Clean up Duplicates

[DaveP]

I'm going through the painful process of cleaning up our Detail Library.
Since many of our details are created outside the Library, and then Copy/Pasted into the Library, we end up with a lot of duplicate items.
For instance, I found 8 different Light Gauge Metal - Stud families
Light Gauge Metal - Stud

• Light Gauge Metal - Stud3
• Light Gauge Metal - Stud4
• Light Gauge Metal - Stud7

etc, etc.
I'm positive they all came from the same original family, it's just that some minor difference forced Revit to make duplicates.
At the moment, I'm placing an instance of the duplicate, then Select All Instances, then pick the correct family. As I said, painful.:banghead: Not to mention error-prone.

Seems to me like this would be a good application for the API.
Maybe give Revit a Family name and have it seek out similar families that have a number appended, then swap out the instances.

Is this possible?
Has anyone already done something like this?

Is it possible to create

[Alex Cunningham]

I would buy it in a second.

[dalmore]

That doesn't sound like a big problem for the API. But wouldn't it make sense to use the Purke Unused command? Or how should the add-in determine wether it can delete a element or not?

[mdradvies]

Well, because they aren't unused. They're used once or twice and then forgotten about.
I'm not entirely sure if this can be automated by the API. You'll need a way to filter elements with any given name and a number of some sort. Then list those to give the user a chance to choose which to keep and which to merge and delete.

[RonPalmaAEC]

My name is Ron Palma and I work for an Autodesk Reseller named Ideate Inc. I made mention of our product Ideate Explorer sometime ago that does allow you to search for elements by Category,Family Name, Type Name, on specific levels, rooms, spaces, and zones. We are currently in the process of improving the tool too. Please check out www.ideateexplorer.com for more information. There is a free trial of the program and as always we are looking for ways to improve the tool. Stay tuned for improvments to come.

[krispy5]

You can definitely get a list of all families and family types, you can also definitely swap the type on a given instance via the API. so an add-in is doable.
The only question then is the logic of it all... for example we sometimes get "duplicate" families that have differing family types, like "COLUMN" has sizes "200x200", "200x300" and then "COLUMN1" has sizes "400x400", "500x500" what do you do then?

[dalmore]

This is exactly the point. I think even replace instances of types with others could break project logic. (I was thinking about it while walking with the dog.) Implement a logic that can handle all the different cases that can occour would be much more expensive and much less usefull than implement a company wide policy for object and type naming, implement standards. Worst case would be that with such a tool you get lazy workers, thinking the program would clean up the mess for them.

[mdradvies]

AND you need to consider the fact that it might not even be true that all families which are named alike are actually alike...

[DaveP]

Without a doubt, there'd need to be human input in an app like this.
I'm thinking there would be a two-column list that would match "exact" duplicates"
Family -----------------------------Family
--Light Gauge Metal Stud-------------Light Gauge Metal Stud 4
----Type------------------------------Type
-----2 1/2" x 1 3/8"--------------------- 2 1/2" x 1 3/8"

and let you pick which ones you want to replace.
As Krispy says, creating Types that exist on one family, but not the other might be tricky. Handy, but tricky.