notice that a username and date will appear on each property tile, when applicable.  Guardian keeps track of all added and modified properties. When users add, duplicate or modify patterns you’ll see where they’re coming from.  If you’d like to see more information, you can click on the history icon.

From the Options menu, there are also options available to sort the patterns by Last Author, Date Last Modified and Name.

To upload, it’s very simple.  Select one or multiple properties (you can shift select or use ctrl key) and click Upload / Sync. You’ll then see a dialog that looks like the below image.  The patterns you have selected appear on the left.  The various sync conditions with cloud properties are shown below:

It is not possible to have multiple properties in the cloud that have the same name.  When you click on one of the above icons, you will have a couple options.  Here is the dialog you see when clicking the upload to cloud icon.

You may also click on Upload All Remaining to upload all properties in the list with the upload to cloud icon. All other icons must be addressed on an individual basis.

Once items have been uploaded, your items may have some additional markers.  If you are an administrator, these are clickable actions that allow you to modify or fix the relationships indicated.

Viewing and Downloading Cloud Properties:

(A) We’ve added a new button on the ribbon for ‘Cloud Properties’.  By clicking on the main button or ‘All Cloud Properties’, you will be taken to this larger dialog that is very similar to the familiar ‘Project Properties’ dialog.  This is where you can view and manage all properties stored in the cloud.  You will be able to remove, delete, rename and merge cloud properties here.

(B) Fill Patterns will open a dialog that is very similar to the Fill Patterns dialog for the project. It will allow you to view and download/sync patterns into your projects.

(C) You will see a complete history of additions and modifications to properties in the history panel. You can click the links to view more information about what happened at that time.

(D) As more properties are added, you will be able to view the relationships between them.  We’ve added a preview here to help identify each property.

(E) This will open the same dialog mentioned in #2, only it shows the properties that are selected.  You will be able to view and download/sync properties here.

As changes are made to your cloud properties, you will be asked if you want to create rules for those changes.  These shouldn’t be confused with the synchronizing behavior of Guardian Sync™.  Any property in a project that is synchronized to a cloud property will automatically convert, provided you have the automatic setting enabled. (See below section).

The Cloud Fill Patterns dialog looks and behaves just like the Project Fill Patterns dialog. Note that there is an option to filter out patterns that are already present in the project.  This is checked by default for regular users to prevent adding duplicate patterns to projects.  

Also, Guardian checks your projects units and defaults the list to filter by only those that are compatible with the opened project’s units.  

Managing Automatic Sync & Update Settings:

Using the above settings, you can control Guardian Sync™ automatic behaviors.  Tooltips will help clarify what it will be doing behind-the scenes.  

Guardian has a capability to understand if a property is the same by name and content with another property in the cloud.  When it discovers these situations, it can automatically ‘set sync relationships’ so that changes in either can easily be flagged or automatically corrected.  If the Automatically set sync setting is enabled, you will notice a quick progress bar appear when opening projects or loading content.

The second setting for update sync properties is very exciting because it can keep your properties in-sync with your standard automatically.  It will only correct something if there isn’t a conflict.  

Example:  Guardian tries to rename ‘Concrete’ in the project to match ‘Concrete – Small’ in the project but cannot because there is already a ‘Concrete – Small’ in the project.  This IS something that Guardian can merge, but merging is something that must be manually initiated by and administrator.

Out of Sync Properties:

Any properties that are synced with the cloud will show the status in both the Project Properties and Cloud Properties.

If a synced property is changed in the project, or the standard is updated in the cloud, that property will show as Out of Sync (Indicated with yellow 'In Cloud').

The property can be updated to match the standard in the cloud, or push the updated property into the cloud, by selecting the yellow In Cloud button.

For the out of sync property, the relationship can be fixed, removed, or changed to a different property.

Selecting Fix sync relationship will allow the property to be fixed.

In the Difference Found dialog, this will show the properties that are different and also if there are any dependent properties.

The arrow in the center can be selected to toggle between pulling down the version from the cloud or to push the project property up to the cloud.

The differences between these properties can be seen be selecting the Compare button.

Any differences between the Project and Cloud versions will be highlighted.

Guardian Backstage

Feature Description:

Go Backstage and access virtually all data that Guardian stores. Users can enter provided credentials available on the Guardian settings menu into tools such as Microsoft PowerBI or even Excel.  

The database connection that is provided does not provide access to the actual data used by Guardian installations. Rather, data is synchronized between the various production databases and services into this single, convenient connection for end users to consume.

Disclaimer: Data is currently retrieved and synchronized at intervals of every 2 hours. This means a change may occur in Revit that will not immediately show in Backstage™. We may modify the synchronization period without notifying users based on peak demand periods and to optimize efficiency. Additionally, we may occasionally need to modify the structures, relationships, and naming of certain tables and field names. We’ll do our best to notify you of this so you may adjust your queries, etc. This document will be updated to match current schemas for each release.

Why we created this feature:

It can be difficult to ensure that company standards are being implemented and having to fix these inconsistencies is very time consuming and burdensome. Guardian Backstage gives administrators the ability to not only see when prohibited/incorrect methods are used but also gives details on affected elements and active views so that they can be easily rectified.

The data collected by Guardian can also help to point out training opportunities to help curb unwanted behaviors and inefficient methods.

How to customize this feature:

Before viewing any data from Backstage, the feature must first be activated. This is described in more detail in Initial Setup: Configuring Guardian.

After selecting Enable Data Access, the company credentials to access the Backstage data will be shown.

The credentials can be used to view the Backstage data through any data management service such as Power BI.

For more information on how to set up a Power BI report, see Setting up your dashboard.

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Group Protections

Feature Description:

Guardian’s Group Protections ensures only model elements permitted by the Project/Company Administrator are allowed within Revit Model and Detail groups within Revit. Once activated for the project model, Group Protections will display a customized Guardian Command Message when an end-user attempts to save a group with elements that have been identified to be prohibited from groups.

This feature is an additional asset to the Command: Create Group protection within User Commands. This expands on protecting groups by specifying certain elements that are to be prohibited from being placed in groups.

Why You Need This Feature:

We heard from our customers there are certain elements that just do not play nice with Revit Model and Detail groups. Many times, groups with these elements become corrupted, cause glitches in the model and, at times, causes models to crash. Guardian’s Protected Families allows the Project/Company Administrator to determine which elements are safe and not safe to use in Revit groups.

How to Customize This Feature:

When Group Protections is first enabled within Project Configurations under the Custom Interactions tab it will be adopted by each project model once the model is registered. Group Protections can be further customized at the project level within Project Settings on a model-by-model basis.

Editing and creating rules under Customize behaviors when grouping elements will activate Group Protections. 

Select the Settings Cog to configure rules that will automatically apply the Group Protections to any elements that meet the rules conditions: 

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Select the New button to create a new rule to identify which elements are to be group protected. Create as many rules as necessary for the elements that need to be protected. Please note the rules will be processed in the order in which they are displayed. Use the arrow buttons to arrange the proper order of the rules.

Different AND/OR statement types can be used to create rules to meet specific needs using a variety of conditions.

Conditions available:

Category conditions can be used to specify specific categories that should be protected. Administrators can also specify categories that should be ignored by the rule as well.

The protection mode for the selected elements can be customized as follows:

• Set the Guardian Protection Mode to: Monitor, Guide or Prevent.
• ‍Send email: If checked, will notify the Project Administrator when an end-user attempts to overwrite a protected family.
• Req. Comment: If checked, requires the end-user to provide a comment to proceed with unpinning the protected model element.
• ‍Edit Message: Allows the Project Administrator to customize a Command Message that the end-user will see when they attempt to override a protected family.

Pro Tip: List the elements not permitted within the Guardian message so users know exactly which elements have been excluded and why.

End-user experience

When an end-user attempts to group a proteected element, Guardian will alert them with the custom Command Message provided by the Project Administrator (If the Protection Mode is set to guide or prevent).

If Req. Comment set within the Custom Interactions settings for Group Protections, the end-user will be required to provide a comment to proceed with grouping the selected elements.

If set to Prevent mode, the end-user will be required to provide the Project Password or One-Time Password to proceed with grouping the protecgted elements.

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Project Administrator Notifications

There are two ways for Project Administrator to receive notifications; Project Central and Email Notifications.

Any Group Protections rules that have been triggered will appear automatically within Project Central’s activity feed.

Enable email notifications in the individual rule set dialogby checking Send email. When an end user attempts to group an element that has been protected, the Project Administrator will be notified with an email containing the pertinent information.

Common Rule Set Examples

Creating effective AND/OR rule sets can be a bit challenging at first. To help you get quickly started, we've developed a set of pre-configured GroupProtection rule sets. These templates serve as both practical examples and ready-to-use solutions, allowing you to implement robust protections right away while you familiarize yourself with the system.

Prevent: Annotation Categories

Used to Prevent Most Annotations from being included in groups, except for Dimensions and Text Notes in this case.

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Prevent: Model Categories

Used to Prevent some Model Categories from being included in groups.

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Prevent: In-Place Families

Used to Prevent the inclusion of in-place families in groups.

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Prevent: Model Groups

Used to prevent model groups from being included in groups.

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Prevent: Detail Groups

Used to Prevent detail groups from being included in groups.

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Prevent: Line Based Families

Used to Prevent line-based families from being included in groups.

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Prevent: Images and PDFs

Used to Prevent images and PDFs from being included in groups.

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Prevent: Hosted Families

Used to prevent Hosted Families from being included in groups when their host is not included.

Combining all the above into a single rule:

The examples above can also be included in a single rule using an OR condition – Guardian 3.2 will ship with this rule already created.

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Workset Manager  

‍Feature Description:

Workset Manager is a powerful feature that provides Company Administrators the means to establish company standard worksets and automate adherence to those standards. The Workset Manager allows Company Administrators to create multiple Workset Sets for different disciplines, typologies, or clients, to be selected when Revit users enable Worksharing. Each Workset Set can contain a unique list of worksets.  

Furthermore, the Workset Manager addresses the placement of elements onto the correct workset, with customized rule-based automation for elements to be placed on these pre-defined Worksets.  

Why You Need This Feature:

The Workset Manager addresses two distinct limitations of Worksets: Consistent creation and naming of Worksets and the assignment of placed elements onto the correct Worksets.

How to Customize This Feature:

‍Establishing Workset Sets

Workset Sets must be established to utilize the Workset Manager’s broader functionality. A minimum of one Set must be created.

New Workset Sets can be created or modified using the new/modify/delete buttons at the bottom of the window. Each Set can contain multiple worksets dependent on the firm’s various project types and/or disciplines.

The Assign to project button can be used to assign a Workset Set to a currently open project either before or after worksharing is enabled. A Workset Set must be assigned to a project for the Workset Manager to function for the desired project.  

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Pro Tip: Worksets can be copied/pasted between sets using the CTRL+C and CTRL+V commands.

When activated under Project Configurations > Custom Interactions > Worksharing: Write worksets from a set when worksharing is enabled, end-users will be automatically prompted to load the appropriate Workset Sets into the active project when worksharing is enabled.  

Establishing Worksets

Worksets must be added to each Set. The worksets added here can be renamed or deleted using the buttons at the bottom of the window.

There are two important icons to be applied to Worksets:

Star Icon: Establishes the ‘Default’ workset. The default workset will replace the Workset1 when worksharing is enabled or if added to a project where Workset1 already exists. It will also be the defaulted option when selecting the active workset upon opening the model (if turned on in Company Settings).

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Grid Icon: The workset designated to replace the ‘Shared Levels and Grids’ workset when worksharing is enabled or when added to a workshare enabled project. When added to a workshare enabled project, a prompt will ask if the workset is to replace the existing levels and grids workset or to be added as a separate workset.

Worksets for a Workshared Enable Project

The Workset portion of the Workset Manager provides additional information that assists managing the active project model and the Workset Sets as a whole. There are additional icons and information applied to Worksets:

A green check mark indicates the Workset is assigned to the active Workset Set and has been added to the active project model. The Add to project will be greyed out.

A greyed out Workset indicates that its part of the active project model but is not assigned to the active Workset Set. Clicking the Add to Set will assign the Workset to the active Workset Set and will be saved for all new projects.

A Workset without a green check mark and not greyed out indicates a Workset assigned to the active Workset Set but is not present in the active project model. Clicking the Add to Project will assign the Workset to the active project model.

Establishing Workset Rules

The Workset Manager allows for the creation of rules-based automation that can automatically place modeled elements in real-time to the correct Workset. The Workset Manager can also prevent modeled elements from being placed on the incorrect Worksets.

With the desired Workset selected, a new Rules can be created by clicking the New button under the Rules section of the Workset Manager.  

When a New rule is created, different types of conditions can be added:

• Category
• Parameter
• Filename (RVT Links, CAD)
• Family
• Family Type

These rules can be used to automatically assign elements onto the workset as they are placed or after the fact using the ‘Run all rules’ button. Elements will be assigned to a workset if they meet the criteria for at least one of the created rules. Rules can be created with either Category or Parameter based components. The example below could be used for exterior walls.

The Rules can be applied manually or automatically to placed modeled elements.  

Click Run all rules to manually apply all rules under the selected Workset. When Workset Rules are ran manually, a Workset Rules Report prompt will be displayed:

To run the Rules automatically, under Project Configurations, or Project Settings to establish automatic Workset Rules independently, check Worksharing: Run workset rules Automatically to automatically assign the correct Workset to the placed model element.

Within the Workset Manager, enable Run rules automatically when new instanced are added for each Workset Rules to turn on automations on a Workset-by-Workset basis.

Please note the Workset Set must be assigned to the active project model and the individual Workset must have the green check for the automation of Workset Rules.

Selecting Only allow elements that match these rules, modeled elements placed on the active Workset but don’t match the specified rules assigned for Workset will be prohibited from the active workset. When end-users attempt to place a prohibited modeled elements onto the active Workset, a dialog will be displayed offer the end-user to select a different Workset in the element is to be placed. This will also set the selected Workset to be the active Workset. This only activates when the element being placed isn’t governed by another Workset Rule.

Set Active Workset Upon Open:

Workset Manager will also prompt end-users to select the active Workset prior to completing the opening of a workset enable project model. Proper Workset management starts with having the correct Workset active. For Workshared enabled project models, Guardian will prompt end-users to select the active Workset.  

Please note the prompt will automatically close in two minutes if no Workset is selected. The Workset as typically set by Revit will be active.

To turn on, under Project Configurations, or Project Settings for a given project model, check Worksharing: Prompt to choose an active workset:  

End-user experience

Select Workset Sets to be Created

When an end-user enables worksharing, Guardian will prompt them to select a Workset Set to be created from a list of Workset Sets provided within Workset Manager.

Automated Workset Rules

When Workset Rules are used to automatically place modeled elements onto the correct Workset, the end-user will not be presented any prompts or dialogs. Guardian will perform the automations without any warning.

If an end-user attempts to place a prohibited modeled elements onto the active Workset, a dialog will be displayed offer the end-user to select a different Workset in the element is to be placed.

Set Active Workset Upon Open:

For Workshared enabled project models, Guardian will prompt end-users to select the active Workset upon opening.

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Projects

Feature Description:

The Projects dialog provides many features that allows Company/Project Administrators to manual register projects, view all registered project models and edit the Project Settings and Mapping Configurations for a single or multiple project models simultaneously.  

The Project dialog displays multiple type of information:

• Current Open Project provides basic information about the File Name and Location along with the ability to customize the Mapping Configuration, Project Settings and Project Administrators.
• Projects provides a list of all registered project models, including who registered them, when, and what Mapping Configuration has been assigned.
• Project Templates provides a list of all registered project templates including who registered them, when, and what Mapping Configuration has been assigned.

Why You Need This Feature:

While there are many settings and configurations that can be automatically setup when the project model is registered, we understand there is a need for manual customization at the start of a project or anytime throughout.

How to Customize This Feature:

Projects will only be available under Settings for Company and Project Administrators.

Current Open Project

There are many reasons why a firm may not want to automate Project Registration. For that reason, Guardian has the Register Project button to manually register project models as they must be registered before Guardian will be activated for a given project.  

When manually registering files, a prompt will appear for administrators to specify the desired Mapping Configuration, Project Configuration, Workset Set, and Administrators.

Project models can be manually registered by selecting the Register Project icon will be displayed in the upper left-hand corner of the Projects dialog.

This will only display for Project Administrators if Allow Add is selected under Administrators.  

Project models can be unregistered with the same button.

In the Projects dialog, the following can be modified for the active project file.

• Project Group: Allows admins to add the file to a Project Group.
• Mapping Configuration: Allows for manual changing of the Mapping Configuration applied to the active project.
• Project Configuration: This allows for the selection or customization of the Project Configuration for the active project. Any changes to these settings can be saved to the set configuration or overridden for just the active file. The settings remain synchronized with the Project Configuration until overridden. Any Project Configuration with overridden settings will be shown with an asterisk.
• Administrator: This allows for the assignment of the Project Administrators to the active project. Project Administrators must be added to a project by another Company/Project Administrator. If permitted under Administrators by the specific Project Administrators if Allow Add is selected by selecting the "Make me admin!" button. If Auto Add is selected under Administrators, the Company/Project Administrator will automatically be assigned to the project model.
  

Registered Projects

The Projects dialog provides a list of all registered project models, including who registered them, when, the applied Mapping Configuration, and which Project Configuration has been assigned. Additional columns can be added to show file size, Revit version, last saved date, etc.

Pro Tip: From the Projects dialog, multi-select models to edit the project settings of multiple models simultaneously. Many projects are made up of multiple models and this will allow the settings to be established congruently across all project models.  

The registered files in the table can be selected (or multiselected) to modify the set Mapping Configuration, Project Configuration, or assigned Administrators.

The lower buttons can be used to modify the selected projects as well:

• Archive: The selected project(s) can be archived. This will have the project(s) act as unregistered but will retain the data logs for the file.
• Unregister: The selected project(S) can be unregistered.

The Sync Monitor and Project Central can also be accessed for any of these files. Project groups can be created, modified, or deleted using the options at the bottom. Files can also be added to any created project groups.

Pro Tip: To reduce the number of projects listed, by selecting one or multiple project models and selecting Archive will remove the project models from the list. This option does not remove the registration status but only removes it from the main list of registered project models.

The search box can be used to filter the list to only specified projects.

The settings have the following options:

• Show only my projects will display only project models in which the current Company/Project Administrator has been assigned to. By default, Project Administrators will only see project models in which they have been assigned.  ‍
• Show archived projects will display only project models that have been archived.
• Expand All will expand all collapsed tree items.
• Collapse All will collapse all expanded tree items.
• Columns can be added or removed by selecting/deselecting the different columns types.

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Approved Content Sources

‍Feature Description:

Approved Content Sources provides Guardian level of protections by presenting a Command Message when an end-user attempts to load a Revit family from a non-approved location. Furthermore, Approved Content Sources provides the ability for Guardian to respond differently to incoming families based on different conditions and rules, such as enacting Incoming Properties when the family comes from a non-approved source and disabling scanning and processing for content inserted from the firm’s content management solution.  

Guardian does this by comparing incoming families with any rules created by administrators. These rules can be specific to the location the file is loaded from, the families category, or even the name of the file itself. If a match is determined, Guardian will, or will not, scan and process the family’s Incoming Properties as determined by the User Experience set by Company/Project Administration for that rule. If the protection mode for the triggered rule is set to Guide or Prevent, Guardian will provide the end-user a customized Command Message.

Why You Need This Feature:

Firms and project administrators spend a tremendous amount of time and money creating and maintaining Revit family libraries that align with the firm’s standards and BIM infrastructure at large. Too many times these standards are undermined when end-users load Revit families from locations other than the firm’s library. Guardian’s Approved Content Sources does exactly as its name implies, it ensures Revit families are being sourced from the firm’s libraries and discourages families from unknown sources.

As BIM Managers, we work hard to keep a clean, curated, and comprehensive family library. It is imperative to a healthy file and to maintaining company standards. It is generally preferred that end-users use this content first before downloading from online sources or digging into that desktop folder they have been collecting over the years.  

How to Customize This Feature:

When Approved Content Sources is first enabled within Project Configurations under the Custom Interactions tab it will be adopted by each project model once the model is registered. Approved Content Sources can be further customized at the project level within Project Settings on a model-by-model basis.

Enabling Customize behaviors when loading families that meet rules will activate Approved Content Sources.

Select the Setting Cog (A) to customize the Guardian protections for Approved Content Sources.

Within the Loading Family Rules dialog, one or more rules can be established. Guardian provides pre-loaded rules to use as a template. Any created rules will show in this dialog (B).

Select the ‘Create New” button (C) to create a new rule. Once created, the rules can be modified, deleted, or re-ordered. It is important to note that the rules will run in order from top to bottom until a match is found (if any at all).

Within the Rules dialog, a rule name can be entered and the criteria for the rule can be set.

Many condition types are available to specify the type of file or file location that the rule should capture.

The User Experience for Revit families loaded into projects can be specified under the Scanning/Processing Experience section of each rule.

The available options are explained below:

• Do not do anything: Guardian will not perform any action on incoming Revit families.
• Silent Mode: Guardian will perform all standard actions in the background. No dialogs will be shown to end-users.
• Show Dialogs (one time mappings): End-users will be prompted with a dialog where they can see incoming properties and create one time mappings if desired.
• Show Dialogs (full mappings): End-users will be prompted with a dialog where they can view incoming properties and create full mappings if desired. Any mappings created will be added to the current applied Mapping Configuration.

The Protection Mode can be customized for when end-users load families from non-approved sources.

Set the Guardian Protection Mode to: Monitor, Guide or Prevent

Send email: If checked, will notify the Project Administrator when an end-user attempts to overwrite a protected family.

Req. Comment: If checked, requires the end-user to provide a comment to proceed with unpinning the protected model element.

Edit Message: Allows the Project Administrator to customize a Command Message that the end-user will see when they attempt to override a protected family.  

End-user experience:

When an end-user attempts to load a family from a non-approved content source, Guardian will alert them with the custom Command Message provided by the Project Administrator. Depending on the applied Protection Mode settings, the end-user may be required to input a comment and/or password before proceeding.

The Command Message will also show the name of the rule that triggered the protection.

Depending on the User Experience the end-user will be required to process the incoming Revit family’s Incoming Properties.  

Administrator Roles

Feature Description:

Guardian provides two types of administrators: Company Administrator and Project Administrators. The Company Administrator manages the company level settings that allow Guardian to perform optimally and the default settings that are automatically adopted by projects once registered. The Project Administrator manages the project level settings that provide control and oversight to the project model. The Project Administrator does not have access to the company level settings. This dual administrator levels allow for the management of the project models to be delegated directly to people assigned to the project.

The project administrator role allows you to delegate individual projects to your project teams. These administrators handle the project-related controls and oversight while company administrators manage the company defaults and identify training opportunities. All administrators can now be managed through the Administrators tab in Company Settings.

Why You Need This Feature:

While BIM Managers like to be everywhere all the time, that’s just not realistic. Having Project Administrator role allows the Company Administrators to delegate oversight to individual projects. As no two projects are identical, Guardian allows for customization of Project Settings and thus allow for the Project Administrator to setup and control the project as needed.

How to Customize This Feature:

All administrators must first be given administrative privileges on the Administrators tab under Company Settings.  

Pro Tip: Along the top of Administrators tab, Guardian provides a count of utilized administrator licenses and the total administrator licenses available.  

1. Start adding administrators by selecting the ‘Add New” button. Within the Add/Edit Administrator dialog, the following information is to be entered:

• First Name/ Last Name
• Email
• Role: Company Administrator/ Project Administrator. This is where administrators are assigned to their given roles. Company Administrator have permissions to edit all settings at both the company and project levels, and for all projects.  Project administrators only have permission for the projects that have been assigned to.  
• Selecting When Opening project, automatically add users as an administrator to those projects will permit ‘Auto Add’.  
• Selecting Allow user to add themselves as administrators to other project shown in the projects dialog will permit ’Allow Add’.

2. The Administrator tab list all the administrator licenses assigned to the Guardian account. The ‘Auto Add’ and ‘Allow add’ permissions are easily managed  

Auto Add:

• If Checked: When either a Company or Project Administrator opens a registered project model, they are automatically added as an administrator to the project.
• If Unchecked: User will have to be manually added as the administrator to the file in the Projects menu. As seem below:

Allow Add:

• If Checked: Allows the Project Administrator to add themselves to the projects through the Projects dialog.
• If Unchecked: Only Company Administrator can assign Project Administrators to projects. Project Administrators can add other administrators to projects that they are assigned to.

Note: Allow Add only applies to the Project Administrator level. By default, any Company Administrator can manually add themselves to any project.  

Manually Assigning Administrators:

In the Projects dialog, administrators can be assigned to registered models. There are different ways to assign administrators for the current open model vs. other registered models.

For active open models:

1. Within the Current Open Project information at the top of the dialog, select the button for Administrator.  

2. Once selected, a secondary Administrator dialog will appear with a list of all Administrators assigned to the project or projects. Administrators can be added or deleted as necessary.

3. Selecting the Add New button will provide a list of all available Company or Project Administrators to be added.

For registered models not currently open:

In the Projects dialog, the assigned admins for each registered model shown in the table can be changed by selecting within the Administrators column.

Pro Tip: CTRL+Left Mouse allows to select multiple projects to edit the Administrators simultaneously.

1. Select the cell containing the sole administrator assigned for that project. If there are multiple Administrators assigned, <Multiple> will be shown. <none> will be shown if no administrators have been assigned to the project.

2. Once selected, a secondary Administrator dialog will appear with a list of all Administrators assigned to the project or projects. Administrators can be added or deleted as necessary.

3. Selecting the New button will provide a list of all available Company or Project Administrators to be added.  

Administrator Notifications:

Project Administrators receive Notifications and weekly reports detailing activity from the projects they are assigned. Company Administrators continue to receive reports of all company activity. Company Administrators will no longer receive instant email alerts from project activity unless they are assigned as an Administrator to those projects or there is no Administrator assigned at all.

Viewport Selection

Feature Description:

Viewport Selection allows for Viewport Types to be pre-assigned to specific View Types allowing the correct View Titles, or maybe none, as views are placed on sheets. Viewport Selection is not limited to only views, but also allows assigning Viewport Types to Schedules, Legends, Renderings and Walkthroughs. Many firms create multiple View Types with unique View Titles and Guardian’s Viewport Selection features allows for users to places views without concern incorrect View Titles being displayed. The Viewport Selection features automates a firm’s graphical standards for views.

This feature allows administrators to specify viewport types for each view. These viewport types will be set automatically when the specified views are placed on sheets. To use this feature, it must first be activated in the active Project Configuration or in the project overrides.

Why You Need This Feature:

Revit seems to have its own methods for defining a “default” Viewport Type requiring the Viewport Type to be changed after placement of the view.  Reassigning a ‘default’ Viewport Type to views in Revit requires a convoluted process. In addition, this “default” Viewport Type is assigned to all View Types moving forward, regardless of the type of view, creating graphical inconsistency in how the view titles are displayed. Guardian’s Viewport Selection solves this problem.

Many firms have several viewport types for specific view types. It is a common issue for views to default to the last used viewport type. This often goes unnoticed until a final pass-through before printing. Viewport Selection can prevent this all together and help you maintain consistent graphical standards.

How to Customize This Feature:

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

To assign the Viewport Types to the View Types with Guardian’s Viewport Selection it can be accessed on the Guardian ribbon by selecting the down arrow below Protected Pins.

Under the Families column, all View Types within the project model will be listed and grouped according to the type of view within Revit. i.e., Plan views: floor plans, reflected ceiling plans, structural plans, Elevations, Section, 3D views, Schedules, Legends, Drafting views.

Under Viewport Type, assign any available Viewport Type to each View Type.

Pro Tip: Set the Viewport Type to ‘None’ for any View Types that does not require a View Title, such as Schedules or Legends.

Once assigned, the Project Administrator’s name that applied or edited a Viewport Type assignment will be displayed.

Pro Tip: Pre-assign Viewport Types to View Types within the firm’s Revit templates and the Viewport Selection settings will be adopted by all projects started with the template.

End-user experience:

The Viewport Selection tool works automatically when placing the correct Viewport Types to the view without any involvement from the end-user other than their typical process for placing views on sheets.

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Parameter Prompts

‍Feature Description:

This feature allows administrators to activate prompts that encourage users to input values upon placement for any specified project, family, or system family parameters. To use this feature, it must first be activated in Project Configurations and then customized on the project level. Once activated, users will get a pop-up dialog when placing elements containing the specified parameters.

Why You Need This Feature:

How much time is spent wasted inputting parameter values after the fact. Parameter prompts provide a gentle reminder that requests the end user to input selected instance parameters before they complete a command. When you create a new sheet, 9 times out of 10, it doesn't default to the correct spot in the project browser. Prevent the wasted time of searching for it by inputting the information at the point of creation.

‍How to Customize This Feature:

Parameter Prompts are enabled in the Custom interactions tab of the Project Configurations or Project Settings menu.

The Parameter Prompts can be customized in the dialog found under Protected Pins.

Within the Parameter Prompt dialog, any Project Parameter, System Family Parameter, and instance-based Family Parameter in the open file will be listed by Category.

For each selected parameter, the prompt will appear either for every instance (after placement) or after finishing a chain of instances.

This setting is modified by selecting the Every Instance checkbox.

• If checked, the user will be prompted for input after every instance of an element placement.
• If Unchecked, the end user will only be prompted to input values after the command is finished. A notable example would be any line-based family that could be drawn in a chain.

Once the prompt is enabled, the Edited By and Date fields will be filled out.

‍End-user experience

Whenever a user creates a new element or completes a command that has parameter prompts enabled, Guardian will prompt the user to input the information into the parameter value before continuing.  

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Mirror Protections

Feature Description:

This feature allows Project Administrators to add Guide & Prevent protections elements that should not be mirrored.  Once activated for the project model, model elements with Mirror Protection will display a customized Guardian Command Message when mirrored, requiring the end-user to enter a comment and/or a password to continue to mirror the model element. Elements can be protected by either creating rules for generic situations or to apply the protection directly to a family.

‍Why You Need This Feature:

Don’t you hate it when the left filler strip parameter on the casework turns on the right filler strip instead? So do we. This is obviously a low-risk example, but some families have scheduling parameters that rely on a specific orientation and can cause problems in the field if they are incorrect. No one wants to be scalded with hot water because someone didn’t catch the error in the field.  

‍How to Customize This Feature:

When Mirror Protections is first enabled within Project Configurations under the Custom Interaction tab it will be adopted by each project model once the model is registered. Mirror Protections can be further customized at the project level within Project Settings on a model-by-model basis.

Both Company and Project level customization can be applied under the Custom Interactions tab within Project Configurations or Project Settings as follows.

By selecting Customize behaviors when mirroring certain families will activate Mirror Protections.

Select the Setting Cog (A) to customize rules that will apply the Mirror Protection.

Within the Mirror Protection Rules dialog, any existing rules will be listed out (B). Each of these rules will run in order from top to bottom until a match is found (if any at all).

To create a new rule, the Create New button can be selected at the bottom (C).

In the Rules dialog, a name for the rule can be set. Conditions can be added in AND or OR sets to specify the type of family to apply the Mirror Protection to.

There are many different Conditions that can be used to specify a family either by the category, family name, or even by the name of the user who is attempting to mirror an element.

For each rule, the Protection Mode can be customized along with the Command Message.

• Set the Guardian Protection Mode to: Monitor, Guide or Prevent
• ‍Send email: If checked, will notify the Project Administrator when an end-user attempts to overwrite a protected family.
• ‍Req. Comment: If checked, requires the end-user to provide a comment to proceed with unpinning the protected model element.
• ‍Edit Message: Allows the Project Administrator to customize a Command Message that the end-user will see when they attempt to override a protected family.

The Mirror Protection can be applied to specific families as well. Guardian’s Mirror Protections can be accessed on the Guardian ribbon by selecting the down arrow below Protected Pins.

Within the Mirror Protections dialog, the Project Administrator is presented with all families loaded into the project model, grouped by Family Category.

By simply checking the box will apply the Mirror Protections for the selected family.

Once selected, the Project Administrator can then customize the Protection Mode and Command Message applied to that family.

Pro Tip: Shift+Left Mouse allows to select multiple families at once to be protected.

It is also possible to apply the Mirror Protection within the family itself in the Family Editor using the same Mirror Protection dialog found in the Guardian Ribbon.
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End-user experience

When an end-user attempts to mirror a protected family, Guardian will alert them with the custom Command Message provided by the Project Administrator. The Command Message will also provide the name of the rule that was triggered.

If selected within the Custom Interactions settings for Mirror Protections, the end-user will be required to provide a comment to proceed with mirroring the protected family.

If set by the Project Administrator, the end-user will be required to provide the Project Password or One-Time Password to proceed with mirroring the protected family.

Project Administrator Notifications

Enable email notifications in the Mirror Protection rules by checking “Send email”. When an end user attempts to mirror a family, the Project Administrator will be notified with an email containing the pertinent information.

Protected Families

‍Feature Description:

Protected Families allows Project Administrators to create rules to protect families from being overwritten by end-users. Specific families within a project can also be selected to be protected. Once activated for the project model, Protected Families will display a customized Guardian Command Message when an end-user attempts to reload the family from the family editor or replace the family of the same name from an external source.

This action can be fully prevented or can be used to put a message in front of the user to guide them toward the correct practice. To utilize this feature, it must first be enabled in the Project Configurations or overridden in the Project Settings. Once enabled, families that are currently loaded in the open project/template can be selected for protection.  

Why You Need This Feature:

Creating and maintaining families within a firm and on a project require a tremendous amount of work and time. We routinely hear stories from BIM Managers how much effort goes into fixing mistakes when an end-user improperly edits families or overwrite them completely. Guardian’s Protected Families does exactly as its name implies, it protects the Revit families in your project models from unwanted mistakes.

Certain families align the company standards put in place to maintain graphical consistency. If these families are overwritten, it can create a big headache for the BIM Manager. With protections enabled, you will be able to keep track of attempts to overwrite families. Not only does this protect your standards, but can offer insight into changes that can benefit the company library.

How to Customize This Feature:

When Protected Families is first enabled within Project Configurations under the Custom Interaction tab it will be adopted by each project model once the model is registered. Protected Families can be further customized at the project level within Project Settings on a model-by-model basis.

Both Company and Project level customization can be applied under the Custom Interactions tab within Project Configurations or Project Settings as follows.

By selecting Customize behaviors when overwriting certain families will activate Protected Families.

Select the Setting Cog (A) to customize rules that will apply the override protection.

Within the Protected Families Rules dialog, any existing rules will be listed out (B). Each of these rules will run in order from top to bottom until a match is found (if any at all).

To create a new rule, the Create New button can be selected at the bottom (C).

In the Rules dialog, a name for the rule can be set. Conditions can be added in AND or OR sets to specify the types of families to apply the override protection.

There are many different Conditions that can be used to specify a family either by the category, family name, or even by the name of user who is attempting to override a family.

For each rule, the Protection Mode can be customized along with the Command Message.

• Set the Guardian Protection Mode to: Monitor, Guide or Prevent.
• ‍Send email: If checked, will provide the Project Administrator an email Notification when an end-user attempts to overwrite a protected family.
• ‍Req. Comment: If checked, requires the end-user to provide a comment to proceed with unpinning the protected model element.
• ‍Edit Message: Allows the Project Administrator to customize a Command Message that the end-user will see when they attempt to override a protected family.  

The override protection can be applied to specific families as well. Guardian’s Protected Families can be accessed on the Guardian ribbon by selecting the down arrow below Protected Pins.

Within the Protected Families dialog, the Project Administrator is presented with all families loaded into the project model, grouped by Family Category.

By simply checking the box will apply the Protected Families protections for the selected family.

Once selected, the Project Administrator can then customize the Protection Mode and Command Message applied to that family.

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Pro Tip: Shift+Left Mouse allows to select multiple families at once to be protected.

It is also possible to apply the override protection within the Family Editor using the same Protected Families dialog found in the Guardian Ribbon.

End-user experience:

When an end-user attempts to reload a protected family from the family editor or replace the family of the same name from an external source, Guardian will alert them with the custom Command Message provided by the Project Administrator. The Command Message will also display the name of the rule that was triggered.

Depending on the protection mode settings applied, the end-user may need to enter a comment and/or a password before proceeding.

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Project Administrator Notifications:

Enable notifications in the rules by checking "Send email". When a normal user attempts to overwrite a family the project admin will be notified with an email containing the pertinent information. This is great insight and an opportunity to ask the user what changes they are attempting to make. It could be an indication that the family needs to be updated in the library.  

Pinning Protection

Feature Description:

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 This Feature:

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.  

How to Customize This Feature:

When Protected Pins is first enabled within Project Configurations under the Custom Interaction 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 on 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.

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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 (ie, 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! User 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 User 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 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.

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Project Settings

‍Feature Description:

Project Settings are controlled by the Project Settings button in the Guardian ribbon. This will look very similar to the Project Configurations with the exclusion of a few tabs. These tabs enable the Company/Project Administrator to customize the settings on a Project level. Once a setting is changed it will turn blue, indicating that company settings have been overridden.

Why You Need This Feature:

We understand that you can’t predict the needs of each project. Whether it’s an advanced team that requires less direction or a schematic project phase with reduced stringency, Project Settings allow the Company Administrator to delegate customization to the individual project model level.  

How to Customize This Feature:

By default, projects will adopt  when registered. The settings for each individual project can be overwritten through the Project Settings. It is important to note that once the settings for a project are overwritten, the settings for that project will no longer be affected by changes made to the applied Project Configuration.

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Pro Tip: Project Settings automatically adopt the Project Configuration settings when the project model is registered. Setup the Project Configurations to the desired level of Guardian protections to be applied to all project models from the start.  

The Project Settings can be accessed by Company or Project Administrators through the button shown in the ribbon.

When you open the dialog, you will see five familiar tabs:  

• Custom Interactions
• User Commands
• Command Frequency
• Transactions
• Guardian Sync

In each of these tabs, any settings that differ from the applied Project Configuration will show as blue (A). These can be settings that have been overwritten or ones where the Project Configuration had been changed after the project settings have been disconnected.

The Project Settings can be restored/reconnected back to the applied Project Configuration by using the Restore Defaults (B) button. When using this option, administrators will get two options:

• Reconnect to <Project Configuration>: This will reconnect the project to the applied Project Configuration. Any further changes to the Project Configuration will be reflected in this file.

• Copy from <Project Configuration>: This will copy the same settings over from the applied Project Configuration but will remain disconnected. Any further changes to the applied Project Configuration will not be adopted by this file.

The password for Prevent commands can be made unique for each project by selecting the Edit Password button (C). Changing this password will also cause the Project Settings to be overwritten and become disconnected from the applied Project Configuration.

Project Settings can also be accessed from the Projects dialog by selecting the Project Configuration button.

Additionally, the Project Settings of files that aren't open can be accessed by selecting a project in the list and clicking the applied Project Configuration.

Pro Tip: From the Projects dialog, multi-select models to edit the project settings of multiple models simultaneously. Many projects are made up of multiple models and this will allow the settings to be established congruently across all project models.  

User Overrides

Feature Description:

When end-users choose to change the Command Frequency for a given User Commands the end-user and the command is populated within the User Overrides settings menu, allowing the Company Administrator to override the end-user’s selection. The Company Administrator can add overrides to customize the experience of individual end-users.

The User Commands dialog is populated when users change the Command Frequency setting away from the company or project defaults. It is here that administrators can modify or remove any overrides made by users. Administrators can also add overrides to customize the experience of individual users.‍

Why You Need This Feature:

The User Commands dialog was created to allow Guardian administrators a convenient location to see detailed information when users override the default Command Frequency settings. The option to override the default settings allows users to directly alter their experience. While this freedom is beneficial, it would not be Guardian without the option to override the user, ensuring the admin gets the final say.

While Command Frequency allows the end-user to determine the frequency in which Guardian’s User Commands displays Command Messages, we understand many end-users will use these capabilities irresponsibly. Thus, we have provided Company Administrator the ability to review and override the Command Frequency set by the end-user.

How to Customize This Feature:

In the User Overrides dialog, administrators will be able to modify existing frequency overrides and also create custom ones as well.

In the Settings (A), administrators can filter down the overrides to just show users for the open project or from all of their assigned projects.

For each override, the Username, Command Name, and desired frequency preference is shown. The frequency override can be modified for each end-user by selecting in the users row under the Preference column.

The end-users ability to modify the frequency setting can also be customized by selecting/deselecting the User Can Edit checkboxes.

• If checked, the user will continue to have the ability to choose a “Remind Me” interval the next time they are presented with the command message.
• If unchecked, the user has had the ability to choose a frequency interval revoked.

Administrators can also create custom overrides for particular end-users by selecting the New button (B).

Within this dialog, an administrator can select multiple end-users and specify the desired Command Frequency just for them.

End-user experience:

When a normal user performs a command that is set to ‘Guide’ or ‘Prevent’ the ‘Command Message’ dialog will pop up, informing the user of their attempt with a custom message from the administrator.

If the User can edit option is enabled, the end-user can use the Remind Me dropdown in the lower left of the dialog to alter the frequency at which they see this guided message.

Project Administrator Notifications:

Pro Tip: Within the email notification for a command set to ‘Guide’ or ‘Prevent’ if the user has overridden the default setting and chosen the ‘Never’ option, The ‘Guide’ mode will be changed to ‘Monitor (Overridden).’ This is a hint that there has been a frequency override without necessarily checking the ‘User Overrides’ dialog.

Once a new account is created, an email will be sent providing a link to download the Guardian installer as well as the Company ID.

Once the installer is downloaded, open it to run, the setup wizard will appear. Click Next to continue.

Read through the license agreement and click I Agree. Click Next to continue.

Select who to install Guardian for. It is recommended that you select All Windows Users. Click Next to continue.

Select the desired Revit versions to install Guardian for. There are two pages for the different versions; one for the currently supported versions of Revit and the second for the unsupported versions. Click Next to continue.

Guardian will prompt for the Company ID. The Company ID is used to make sure all users within a company are connected. If set incorrectly, users will not be able to utilize the full capability of Guardian.

If the Company ID is set incorrectly, it can be replaced in the Guardian.key file located in one of these two locations:

• Program Data > Guardian
• App Data > Local > Guardian

Click Next to continue.

Click Close to finish installation.

Guardian is now ready to be utilized! To take advantage of the Project/Company Administrator features, login through the Licensing Admin Login.

For end-users, non-administrator users, of Guardian, their accounts will be authenticated automatically through the Company ID and will be able to use Guardian immediately when opening a registered project! No user management required!

To prevent Revit’s “Allow Add-in" prompt from appearing when end-users open Revit, the security certificate must be installed to the client computer’s certificate manager via Group Policy. The certificate file is included when downloading the installer Guardian.zip file.

Instructions: Distribute Certificates to Client Computers by Using Group Policy | Microsoft Docs

*Important: For step 4, choose Trusted Publisher instead of Trusted Root Certification Authorities.

To verify, check the user’s certificate manager (certmgr.msc):

Guardian is easily deployed to the firm’s Revit user machines by following the recommended workflow. The same .msi file that is used for manual installations will be used for the deployed installation and can befound here https://www.iconicbim.com/downloads.

1. Prepare a Deployment Transform File (.mst)

A free Microsoft tool called "Orca", available from the Microsoft SDK, provides a graphical user interface for generating Microsoft transform files (.mst). The .mst file will tell the deployment how to install the .msi file.

Windows SDKComponents for Windows Installer Developers - Win32 apps | Microsoft Docs

1. After installing Orca, load the .msi file.

2. On the main menu, click New Transform.

3. On Property change the following options:

a. USEROPTION = 2 (This will make sure that files will be deployed at “ProgramData”)

b. EulaForm_Property = Yes (This will default the License Agreement to “I Agree”)

4.     On CustomAction, change COMPANYID to the one provided for your organization. This will automatically deploy the company key file on the correct folder during installation.

5.     Click on Transform then Generate Transform and save it on the same folder as the .msi that will be deployed.

2. Perform a Test Deployment

The tools for deploying Revit addins are quite diverse. Here is a sample command line that can be used in a deployment tool of choice, such as PDQ:

Sample command line:

msiexec /i "<path>\<filename>.msi" ALLUSERS=1 /qn TRANSFORMS="<path>\filename.mst"

3. Verify the Installation

Open any version of Revit and navigate to Add-Ins > Guardian > Settings > Licensing. The company name should be visible on the License Information dialog as shown below.

If assistance is needed, please reach out to our team at support@iconicbim.com

4. Perform Full Deployment

Once the test deployment is verified, continue to deploy to all necessary machines.

Please note that Guardian licenses are only activated once a registered project is opened on the end-user’s machine. Guardian can be deployed to all machines without having to worry about using licenses.

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New features are always being added and improved upon. When new releases of Guardian are live, email notifications will be sent out to download and try out the new features! The latest version of Guardian can be accessed here: https://www.iconicbim.com/downloads. Within the Revit Add-Ins tab, a New Update! icon will also be displayed when a new release of Guardian is available. Click to download the latest update.

Guardian Support will often reach out to Project/Company Administrators about upgrading user accounts that have fallen behind a few versions. Upon request, Guardian Support can also provide a list of users still on outdated versions or it can be accessed through Guardian Backstage.

Activate Guardian as a Project or Company Administrator

To activate Guardian to start configuring the settings for the firm, the Company Administrator must login. Project Administrators must also login to start configuring the settings for their assigned projects.

With Guardian installed, a user can log in to their administrator account. The login for Project/Company Administrators can be found under Add-Ins > Guardian > Settings > Licensing > Admin Login. If the Project/Company Administrator account is not yet set up, reach out to an existing Company Administrator to have that users added.

Once logged in, Project/Company Administrators will have the ability to modify project configurations and can receive Notifications when protected commands are used.

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Adding Project & Company Administrators

Project and Company Administrator accounts are used to enable and manage Guardian protections and features.

All administrators must first be given administrative privileges on the Administrators tab under Company Settings.

(A) The Administrator tab lists all the administrator licenses assigned to the Guardian account.

(B) Start adding administrators by selecting the Add New button. Within the Add/Edit Administrator dialog, the following information is to be entered:

• ‍First Name/ Last Name
• Email
• Role: Company Administrator/ Project Administrator. This is where administrators are assigned to their given roles. Company Administrator have permissions to edit all settings at both the company and project levels, and for all projects.  Project administrators only have permission for the projects that have been assigned to.
• Selecting When Opening project, automatically add users as an administrator to that project will permit Auto Add.
• Selecting Allow user to add themselves as administrators to other projects shown in the project dialog will permit Allow Add.

(C) The Admin Type is shown for each admin. For more information on the differences between the two, see the article on Administrator Roles.

(D) Auto Add:

• If Checked: When either a Company or Project Administrator opens a registered project model, they are automatically added as an administrator to the project.
• If Unchecked: User will have to be manually added as the administrator to the file in the Projects menu. The process for this can be found in Administrator Roles.

(E) Allow Add:

• If Checked: Allows the Project Administrator to add themselves to the projects through the Projects dialog.
• If Unchecked: Only Company Administrators can assign Project Administrators to projects.

Note: Allow Add only applies to the Project Administrator level. By default, any Company Administrator can manually add themselves to any project.  

Project Registration

Guardian protections, features, and analytics will only work if project files are registered. Even if none of the Guardian features have been enabled, having projects registered will allow some of the basic functionality to be utilized:

• Purging of unused properties for incoming elements.
• Capturing data analytics on different command activities.
• Notifications to admins on use of protected commands.

Project models must be registered before Guardian will be activated for a given project. There are two ways in which projects can be registered:

1. Automatic Registration under Company Settings.

2. Manual Registration by selecting Register Project icon or Settings > Projects.

This allows for Company Administrators to determine what type of projects that will be registered. For instance, a non-workshared project model may not want to be registered as it’s only for specific study or only register project models hosted on BIM360.

Project models can be registered in a couple of ways. They can be manually registered by selecting the Register Project button in the Guardian Add-Ins tab.

When manually registering files, a prompt will appear for administrators to specify the desired mapping configuration, project configuration, workset set, and administrators. If any set rules apply to the active project, then the configurations will be filled automatically based on the rules' selection.

Project models can also be registered automatically based on some predetermined rules. The rules can be set up under the File Registration tab within Company Settings.

(A) Registration: Rules can be created for different file types to be registered automatically when created or opened.  

(B) Click the Edit rules button next to each model type to further specify the conditions in which the models get registered.

Within the Rules dialog, many different conditions can be added in AND and OR configurations similar to Revit View Filter rules. Use the Add Condition button to add conditions from the available condition types.

Each rule can be used to register files automatically or to apply the selected configurations when registering files manually. To disable automatic registration, select the Manual registration only checkbox.

Applying Mapping Configurations to Registered Models

(C) When creating a model from another existing registered model, the registration behavior can be specified to either use the existing Mapping Configuration, Project Configuration, Administrators, and Workset Set or to apply the registration rules.

Initial Setup: Configuring Guardian

Now that Guardian is installed, there are a few steps necessary to start utilizing the benefits of Guardian right away. The following steps will help configuring Guardian for the first time and help explain some of the basic features.

Project Registration

Guardian protections, features, and analytics will only work if project files are registered. Even if none of the Guardian features have been enabled, having projects registered will allow some of the basic functionality to be utilized:

• Purging of unused properties for incoming elements.
• Capturing data analytics on different command activities.
• Notifications to admins on use of protected commands.

Project models must be registered before Guardian will be activated for a given project. There are two ways in which projects can be registered:

1. Automatic Registration under Company Settings.

2. Manual Registration by selecting Register Project icon or Settings > Projects.

This allows for Company Administrators to determine what type of projects that will be registered. For instance, a non-workshared project model may not want to be registered as it’s only for specific study or only register project models hosted on BIM360.

Project models can be registered in a couple of ways. They can be manually registered by selecting the Register Project button in the Guardian Add-Ins tab.

Project models can also be registered automatically based on some predetermined rules. The rules can be set up under the Project Registration tab within Company Settings.

(A) Registration: Select the different types of models to be automatically registered when created or opened.  

(B) Click the Edit button next to each model type to further specify the conditions in which the models get registered

For more information on how to create rules for automatic registration, see Rules.

Applying Mapping Configurations to Registered Models

(C) When creating a model from another existing registered model, the registration behavior can be specified to either use the existing Mapping Configuration, Project Configuration, Administrators, Workset Sets or to apply the defaults on the registration rules.

User Commands

User Commands allows Project/Company Administrators to create customized messages encouraging users to follow the proper procedure for each of these Revit commands and prevent unwanted actions. For each of these commands, Guardian also allows three levels of protection to be set for each; Monitor, Guide, Prevent.  

• Monitor: Registers the command with Guardian Backstage™ which provides BIM Managers a tremendous amount of data on how their users are using these commands at both a firm and project level.
• Guide: Provides users a customized message promoting proper usage of these commands when the user goes to execute the command. The user simply acknowledges the message by providing a simple return message. The commands in Guide and Prevent mode also registers with Guardian Backstage™.
• Prevent: In addition to providing a customized message, Guardian will prevent users from executing that Revit command. A customized project specific and/or a firm specific password can be entered to continue to execute the command.

The customization of each Revit command can be customized for different Project Configurations and can be further customized for each project model in the Project Settings, allowing Guardian to be customized to meet the project team’s Revit skillset. Each command can be setup to send the assigned Project Administrator an email Notification identifying, who, when and what project the protect command is executed.    

Pro Tip: For new accounts, set all User Command protection levels to a minimum of Monitor so Guardian Backstage™ collects the usage data of all the available User Commands.

(A) Click the New button to select commands to add to the protected list. For all new accounts, it is recommended to add all commands.  

Pro Tip: Keep an eye here as New Commands are frequently added here with new releases of Guardian. All new commands will only be added to Available Commands as Guardian will not automatically make these commands active.

(B) Mode: Once the commands are added to the protected list, the protection mode can be set as Monitor, Guide or Prevent.  

(C) Send Email: Enabling will send email notifications to the project assigned Project Administrators when the selected command is used by an end-user. If the user were to cancel out of the command, then no email will be sent.

(D) Require Comment: For Guide and Prevent modes, a comment can be required to be submitted by the end-user before proceeding with the selected command.

(E) Message: For each command, a customized Command Message can be created that will appear to the end-user when the Guide or Prevent modes are used. In the message dialog, images or hyperlinks can be included to educate and adoption of company best practices and standards.

(F) Edit Password: A company password can be added for commands set to prevent. Project/Company Administrators can also share One Time Passwords for users rather than giving out the company password. Passwords can also be set on a per project basis.

Profile

Under the Profile tab within Company Settings, the company profile settings can be applied.  

(A) Company Logo: A company logo can be uploaded to display for all Command Messages and end-user notifications.

(B) Settings: Enabling this setting will show the New Update! Icon to all end-users when new versions of Guardian are live. Project/Company Administrators will always be notified of New Updates irrespective of the setting.

Guardian Backstage™  

Analytic data captured by Guardian can be accessed through Power BI or some other data access application. Under the Backstage tab in Company Settings, the Enable Data Access must first be selected.

Once enabled, information for the SQL server name, username, and password will be made available. This can be used to access the company analytics data through Power BI or some other data accessing service. Check out the Guardian Backstage and the Setting Up Your Dashboard article.

Administrators

Under the Administrators tab in Company Settings, Company and Project Administrators can be created. Check out the Adding Administrators article for more information on creating Administrators and the distinction between Company and Project Administrators.

Testing

It is recommended to test out Guardian’s various features and protections to better understand how they work and will impact the end-user experience. This can be done by following these steps:

1. Create a project model for testing.

• A copy of an actual project model, or an older completed model, is recommended.

2. Create a new testing mapping configuration and assign it to the test model.

• This will allow the Project Administrators assigned to the project to create mapping rules without affecting other registered models.

3. Establish the Project Settings for the test model.

• By modifying and activating features through the Project Settings, Administrates can test out different features and protections without affecting other registered models.

4. Log out as an Administrator to test as an end-user.

• When new features/protections are enabled, Administrators can log out of their account and test Guardian’s features and protections from the end-user perspective.
• Administrators can easily log in and out during the same Revit session to continually change and test settings.

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Initial Setup: Project Settings

This article will explain the difference between the Company Settings and Project Settings. This will also discuss different scenarios in which using the Project Settings is more beneficial.

Company vs. Project

Project Configurations are adopted by project models when registered with Guardian. All changes made to the Project Configurations will affect any registered files with those applied configurations.  

Project Settings are customized overrides to the Project Configurations. Once changes are made to the Project Settings, they will become disconnected from the Project Configurations. Any further changes to the Project Configurations will no longer affect project models that have had their Project Settings modified.  

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Pro Tip: Any differences between the Project Settings and the applied Project Configuration will appear as blue in the Project Settings.

Projects with customized settings can be reverted back to the applied Project Configuration by clicking the Restore Defaults in the Project Settings window. When selected, you can choose to either reconnect to the Project Configuration or to copy the existing settings. When choosing to copy the settings, the Project Settings will remain disconnected from the Project Configuration.

When to Use: Project Settings

Whether it’s an advanced team that requires less direction, junior teams requiring increased oversight, or a schematic project phase with reduced stringency, Project Settings allow the Company Administrator to delegate customization to the individual project model level. There are many reasons specific projects may require different settings to be applied and, thus, Guardian allows for this level of customization on a project model by project model basis.

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Pro Tip: When testing new features and protections is best done through Project Settings so that it does not affect other registered files.

Initial Setup: Mapping Configuration

Guardian Mapping Configuration works in conjunction with Guardian Project Properties. When a Project or Company Administrator uses Project Properties to replace, or map, incoming Revit properties to those in the active project model, the Mapping Configuration will remember these mappings. Mapping Configurations are the company standards stored and memorized for all projects to use. This article will go over the steps for establishing the initial mapping configuration files. Learn more about the Anatomy of Mappings and Project Properties here.

Creating a New Mapping Configuration

Guardian does not come with preloaded Mapping Configuration files. It is recommended starting with an initial three Mapping Configuration files as follows:

• Blank
• Testing
• Company Standards ‍

Blank Mapping Configuration: For many new Guardian customers this will serve as the default Mapping Configuration file for newly registered project models. This is the recommended workflow until new customers become comfortable with Mapping Configurations. The process for setting the default Mapping Configuration when a project is registered will be described later on in this section.  

Testing Mapping Configuration: A testing configuration is to be used when testing out new mapping rules without affecting existing Registered models.  

Company Standards Mapping Configuration: Once a customer becomes proficient with Mapping Configurations, the Company Standards mapping configuration is where the rules are stored that would be applied across all registered models. Approved rules can also be added to the Blank configuration over time rather than having a separate configuration for company standards.

To create a Mapping Configuration file, select the Mapping Configurations under Settings.

In the Mapping Configurations window, to create a new mapping configuration click the New button (A). The other buttons provide can be used to Rename, Copy, Delete, or Merge existing configurations.  

Applying Mapping Configurations to Automatically Registered Models

A default Mapping Configuration can be selected for all newly registered models. It is recommended to set a default Mapping Configuration to allow Guardian to function properly.  

Once the Mapping Configuration files are created one can be set as the default option for newly registered files. The default can be set in Company Settings in the Project Registration Rules.

Changing Mapping Configurations assigned to existing Registered Models

To change the default Mapping Configuration file that may have been applied to an existing registered Project Model can be changed as follows:

With the desired project model open, go to Settings > Projects. In Projects, the mapping configuration can be changed for either the current project or any other registered file.

Pro tip: Administrators do not need to log out of their administrator account to test mapping rules.

Initial Setup: Worksets

In this section we will walk through the steps necessary to utilize the workset manager and associated features.  

Creating: Sets, Workset, and Rules

Through the workset manager, sets of worksets can be created to be implemented in projects. Additionally, rules can be added for the worksets that can be used for manual and automatic assignment of elements to specific worksets. The automatic workset assignment will apply any rules when elements are placed. The Workset Manager can be found under Settings.

In the workset manager there are three sections: Sets, Worksets, and Rules. Each set can contain multiple worksets. Similarly, each workset can have multiple rules created.

(A) Click the New button to create a set.

(B) Click the New button to create worksets for each set.

• When creating new worksets, select Add to project when worksharing is enabled to have it added to a project when worksharing is enabled. This allows multiple worksets to be added to a set even if they may not all be needed for each project.

(C) Worksets can be designated with the Star or Grid Head icons. These icons will show which worksets will replace Workset1 and Shared Levels and Grids respectively. This replacement will happen either at the onset of worksharing or after the fact when added to the project through the workset manager.

(D) Rules can be created for each Workset. These rules can allow for automatic assignment of worksets when elements are placed. These rules can also be run manually by admins through the workset manager by selecting a workset and clicking Run all rules. For more information, see the article on Rules.

Testing

When creating new rules for worksets, it is recommended to test them out to make sure they are working as intended. The best way to do this is to enable the workset features in Project Settings for a test file you have open.

See the Workset Manager section for more information on how to use these features.

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Initial Setup: Project Settings

This article will explain the difference between the Company Settings and Project Settings. This will also discuss different scenarios in which using the Project Settings is more beneficial.

Company vs. Project

Project Configurations are adopted by project models when registered with Guardian. All changes made to the Project Configurations will affect any registered files with those applied configurations.  

Project Settings are customized overrides to the Project Configurations. Once changes are made to the Project Settings, they will become disconnected from the Project Configurations. Any further changes to the Project Configurations will no longer affect project models that have had their Project Settings modified.  

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Pro Tip: Any differences between the Project Settings and the applied Project Configuration will appear as blue in the Project Settings.

Projects with customized settings can be reverted back to the applied Project Configuration by clicking the Restore Defaults in the Project Settings window. When selected, you can choose to either reconnect to the Project Configuration or to copy the existing settings. When choosing to copy the settings, the Project Settings will remain disconnected from the Project Configuration.

When to Use: Project Settings

Whether it’s an advanced team that requires less direction, junior teams requiring increased oversight, or a schematic project phase with reduced stringency, Project Settings allow the Company Administrator to delegate customization to the individual project model level. There are many reasons specific projects may require different settings to be applied and, thus, Guardian allows for this level of customization on a project model by project model basis.

‍

Pro Tip: When testing new features and protections is best done through Project Settings so that it does not affect other registered files.

Initial Setup: Mapping Configuration

Guardian Mapping Configuration works in conjunction with Guardian Project Properties. When a Project or Company Administrator uses Project Properties to replace, or map, incoming Revit properties to those in the active project model, the Mapping Configuration will remember these mappings. Mapping Configurations are the company standards stored and memorized for all projects to use. This article will go over the steps for establishing the initial mapping configuration files. Learn more about the Anatomy of Mappings and Project Properties here.

Creating a New Mapping Configuration

Guardian does not come with preloaded Mapping Configuration files. It is recommended starting with an initial three Mapping Configuration files as follows:

• Blank
• Testing
• Company Standards ‍

Blank Mapping Configuration: For many new Guardian customers this will serve as the default Mapping Configuration file for newly registered project models. This is the recommended workflow until new customers become comfortable with Mapping Configurations. The process for setting the default Mapping Configuration when a project is registered will be described later on in this section.  

Testing Mapping Configuration: A testing configuration is to be used when testing out new mapping rules without affecting existing Registered models.  

Company Standards Mapping Configuration: Once a customer becomes proficient with Mapping Configurations, the Company Standards mapping configuration is where the rules are stored that would be applied across all registered models. Approved rules can also be added to the Blank configuration over time rather than having a separate configuration for company standards.

To create a Mapping Configuration file, select the Mapping Configurations under Settings.

In the Mapping Configurations window, to create a new mapping configuration click the New button (A). The other buttons provide can be used to Rename, Copy, Delete, or Merge existing configurations.  

Applying Mapping Configurations to Automatically Registered Models

A default Mapping Configuration can be selected for all newly registered models. It is recommended to set a default Mapping Configuration to allow Guardian to function properly.  

Once the Mapping Configuration files are created one can be set as the default option for newly registered files. The default can be set in Company Settings in the Project Registration Rules.

Changing Mapping Configurations assigned to existing Registered Models

To change the default Mapping Configuration file that may have been applied to an existing registered Project Model can be changed as follows:

With the desired project model open, go to Settings > Projects. In Projects, the mapping configuration can be changed for either the current project or any other registered file.

Pro tip: Administrators do not need to log out of their administrator account to test mapping rules.

Initial Setup: Worksets

In this section we will walk through the steps necessary to utilize the workset manager and associated features.  

Creating: Sets, Workset, and Rules

Through the workset manager, sets of worksets can be created to be implemented in projects. Additionally, rules can be added for the worksets that can be used for manual and automatic assignment of elements to specific worksets. The automatic workset assignment will apply any rules when elements are placed. The Workset Manager can be found under Settings.

In the workset manager there are three sections: Sets, Worksets, and Rules. Each set can contain multiple worksets. Similarly, each workset can have multiple rules created.

(A) Click the New button to create a set.

(B) Click the New button to create worksets for each set.

• When creating new worksets, select Add to project when worksharing is enabled to have it added to a project when worksharing is enabled. This allows multiple worksets to be added to a set even if they may not all be needed for each project.

(C) Worksets can be designated with the Star or Grid Head icons. These icons will show which worksets will replace Workset1 and Shared Levels and Grids respectively. This replacement will happen either at the onset of worksharing or after the fact when added to the project through the workset manager.

(D) Rules can be created for each Workset. These rules can allow for automatic assignment of worksets when elements are placed. These rules can also be run manually by admins through the workset manager by selecting a workset and clicking Run all rules. For more information, see the article on Rules.

Testing

When creating new rules for worksets, it is recommended to test them out to make sure they are working as intended. The best way to do this is to enable the workset features in Project Settings for a test file you have open.

See the Workset Manager section for more information on how to use these features.

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Sync Properties

Your standard properties can be stored in one convenient place without taking up space within project files. Allow your end-users easy and quick access to company standard properties by uploading and maintaining them in the cloud! The cloud properties aren't specific to any Revit year and can easily be used across the different versions. This section will go over how to upload properties to the cloud and how to utilize the sync capabilities.

Uploading to the Cloud

To store properties in the cloud, first open a project file that contains company standard properties. This can be a template or some other container file. The file will need to be registered through Guardian before the properties can be uploaded.  

Under Projects, select the desired property type to upload.

These dialogs will show the properties within the current active project and can be uploaded to the cloud.

Select the desired properties to upload and select Upload/Sync.

In this dialog, select the Upload All Remaining button. You will then get an option to Upload only or Upload and keep synchronized. Select Upload only to upload the selected properties. For utilizing the Sync capabilities, see the Guardian Sync section.

Pro tip: The cloud properties are stored irrespective of the Revit versions. So, there is no need to upload from specific Revit versions.

Once the properties are uploaded, an In Cloud icon will show next to them in their respective dialogs. They can now be downloaded into any project files by either admins or end-users.

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Testing as a User

It is important to understand how changes to Guardians features and protections will impact your end-users. Here we will go over the steps needed to test out these changes in a way that won’t impact other end-users unintentionally.

Testing Setup

When testing out different features or protections, it is recommended to have a separate project file and to only modify the Project Settings. This will allow changes to be tested without affecting end-users on other registered files.  

Make the desired changes to the Project Settings and then log out of the admin account to test those out as an end-user.

User Commands are a good example of something that is best to test as an end-user. The Guide and Prevent dialogs are only shown to end-users and it’s important to ensure that the wording, images, and links are appearing/working properly.  

New mapping rules can also be tested in a similar way. The mapping rules can be used with either an admin or end-user account. The only difference is that end-users won’t get the dialog asking to look over incoming properties when loading families into projects.  

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Notifications

Guardian helps to keep you in the loop with notifications on protected commands and activity. This section will go over the different types of notifications and how they can be enabled.

User Command Activity

The User Commands can be set to Monitor, Guide, or Prevent. When set to Guide or Prevent, the Send Email option will provide email notifications to company admins or associated project admins when those commands are used by end-users.  

If a command is set to Guide or Prevent, the command can either be Processed or Cancelled when the Guide/Prevent dialog appears to end-users. In this dialog, hitting OK will process the command while the Cancel button will cancel the command. Any cancelled commands will not send email notifications to admins.

The email notifications will provide useful information like username, command name, selected elements, active view, and certain commands will also provide screenshots of the active window before and after the command is used.  

The collection of screenshots can be disabled in the Project Configurations.

Custom Interactions

Many of the protections and features found in Custom Interactions can also send email notifications when triggered.  

Weekly Reports

Company administrators will also receive weekly report emails. These reports will show command usage (Cancelled/Processed) and metrics on Guardian including the number of properties removed, number of mapped families, outdated Guardian installs, and more.

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Setting up your Dashboard

Guardian analytics can help you to stay in the loop on the activity in each of your registered projects. Guardian analytics can be accessed through Power BI or any other data accessing service. In this section we will show you how to set up your Power BI dashboard.  

Using the Power BI Template

A Power BI template file is provided with the Guardian installer but can also be downloaded from the Guardian website.  

Before the analytical data can be accessed, the Enable Data Access option must be selected in the Backstage tab within Company Settings.

Open the template file and a prompt will appear to input the Company Account ID.  

The Company Account ID can be found in the Backstage tab in the Guardian add-in. It will be the 2- or 3-digit number in the middle of the Username.

In this example the Account ID is 16. Enter your Account ID and select the Load button.  

Power BI will then prompt for the server credentials. These will be the Username and Password shown in the Backstage tab. Ensure that the Database option is used and to apply the credentials to the server option shown below.

The available data will then be loaded into the report and the dashboard will be all set up!

To keep up with user activities, the data will need to be manually refreshed. This can be done on a daily or weekly basis. This will make sure that the report is looking at up to date information. The data can be refreshed by clicking the Refresh button in the ribbon.

Backstage stores data on a timely basis (roughly every 2 hours). Recent data may not be seen right away but should appear in a about an hour or two.  

To get more information on the data or the visualizations within the report, feel free to reach out to IconicBIM Support.

Building Your Own Report

A dashboard can be created without the use of the Guardian template file. To accomplish this, first start by opening up Power BI and set up a new data connection by selecting Get data.

Select the SQL Server database and then click Connect.

On the next dialog, enter the Server and Database information. This can be found in the Backstage tab in Company Settings. Select OK.

Power BI will then prompt for the server credentials. These will be the Username and Password shown in the Backstage tab. The Database option should be used and the credentials must be applied to the server option shown below. When done, click Connect.

On the next dialog, select the desired tables to import. It is recommended that all tables are included to receive all the analytical data.  

Once the tables have been selected, click Load and the report will be ready to go!  

Command Frequency

Feature Description:

Command Frequency allows administrators to customize the frequency of Guardian’s User Commands Guide and Prevent Command Messages. For each of the User Commands listed under Command Frequency, the Project/Company Administrator can set how often the Command Message appears to the end-users. The desired frequency for the end-user can be set under the ‘Default Setting’. Enabling the ‘User Can Edit’ option will allow users to change the frequency as desired (see image below). Users can also be given an option to disable the guide dialog. This can be activated by enabling the ‘Allow ‘Never’' option. Because these settings allow for the end-user to customize their Guardian experience, User Overrides options ensure the Project/Company Administrator can override any Command Frequency settings established by the end-user.

Why You Need This Feature:

Revit skill levels across firms and projects vary greatly and are nuanced. The Revit users themselves are often best suited to determine how helpful the User Commands Guide or Prompt Command Messages are, as permitted by the Project/Company Administrator within the Command Frequency settings.

We believe Guardian’s purpose is to assist and educate Revit users on the proper Revit usage as determined by the Project/Company Administrator. Once an end-user is alerted to the purpose or potential risk associated with specific commands, they may not need to be reminded every time thereafter.  

How to Customize This Feature:

Any User Commands that have modes set to ‘Guide’ or 'Prevent' will automatically show on the Command Frequency tab within Project Configurations.  Also note, that these Command Frequency settings will be adopted by each project model once the model is registered, allowing for customization at the project level. User Commands set to monitor are not available through Command Frequency as the end-user does not receive a user command prompt.

(A) Mode: The 'Mode' is automatically set based on the settings established in the User Commands tab and therefore can only be edited in the User Commands tab.

Pro Tip: Sort by 'Mode' by selecting the Mode column header and using the shift key to multi-select several commands at once and quickly edit their 'Default Settings' as a group.

(B) Default Setting: The 'Default Setting' is what the Company Administrator has established as the overall company setting for Command Frequency OR what the project administrator has set within the Project Settings for Command Frequency.

• Every time: Users will see a Command Message every time they initiate a command set to Guide or Prevent. This could include a required comment or password to continue depending on the customizations on the Company Settings or at the Project Setting level.

• Once Per Session: Users will see a Command Message the first time only during their Revit session when they initiate a command set to Guide or Prevent. The Frequency will reset the next time they close and reopen a session of Revit.  

• Every 3 Days: Users will see a Command Message the first time they initiate a command set to Guide or Prevent during a 3-day period. The Frequency will reset on the first session of the 3rd day.

• Every 7 Days: Users will see a Command Message the first time they initiate a command set to Guide or Prevent during a 7-day period. The Frequency will reset on the first session of the 7th day.

(C) User Can Edit:

• If unchecked, the end-user will not have the option of choosing their own 'Remind Me' frequency.

• If checked, the end-user will have the option to choose their preferred 'Remind Me' settings, thereby overriding the established company or project 'Default Settings'.  

Note: The 'Remind Me' option will display whatever the current default frequency for that command is. By selecting the dropdown carrot, the user will have the option to select the other options.  

(D) Allow Never: This allows the end-user to effectively disable the Command Message permanently moving forward. This applies to the user across all projects, regardless of which project this was initiated with. Note: This is reversable, and admins can always remove any user overrides.  
Pro Tip: Utilize User Overrides to fine-tune the frequency for users that require individual attention.

End-user experience:

Users have the option of using the ‘Remind me:’ drop-down menu to choose a frequency they perceive to be appropriate.  

• Every time: Users will see a Command Message every time they initiate a command set to 'Guide' or 'Prevent'. This could include a required comment or password to continue depending on the customizations on the Company Settings or at the Project Setting level.
• Once Per Session: Users will see a Command Message the first time only during their Revit session when they initiate a command set to 'Guide' or 'Prevent'. The Frequency will reset the next time they close and reopen a session of Revit.  
• Every 3 Days: Users will see a Command Message the first time they initiate a command set to Guide or Prevent during a 3-day period. The Frequency will reset on the first session of the 3rd day.
• Every 7 Days: Users will see a Command Message the first time they initiate a command set to Guide or Prevent during a 7-day period. The Frequency will reset on the first session of the 7th day.

Anatomy of Mappings

There are different types of mappings that can be applied to properties with varying effects. This section will go over the different types of mappings and how they can be used.  

It is good to be aware of the different settings and filters that can be used in the project properties.

The options in the settings work as follows:

• Hide system properties: Hide any system type properties.

• Show only mapped properties: Filter down the properties shown to only the ones with a mapping rule applied.

• Show only unused properties: After scanning for usage, this will filter down all the properties to only shows those with no usage.

• Show only duplicate properties: After scanning for duplicates, this will filter down all properties to only show those with possible duplicates detected.

• Expand All: Expand all properties in all tabs.

• Collapse All: Collapse all properties in all tabs.

• Show additional mapping insight: Show if applied mappings will rename or map one property to another. If any properties are set to be removed, they will show as [Remove].

• Reset all mappings (session only): Restore any changes made to the mapping rules (either removing or adding new ones) to what was set when the Project Properties dialog was opened.  

• Remove mappings from rules (session only): Temporarily remove any applied mapping rules. After closing and reopening the Project Properties dialog they will be reapplied. This will not delete any mapping rules from your applied mapping configuration.  

When mapping rules are applied to properties, they can either be a map or rename. This will depend on if the destination property is in the current project file. When mapping Family A to Family B, if Family B doesn’t already exist in the current project file, then Family A will just be renamed to Family B. If Family B does exist in the file, then Guardian will convert all instances of Family A to Family B. This is made clear in the project properties by selecting the ‘Show additional mapping insight’ option in the settings.

Mapping rules are typically set in the mapping configurations, but they can also be set temporarily. New mapping rules can be set to ‘One time only’ (designated by the 1 next to the mapping symbol), this will allow the property to be mapped or removed without being remembered by the mapping configuration.  

One-time mappings can be applied in the create/edit dialog by toggling the ‘Remember/Don’t Remember’ option.

The one-time mapping can also be applied in Project Properties by selecting a mapping rule and clicking the ‘Remember/Don’t Remember’ option.