After installing BIMO Toolbar, close every Autodesk Revit instance and start Revit again. BIMO loads during Revit startup and adds its own ribbon tab.
1. Start Revit
On the first launch, Revit may display a security warning for an external application or an unsigned add-in.
Continue only when BIMO was installed from the official BIMO installer. Depending on the Revit version, you may be offered:
Load Once — load BIMO for the current Revit session only;
Always Load — trust this add-in on later launches.
Cancel the load if the files came from an unknown source, then reinstall BIMO from the official website. Do not disable Revit or Windows protection globally.
The Revit add-in warning is separate from the Unknown publisher and Microsoft Defender SmartScreen warnings that may appear when starting the MSI. Those warnings are covered in the installation guide.
2. Check the BIMO tab
After Revit finishes loading, the ribbon should contain a BIMO tab.
If the tab is present, the add-in was loaded successfully. Some commands require an open project, a suitable active view, or a selection, so buttons may be unavailable on the Revit home screen.
For a basic check:
Open a regular Revit project.
Open the BIMO ribbon tab.
Run About BIMO.
Confirm that the window shows the current version and an update-check result.
What happens during startup
When Revit starts, BIMO automatically:
selects the interface language;
loads cached workspace branding when available;
creates the BIMO ribbon tab and panels;
validates the saved license locally without waiting for a network request;
performs a background online license refresh after startup when a license key is already stored.
When no license key is stored, the online license request is skipped. BIMO still loads, but access to individual commands and features depends on the current plan and workspace configuration.
If updated BIMO branding is received from the service, BIMO displays a message asking you to restart Revit so the ribbon can be rebuilt with the new branding.
Activate a license key
When you have received a license key:
Open BIMO > About BIMO.
Select Upgrade.
Enter the key in Enter license key.
Select ACTIVATE.
Wait for the successful activation message.
Activation requires internet access to the bimo.tools services. Restart Revit if the available commands or workspace branding do not refresh after a successful activation.
Do not send license.json to another user. The file is protected by Windows and is tied to the current Windows account.
Run your first command
Before running a tool:
Open the documentation for that command.
Check its Revit-version, active-document, view, and selection requirements.
Save the model before using commands that modify elements.
Test unfamiliar commands or user-provided scripts on a copy of the project first.
General options, presets, and user commands are managed through BIMO > Open Settings. See Settings and Presets and Variants.
User data locations
Settings and license data are stored separately from the installed bundle:
Log files are stored in:
These folders may remain after reinstalling or uninstalling the add-in itself.
BIMO did not load
Check the following:
Revit was fully closed during installation.
You are using a supported Revit version from 2021 through 2027.
%APPDATA%\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins\BIMO.bundleexists.BIMO was installed under the same Windows account that runs Revit.
BIMO was not rejected in a Revit security prompt.
Antivirus or company security software did not remove files from the bundle.
Restart Revit and reinstall the latest BIMO version if the tab is still missing. When contacting support, attach logs from the logs folder, but do not attach license.json.
Contact BIMO support when the problem continues.