How to Use — Agenda for Autodesk Revit

Last Updated: July 1, 2026

Overview

Agenda is a Revit add-in that automates budget analysis and schedule creation for BIM projects. It reads element data directly from your Revit model, matches it against a cost catalog, generates quantity takeoffs, and pushes catalog identifiers back into the model as shared parameters.

Four commands are available under the AvantLeap tab → Agenda panel:

# Button What it does
1 Budget Analysis Quantity takeoff + catalog cost matching + grand total
2 Craft Schedules Creates Revit schedule views with catalog fields and level grouping
3 Gap Analysis Visual report: costed vs uncosted vs missing from model
4 Export Schedules Exports schedules to a formatted multi-tab .xlsx file

Installation

  1. Download and run the Agenda installer from the Autodesk App Store.
  2. Restart Revit. The Avant Leap tab appears automatically.
  3. Open any Revit project and click Budget Analysis to begin.

For developers / testers: load the DLL manually via Add-Ins → External Tools → Add-In Manager and point it to .package\2026\Agenda\AvantLeap.Tools.Agenda.dll.

Command 1: Budget Analysis

Purpose: Reads every model element, groups them by category and type, and calculates quantities. If a cost catalog is loaded, it shows unit costs and a grand total.

Steps

  1. Click Budget Analysis in the Avant Leap tab.
  2. The window opens with a grid showing all quantifiable element types in the model.
  3. (Optional) Click Load Catalog to load a Markdown cost catalog (.md file). Matched rows turn green; unmatched rows remain amber.
  4. Review quantities and costs. You can:
    • Edit Unit Cost cells directly — type a new value and press Enter.
    • Change the Unit column (EA / M2 / M3 / LM) — the quantity recalculates instantly from pre-stored model data.
    • Right-click any row to Hide it from the total.
  5. Click Write to Model to push AC_ID, AC_Des, and AC_Cost as shared parameters onto matching Revit element types.

AI catalog generation

If you have no cost catalog, Agenda can generate one using AI:

  1. Click Configure AI (top-right of the Budget Analysis window) to set up your AI provider (see AI Configuration below).
  2. Click Generate with AI — Agenda sends your model's category and type names to the AI and receives suggested unit costs.
  3. Review the generated entries in the catalog panel. Edit any incorrect costs directly.
  4. Click Save Catalog to save the result as a .md file for future use.

AI-generated costs are suggestions only. Always review before use in commercial contexts.

Unit switching

Each row stores quantities for all four measurement units at load time:

Unit Measures
EA Element count
M2 Sum of host area (m²)
M3 Sum of volume (m³)
LM Sum of curve length (m)

Double-click the Unit cell to change how a row is measured. The quantity and total update immediately — no model reload needed.

Cost catalog format

Agenda uses plain Markdown tables as the catalog format. Example:

## Walls

| ID    | Category | Type Name          | Unit | Unit Cost |
|-------|----------|--------------------|------|-----------|
| WA-001 | Walls   | Generic - 200mm    | M2   | 85.00     |
| WA-002 | Walls   | Brick - 300mm      | M2   | 120.00    |

## Doors

| ID    | Category | Type Name          | Unit | Unit Cost |
|-------|----------|--------------------|------|-----------|
| DO-001 | Doors   | Single-Flush       | EA   | 450.00    |
  • The ID column is auto-generated on first save. Do not edit IDs manually.
  • Units: EA (each) · M2 (square metres) · M3 (cubic metres) · LM (linear metres)
  • Unit costs are in the project's local currency — Agenda does not apply currency conversion.

Command 2: Craft Schedules

Purpose: Creates Revit ViewSchedule views for each element category present in the model, pre-configured with catalog fields (AC_ID, AC_Des) and optional level grouping.

Steps

  1. Click Craft Schedules.
  2. In the window, review the field list — check or uncheck fields to include in the schedules.
  3. Set a Prefix and/or Suffix for schedule names (e.g. prefix AG_, suffix _v1 → schedule named AG_Walls_v1). This makes Agenda schedules easy to identify in project browsers and Excel exports.
  4. Check Group by Level to add a Level sort group with header and footer rows to each schedule.
  5. (Optional) Click Save Config to save the current field + prefix/suffix settings to a .scheduleCat.json file. Click Load Config to restore them.
  6. Click Create Schedules — Agenda runs two transactions: first binding the shared parameters to each category, then creating the schedule views.

Schedules are created in the current project. Existing schedules with the same name are not overwritten — rename or delete them first.

Command 3: Gap Analysis

Purpose: Shows which element categories in the model have no cost entry in the catalog, and which catalog entries have no matching elements.

Steps

  1. Load a cost catalog via Budget Analysis first (or run Gap Analysis directly — it will prompt for a catalog file).
  2. Click Gap Analysis.
  3. The report shows:
    • Uncosted — categories in the model with no catalog match (amber)
    • Missing from model — catalog entries with no matching elements in the model (grey)
    • Matched — categories present in both (green)
  4. Use this report to identify catalog gaps before exporting or writing to model.

Command 4: Export Schedules

Purpose: Exports Revit schedule views to a formatted multi-tab .xlsx file.

Steps

  1. Click Export Schedules.
  2. Select which schedules to export from the list.
  3. Choose an output file location.
  4. Click Export — each selected schedule becomes a tab in the workbook, with column headers and data rows. A summary Budget tab is included if a catalog is loaded.

AI Configuration

Agenda supports three AI providers. Configure them via Configure AI in the Budget Analysis window.

Claude (Anthropic)

OpenAI

Ollama (local — recommended for privacy)

Ollama runs AI models entirely on your own machine. No data leaves your computer.

  1. Install Ollama from https://ollama.com
  2. Pull a model: open a terminal and run ollama pull llama3
  3. In Agenda's AI Configuration window, select Ollama (local).
  4. Set the Base URL to http://localhost:11434 (default — change only if you run Ollama on a different port or machine).
  5. Set the Model to the model name you pulled (e.g. llama3, mistral, qwen2.5).
  6. No API key is required.

Ollama quality depends on the model and your hardware. Larger models (13B+) produce better cost estimates but require more RAM. For most construction cost tasks, llama3 or mistral is sufficient.

AI Configuration storage

API keys are stored locally in %APPDATA%\Autodesk\Revit\Addins\Agenda\ai-config.json. They are never transmitted to AvantLeap or any party other than the selected AI provider.

Shared Parameters

When you click Write to Model, Agenda binds three shared parameters to the element types present in your budget and writes the catalog values:

Parameter Type Content
AC_ID Text Catalog entry code (e.g. WA-001)
AC_Des Text Type description from the catalog
AC_Cost Text Unit cost (e.g. 85.00)

These parameters appear in element Type Properties under the Agenda Parameters group. They can be scheduled in Revit natively and are visible in Craft Schedules-created schedule views.

The shared parameter file (AgendaSharedParams.txt) is written to the Agenda add-in folder automatically. You do not need to manage it manually.

Persistent files

Agenda stores the following files in %APPDATA%\Autodesk\Revit\Addins\Agenda\:

File Contents
ai-config.json AI provider selection, API key, model, and Ollama base URL
hidden-rows.json Budget rows hidden by the user (persisted across sessions)
catalog-analysis.md Log of every AI generation and catalog import with timestamps

Tips

  • Start with a small catalog: load even a partial catalog — Agenda will show which rows matched immediately and highlight gaps.
  • Use Ollama for sensitive projects: if your model contains confidential building data, Ollama ensures nothing leaves your machine.
  • Prefix your schedules: use a consistent prefix (e.g. AG_) so Agenda-created schedules are easy to filter in the project browser and Excel.
  • Save configs between projects: the .scheduleCat.json format is portable — share it across team members to standardise schedule field order.
  • Unit switching is non-destructive: changing a row from EA to M2 does not modify the model — it only changes how Agenda measures and displays that row.

Troubleshooting

Symptom Likely cause Fix
Shared parameters not appearing after Write to Model Old shared parameter file with BOM encoding Delete AgendaSharedParams.txt from the Agenda addin folder and retry — it will be recreated correctly
AI generation returns generic or incorrect costs Model is too small or the AI model is too small Use a larger Ollama model, or switch to Claude/OpenAI for better results
Schedule already exists warning A schedule with the same name already exists Add a suffix in Craft Schedules (e.g. _v2) or delete the existing schedule
Unit M2 shows 0 for a category Elements in that category have no host area parameter Use EA or LM instead — not all element types carry area geometry
Catalog not loading File uses old 4-column format without ID column Load and re-save — Agenda will auto-generate IDs and rewrite the file