Summary
Syncing connects your Acelab project to your Revit model so data flows in both directions. Product information from your Materials Hub schedule — including keynote tags, keynote text, and MasterFormat hierarchy — is written into Revit. Revit model data — such as family type, quantities, dimensions, and material assignments — is pulled back into your Acelab schedule. Run a sync any time you want to push updates from either side.
Before You Begin
The Acelab Revit plug-in must be installed. See Installing and Uninstalling the Revit Plugin.
Your Material Hub project must be linked to your Revit project. See Linking and Unlinking Material Hub Projects to Revit.
Products must be mapped to Revit families or materials before sync data will appear. See Mapping Acelab Products to Revit Elements.
Data Exchange Summary
Direction | What gets synced |
Acelab → Revit | Product information (manufacturer, model, URL), keynote tag, keynote text, MasterFormat hierarchy |
Revit → Acelab | Revit family & type, area, count, dimensions, material name, material mark, keynote, room |
View Acelab Product Information in Revit
Once synced, Acelab product data is written into the Identity Data fields of the linked Revit family or material.
View information linked to a family
Select the asset in Revit.
Click Edit Type.
In the Type Properties window, scroll down to Identity Data to see product information from Acelab's database.
View information linked to a material
Open the Material Browser. Select the material.
In the Identity tab, Acelab product data appears in the Product Information section.
Sync with Acelab's Material Hub
Click the Sync button from the Acelab tab in Revit, then select Sync.
You will get a confirmation message when the sync completes successfully.
To view Revit data in Materials Hub, navigate to your project, go to Schedules, and add the Revit fields (columns). Revit data will populate automatically.
MasterFormat Hierarchy in Revit Keynotes
When you sync, Acelab sends the full MasterFormat hierarchy for each mapped product to the Revit plugin. The plugin uses this to generate a structured keynote.txt file, organized from Division down to the leaf section (Division → Sub-Division → Group → Sub-Group).
Custom section titles are respected. If you've renamed a MasterFormat section in Materials Hub, that custom title appears in the keynote hierarchy — not the default MasterFormat label.
Custom sections are included. Products assigned to custom sections you created appear in their correct position within the hierarchy.
Products without a section assigned are placed in an Uncategorized section of
keynote.txt.Partial hierarchies are supported. If only some levels are known (e.g., Division only), the known levels are populated and the rest are left blank.
If your project already has a keynote file
If your Revit project is already linked to an existing keynote.txt file, the top-level division naming in that file must match the format Acelab uses (e.g., 09 00 00). If it doesn't, Acelab creates a new parent section using its own naming and moves the conflicting subsection — and all its entries — into it. The rest of the file stays intact.
Example: Your file uses Division 09 as the parent, with 09 65 00 Resilient Flooring and its sub-entries nested inside it.
After sync, Acelab creates two new parent nodes: 09 00 00 (Finishes) containing 09 60 00 (Flooring), which now contains 09 65 00 and all its original sub-entries. A new entry 09 65 33 Conductive Resilient Flooring is added inside it, with the product keynote tag FLR nested beneath. Division 09 remains in the file, but 09 65 00 is gone from it.
Indicator | What it means |
New | Section did not exist — created by Acelab during sync |
Moved | Section existed under |
Added | New keynote tag and text written from Acelab product |
To prevent this: Before syncing, open the .txt file in a text editor and replace all Division XX top-level labels with the Acelab three-part format — for example, replace Division 09 with 09 00 00. Subsection entries like 09 65 00 don't need to change. Save the file, then sync.
Outcome
After syncing, product information from Acelab appears in your Revit families and materials, and Revit model data appears in your Acelab schedule. Your keynote.txt file is updated with the full MasterFormat hierarchy for all mapped products. Re-sync any time you make updates in either Acelab or Revit to keep both in step.