While Revit offers a variety of tools to manage your projects, it might still leave you craving some of the functionality that an Excel spreadsheet offers. For example, you could use Excel to copy values to multiple cells or add in more advanced formulas. This would allow you to work with multiple pieces of data at once, rather than double-handling your data. It could also reduce the occurrence of manual errors and save you a significant amount of time.

Unfortunately, there isn’t an automatic Revit-Excel sync built into either program, but don’t worry, we have some options for you. In this article, we will share different ways that you can link Revit data to Excel.

Export Revit Data to Excel

For straightforward data, such as room schedules and drawing lists, you could create a Revit schedule and export it to Excel. However, keep in mind that any changes that you make in Excel will not automatically sync with Revit. You would have to manually update Revit with those changes or pursue other avenues of automation using an add-in or Dynamo.

Link Revit to Excel Using an Add-In

There are a few add-in options that would allow you to pull data from Revit into Excel and then easily push the revised data back to Revit. Some popular options include Ideate BIMLink and GRAITEC PowerPack. These plugins could save you a significant amount of time because you can quickly sync between Revit and Excel, rather than manually importing/exporting data.

Keep in mind that these add-ins do cost money, but they also come with additional features such as macro templates, removing duplicate type marks, creating placeholder sheets, controlling and managing manage global parameters, and so on.

Writing Code to Connect Revit and Excel

If you’d rather not invest money in an add-in tool to link Revit and Excel, you could write some code for it. This takes more expertise (and time), but it’s certainly an option. You could write a parameter exporter to connect Revit and Excel (here is a parameter exporter macro tutorial to help you get started).

Link Revit and Excel Using a Dynamo Script

Another free option for connecting Revit and Excel is by using a Dynamo Script. Dynamo is an open-source Revit Add-in that you can download for free. Those of you already familiar with programs such as Grasshopper would easily adapt to the Dynamo add-in. You can use Dynamo to graphically structure a workflow to allow you to edit a Revit model from Excel. Here is a tutorial to walk you through this setup.

Conclusion

So there you have it! It’s absolutely possible to reap the benefits of Excel when working with your Revit projects. The option best for you is the one that aligns with your time and budget as well as the complexity of your project.

Linking Revit to Excel is one of the many ways you can get the most out of Revit. If you’re interested in further maximizing your BIM investment, UNIFI can help you with your BIM content and data management strategy. Visit our solutions page to learn more or contact us for a free demo today

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