BIM Publisher Documentation
Install BIM Publisher, run your first export, then set up naming, transmittals and shared presets — with the common tasks written out step by step.
BIM Publisher opens from the BIM Hive tab on the Revit ribbon, in the Publish panel. The window is modeless, so it stays open while you keep working in the model. Nothing reaches your disk until you click Export — Pre-flight and Preview files both run without producing a file, and the grid shows you the real name of every file before you commit to it.
Installation
You need Revit 2024, 2025, 2026 or 2027. Close Revit before you start. 1. Download BIM Publisher from the marketplace and run the installer. It installs the build that matches your Revit version. 2. Start Revit. The first time, Revit asks whether to load BIM Publisher — choose Always Load. 3. Open the BIM Hive tab on the ribbon. BIM Publisher is in the Publish panel. Upgrading from SheetFlow BIM Publisher was called SheetFlow until September 2026. Delete SheetFlow.dll and SheetFlow.addin from your Revit add-ins folder before you start — if you leave them, Revit loads the add-in twice and warns about a duplicate. Your settings carry over. BIM Publisher copies your SheetFlow presets and options across the first time it starts, and a model that already has a SheetFlow issue register keeps using it rather than starting an empty one. If you had pinned SheetFlow to the Quick Access Toolbar, pin it again under its new name. To remove BIM Publisher, uninstall it from Windows Apps & Features and restart Revit.
Getting Started
Open a project, then click BIM Publisher on the BIM Hive tab. The window stays open while you work — you can keep using Revit without closing it. The window has three parts. On the left, what you are producing: Drawing outputs and 3D outputs at the top, then Naming, Destination, Package & deliver and Issue register underneath. In the middle, the grid of sheets or views. On the right, the settings for whatever you clicked in the left rail. A first export, start to finish: 1. Tick the sheets you want. Use the search box, the revision filter, or load one of Revit's own sheet sets. 2. Pick your outputs in the left rail. PDF is on by default. 3. Open Naming and build the rule. The File name column updates on every row as you type. 4. Open Destination and choose the folder. 5. Click Preview files to see every path without writing anything, or Pre-flight to see what would go wrong. 6. Click Export. Nothing reaches your disk until step 6. Pre-flight and Preview files both run without producing a single file.
Choosing What to Export
The toggle above the grid switches between Sheets and Views. Sheets take the drawing outputs — PDF, DWG, DXF, DGN, DWF and images. 3D views take the 3D outputs — IFC, NWC, FBX, OBJ, STL and 3D PDF. Finding what you want — search by number or name, sort by clicking a column header, group by any parameter (discipline is the usual one), filter by revision, or load a Revit sheet set. Adding columns — add a column for any parameter in the model, so you can see and sort on the things your office actually files by. One promise worth knowing: filtering never changes what is exported. Hiding rows hides rows, nothing more. The checked count stays honest, and BIM Publisher says out loud when part of your selection is currently hidden — so you never export less than you meant to because a filter was still on. Ticking rows — Space ticks or unticks the selected rows, and Shift-click selects a range, the same as in Windows Explorer.
Naming Your Files
Open Naming in the left rail. There are three ways to get the rule you want. Blocks — the normal way. The name is a row of blocks you add, reorder and remove. A block is either fixed text (a project code, ARC, DR) or a value from the model: any sheet, view or project parameter, plus the date, the user, the model name and the revision. Click a block to change what it shows, how it is written, the text before and after it, and whether to leave it out when empty. "Leave out when empty" is the setting worth learning. Tick it on the revision block and a sheet with no revision yet gives a clean name, instead of one ending in a stray dash. Name by example — if you would rather not build anything, type the file name you want for one sheet and click Work it out. BIM Publisher shows you what it understood and what your other files would then be called; click Use this rule if you agree. Templates — start from a common arrangement and adjust it. There is also Edit as text, which shows the same rule as a text pattern for anyone who prefers typing it. Whichever you use, the File name column in the grid shows the real result on every row as you type — not on one sample. Two rows heading for the same file are flagged the moment they appear.
Where Files Go
Open Destination in the left rail. Output folder — browse to it, or type the path. Keep each export in its own folder — puts every run in its own dated subfolder, so one run never overwrites the last. A folder for each format — PDFs in one subfolder, DWGs in another, instead of everything side by side. If the file exists — overwrite it, skip it, save a new version alongside it, or refuse and stop. Whichever you choose applies across the whole run, not folder by folder. Only export what has changed — skips sheets whose revision record has not moved since last time. Every skip is listed by name in the run report, never silently. Views have no revision record, so they are always exported. Final folder preview shows the folder your files will actually land in, with all of the above applied.
Pre-flight and Preview
Two buttons at the bottom of the window, neither of which writes anything. Pre-flight (Ctrl+P) checks the run before it happens and lists what it finds. Blocking findings stop the export. Warnings need one acknowledgement. Click any finding to jump straight to the sheet responsible. What it looks for: Two sheets that would produce the same file name. A path longer than Windows allows. Placeholder sheets, and sheets with no title block. A parameter used in the name that is blank on some of the sheets you ticked. A destination that is missing, unreachable, read-only, or short of disk space. A workshared model with changes that have not been synchronised. 3D views heavy enough that a 3D PDF will have to be simplified. Preview files (Ctrl+D) writes nothing at all and lists every path the export would produce, so you can read the whole set of names before you commit to them.
During and After the Run
Click Export (Ctrl+E). The window stays responsive while it runs, and progress is reported per file rather than per batch, so you can always see where it has got to. Stop finishes the file it is working on and then stops. Everything already written stays exactly where it is — nothing is rolled back or deleted. When the run finishes you get a report, as XLSX and CSV. It lists every file with its size and how long it took, and — the part people actually need — every file that was not produced, with the reason. A sheet missing from the package is never a mystery.
Recording an Issue and Transmittals
After a successful export BIM Publisher offers to record it. Give the issue a purpose and recipients, and it writes a dated entry into a register that lives beside your model. The entry holds the sheet numbers, the revisions, and a SHA-256 checksum of every file that went out, so you can show later exactly what was sent. A formal PDF transmittal is produced by default. An editable Excel schedule, or an advanced CSV data copy, can be added when you need one. Open Issue register in the left rail to work with what you have recorded: Use as baseline — the grid then shows a status on every sheet: New, Revised or Unchanged, relative to that issue. Select what changed — ticks exactly the sheets that are new or revised, so a re-issue contains what changed rather than everything. Re-issue this set — starts a new run from the contents of a past issue. Transmittal... — regenerates the paperwork for a past issue. Move... — points the register at a different folder. On a workshared job, use Move... to put the register in the shared project folder, so the whole team shares one record instead of each keeping their own. The register is append-only and keeps a backup; Restore backup brings it back if anything goes wrong.
PDF Finishing, Packaging and Delivery
Open Package & deliver in the left rail. Each option's settings appear once you tick it, and the run order is numbered so you can see what happens when. PDF enhancements Add navigation bookmarks — nested by any parameter, discipline being the usual choice. Insert a drawing list as page 1 — generated from what you actually exported, grouped by a parameter, optionally with revision and revision date columns. Stamp every PDF page — text, position, size, opacity, colour, rotation and font, with automatic scaling so the stamp reads the same on an A1 as on an A3. Write searchable PDF properties — title, author, subject and keywords, so a document management system can index the file. Package Create a ZIP package — one archive for the run, optionally deleting the loose files once the ZIP has been verified. Delivery copies Second location — mirror every file to another folder as it is written. After export Run a command when the export finishes, if you have a script that should pick the files up.
Presets and Sharing a Setup Across a Team
Everything above — formats, naming, destination, finishing — saves as a preset, so a job you do every month is set up once and then chosen from a list. Save one with the + button beside the preset picker. Presets are readable JSON, kept in %LOCALAPPDATA%\BimHive\BimPublisher\Presets. To make a whole office export the same way: 1. Set BIM Publisher up the way you want it and save a preset. 2. Copy the .bppreset.json file to a network folder. 3. On each machine, write that folder's path into %LOCALAPPDATA%\BimHive\BimPublisher\company-presets.txt, one path per line. A login script can do this. Those presets appear badged Company and are never written to. Anyone who saves a change gets their own copy; the shared original is untouched.
Keyboard, File Locations and Troubleshooting
Keyboard Ctrl+E — Export Ctrl+P — Pre-flight Ctrl+D — Preview files Ctrl+F — Search Space — tick or untick the selected rows Shift+click — select a range Where things are kept %LOCALAPPDATA%\BimHive\BimPublisher\Presets — saved export configurations Beside your .rvt file — the issue register %APPDATA%\BimPublisher\logs — diagnostics, safe to delete %LOCALAPPDATA%\BimHive\BimPublisher\Logs — one log per run Troubleshooting I can't find BIM Publisher on the ribbon. Revit asks once, on the first start after installing, whether to load the add-in — you have to choose Always Load. If you picked something else, restart Revit and try again. BIM Publisher sits on the BIM Hive tab, in the Publish panel. Revit warns about a duplicate add-in, or I have two buttons. An old SheetFlow install is still in place. Delete SheetFlow.dll and SheetFlow.addin from your Revit add-ins folder and restart Revit. The export stopped before it started. That is pre-flight finding something blocking. The list tells you what it is and which sheet it is on; click a finding to go straight there. A sheet I ticked isn't in the package. Open the run report — every file that was not produced is listed with its reason. The usual causes are "Only export what has changed" skipping a sheet whose revision has not moved, a collision policy set to skip, or a placeholder sheet. The names came out wrong on some sheets. The File name column shows the real result for every row before you export, so scroll it and look for blanks or repeats. A parameter that is empty on some sheets is the usual cause — tick "Leave out when empty" on that block. A 3D view took a long time, or the report says it was simplified. Large views are simplified so the file opens smoothly, and the report tells you by how much. Set the detail level to Light in the 3D PDF options, or use the leave-out ticks to drop furniture, fixtures, MEP, rebar or planting. Still stuck? Open a support ticket from the BIM Publisher product page, and include what you were doing and any message BIM Publisher showed.