This tool is free — it keeps working whether or not AECOtools is licensed, so this page carries its complete guide rather than a summary.
In this guide
The model-content purges live in Super Purge; the pick-what-goes lists live in Purge Unplaced Views & Unused Sheets.
BIM Cache Cleaner
Opens a separate utility that clears the caches Revit and the Autodesk Desktop Connector leave on your machine — the collaboration cache, journals and temporary files that grow until a drive fills up. It works on your computer, not on a model, so nothing in a project changes.
- No Revit model needs to be open.
- The utility runs in its own window; Revit carries on while it is open.
- It needs the free Microsoft .NET 8 Desktop Runtime (x64). If that isn't installed, AECOtools says so and gives you the download link — installing it needs no Revit restart.
| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| "BIM Cache Cleaner was not found." | The utility is missing from this AECOtools package. Update AECOtools, or report it with the path shown. |
| "BIM Cache Cleaner needs the .NET 8 Desktop Runtime." | Install the Microsoft .NET 8 Desktop Runtime (x64) from the link in the message, then click the button again. |
| "Could not launch BIM Cache Cleaner." | Usually antivirus or a policy blocking the executable. The message carries the reason Windows gave. |
Purge Backups
Deletes Revit's numbered backup files — Project.0001.rvt, Door.0003.rfa and so on — from a folder and every folder beneath it. This is disk housekeeping: it touches files, never model content.
- Click Purge Backups. Choose the parent folder to clean.
- AECOtools counts the backups and totals their size.
- Confirm. The summary afterwards says how many were deleted and how many couldn't be.
What counts as a backup: a file whose name ends in a dot, exactly four digits, and .rvt or .rfa. Your real models and families never match that pattern, and nothing else in the folder is touched.
Deleted files do not go to the Recycle Bin. Revit's backups are your only local rollback for a non-workshared model, so don't purge a folder you are actively working in.
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| "No Revit backup files were found." | Nothing in that folder tree matches the backup pattern. |
| "N file(s) could not be deleted." | Those files were open, read-only or locked by another program (often a sync client). Close what's holding them and run it again. |
Image Optimise
Finds raster images placed in the model that carry far more pixels than they can ever show, resizes the image file on disk to the size it is actually drawn at, and reloads it. A 4000-pixel photo shown 60 mm wide on a 1:100 view is the usual case — and the usual reason a model is half a gigabyte.
How the target size is worked out
- For each placed instance: the image's pixel size × its horizontal/vertical scale ÷ the view's scale. That is the resolution the image can actually resolve on that sheet.
- If an image is placed in several views, the largest requirement wins — the tool never under-serves a placement.
- Nothing is ever taken below 400 pixels on its short side, and an image is skipped if the target would be bigger than the file already is, or the same size.
- An image in a view with no scale (or an instance whose scale can't be read) is skipped entirely.
The preview
Before anything is written you get a table: file name, original pixels, new pixels, the saving as a percentage, the view it is placed in and that view's scale. Up to 250 rows are listed. Nothing happens until you confirm.
What it writes
- The original file is copied beside itself as
<name> (original)<ext>before any resize. If that backup already exists, it is kept and used as the source, so running the tool twice never degrades an image twice. - The image file is resized in place, the Revit image type is reloaded, and each placed instance keeps its drawn size (by model dimensions, or by adjusting its scale).
- A text report is written to the AECOtools reports folder; the summary dialog gives its path.
The image file on disk is overwritten. If that file is shared by other projects or documents, they get the smaller version too — the (original) backup is your way back.
Deduplicate Annotation
Finds annotation sitting exactly on top of an identical copy of itself and deletes the duplicates. The classic cause is running Paste Aligned to Selected Views more than once: the drawing looks right, but every tag is two tags, text prints bold where it overlaps, and dimensions can't be selected cleanly.
What it covers
Tags, text notes, dimensions, detail lines, filled regions and detail components.
Choosing the scope
| Choice | When to use it |
|---|---|
| Current view (default) | Faster and far less destructive. Use it when you know which view has the problem. |
| Entire model | Sweeps every view. Save first, and read the report afterwards. |
The report
Afterwards you get a breakdown by view and by kind rather than a bare total — where the duplicates were is the part you can act on. If one view accounts for most of them, that is the view somebody pasted into twice.
Schedules are skipped, deliberately. A collector scoped to a schedule returns the elements the schedule lists, not annotation drawn in it — treating those as duplicates once deleted tags that were doing their job. Deduplicate now only considers elements that genuinely belong to the view being scanned.
The same cleanup is available inside Super Purge and Batch Tasks, where it always runs model-wide; the standalone button is the one that offers the current-view scope and the report.
The view and sheet checklists
These two purges never delete unattended: each shows you every candidate it found and lets you untick anything you want to keep.
Why these two are separate from Super Purge
Super Purge runs cleanups unattended — you tick them and they go. Views and sheets are different: an unplaced view is very often a working view somebody needs, so these two show you every candidate and let you choose. They are deliberately left out of any batch run.
The checklist window
Both tools use the same window.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Filter | Narrows the list as you type. Not case-sensitive. |
| (the list) | Every candidate, ticked to start with. Untick anything you want to keep. |
| Select All / Select None | Tick or clear everything currently shown. |
| (counter) | How many of the total are ticked. |
| Purge Selected | Deletes the ticked items in one transaction — one Undo puts them all back. |
| Cancel | Closes without deleting anything. |
Everything starts ticked, so the fast workflow is: untick the handful you want to keep, then purge.
Purge Unplaced Views
Lists every view that is not placed on a sheet, as [ViewType] View Name — so the list sorts into plans, sections, 3D views and so on.
What is never listed
- View templates — they are not views you draw in. (Use Super Purge's Purge Unused View Templates for those.)
- Sheets themselves, and Revit's internal browser-only views (Project Browser, System Browser, and anything Revit marks internal or undefined).
- Any view already placed on a sheet, found by reading every viewport in the model.
If you are standing in a view you asked to purge, the tool switches you to another view first. If it can't find somewhere safe to go, it tells you instead of failing half-way.
Working views, coordination views, views used by a schedule's filters or by a dependent view can all look "unplaced". Read the list before you purge — that is what it is for.
Purge Unused Sheets
Lists sheets that have no placed views and no schedules on them — the empty shells left behind when a drawing set is restructured.
What is never listed
- Placeholder sheets — they have no content by definition, and they are usually deliberate.
- Any sheet carrying a view or a schedule.
A title block's own revision schedule doesn't count as content — otherwise every empty sheet would look used.
Deleting a sheet deletes its sheet number and name from the register, and any revision rows recorded against it. If the numbering matters to a submission, export the sheet list first.
Troubleshooting
| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| "No unplaced views found." / "No unused sheets found." | Nothing qualifies — the model is already tidy by this measure. |
| The window lists a view you know is in use | It isn't on a sheet. That is the only test this tool applies. Untick it. |
| A message about not being able to switch away from the active view | You are in a view you asked to purge and there is nowhere safe to go. Open another view yourself, then run the tool again. |
| Some items didn't delete | Revit refused them — usually a view that something else depends on. The others went; the message names what failed. |
Anything else
- In Revit: this same guide opens from the ? button in the tool's window.
- Stuck? Use AECOtools ▸ Support ▸ Report Issue to send us the details.
- Not using AECOtools yet? Start a 30-day free trial.
- Questions: get in touch.