BIMIO Trace

Goal. Get, within seconds, the cause preventing an element from appearing in the view you are working in.

1. Open the view where the element should be visible and click the Trace button on the BIMIO tab, View panel.The window is modeless: you can move it to a second monitor and keep working in Revit.
2. With Pick element mode active, click the Pick element… button and click the element in any view where you can see it (for example a 3D view or a different plan).The Trace window minimises itself during the pick so it does not get in the way and comes back when you finish, even if you cancel with Esc. Next to the button you see the label of what you picked, for example Walls "Basic Wall".

   

   assets/shots/trace/fig-03.pngTrace window with the picked element's label next to the Pick element… button and the header reading Element ready. Pick views and Analyze.

3. Leave the view selector on Active view.Whichever view is active in Revit at the moment you click Analyze will be checked.
4. Click Analyze and watch the sweep: each check goes from pending to green (ruled out), amber (possible cause), red (definite cause) or grey (does not apply).The sweep order is instructive: first existence and selection, then visibility and graphics, view extent and view context.

   

   assets/shots/trace/fig-04.pngSection for the active view mid-sweep, with several rows in green, one in amber and the header summary reading Checking…

5. Read the summary in the section header (Found the cause, 1 possible cause…) and review the red and amber rows, which end up ordered at the top of each card.Every row with a cause includes a one-line detail that explains exactly what is going on, for example which view filter is hiding it.
6. Use the Show: Causes / Ruled out / N/A pills if you want to hide the ruled-out checks and keep only the causes.N/A rows are hidden by default; turn them on if you also want to see what did not apply.

• If you already had the element selected in Revit before clicking Analyze, Trace uses it directly without you having to pick it again.
• You can click the section header to collapse or expand it at any time.

Goal. Find out whether the problem lies in the link itself (unloaded, hidden, display settings) or in the element inside the linked model.

1. In the ELEMENT selector, with Pick element mode active, click In link… instead of Pick element….This mode can reach into links; the normal mode only reaches elements in the host model.
2. Click the element inside the link; use the Tab key to cycle through candidates if Revit highlights a different element.Trace automatically rejects reference planes and other references that are not model elements, so you do not capture the work plane by mistake.
3. Check that the label reads Linked: with the element's category and the link's name, choose the views and click Analyze.

   

   assets/shots/trace/fig-05.pngElement label showing Linked: Doors "Door 90" · ARQ-Vinculo.rvt and the first card with the link checks.

4. Review the Existence & selection card first: that is where the link-layer checks live (The linked model is loaded, The link is visible in this view, The link's display settings show it).Under Visibility & graphics there is also an advanced check that verifies whether Revit actually draws that linked element in the host view.

• If the link is unloaded, Trace flags it as the cause and leaves the element-level checks as N/A with a notice to reload the link for the full diagnosis.
• The Show where links and the navigation actions act on the link instance in the host model.

Goal. Diagnose an element you cannot pick with the mouse, for example one quoted in an audit report or in a Revit warning.

1. In the ELEMENT selector, switch the toggle to By ID.
2. Type the element's numeric ID in the text field.It is the same ID shown by Manage → IDs of Selection, Revit warnings or the reports from other BIMIO tools.
3. Choose the views to check and click Analyze.If the ID is not a valid number or does not exist in the model, the status line tells you so without running anything.

• By ID mode only accepts IDs from the host model; for elements in a link use In link….

Goal. Know in which views it is visible and in which it is not, and for what reason in each one — useful when a tag or a piece of equipment disappears only on certain drawings.

1. In VIEWS TO CHECK, click the Pick views… toggle.The Views to check dialog opens immediately; if it was already selected, clicking it again reopens it.
2. In the dialog, tick the views you want to check; use the search box to filter by name or type and the header checkbox to tick or untick all the visible ones.Only real graphical views are listed (no view templates). The Active view checkbox additionally adds whichever view is open at the moment of analysis.

   

   assets/shots/trace/fig-06.pngViews to check dialog with the search box, the Active view checkbox and several plan views ticked.

3. Click Done and check the summary under the toggle, for example Active view + 4 views.
4. Turn on the Fast toggle if there are many views, and click Analyze.Fast removes the animation pause between checks; with several views the analysis finishes much sooner.
5. During the sweep, the view in progress expands and the finished ones collapse with their summary; when it finishes, they all expand so you can review them at a glance.The global header summarises the whole set, for example Cause found in 2 of 5 views.

   

   assets/shots/trace/fig-07.pngSeveral view sections, some with a Found the cause summary and others with Nothing found, and the global filter pills visible.

6. If you need to interrupt, click Stop: the analysis halts and keeps the results obtained up to that point.

• The view selection is remembered while the window stays open, so you can repeat the analysis after applying fixes without choosing them again.

Goal. Resolve the most common causes directly from Trace, without diving through Revit's dialogs.

1. After an analysis, find a red or amber row showing the Fix it link.Five causes have a direct fix: temporary hide/isolate active, category switched off in V/G, element hidden in the view, subcategory switched off and workset not visible. The rest are corrected by hand following the manual's guidance.

   

   assets/shots/trace/fig-08.pngRow for the Element is not hidden in this view check in red with the Show where and Fix it links below the detail.

2. Click Fix it.The change is applied in a single Revit transaction (named BIMIO Trace — fix: followed by the rule's identifier), so a single Ctrl+Z reverts it completely.
3. Watch the row re-evaluate itself: if the fix has worked, it turns green and the pill counters update.The status line confirms the action, for example Unhid the element in this view.
4. If the cause is locked by a view template, Trace does not apply the change and tells you so: you must edit the template, not the view.For example: Model Categories are locked by view template … — turn the category on in the template, not this view. This avoids a change the template would silently revert.

• Use Show where first to jump to the view and visually confirm the context before fixing.

Goal. See the element with your own eyes: in the problem view (to understand the context) or in any view in the project where Revit does draw it.

1. In any resolved row of the diagnosis (except those marked N/A), click Show where.Trace activates that section's view, selects the element and zooms in on it. It is a navigation-only action: it changes nothing in the model.
2. If the diagnosis finds no cause (Nothing found) or you simply want to confirm that the element exists and draws, click the Find a view where it shows button on the bottom bar.Trace goes through the project's graphical views looking for the first one in which the element generates real geometry, switches to that view and zooms in with the element selected. The status line tells you which view it was found in, for example Shown in "Ground Floor".

• If even Find a view where it shows cannot find a view, check the advanced causes in the manual: family geometry with no visibility in that orientation or detail level, invisible lines, and so on.

Goal. Document the cause and hand it to whoever has to correct it, as plain text or as a browsable report.

1. For a quick note, click Copy findings.A plain-text summary is copied to the clipboard: the element, the overall verdict and, for each view, the CAUSE and MAYBE lines with their explanation. Ideal for pasting into an email, a BCF issue or an RFI.
2. For a full report, click Export report.Trace generates a self-contained HTML file and opens it in the browser. It is saved in Documents, inside the BIMIO Trace Reports folder, with the element's name and the date and time in the file name.

   

   assets/shots/trace/fig-09.pngHTML report open in the browser: header with the diagnosed element, statistics cards, search box, light/dark theme toggle and the results table by view and check.

3. Share the HTML file directly: it needs no connection or servers, everything is embedded in the file itself.The report also includes the full reference manual with how to correct each cause, so the recipient can resolve it without having Trace installed.

• The status line shows the exact path of the saved file in case the browser does not open automatically.

Goal. Learn (or revise) all the reasons why an element can be hidden in Revit and how each one is corrected, without running any analysis.

1. Click the question-mark button in the top-right corner of the window.The selectors, the results and the action bar are replaced by the manual; the same button, now showing an X, closes it and brings the analysis back.

   

   assets/shots/trace/fig-10.pngTrace manual mode: Existence & selection, Visibility & graphics, View extent and View context cards with each rule, its BASIC/INTERMEDIATE/ADVANCED badge and its solution line.

2. Work through the four cards in the same order Trace checks them and read, for each rule, the solution line.For example, for a switched-off category: open Visibility/Graphics (VG) and tick the element's category on the Model Categories tab. The badges indicate how difficult each cause is.

• The manual is also included at the end of every exported HTML report, useful for training the team.