Once you install the app, it is called on demand as required by the user. Click the “Run Bubble Diagram” icon on Bubble Diagram Panel of the “Add-Ins” tab on the Ribbon.

The app will work on a Floor Plan or an Area Plan. If the app is activated while another view type is active, the app buttons will not be enabled, and Filled Regions will not be drawn. The app draws Filled Regions based on the spatial element boundary segments of a Room or Area, so the first step is to develop a Floor Plan with Rooms and/ or an Area Plan with Areas.

Suggested workflow:

Create a duplicate view intended for displaying Filled Regions, to allow the regular floor plan remain for editing the layout. In the Filled Region view, walls could be displayed By Category, half tone or not displayed, depending on the intended use of the view.

Establish a set of colored Filled Region Types with names that are easy to identify or transfer the Filled Region Types from the app’s Sample Project. (See Other Information below.)

Drawing Bubble Diagrams using Parameter vs using Department Mapping

There are two options for drawing Bubble Diagrams for your project. Both methods allow adjustments after the process is run, but any such adjustments will need to be reapplied each time.

Use Parameter

More manual.

More flexible.

Allows for exceptions.

The setup is not easily transferable between projects.

Uses Filled Region Type Name in Legend. Not always appropriate.

Use Department (or Area Name) mapping

More automatic.

More rigidly defined.

Does not all allow for exceptions.

The setup is easily transferred between projects, allowing for a standard office color scheme.

Uses Department (or Area Name) in Legend. Usually more desirable.

Use “Parameter” For Drawing Filled Regions for Rooms and Areas:

In the “Use:” box, select “Parameter.”

Select a parameter to use or create a new one of type “Text.” Revit^® has a few built-in parameters which could be used, like “Department,” “Occupancy” or “Comments” for Rooms and “Area Type,” “Name” or “Comments” for Areas. The app “Settings 2” tab also has a button for adding a parameter (“Filled Region Parameter”) to your project.

Back in the project, assign Filled Region Types to the selected Room or Area parameter. To make this easier, create a Room or Area schedule that contains the desired parameter along with any Room/ Area identifying information. See the schedule “Room Schedule – Filled Regions” in the sample project. (Note: When assigning Filled Region Types with this option, you are entering text that matches a Type, not selecting a Type from a list.)

When you are satisfied with the Filled Region Type Name parameter, verify the settings as shown below, and then click the button “Draw Filled Regions For All Rooms (or Areas).” The app will find the specified parameter and store its contents. If there is a Filled Region Type that matches, it will use that Filled Region Type to draw the Filled Region. If no information is entered in the specified parameter, or if no match for the entry is found in the list of Filled Region Types in the project, that Room/ Area will be ignored. Note that this process will run even though some Rooms/ Areas do not have a Filled Region assigned to it.

Once the process is complete, the walls or area boundaries can be adjusted and the Filled Regions modified as desired and the process can be run again.

Use “Department Mapping” For Drawing Filled Regions for Rooms (or Areas):

Note: The following applies to both Rooms and Areas. For Areas, substitute “Area Name(s)” for “Department(s).”

In the “Use:” box, select “Department Mapping.”

When you trigger the app in a view that contains Rooms, the app will create a list of Departments. The app will then read the file shown in the “Select Department Mapping File” box and display matching Filled Region types with the corresponding Department. If there is no Department/ Filled Region match, the Filled Region box is left blank. Use the pull-down menu to assign Filled Regions to all departments. Note that with the mapping process, the app will not draw Filled Regions if there are any departments missing a Filled Region assignment.

When you have the Department-Filled Region assignments the way you want them, you can save the mapping by clicking the “Save Mapping” button. Do not save the file in the app folder, but select a different folder, either in your MyDocuments folder, or in your project folder. If this file is saved to a network location, it can be reused by other users and/or other projects.

When you are satisfied with the Department/Filled Region mapping, verify the settings as shown below, and then click the button “Draw Filled Regions For All Rooms.”

Once the process is complete, the walls or area boundaries can be adjusted and the Filled Regions modified as desired and the process can be run again, if desired.

Add a Legend

To help with final presentation, the app will also draw a legend. Select the “Settings 1” tab. In the “Use:” box, select “Filled Region Name” if your Filled  Regions were drawn using a parameter or select “Mapping” if your Filled Regions were drawn using mappings.

The Legend Scale determines the size of the sample Filled Regions and defaults to 100. You will need to experiment with this to determine the best setting for your diagrams.

Select the Text Style for the Legend from the current text styles in your project. If the previously used text style is available in this project, it will be used. Otherwise, you will need to select a new one. The Text Style does not scale with the Legend Scale.

The app will draw the Legend at the lower left hand corner of the current view. The Legend elements are grouped, and may be repositioned as desired.

Verify the settings

Note: When the app Form is closed, the current settings are stored in the computer user profile, so they don’t need to be re-established with each use.

Use the Line Style pull-down to select your Line Style or create and use a new one. If you wish to emphasize the borders of the Filled Region, you could create a new line style with a line weight of 8 or 10. If you wish to minimize the border, you could select <Invisible Lines>, or anything in between.

Use the Line Style pull-down to select your Line Style.

Verify that the radius is appropriate; the app defaults to a radius of 3 feet or 914 millimeters.

Use the “Filter Out Short Segments” check box as desired. If checked, the app will skip over small elements like columns, fin walls and alcoves to give a smoother look to the Filled Regions. However, sometimes the calculations required to remove short segments results in unusual configurations. You will have to experiment to find the best setting for your project.

Use the “Delete Existing Filled Regions” check box as desired. If checked, the app will delete all Filled Regions in the view, so the Regions do not start to accumulate on top of one another. Note that the app will delete ALL Filled Regions, not just Regions drawn by the app. But since the app will not delete Pinned Regions, if you wish to retain any Regions, you can pin them.

Use the “Close Form After Process Is Complete” check box as desired. If checked, the app will avoid an extra mouse click to close the Form and send you back to your project. If unchecked, the app will stay active, allowing you to experiment with the various settings without having to call the app over again.

Use the "Do not show this again: Egan Bubble Diagram is not running" box as desired. The app will display a dialog when the app trial period is about to expire or if the computer's license has been transferred to another computer. This setting will suppress this dialog.

Fine Tuning

If more detail or control is required, you can make a selection of elements and run the app again. The selection needs to be filtered to include only the category of element you want to modify: only Areas, only Rooms or only Filled Regions.

If a selection of Rooms or Areas is active in the view, the buttons “Draw Filled Regions For Selected Room(s)” or “Draw Filled Regions For Selected Areas(s)” are activated, and clicking on the button will run the process for only those selected elements.

If a selection of Filled Regions is active in the view, the button “Change Line Style For Selected Filled Region(s)” is activated and you can click it to change the line style of the boundary of the selected Filled Region(s).

Other Information

If a Filled Region is pinned, the app will not delete it during the drawing process, even though the “Delete All Existing Filled Regions” box is checked. Pinning will protect any previously drawn Filled Regions or Filled Regions draw by another process.

When the app creates a Filled Region, it is identified with the Room or Area that is associated with it, so that the “Draw Filled Regions For Selected Rooms/ Areas” process can find and delete it. You need to be careful if you try to copy an app generated Filled Region. If the Room or Area associated with it is reprocessed, this region may be deleted. Again, if it is pinned, it will not be deleted.

Filled Region Types can be transferred between projects with the Transfer Project Standards process, or can be included in your company’s default startup template, or in a dedicated Bubble Diagram startup template. Filled Region Types can also be transferred by using the “Settings 2” tab and the “Copy Filled Region Types” button to copy the Filled Region types from the app’s Sample Project into your current project.

The installer that ran when you downloaded this app/plug-in from Autodesk App Store will start installing the app/plug-in. OR, simply double-click the downloaded installer to install the app/plugin.

You may need to restart the Autodesk product to activate the app/plug-in.

To uninstall this plug-in, exit the Autodesk product if you are currently running it, simply rerun the installer, and select the "Uninstall" button. OR, click Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features (Windows 7/8.1/10/11) and uninstall as you would any other application from your system.

When you make the decision to use this app permanently, you can include Filled Region Types and any applicable Room/ Area parameters in your template. Then the app will not need to have these types and settings recreated for every new project.

This app is licensed by application, not by version. Your license will allow you to use any year’s version on your computer at any time, so the use of this app will not affect your Revit^® upgrade schedule.

Previous versions of the app are available on our website https://eganbimresources.com

Network deployment

The app includes a feature to make it easier to deploy in a network environment.

Please see http://eganbimresources.com/network-deployment-and-automatic-activation.html for information on the network deployment features of Egan BIM Resources apps.

The app includes support for a Network Floating License. See http://eganbimresources.com/network-floating-license-setup.html for more information.

At this time, the app does not work with Rooms and Areas in linked files.