How to Export Revit Schedule to Excel

Revit schedules can be a useful way to check your model, and quantify elements or materials inside a project. Additionally, you can create a view or sheet schedule, but did you also know you can export Revit schedules to Excel? By exporting these schedules we can further analyze and even manipulate data using Excel’s analysis and visualization tools.

Exporting schedules to Excel also allows for better collaboration and sharing of the data with project members or stakeholders. Furthermore, this feature makes it possible to integrate with other software such as Power BI, for example. With this method, you can even create interactive dashboards with project information.

In this article, we are going to take a look at how to export and import a Revit schedule to Excel. There are different methods to make this possible, but we will focus on the free methods that come with Revit’s built-in tools.

Export Revit Schedule to Excel

When we want to export a Revit schedule to Excel, we can use the built-in tool to create a Text or Comma-Separated Values file. However, when using Revit version 2021 and earlier we can only export schedules as Text (.txt) files. Autodesk has implemented the export to a Comma-Separated Values file (.csv) since the Revit 2022 update. Exporting to CSV is the default setting now in Revit.

The big difference between a .txt and a .csv file is the format of the file and how the data is organized. The TXT file is a more universal file format that contains unformatted text that can be opened by almost all text editors. The CSV file is a text file that stores data in a tabular format, with each field separated by a comma ,. This format is mostly used for export and import between various applications and systems such as Microsoft Excel.

Tip

When using Revit 2022 or later, use the Comma-Separated Values file (.csv) as default export. It will save some time opening and organizing the file in Excel.

Export Revit Schedule to a .txt or a .csv file

1. Open a Schedule from the Project Browser under the tab Schedules/Quantities

2. Go to File
3. Hover over Export
4. Scroll down inside the right-sided menu > Hover over Reports
5. Click on Schedule

Revit version 2021 and earlier

6. Save your schedule as a Text (delimited) (*.txt) in the Files of type section

Recommended: Revit version 2022 and later

6. Save your schedule as a CSV (delimited) (*.csv) in the Files of type section

7. In the Export Schedule window choose the schedule appearance and output options. > Press OK to export

Schedule appearance

• Export title (A): Check to export the Schedule title.
• Export Column headers (B): You can specify whether Revit column headers should export.
  • Include grouped column headers (C): Check this setting if you like to export the grouped column headers. When you only have one row with headers then this whole row will be exported even if this setting is unchecked.
• Export group headers, footers, and blank lines (D): You can specify whether group headers, footers, and blank lines will export.

Output options

• Field delimiter: We can specify whether the fields in the output file (.txt or .csv) are separated by a (tab), (space), comma ,, or semi-colon ;. Revit’s default Field delimiter for exporting a Text (.txt) file is the (tab) and for a Comma-Separated Values file (.csv) it is a comma , .
• Text qualifier: Determines whether the text in each field of the output file should be encased by a single ' or double quote ", or left without any characters (none). Revit’s default Text qualifier for exporting a Text (.txt) file is the double quote " and for a Comma-Separated Values file (.csv) it is set to (none).

Import Revit Schedule to Excel

There are multiple ways to import Text or CSV files into Excel. We will take a look at the three most common methods used to import these files. All these methods will enable you to edit the Revit schedules in Excel for further data analysis or manipulation of data.

Method 1: Importing a Text or CSV file by opening it in Excel

The first method to import a Text or CSV file is by opening it in Excel and then converting the data to the way you want it, with the Text Import Wizard.

1. Open Excel > Click on Open to open a new file
2. Click to Browse and navigate to your file, which is in this case a Text or CSV file
3. In the type of files dropdown menu choose Text Files or All Files in order to see your created Schedule
4. Select your schedule > press Open

5. The Text Import Wizard will open with a total of three dialog windows. You can go through each window to change settings or skip by pressing the Finish button.

Notice that, the default Excel import settings match the default export settings for Text files in Revit, focused on Delimiters and Text qualifier. When you open a CSV file with this method, change the Delimiters to Comma and the Text qualifier to None.

Now that the Text Import Wizard is set, you have just imported your first Revit Schedule into Excel. In the screenshot below you can see an example of a Text file imported to Excel.

Method 2: Importing a Text or CSV file by Connecting

The second method to import a Text or CSV file is by connecting to it in Excel through the Get Data tool.

1. Open a Blank workbook
2. Go to the Data tab
3. Click on Get Data
4. Hover over From File
5. Click on From Text/CSV > Import Data window will open

Alternative: skip steps 3 and 4 by using the From Text/CSV button next to the Get Data button, when it is set on the Ribbon already.

6. In the Import Data window, locate your .txt or .csv file and select Import
7. You now will see an example of the schedule in the preview dialog > adjust Delimiter when needed > click on Load to instantly load the data to a worksheet.

Method 3: Opening a CSV directly into Excel

The third method is straightforward: import a CSV file by clicking on the exported CSV file directly from Revit.

Note

This method only works when your region settings in Windows are configured correctly. Make sure that the List Separator in your Windows > Settings > Region Settings is set to comma.

When you create a CSV file with the default settings from Revit, then a Field Delimiter with a comma , is used. This Field Delimiter should match the default List separator setting in Windows.

To check the List separator setting in Windows 10 follow the steps below:

1. Click on Start
2. go to Control Panel > Click on Clock and Region and then select Region
3. Inside the Region dialog click on Additional settings…
4. Go to List separator and change it to a comma (“,”) > click OK

You can continue opening a CSV directly after exporting from Revit, and you will notice it is directly formatted into columns without changing anything.

Note

When the formatting doesn’t work after changing the List separator setting, try to reboot your device.

Wrapping Up

Revit schedules are a great way to check model information. You can export these schedules from Revit to Excel by using the export function. Exporting your schedules gives you the flexibility to share, analyze and adjust data all with the help of Excel.

Keep in mind that it’s important to prepare your schedule and choose the right settings, such as the Delimiter and Text qualifier before exporting. When importing the schedule from Revit to Excel, make sure to match the delimiter so that the schedule is formatted correctly.

I hope you found this article helpful, if you have any questions, just drop a comment below.