Smart Tags Menu

The Smart Tags menu may appear slightly different across various Be.Smart solutions, but all menus include the same commands:

Smart Tags uses configurations, which are instructions for what to do in a view or with selected elements. Users can create different configurations for various tasks and reuse them as needed in the same or other Revit projects, even across different Revit versions.

This article mainly explains what the different menu commands do. Click here to learn more about the configuration window and its settings, and here for a step-by-step guide on setting up tagging configurations.

Applying Configurations

The Configurations or Tag Configuration command opens a window where you can define what should be tagged and how.

To apply one of your configurations in an active Revit view, use the Tag Elements In View command. A dialog box will appear, allowing you to select a configuration from a drop-down list of all available configurations. Once you choose the configuration, click the Tag button to apply it in the view. The Edit button will take you to the Configurations window.

If you use Smart Tags through Smart Documentation, you'll see sample configurations here. These can be applied to the sample models to help you explore the software's possibilities.

Here's the result of this sample configuration:

Users can apply a configuration—or different configurations—multiple times within the same view.

Configurations can be used in 2D model views, such as plan views, sections, elevations, and assembly views. However, they cannot be applied in 3D views.

Configurations can also be applied to selected elements only. To do this, select the desired elements in the view, click Tag Selected Elements, choose an appropriate configuration, and run it.

You don't need to select the exact elements to be tagged—a rough selection is usually enough, as the configuration filters will tag only the necessary elements.

Similar to Tag Elements In View, Tag Selected Elements can be used multiple times for the same or different elements in a view.

Configurations can also be run directly from the configuration window. Clicking Apply with no elements selected will run the active configuration for the entire view. If some elements are selected, the active configuration will be applied only to those elements.

While still in the configuration window, you can make changes to a configuration and click Apply again to update the tags with the latest settings.

This functionality offers an almost instant preview of how different settings affect the results in a view.

Update and Delete Commands

After tags are inserted, you can modify them as needed—move, rotate, add values, or even modify the families themselves—since they are regular Revit tags. However, tags inserted using Smart Tags include metadata linked to their configuration, which is important for updating or deleting configurations later.

There are two sets of update and delete commands in Smart Tags. Update Tags In View and Delete Tags In View will find all configurations used in a view and either update or delete all tags inserted with Smart Tags.

Additionally, there are Update Selected Tags and Delete Selected Tags, which work similarly but operate on tags from a single configuration at a time. After using one of these commands, you need to select a tag in the view. The command will then apply to tags from the same configuration as the selected tag.

Update Selected Tags and Delete Selected Tags are useful when you need to update or delete specific tags without affecting all the tags in the view.

Delete or Update commands do not affect tags that were inserted manually in Revit.

When Update commands are used, all tags from the configuration(s) will be deleted and reinserted. Here are some use cases for using the Update commands:

• You have changed some settings in the configuration. With Update, you can instantly reapply all tags.

• Tagged model elements have been moved, causing the tags to become misplaced.

• New elements that need tagging have been added to the model. The Update command will find and tag these new elements, but only if the corresponding configuration was applied to the entire view.

Here’s an example: Imagine a view containing windows and doors. The user applies a configuration to tag all windows in the view using the Tag Elements In View command. In the same view, the user also applies a different configuration for tagging doors, but this is done selectively on certain doors using the Tag Selected Elements command.

Later, the user adds new doors and windows to the view and clicks Update Tags In View. The new windows will be tagged according to the window configuration, and any existing window tags will also update. However, the newly added doors will not be tagged because the door configuration was only applied to specific doors, not the entire view. Still, tags on the previously selected doors will update.

Smart Tags for Linked File Elements

Smart Tags can batch-tag both active model elements and elements from linked files. By default, only active model elements are tagged. To enable tagging of elements from linked files, go to the Active/Linked Files Settings menu.

The Active/Linked Files Settings button is only visible when at least one linked model is present.

When in the Active/Linked Files Settings window, you will see a list of all linked models, along with their size and last update date. To enable tagging of a particular linked model (or several), check the corresponding checkboxes. Tagging of the current model can be enabled or disabled using the slider. You can also work with both active and selected linked models. Click OK for the changes to take effect.

Enabling linked model tagging, along with the number and size of enabled links, can affect loading times when running or updating configurations. Select only the relevant linked files you need to tag. Disabling active model tagging will also help improve loading times if you are working with links only.

Enabling a model not only allows it to be tagged using Smart Tags, but also loads the parameters of its elements into the Filtering section of Smart Tags configurations. This enables filtering of linked model elements using all their parameters.

Smart Tags saves the list of selected linked models for each Revit project you work in. This allows you to quickly switch between projects without modifying the Active/Linked Files Settings each time.

If all links are removed, Smart Tags will switch to 'active elements only' mode.