FAQ

Unfortunately one of the limitations of Revit LT is that it does not recognize addins of any kind. Because of this most of our products can not be used with Revit LT.

The one exception to this is the Keynote Manager Standalone Application. Because the standalone application edits the text files directly and runs as a standalone Windows program it doesn’t need Revit to be able to load it to work. You can use Keynote Manager to edit your text files and Revit LT (any version) can use those text files without issue. You are not able to take advantage of the extra features available with the integrated application, but you can still use Keynote Manager to manage your keynotes. If you have Revit LT we would recommend purchasing a license of Keynote Manager Basic.

Yes! Revolution Design software is designed to be easy for BIM managers to manage and deploy to users. For detailed instructions see the deployment page.

All Revolution Design software can be uninstalled simply by going to Control Panel->Add/Remove Programs and uninstalling.

This is likely because you have installed the same software from multiple locations (Autodesk app store and Revolution Design website).  Unfortunately the two use different install technologies (Autodesk builds the app store installs on their own technology) so the two installers don’t “know about” each other.  That means that installing a new build from the website does not uninstall app store builds and vice versa.  The best way to deal with this is simply to uninstall the app store build through Windows add/remove programs and use the website build as that’s usually the most up to date build.

While there can be many reasons that there would be errors on startup, the most common cause in our experience is a version conflict between different Revolution Design addins. We’ll spare you the technical details, but because of how Revit and .NET technology work, different addins that use the same code libraries can cause a conflict, so if you have an old version of Keynote Manager and a new version of workFlow or vice versa there may be a conflict over the shared code libraries. Try updating to the latest build of any RD software title you have installed and the error will usually clear up.

All our software is subscription based; your purchase allows you to use the software for the period you purchase.  At the end of your subscription you will need to renew your subscription in order to continue using the software.  You can also allow the subscription to lapse and then continue the subscription again at a later date if you don’t need it for a while.

Our rule is to match Autodesk and support the 4 most recent releases of Revit, so if Revit 2027 is the latest, we support Revit 2024, 2025, 2026, and 2027. When a new version of Revit comes out we support it within 30 days, usually less.

If you still need to support older versions of Revit for project work (i.e. 2023 when we support 2024 through 2027) we make targeted installer versions available to you, covered under your subscription. You can find all the targeted installers here as well as older primary installers. The targeted installers are the ones labelled ‘Revit 20XX Only’. These installers will install alongside the main versions and will install only for the Revit version they are targeting. This allows you to install the latest version for all supported Revit years and then also install an older KM version for older Revit versions until you no longer need that Revit version.

For Keynote Manager there is also another option. Keynote Manager Plus licenses allow both the standalone Windows application and the Revit integrated application. While the integrated application is Revit version specific the standalone Windows application is not; it simply uses Revit’s format for the text file which has not changed since keynotes were introduced in Revit 2008. You can install the latest version and simply use the standalone application for projects in versions that are no longer supported. You will lose the integrated features for the older projects but will not have to deal with different installers; this can be good for older versions that use local text files and don’t need significant changes.

Unfortunately the way Revit works does not allow for any type of formatting (bold, italic, etc) for keynotes. Revit only allows for plain text to be provided for keynote values, likely because it has to be stored in parameter values. While we could make Keynote Manager allow for formatting in the Keynote Manager UI, it would not transfer into Revit and thus would not be very useful.

No you do not have to! The problem that Cloud Services is designed to solve arises when using keynotes across multiple physical locations or networks. Revit will read keynotes from whatever source is set in the keynote settings. If that is a text file on the local network it will read the notes from that path without issue. The problem is twofold if you are sharing the Autodesk Forma® project with multiple offices. First, you can’t edit the text file simultaneously in multiple offices; you would need to make changes in one office, send to the other, have the office make changes and send back, etc. Second, the path in both offices is not likely to be the same, so the offices will constantly be fighting over the path to the text file.

If you are only working on a single network you can still use a local text file to store and work with the keynotes, Cloud Services is not required. If you are working on multiple networks, Cloud Services is highly recommended although not strictly required.

While it is not completely required, it is highly recommended that each user working on a project with cloud based keynotes has a cloud seat. The Revit API allows outside programs to provide keynote data to Revit, but when a model uses this function then Revit will rely fully on that external program to provide that data, which means that without the program, Revit is unable to get keynote data and will use it’s last internal good cache. In this case Revit will act the same as it does when you have text file keynotes and the text file gets moved or changed. Because Revit stores the key in parameters on the element there is no permanent damage here; once the connection is re-made all the data will update, but while the connection is broken it could be out of date.

So it is certainly possible to have some users without cloud seats and still work on the model. However, their keynote data could be out of date so you will need to make sure they do not do any exporting or printing or keynote data could be incorrect in the export or print. Also, while the data will update for those that have a license, it may be annoying to users to not be able to see the up to date data in their project properly. Because of this we highly recommend a cloud seat per user that is working on the model.

The short answer to this question is yes it does! In practice this is a somewhat nuanced question so lets explore more. There are several ways of working with keynotes in Autodesk Forma® with different types of support. Here is a list of the options we know of and how KM works with them:

1. Cloud Model, Local Text File – The keynote file is separate from the Revit model, so even if your Revit model is hosted on Autodesk Forma® the keynote file can be on a local network and Revit will do just fine.  In this case KM works no differently than if you were working on a local file (because you are).  This solution works well if you don’t need to share keynote data with those outside of your network.
2. File Share – The next option is to place the text file on a file sharing application like Dropbox or Autodesk Desktop Connector/Forma®, or with WAN accelerators like Egnyte.  While this is theoretically possible we don’t recommend it for real collaboration as these are file sharing systems that use shadow copying to work. This means that they have a copy of the file on the server as well as a copy on local machines; when changes are made the files are copied to each of the locations, overwriting the older copy. These systems also work on a file level and not as a database, so the entire file is one “chunk” of data.  In the case of real time collaboration for keynote files, this has two problems:
   • These systems have to upload and download the entire file for every change.  This is slow (in computer terms) so it can lead to issues with one users changes overwriting another users changes if changes are made in close succession. This can lead to loss of data and unreliability.
   • There is no distinction of the different pieces of data in the file, it’s one large piece of data. That means that regardless if user A is changing note 100 and user B is changing note 200, the system sees both as a change to the file and tries to sync the file and can lead to overwrite and data loss.

   While this system can work if the file is read but rarely ever changed, for any live files we recommend using one of the other two methods.

3. Cloud Services – If you need to share keynote data outside of your office/network text files becomes a pain and are very hard to work with multiple users on.  For this situation Revolution Design offers Cloud Services.  Cloud Services allows you to host your keynote data in a cloud based database and access it from anywhere and share it with other users or companies (with permissions set by you).  This is an extra charge but allows you to collaborate worldwide without worrying about file sharing; the same concept as Autodesk Forma® for Revit models. With Cloud Services your notes are hosted in a cloud database hosted by Amazon Web Services (with all the security and reliability that AWS provides). Hosting in a database addresses both of the weaknesses noted above in file sharing systems. The database format allows for transactional changes so only the changed keynotes are being pushed and pulled from the server, not the entirety of all your notes each time. This is much faster than pushing and pulling all notes, and it means that user A changing note 100 and user B changing note 200 can make their changes even at the same instant and there is no conflict since they are changing different objects. This truly allows for full real time collaboration with other users anywhere in the world.

There are two methods we have seen for sharing keynote projects between firms, both have advantages and disadvantages depending on how you want to set up your projects and contracts:

• Separate Companies – This is the preferred method for the majority of situations. In this case, each firm sets up their own company account and pays for their own cloud seats. Whichever firm will be hosting the keynote project (usually the lead firm) will set up the project and invite the other firm to join it, either as a company or as individuals. This has the advantage that payment for cloud seats is for each independent firm and handled internally. It also has the advantage that the host firm can invite the other firm to join only one project instead of all projects for that firm.
• Cloud Account “Loans” – In this case, the primary firm puchases enough seats to cover its own users as well as the other company users for the duration of the project. Then the primary company simply creates user accounts (with desired permissions) for the other company users under their company account and sends the login information to the other company. When the project is complete, the primary company can remove the login accounts for the other company and use those seats for internal use, another contracted company, or simply let them lapse. This has the advantage of requiring only one purchase and does not require an invite/accept. However it has the disadvantage that other company accounts are seen as part of the current company so they can see ALL projects for the company by default. You can use roles and project restrictions to restrict what projects these user accounts have access to, but you have to remember to create these restrictions. Because of that, this system is not seen as the ideal, but in some work situations this may alleviate some ‘red tape’.

This is likely because you have installed the same software from multiple locations (Autodesk app store and Revolution Design website).  Unfortunately the two use different install technologies (Autodesk builds the app store installs on their own technology) so the two installers don’t “know about” each other.  That means that installing a new build from the website does not uninstall app store builds and vice versa.  The best way to deal with this is simply to uninstall the app store build through Windows add/remove programs and use the website build as that’s usually the most up to date build.

Unfortunately these type of systems use shadow copying and coordination systems that don’t work very well with Keynote Managers proprietary multi-user access system. For a more full explanation of the issues with shadow copying see the FAQ ‘Does Keynote Manager work with Autodesk Forma®’. If possible we would recommend turning off acceleration for any keynote text files on this system that multiple users need to access or looking into our Cloud Services product.

We have had some reports of this but it is not a Keynote Manager issue.

The delineation of ‘labor’ between Keynote Manager and Revit is as follows. Keynote Manager manages the keynote data including updating, saving, and modifying the keynote source data (either text file or cloud services project). Keynote Manager also provides this data to Revit and in some cases (when you use the KM keynote apply tools) sets the keynote parameter on objects. Revit then takes that keynote data along with the keynote parameter data for elements in the model and displays keynote tags, constructs legends, displays them on sheets, etc.

If the keynote data itself is not correct or if parameter values are not set properly this may be a KM issue; if the parameters are set but the tags and/or legends are not constructing properly or showing properly on sheets that is a Revit issue and you will need to contact Autodesk or your re-seller to troubleshoot. You can also find some information on this issue on the Autodesk forums here.

Keynote Watcher is a system that notifies Revit that it needs to reload the keynote file. To understand that, here is a little background on how Revit interacts with the keynote file. When Revit opens a model it finds the keynote file for that model, reads it, and caches the keynotes it contains into its memory. From the remainder of your Revit session, Revit will use the data in its cache instead of directly using the file data. That means that any changes to the file will not be reflected in the Revit interface until Revit is restarted or the cache is updated. So how do we update the cache without restarting Revit? You can do this through the UI by going to Revit’s keynote settings and pressing the ‘Reload’ button, or Add-Ins can do it through the API.

Now let’s get back to Keynote Watcher. Keynote Watcher watches the keynote files for any open models and determines when a change is made to the file, meaning that Revit’s cache is now out of date. When that happens, it uses the Revit API to tell Revit that there are updates to the keynote file and that it needs to update that cache. Revit will then reload the file and you will see the updates in the Revit interface.

So why would you turn it off? Well unfortunately there are also some limitations of the Revit worksharing system that make this a better option in some cases. For more information on that see the ‘Why do I get a popup…’ FAQ on this page. It’s important to note that Revit itself never writes to the keynote file, it only reads the data into its cache. Because of that, there is no danger in having the Revit cache out of date; this will not overwrite your keynote file or cause notes to disappear, etc. It will only mean that your Revit interface is out of date and will be updated next time everyone syncs and reloads.

If you are not seeing the palette for any application even when you toggle it on and off it’s likely that it’s location is stored off screen. This is rare, but it can happen from time to time, especially when switching between monitor configurations (i.e. plugging a laptop into external monitors and then unplugging them.

Fortunately this is a pretty easy fix, you just need to reset the stored position. Our software stores settings in xml files and there is a particular file for transient settings like this. To fix this do the following:

1. Shut down any instances of the software that are currently running (including Revit if the software is running inside Revit).
2. Open a new File Explorer window and type %appdata% into the address bar to get to your roaming appdata folder.
3. Browse to the folder Revolution Design/*application*/*version*.  So if you are using Keynote Manager version 19 it would be Revolution Design/Keynote Manager/19_0.
4. In this folder there should be an xml file with the word ‘Internal’ in it as well as one without that word in it.  For example for Keynote Manager there should be the two files ‘KMInternal_Settings.xml’ and ‘Keynote Manager_Settings.xml’; the internal one is the one you want to modify as that stores the transient settings.  The other one stores your main settings so you don’t want to mess with that one.  From here there are two options depending on your technical comfort level.
   1. If you feel comfortable editing an xml file manually you can open the file up in any xml editor.  Find the settings named ‘PaletteTop’ and ‘PaletteLeft’ and reset their value to something around 100.  This will relocate the stored palette location near the top left of the screen without changing any other settings.
   2. If you don’t fee comfortable editing xml files manually you can simply delete this file.  Note that you will lose other transient settings like recent files, etc. but you should not lose anything important.  When you restart this file will be re-created with default values including window location.
5. Restart Revit or the application and your palette should be back in default location.

This popup is not an error but a warning related to a Revit worksharing limitation. Revit’s worksharing system has element borrowing/checkout for each element in the system. In general, this allows you to check out individual elements as you change them, so moving a wall or changing a parameter on a window, etc. will check that element out to you automatically. Other users that tried to change that element would then not be able to as it would tell them that you have the element checked out and they can’t change it until you both do Revit’s Sync with Central (SWC) dance. Back to keynotes, Revit sees the keynote file as a single element for worksharing purposes, and reloading the file checks out the element. This means that when one user reloads the keynote file (either manually or through KM automatic reload) they get worksharing control over the keynote table. When the next users KM sees that the file is changed and tries to reload it into Revit it can’t because the first user still has control and that’s when it gives this popup message. In order to successfully reload the file both users will need to SWC and the controlling user needs to relinquish control, just like any other element.

Note that this does NOT affect KM reloading in its own interface and does NOT cause any risk of overwriting someone else’s changes. The KM interface will always remain up to date with other users changes when you are in multi-user mode, you just won’t see the new keynotes or changes in the Revit model until the above sync/reload happens. Revit will also never write out the data in the cache so there is no risk of it overwriting the keynote data.

Workaround – One way to mitigate this is to turn off the Keynote Watcher function. Keynote Watcher is responsible for reloading the keynotes into Revit when a change happens so turning this off will stop the automatic reload. This means that users will not be checking out the keynote table by editing keynotes so you will not see the warning popups so often. However it also means that your keynotes will not be automatically reloaded in Revit; in order to see the changes in the Revit model you will need to manually reload (at which point you will need to do the SWC dance). This system allows you at least to reload and do the SWC dance once on your own timing instead of having it constantly coming up.

• The most likely cause is that you have installed the wrong Keynote Manager application. Keynote Manager is available as a standalone application and a Revit integrated application; the standalone runs as a standard Windows program and has no direct connection with Revit where the Revit integrated application runs inside of Revit. Because of this the standalone application will create a start menu shortcut but will not show up inside of the Revit UI; the Revit integrated version will show up inside of Revit but will not create a start menu shortcut.
• It is also possible that you have a version of Revit that is not supported. Revit LT does not support external commands so if you are running Revit LT the Revit integrated version will not work. Also if you are running a version that is older than the supported versions (see here) the application will no longer show up. Note that in either of these cases the standalone application will still work fine. If you are using an unsupported version of Revit then the standalone application may better serve your needs.

You probably have installed the Revit Integrated version when you want the standalone version. See this topic for more information.

The portable license type is designed to be moved from one machine to another easily. If you would like to use a single license on multiple computers (i.e. a workstation and a laptop) you will need a portable license.

For current versions of our software, you can view and manage all license usage on the management portal.  You can also force release activation’s from the portal.

Note that for standalone licenses, you can release up to 3 times per seat in any 12 month period. This allows you to account for things like new machines and staff changes, but is not intended to move the license around regularly.

• Setting up a portable license is easy, just activate with your login or license key and you are done! The license is managed in the cloud and your key is the connection to the license pool so there is no server component to install or manage. This also means that you can use the license anywhere you have an internet connection, not just in the office!
• Note that if you are installing to many machines you will need to return the license on one machine (either by manually returning or by shutting down Revit depending on your settings) before moving to the next machine otherwise you will start to get ‘no more licenses available’ messages once you get to your max number of licenses. As an alternative, you can deploy the key directly to user machines without actually activating the license.

In current versions of our software, you can force remove the license from the machine using the management portal.  Note that portable licenses automatically time out if the the machine does not make contact regularly, so if your license is portable you probably don’t have to do anything at all.  For standalone activation’s you can force release them on the portal up to 3 times per seat in any 12 month period (so if you have 5 seats you can force release up to 15 times in any 12 month period).

By default, portable licenses are checked out when Revit is started and returned when Revit is shut down. However, all programs have options in settings to not check out licenses until a command is activated; change to these options to avoid having a license checked out at startup. Note the following program specific information as well:

• For Keynote Manager, make sure you uncheck both ‘Watcher on at startup’ and ‘Palette on at startup’ settings as well. Since these are both Keynote Manager commands they will still take a license at Revit startup if these settings are on. These should automatically be unchecked in the UI when changing the checkout type, but if you are deploying settings make sure you deploy these as well.
• For workFlow please note that the autoLink function requires constant background monitoring of the links. Because of this autoLink must be started at model open and can therefore take a license on model open. autoLink can also be disabled at the model level; you can set autoLink to be disabled by default on new models effectively making autoLink an ‘opt in’ system or enabled on new models making it an ‘opt out’ system. If a model where autoLink is enabled is opened, or a new model with the default set to enable, a license will be pulled regardless if there is an explicit workFlow command invoked.

This is likely because you have installed the same software from multiple locations (Autodesk app store and Revolution Design website).  Unfortunately the two use different install technologies (Autodesk builds the app store installs on their own technology) so the two installers don’t “know about” each other.  That means that installing a new build from the website does not uninstall app store builds and vice versa.  The best way to deal with this is simply to uninstall the app store build through Windows add/remove programs and use the website build as that’s usually the most up to date build.

autoLink stores data in the background of model elements and uses that data to update standard Revit elements (parameters and text notes). Because of that, when someone without autoLink (or without a valid and active license) opens the model, their Revit will just see those elements as the standard Revit elements they are (text or family instances with parameters, etc.). Their Revit has no way of interpreting the background data, so the links will not update automatically without autoLink installed, but nothing will break. When you get the project back, the necessary data is still there, so if they have changed a view number that is referenced by autoLink it will update on your machine properly. While it is always recommended to have autoLink installed on all machines on a project, this is not always possible and autoLink will continue to function in such situations, just be aware that the links may not be up to date until someone with a licensed autoLink installed gets the model back and it has a chance to update. We would recommend running a manual update in this case after getting the model back.

If you are not seeing the palette for any application even when you toggle it on and off it’s likely that it’s location is stored off screen. This is rare, but it can happen from time to time, especially when switching between monitor configurations (i.e. plugging a laptop into external monitors and then unplugging them.

Fortunately this is a pretty easy fix, you just need to reset the stored position. Our software stores settings in xml files and there is a particular file for transient settings like this. To fix this do the following:

1. Shut down any instances of the software that are currently running (including Revit if the software is running inside Revit).
2. Open a new File Explorer window and type %appdata% into the address bar to get to your roaming appdata folder.
3. Browse to the folder Revolution Design/*application*/*version*.  So if you are using Keynote Manager version 19 it would be Revolution Design/Keynote Manager/19_0.
4. In this folder there should be an xml file with the word ‘Internal’ in it as well as one without that word in it.  For example for Keynote Manager there should be the two files ‘KMInternal_Settings.xml’ and ‘Keynote Manager_Settings.xml’; the internal one is the one you want to modify as that stores the transient settings.  The other one stores your main settings so you don’t want to mess with that one.  From here there are two options depending on your technical comfort level.
   1. If you feel comfortable editing an xml file manually you can open the file up in any xml editor.  Find the settings named ‘PaletteTop’ and ‘PaletteLeft’ and reset their value to something around 100.  This will relocate the stored palette location near the top left of the screen without changing any other settings.
   2. If you don’t fee comfortable editing xml files manually you can simply delete this file.  Note that you will lose other transient settings like recent files, etc. but you should not lose anything important.  When you restart this file will be re-created with default values including window location.
5. Restart Revit or the application and your palette should be back in default location.

autoLink uses text patterns to recognize view links embedded within text; these patterns are set in the autoLink settings dialog. Patterns must be able to recognize links, but too generic of a pattern will recognize text that is not necessarily a link. For example a sheet pattern of ‘**********’ may match your sheets, but it will also match any text with 1-10 characters. This pattern would easily match other words in your text and create many false positives. While these false positives are not harmful, they do create the popup messages and can get annoying.

• The best remedy if you are getting these popups is to be as specific as possible with your text patterns. If your detail numbers are always either 1 or two numbers use ‘#?#’ instead of ‘***********’ for your detail patterns. This requires them to be numeric (eliminating letter matches) and will only match 1-2 numbers. If you always number your sheets with a letter, then a number, then a dot and 1-3 numbers use ‘@#.##?#?’ (note the question mark makes the previous character optional).

This is likely because you have installed the same software from multiple locations (Autodesk app store and Revolution Design website).  Unfortunately the two use different install technologies (Autodesk builds the app store installs on their own technology) so the two installers don’t “know about” each other.  That means that installing a new build from the website does not uninstall app store builds and vice versa.  The best way to deal with this is simply to uninstall the app store build through Windows add/remove programs and use the website build as that’s usually the most up to date build.

If you are not seeing the palette for any application even when you toggle it on and off it’s likely that it’s location is stored off screen. This is rare, but it can happen from time to time, especially when switching between monitor configurations (i.e. plugging a laptop into external monitors and then unplugging them.

Fortunately this is a pretty easy fix, you just need to reset the stored position. Our software stores settings in xml files and there is a particular file for transient settings like this. To fix this do the following:

1. Shut down any instances of the software that are currently running (including Revit if the software is running inside Revit).
2. Open a new File Explorer window and type %appdata% into the address bar to get to your roaming appdata folder.
3. Browse to the folder Revolution Design/*application*/*version*.  So if you are using Keynote Manager version 19 it would be Revolution Design/Keynote Manager/19_0.
4. In this folder there should be an xml file with the word ‘Internal’ in it as well as one without that word in it.  For example for Keynote Manager there should be the two files ‘KMInternal_Settings.xml’ and ‘Keynote Manager_Settings.xml’; the internal one is the one you want to modify as that stores the transient settings.  The other one stores your main settings so you don’t want to mess with that one.  From here there are two options depending on your technical comfort level.
   1. If you feel comfortable editing an xml file manually you can open the file up in any xml editor.  Find the settings named ‘PaletteTop’ and ‘PaletteLeft’ and reset their value to something around 100.  This will relocate the stored palette location near the top left of the screen without changing any other settings.
   2. If you don’t fee comfortable editing xml files manually you can simply delete this file.  Note that you will lose other transient settings like recent files, etc. but you should not lose anything important.  When you restart this file will be re-created with default values including window location.
5. Restart Revit or the application and your palette should be back in default location.