Copy Elements User Guide

Getting started

Overview

Copy Elements is available from the Archi tab in Revit and opens a browser workflow with four main modes: Copy selection, Model elements, Families and types, and Restore.

Current selection mode uses the elements you already have selected in Revit. The browser modes let you browse open projects or loaded links, search a grouped tree, and copy to one or more destination projects in the same session.

The Restore mode compares a backup project against a destination project and helps you recover missing model elements after review.

Requirements

• Revit 2025 installed with Copy Elements available on the Archi tab.
• At least one additional non-linked destination project open in the same Revit session.
• A valid source: the current selection, an open project, or a loaded Revit link with an available link document.
• Existing destination phases when you want to keep source phase names or map elements to a specific phase.
• Eligible content only: model elements must be non-view-specific, belong to a model category, and have a location. Supported family types must be valid loadable family symbols.

Install and uninstall

Copy Elements uses the standard Archi installer pattern and is distributed as an NSIS installer such as CopyElements_install_27.0.exe or CopyElements_install_latest.exe.

Install

1. Close Revit.
2. Run the installer with administrator rights.
3. Complete installation and any required license activation.
4. Start Revit and confirm that Copy Elements appears in the Archi tab, Utilities panel.

On first run, the add-in performs a license check, creates or reuses the Archi ribbon structures, and shows the licensed or unlicensed button state.

Uninstall

1. Close Revit.
2. Use Windows Apps and Features or the installed uninstaller.
3. Confirm removal before reopening Revit.

Uninstall removes the installed application files, the related add-in manifest, and the Windows uninstall registration. Content already copied into Revit projects is not affected.

Quick start

1. Open the source project and one or more destination projects in the same Revit session.
2. Launch Copy Elements from the Archi tab.
3. Select the most suitable mode: current selection, browsed model elements, family types, or restore.
4. Choose the destination projects and, for model elements, confirm the destination phase option for each project.
5. Run Copy or Restore and review the result in the destination project.

Commands and workflows

Copy Elements is exposed through the Archi tab, Utilities panel, Copy Elements button. The main browser workflow supports four operating modes and a small settings panel that affects duplicate type handling and warning behavior.

Copy the current selection

1. Select one or more model elements or family types in Revit.
2. Launch Copy Elements.
3. When the selection is copyable, the app opens in Copy selection mode.
4. Choose one or more destination projects.
5. For model elements, choose the destination phase behavior per project.
6. Click Copy.

Expected result: eligible selected model elements and supported family types are copied to every chosen destination. Unsupported selected items are skipped.

Copy browsed model elements

1. Launch Copy Elements and open Model elements.
2. Choose a source project or a loaded Revit link.
3. Optionally filter to a single source phase.
4. Search or browse the grouped element tree.
5. Select the model elements to copy.
6. Choose one or more destination projects.
7. For each destination, either keep matching source phase names or map to a specific existing destination phase.
8. Click Copy.

Expected result: selected model elements are copied to each eligible destination. When the source is a Revit link, the link transform is applied during copy.

Copy family types

1. Launch Copy Elements and open Families and types.
2. Choose a source project or loaded link document.
3. Search or browse the grouped family-type tree.
4. Select the family types to copy.
5. Choose one or more destination projects.
6. Click Copy.

Expected result: selected loadable family types are copied into each chosen destination project.

Restore missing model elements from a backup

1. Launch Copy Elements and open Restore.
2. Choose the backup source project and the destination project.
3. Review the confidence summary and any warnings.
4. Search or browse the missing-element tree.
5. Select the missing elements to recover.
6. Choose the destination phase option.
7. Click Restore.

Expected result: selected missing model elements are copied from the backup into the destination project, and the comparison refreshes after recovery.

Settings and output

Modes and settings

The Settings panel controls how duplicate type names and warning dialogs are handled during copy operations.

• Duplicate type behavior: Keep destination types or Abort destination paste.
• Warning behavior: Suppress warning dialogs.
• Destination phase options include Keep source phase and explicit destination phases that already exist in the destination document.
• Source phase options include All phases.

The active branch shows these settings as session-scoped behavior. A persistent end-user settings store is not clearly exposed in the inspected source.

Expected outputs

• Copied model elements in one or more destination projects.
• Copied family types in one or more destination projects.
• Restored missing model elements in the selected destination project.

Restore comparison primarily uses UniqueId overlap and falls back to a signature based on category, family, type, and location or bounding-box data. Confidence is considered high at 70% or above, medium from 30% to below 70%, and low below 30%.

Troubleshooting and FAQ

Common issues

No eligible copy route is available

This usually means only one non-linked project is open, or there is no usable loaded Revit link available.

1. Open another non-linked project.
2. Or load a Revit link that can copy into its host project.
3. Retry the command.

The current selection does not copy

This usually means the selection contains unsupported items only, view-specific elements, or elements that do not meet the model-category and location rules.

1. Re-select model elements or supported loadable family types.
2. Retry Copy selection.

A destination project is skipped during model copy

Phase mapping could not be resolved, or the destination does not contain matching phase names when Keep source phase is selected.

1. Choose a specific destination phase instead of Keep source phase.
2. Verify that the destination project contains the expected phases.

Copy stops because of duplicate type names

The duplicate type behavior is likely set to abort the destination paste.

1. Open Settings.
2. Change duplicate type handling to Keep destination types.
3. Retry the copy.

Restore confidence is low

This usually means the backup and destination are not from the same project lineage, or the destination has drifted too far from the backup baseline.

1. Review the confidence summary.
2. Confirm that the backup and destination are truly related files.
3. Recover only after manual review of the missing-element list.

Edge cases and limitations

• Destination projects must already be open in the same Revit session.
• Destinations must be non-linked projects.
• View-specific elements are not copyable in the active workflow.
• Elements without a category or location are ignored by model copy.
• Revit links are valid sources, but are not themselves copyable as elements.
• Keep source phase works only when matching destination phase names already exist.
• Restore is limited to model elements considered recoverable by the comparison service.
• Project standards transfer is outside this workflow.