This tool is free — it keeps working whether or not AECOtools is licensed, so this page carries its complete guide rather than a summary.
What it does
Super Purge replaced the folder of individual Purge buttons. You tick the cleanups you want, click Run, and they run one after another against the open model. Each row shows a tick or a cross as it finishes, with what it removed and — when something fails — why. A purge that fails does not stop the others, so one bad cleanup can't cost you the rest of the run.
It is the same catalog the Batch Tasks T08 cleanup phase runs, so a cleanup behaves identically whether you run it here on one model or across a hundred overnight.
Before you start
- Save first. Everything here deletes model content. Revit's Undo will reverse a run, but only while the session is open.
- Open the project (or family) you want cleaned — Super Purge always works on the active document.
- In a family you get a different, shorter list: the family-specific purges plus the project ones that still mean something. Links, worksets, revisions and schemes don't exist in a family.
- On a workshared model a purge can only touch elements you can edit. Anything owned by someone else is reported as failed rather than forced.
Quick start
- On the Audit panel, click Super Purge.
- Click Check All — it ticks the green and amber groups and deliberately leaves the red ones.
- Look through the red Use with caution group and tick anything you actually want.
- Click Run and watch the rows tick over. Esc stops after the purge that is running.
- Click Export Report… for a CSV of what happened.
The three groups
Purges are grouped and coloured by how much they change, safest first. The heading carries the colour and each row keeps a wash of it, so the colour is still there once you have scrolled past the heading.
| Group | What it means |
|---|---|
| 1 · Safe | Removes only what nothing references — junk and genuinely unused types. Good to go on any project without reviewing the model first. |
| 2 · Review first | Removes real content that happens to be unplaced, empty, duplicated or imported. Usually what you want, but a person put it there, so it is worth a look. |
| 3 · Use with caution | Changes the model wholesale: ungrouping everything, stripping every painted face, deleting every constraint, erasing add-in data. Check All never ticks these. |
Check All ticks groups 1 and 2 only. Uncheck All clears everything, red included. The status line tells you when a red purge is among those ticked.
The window
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Run | Tick to include that purge in the next run. |
| Purge | The cleanup's name. Hover it for the full description — exactly what it deletes and what it protects. |
| (glyph) | ✓ green when the purge completed, ✗ red when it failed, … while it runs. |
| Status | Pending, Not selected, Done or Failed. |
| Removed | How many elements went. Blank until the purge has run, so a pending table isn't a wall of zeroes. |
| Details | What it did, or why it failed — the column to read before deciding to re-run without that purge. |
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Check All | Ticks everything except the Use with caution group. |
| Uncheck All | Clears every tick. |
| Export Report… | Saves a CSV of the run: purge, risk, status, removed, details. Available once a run has happened. |
| Run | Runs the ticked purges in order, top to bottom. |
| Close | Closes the window — but during a run it asks the run to stop instead, so the window never tears down mid-transaction. |
Esc cancels a run in progress (stopping after the current purge, never part-way through one) and closes the window when nothing is running.
Group 1 — Safe
| Purge | What it removes |
|---|---|
| Purge Imported DWG Patterns | Line patterns whose names start with IMPORT — the debris every CAD import leaves behind. |
| Purge Unused Scope Boxes | Scope boxes no view, level or grid references. |
| Purge Unused View Filters | Parameter and selection filters used by no view. |
| Purge Unused View Templates | View templates no view is using. |
| Purge Empty Elevation Tags | Elevation markers with no views attached. |
| Purge Unused Arrowhead Types | Tries every arrowhead type; Revit protects the ones in use, so only the free ones go. |
| Purge Unplaced Images | Raster image types that no placed image and no element's Image parameter uses. Images are the quiet file-size killer. |
| Purge Unused Group Types | Model and detail group types with no placed instance. A detail group attached to a placed model group still counts as placed. |
| Purge Unused Line Styles & Patterns | Line styles no line uses, then line patterns nothing refers to — including from a category, a view filter override or a type parameter. Revit's own styles and Solid are kept. |
| Purge Unused Fill Patterns | Filled region types with no placed region, then fill patterns used by neither a surviving region type, a material nor an override. One region type is always kept; solid fill is never deleted. |
| Purge Unused Link Types | Revit and CAD link types whose instances have all been deleted — invisible in the model, still listed in Manage Links, often pointing at a path that is long gone. Nested links are left alone. |
| Purge Unused Materials | Materials nothing uses, then the appearance, structural and thermal assets no surviving material points at. Wall layers, geometry and material parameters all count as usage. |
Group 2 — Review first
| Purge | What it removes | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Purge Imported DWG | CAD imports (not links). | Someone may be using one as a background or a traced detail. |
| Purge Unplaced Rooms / Areas | Rooms and Areas not placed in any view. | They still carry names, numbers and departments a schedule may be listing. |
| Purge Unenclosed Areas | Placed Areas measuring zero — the symptom of a broken area boundary. | Fixing the boundary is often the better answer. |
| Purge Unused Subcategories | Subcategories nothing is assigned to, after scanning geometry, line styles and imports. | A subcategory used only by a family that isn't loaded reads as unused. |
| Purge Unused Project Parameters | Project parameter bindings whose parameter has no value anywhere. | Removing a binding takes the parameter off every element of that category. |
| Purge Site Designer Line Styles | Subcategories under Lines whose name starts with SW (the Site Designer plugin). | Only junk if you don't use Site Designer. |
| Purge Empty Tags | Tag instances whose tag text is empty. | An empty tag is often one that lost its host — worth investigating. |
| Deduplicate Annotation | Annotation stacked exactly on top of a copy of itself — tags, text, dimensions, detail lines, filled regions, detail components. | The classic cause is running Paste Aligned to Selected Views twice. See Deduplicate for the standalone version, which reports where they were. |
| Purge Annotation Outside Crop | Text, tags, dimensions and detail items sitting entirely outside a cropped view, so they never print. | Text, tags and dimensions only go when the view's annotation crop is on. Groups and pinned elements are kept. Review the list in Document Audit → Sheets & Views first. |
Group 3 — Use with caution
Nothing in this group is tidying. Each one rewrites a whole class of content across the model. Save first, and run them one at a time so you can judge the result.
| Purge | What it does |
|---|---|
| Ungroup All | Ungroups every group instance in the model. |
| Remove All Paint | Strips painted-face material overrides from every face in the model. |
| Purge All Constraints | Deletes every constraint element — locked dimensions, EQ, alignments. The model stops holding its shape when things move. |
| Purge Data Schemas | Erases every extensible-storage schema and the data stored against it: third-party add-in data, issue links, tool settings, anything an add-in kept in the model. |
| Purge Unused Text & Dimension Types | Text types no text note uses and dimension types no dimension uses (spot dimensions included). One of each is always kept. |
| Purge Empty Worksets | User worksets holding no elements at all. Workshared models only; the active workset is left alone, and one checked out by someone else is reported as failed. |
| Purge Unused Revisions | Revisions with no cloud that appear on no sheet. Issued revisions are always kept, and one revision always remains. Deleting a revision renumbers the rest. |
| Purge Empty Colour Fill & Area Schemes | Colour fill schemes no view is coloured by, and area schemes with no areas and no area plan. Deleting an area scheme takes its area plans with it. Revit's Gross Building scheme is left alone. |
In a family
Launched from the Family Editor, Super Purge offers the family list instead: unused nested families, materials, fill patterns, line styles, subcategories, text types and label types, plus the project purges that still apply (imported DWG patterns, imported DWG, arrowheads, unplaced images, paint, ungroup, deduplicate, data schemas).
Those unused-content purges are the Content Browser library scan's own, written for old and fragile families: each works out what is referenced, deletes only the rest, probes the delete for a cascade into Revit's internal settings first, and rolls back silently rather than corrupt the family.
Purge All Constraints is deliberately missing in a family. In a project it is tidying; in a family the locked dimensions and alignments are the parametric behaviour, and removing them breaks every flex.
Reading the result
- ✓ with 0 removed — the purge ran and found nothing to do. That is a success, not a failure.
- ✓ with a failed count in Details — some elements wouldn't delete (in use, pinned, owned by someone else). The rest went.
- ✗ — the purge failed before committing anything, so the model is untouched for that purge; Details carries Revit's reason and the other purges still ran.
Troubleshooting
| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| "Super Purge needs an open project." | Open a model first — it always works on the active document. |
| "Tick at least one purge to run." | Nothing is ticked. Use Check All, or tick rows yourself. |
| A purge removed less than you expected | Most purges only remove what nothing references. Read the Details column — and remember a family that isn't loaded can still be holding a subcategory or a material. |
| Empty worksets removed 0 on a workshared model | Either no workset is empty, or the empty ones are checked out by someone else; those are counted as failures in Details. |
| Close does nothing | A run is in progress — Close asks it to stop, and the window shuts when the current purge finishes. |
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.