Reusing CAD details and drafting views in Revit saves designers and engineers hours on future projects — but too often, those details are locked away in large, difficult-to-find project files and folders. Content management solution AVAIL offers Harvest Mode in its Revit, AutoCAD, and Civil 3D add-ins, which extracts details from old projects and makes them easy for your team to reuse in new projects. Learn more about how to build visual, searchable detail libraries your team will actually use below.
Jump to
- Build a Visual CAD and BIM Detail Library
- How to Harvest: AutoCAD, Civil 3D, and Revit
- Build a Searchable CAD and BIM Detail Library
- AEC’s All-In-One Content Management Solution
- Start Harvesting Today! Download Add-Ins for Revit, AutoCAD and Civil 3D
Build a Visual CAD and BIM Detail Library
One of the greatest benefits of AVAIL’s content management system (CMS) is that it helps architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) firms break free of File Explorer folders so designers and engineers can visually navigate through their firm’s content.
The AVAIL software includes Channel Card and Key Card capabilities for teams to organize and personalize their libraries, in addition to automatically virtualizing thumbnails for over 30 of the AEC industry’s most common file types including .dwg and .rvt.
The latest update to Harvest Mode in both AVAIL for Revit and AVAIL for AutoCAD and Civil 3D takes file visualization to the next level. When a detail is harvested from either of the add-ins, thumbnails and high-resolution previews are extracted. This means, as a user navigates through their firm’s detail library in AVAIL, they can view high-resolution previews of these details without having to open the AutoCAD, Civil 3D, or Revit software.
Detail management is now much easier thanks to AVAIL for Revit’s new Harvest Mode. With high-resolution previews of drafting views in Revit harvested automatically, your team can quickly and efficiently navigate content without opening the Revit software.
A real-world example of how Harvest Mode improves CAD detail management comes from a webinar AVAIL hosted in November 2025, Beyond Revit: Leading Firms on Centralizing All Project Content in AVAIL. One of the presenters, Rebecca Yu from 1,500-employee multidisciplinary firm Mead & Hunt, showcased how her team is managing Civil 3D .dwg block libraries in AVAIL. During the webinar highlighted in the clip below, she shows how previously indexed blocks in AVAIL compare to the newly harvested blocks with more accessible thumbnails and high-resolution previews.
“Once the Harvest tool was introduced, we were able to start bringing in details that way,” Rebecca says in the webinar. “Now, all-of-a-sudden, we’re able to bring in something where it is like, ‘Yes, this. I can see that and immediately know that is exactly what I wanted to bring into our drawings.”
Mead & Hunt CAD Manager Rebecca Yu showcases Civil 3D aviation blocks with virtualized thumbnails and high-resolution previews in AVAIL.
Mead & Hunt has been using AVAIL for its Revit content management since 2022. Now, with Rebecca and the Civil 3D team bringing in CAD content to manage, AVAIL is able to serve as a single, streamlined platform for all Mead & Hunt’s designers and engineers to visually navigate the content they need for projects.
How to Harvest
Want to see Harvest Mode in action? In the Learning Channel videos below, AVAIL’s Customer Success team walks you step-by-step through the Harvest process for AutoCAD, Civil 3D, and Revit
Harvest for Revit | Harvest for AutoCAD and Civil 3D
Build a Searchable CAD and BIM Detail Library
AVAIL has always made content more searchable for designers and engineers as Publishers use tags and filters to organize content. Now, with the new Harvest Mode for AutoCAD, Civil 3D, and Revit, harvested details are automatically tagged and full-text searchable, as well. Users can search for any text on a drafting view in Revit, and AVAIL will raise that drafting view in a global or scoped Channel search — no manual tags required.
AutoCAD and Civil 3D users also benefit from this feature: if an engineer searches “filter barrier” from a Channel of CAD details harvested in AVAIL from the AVAIL for AutoCAD and Civil 3D add-in, the desired detail will appear in AVAIL’s search.
CAD details harvested in AVAIL for AutoCAD and Civil 3D become full-text searchable.
Now, CAD and BIM managers don’t need to tag content for enhanced search capabilities. Designers and engineers can full-text search the firm’s harvested detail library and find what they need, fast.
AEC's All-In-One Content Management Solution
AVAIL’s advanced Harvest Mode for the Revit, AutoCAD, and Civil 3D applications furthers our mission to serve as a single, streamlined content management and access solution for AEC industry firms.
For multidisciplinary firms in particular managing combined architectural, landscape, interiors, and engineering content, AVAIL stretches across all disciplines, file types, and content locations so production teams can find everything they need, all in one place.
With advanced search and visualization features on harvested content, detail management and reuse across CAD and BIM has never been easier for firms.
Start Harvesting Today! Download Add-Ins for Revit, AutoCAD and Civil 3D
AVAIL customers can install the AVAIL for Revit and AVAIL for AutoCAD and Civil 3D add-ins at app.getavail.com/downloads. Please note, both add-ins require the AVAIL Desktop to also be installed.
Harvest Mode can only be used by Publishers in an account. To start harvesting, visit the Help Center pages below.
Become a Harvest Pro
Deep dive into AVAIL’s Harvest capabilities with these Help Center articles:
Not sure if Harvest Mode is included in your plan? Contact Sales Director Will Rouse to find out.
Does Your Content Delivery Pipeline Have a Leak?
Calculate the state of your firm’s content chaos in Sales Director Will Rouse’s blog
ABOUT AVAIL
Founded in 2016 as a solution for architecture and engineering firms to find the information they need faster, AVAIL creates software for the global architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. AVAIL’s content management system (CMS) platform and Revit, AutoCAD, and Civil 3D application tools help designers and engineers take control of their intricate network of files in one visual, streamlined solution. AVAIL’s customers include industry leaders Gensler, Perkins&Will, IMEG, LEO A DALY, and Populous.
