* * * L O A D I N G * * *
AG TOOLS MANUAL

Below is a list of all of the tools included in the AG Tools plugin for Autodesk Revit, with their functions and my personal use of each tool. There is also a video manual / demonstration YouTube playlist. See the introduction video for how to find demonstrations of specific tools quickly.

TAB
SETTINGS

Function: Here you can change the AG Tools tab name, all the panel names, and enable or disable tools (remove or add them to the ribbon). You can also transfer buttons from other Revit ribbon tabs to this one. If all buttons from another tab have been transferred, then that tab will be hidden and its buttons will be consolidated under the AG Tools tab.
Personal Use: Function.

FEMA 
FLOOD MAPS

Function:View FEMA flood map panel for the project address  in the web  browser. 
Personal Use: See if a project is in a flood zone.

GOOGLE EARTH
ADDRESS

Function: View the project address on Google Earth website.
Personal Use: Get the North arrow angle.

GOOGLE MAPS
ADDRESS

Function: View project address on Google Earth website.
Personal Use: Screen shot project location for the coversheet.

TOTAL
AREA

Function: Get total area sum of either (or all): floors, walls, roofs, rooms,& areas.
Personal Use: Quick cost estimates.

TOTAL
LENGTH

Function: Get total length or sum of either (or both) of lines & walls.
Personal Use: Quick cost estimates & exiting distance.

MATCH TEXT
ALIGNMENT

Function: Match multiple text objects vertical or horizontal alignment from a source text object.
Personal Use: Function.

MATCH TEXT
ROTATION

Function: Match multiple text objects rotation angle from a source text object.
Personal Use: Precisely aligning text objects to other objects in Revit is a pain. I typically align one text object to a item I need, and match the rest of the text objects using this tool.

SCALE
CALCULATOR

Function: Scales dimensions between paper and model space.
Personal Use: Scaling patterns & for objects drawn directly in the sheet (sometimes views are impractical or inefficient to setup properly in certain scenarios compared to drawing directly in the sheet)

STRUCT STL
BROWSER

Function: Pull up information about structural members from the web. (Only Imperial)
Personal Use: Quickly get sizes of W shapes.

STRUCT STL
BROWSER

Function: Pull up information about structural members from the web. (Imperial & Metric)
Personal Use: Quickly get sizes of W shapes.

TEMPLATE
SHOW/HIDE

Function: Hide-/-Unhide category types directly from the active view that uses a template.
Personal Use: I am too lazy to hide-/-unhide by modifying the template.

QUICK
IMAGE

Function: In one click this exports a high definition image (PNG file) of an active view to the desktop and opens it for preview.
Personal Use: I'm too lazy to export the long way...

HIDE
NON PLOT 

Function: Hide non-plot lines or text from current or all views in the project. Non plot line or text style can be set in the NP Settings button.
Personal Use: This for construction lines or notes which are intended to be seen internally in the project but aren't meant to be printed out. (For you CADsters think DEFPOINTS layer!)

SHOW
NON PLOT

Function: Show non-plot lines or text from current or all views in the project. Non plot line or text style can be set in the NP Settings button.
Personal Use: This for construction lines or notes which are intended to be seen internally in the project but aren't meant to be printed out. (For you CADsters think DEFPOINTS layer!)

ERASE
NON PLOT

Function: Erase non-plot lines or text from all views in the project.
Personal Use: Many times, while designing a part of the project, I use non-plot lines to draw things out and align various objects such as walls & furniture. Or if there is an issue that I am trying to resolve, I will note it with non-plot text. Once I finish that section, I quickly erase all non-plot objects and start with a clean slate.

RENUMBER
VIEWPORTS

Function: This tool renumbers viewports on the sheet one a time as you select them & and allows you to choose a starting number.
Personal Use: Function.

OPEN
VIEWPORT

Function: From the sheet view, this command allows you to open viewport views in a new window.
Personal Use: Im too lazy to find viewports in the projects browser...

OPEN
SHEETS

Function: From the active view or legend, this command opens all sheets containing it.
Personal Use: Im too lazy to find sheets in the projects browser...

VIEWPORT
TO TOP

Function: In the sheet view, this allows re-arranging of viewports by bringing the selected viewport to top.
Personal Use: The only way to re-arrange viewports' draw order in Revit is to delete all of them from the sheet, and place them again in the desired order... Very time consuming...

3-D
SECTION

Function: From a plan view, with just a few clicks, this tool creates a 3D view clipped with a section box with extents from clicks in plan view.
Personal Use: On large projects, it takes a long time to navigate in a 3D view, or even clip it using a section box. This tool addresses this.

URL SHORTCUT

Function: Open a user previously defined URL in the web browser.
Personal Use: Quickly go to Convert Case website & Construction Calculator website. (See video manual. I am not affiliated with these websites in any way, but they are very cooOOL. And ofcourse you can change which website this tool launches...)

PC SHORTCUT

Function: Open a user previously defined directory or file on the PC.
Personal Use: Quickly open office Revit family library and launch office prototype standards PDF.

SHORTCUT
SETTINGS

Function: Define custom URLs  or directory & file locations for quick launch for the URL Shortcut and PC Shortcut tools.
Personal Use: I like my defined shortcuts so much that I only used this like once, LOL...