Visualize Block: model against the real block

Alpha → Configure → Visualize Block places a bouwnummer's configured models at a position you pick in your current working (tasveld) document, surrounded by the neighboring houses of its block as reference-only context. You get a real feel for where the house sits in the block and can model block-dependent elements (kap, goot, metselwerk) against actual neighbors, without switching to a separate generated block file, so the link between your woningtype and its option variants stays intact.

The workflow

1. Open your working document and click Visualize Block.
2. Pick a project, then narrow to the house you are drawing: choose a woningtype, then a blok, then the bouwnummer. Each pick narrows the next list (only the blokken that actually contain the chosen woningtype are offered) and every filter may be left on (all) if you would rather scan the full list. Bouwnummers are sorted the way you read them (1, 2, 10, not 1, 10, 2).
3. Optionally adjust the options to visualize with (e.g. add an uitbouw to check how it connects). The option list is restriction-checked live: every change re-validates against the backend, and codes that conflict with the current selection disappear.
4. Leave Render neighboring houses on (default) to place the rest of the block, or turn it off for just the house.
5. Click Pick Position and click a point in the model (use a floor plan, or set a work plane in a 3D view).
6. Click Visualize Block. The house and its neighbors are placed; one Undo reverts the whole placement.

Houses whose models are missing in the database don't fail the run; they get a bounding-box placeholder at their position so the block layout stays readable, and the status panel lists what was missing.

Editing and re-exporting

The placed groups of your bouwnummer are normal model groups with the correct product names. Edit them, select them, and click Export Selected Groups; the add-in reads the placement stamp and routes the upload automatically:

• Models that match a concept model upload as a project concept override.
• Models that match a project variant upload to the variant's coverage row.

No picker dialog, no name guessing. Neighbor groups are never uploaded; they carry a reference-only stamp and the export skips them with a note.

If a group type of the same name already exists in your document (your own source groups), the visualization reuses it instead of importing a duplicate, so the placed house is an instance of your live work, and no name 2 duplicate types appear.

Linked neighbours (the default)

The neighbours can enter your document two ways, chosen with Use a linked file for the neighbors:

In linked mode the neighbours are assembled into their own virtueel blok RVT under %USERPROFILE%\Alpha\visualizations\<placement>\virtueel-blok.rvt and that single file is linked into your document at the placement position, pinned so it cannot be nudged out of alignment. Your document gains one element instead of a copy of the whole block, and the reference geometry is structurally incapable of being edited or exported.

Turn it off when you specifically want to snap to the neighbours as native geometry, or when the document has to travel to someone who will not have the context file.

When the neighbours, their layout and the project template are all identical to a block already built on this machine, that file is reused instead of rebuilt and the run reports it. Re-uploading any model changes its blob id, so a genuine change always forces a rebuild; reuse only ever skips work that would have produced the same block.

Cutting the loading time

Most of a block visualization's wall clock goes into the neighbours: every neighbour model is a source RVT to download, open and copy. Two options under the settings block narrow that work, and they combine.

Only the gevelelementen keeps the models that come from a project static-model tree ("model is uniek voor een specifieke variant in een project") and skips the concept trees. On content where the gevels are modelled per project — Whoon's, for instance — that is exactly the outside of the neighbour house and nothing else.

Neither option ever touches your own bouwnummer: it is the house you are modelling and exporting, so it is always placed in full.

The form remembers your settings

The four checkboxes, whether the settings block is expanded, and the project you last picked are remembered on your machine and restored the next time you open the window, so a faster combination stays switched on instead of being re-ticked every run. They live in %USERPROFILE%\Alpha\visualize-block-preferences.json; delete that file to go back to the defaults.

The bouwnummer is deliberately not remembered, and neither is the picked position — nothing is ever placed for a house you did not just choose.

Sync: keeping the block current while you model

The block around you keeps moving: colleagues re-upload neighbouring models while you work. Sync (next to each placement) refreshes that context from the latest uploads.

The important part: Sync never touches your own house. It refreshes only the reference context, so it is safe to press mid-edit, which is exactly when you want to see a neighbour's new kap. Re-render is the deliberate, destructive alternative that replaces the whole placement, your house included.

• Linked placements: the virtueel blok is rebuilt and the link reloaded. Your document is not re-imported at all: no group types are added, and Revit's own link reload does the incremental work. If nothing has actually been re-uploaded since the last build, Sync says so and returns in seconds instead of rebuilding the block.
• Copied placements: only this placement's neighbour and placeholder elements are deleted and placed again. Your house's groups are not in that set, so your edits survive.
• A linked placement whose context file has gone missing (cleaned up, or the document was opened on another machine) falls back to placing the neighbours again, and says so rather than failing quietly.

Each placement's row shows when it was last synced, so you can tell at a glance whether the block around you is still current.

Iterating with multiple placements

Every placement is remembered in the document. The Placed visualizations list in the window lets you, per placement:

• Sync: refresh only the block context from the latest uploads, leaving your house alone (see above). This is the one to reach for while you are still modelling.
• Re-render: delete and re-place the whole placement, your house included, with the latest uploads (same settings and position). Use this after exporting to see your own changes back in block context. A re-render keeps the placement's linked/copied mode.
• Overwrite: select the placement, change the form (other options, other bouwnummer), and click Visualize Block. It replaces that placement at its stored position; pick a new position first to move it.
• Remove: delete the placement's geometry and forget it.

You can keep e.g. block 1 at position A and block 2 at position B, and only re-render position B while you iterate.

Showing, hiding and removing the block

Two ribbon buttons control the placed block once you are modelling against it. Both act only on the reference-only neighbour geometry; your own bouwnummer is never hidden or deleted.

Use Toon/Verberg Blok while you work; it is instant, and the geometry stays available. Use Blok Verwijderen when you are done and want your file clean again: hiding leaves the neighbour geometry in the document, removing takes it out.

If you press Toon/Verberg Blok in a document that has no block yet, the add-in offers to open Visualize Block so you can place one straight away.

Notes

• Neighbor positions come from the same backend endpoint the web viewer uses for its neighbor rendering, so Revit and the configurator show the identical block layout, including mirrored houses.
• Insertion-point (nulpunt) compensation is applied when the project uses it, matching the house and block configurator flows.
• The placement registry and per-group stamps live in extensible storage inside your document; they survive save/reopen and sync (schema vendor ASRR).
• The linked context instance carries the same reference-only stamp as copied neighbour groups, so Toon/Verberg Blok, Blok Verwijderen and the export skip-list treat it identically; the linked and copied modes behave the same everywhere except in how much they weigh.
• Removing a linked placement also deletes its virtueel blok folder, so removed visualizations do not accumulate block files under %USERPROFILE%\Alpha.