Reference
How It Works
Built by architects, for architects.
1. Upload your firm's completed CD sets
Upload permit-ready Construction Document sets as PDFs to your BIM Monkey library at app.bimmonkey.ai/upload. The AI analyzes every page — extracting detail types, wall assemblies, sheet organization, and annotation standards — and builds a private reference library specific to your firm. The more complete sets you upload, the more closely generated output reflects how your office works.
Pages are processed and added to your library automatically. If the AI misclassified a page — wrong sheet type, incorrect detail category — open the project at app.bimmonkey.ai/library, expand the sheet, and correct or remove it. A single correction takes seconds and applies immediately to future generations.
2. Check your model, then open Banana Chat — BIM Monkey's in-Revit AI
Start with any Revit project file. BIM Monkey installs a lightweight plugin that connects to your model — reading levels, rooms, wall types, existing sheets, and views automatically.
Before generating, click Check Model in the Documentation panel of the BIM Monkey tab. It scores your model's readiness (0–100) and flags anything that would produce incomplete output — unnamed rooms, missing reflected ceiling plans, no title block loaded, empty door or window schedules. It also estimates how many sheets to expect. Fix any red items before continuing.
Click Standards in the Documentation panel to review your firm's library score and coverage — so you know what the AI has to work from before you run. If the score shows gaps, upload additional completed CD sets to fill them.
Then click Start Server in the Server Control panel to open the connection between Banana Chat — BIM Monkey's in-Revit AI assistant — and Revit. Wait a few seconds, then click Server Status to confirm the pipe is ready. Once it shows ready, click Banana Chat in the AI Enablement panel to open the chat interface.
3. Tell Banana Chat to generate
Banana Chat is powered by Anthropic's Claude, running directly inside Revit. When it opens, it automatically loads your firm's standards, your correction history from past sessions, and a summary of your drawing library — so it already knows your sheet numbering conventions, detail naming patterns, and what to fix from last time.
Before generating, Banana Chat references your firm's approved drawing library — matching layout, numbering format, and detail style to drawings your firm has already signed off on.
Just tell it what you want in plain language: "Place the floor plan on A2.01" or "align the gridlines on this elevation." Banana Chat operates through Revit's own tools and API — every action it takes is a native Revit operation, running inside your model the same way you would. You direct the session, it executes.
Watch the chat panel for progress. Generated sheets are marked with * in the Project Browser so you can tell them apart from your existing work at a glance. If the session is interrupted, ask Banana Chat to resume — it skips sheet numbers that already exist and picks up where it left off. When you're ready to finalize, ask Banana Chat to remove the * marks.
4. What Banana Chat builds
A full CD set is built conversationally across four areas — Banana Chat handles each on your direction, using Revit's own tools throughout:
Sheets and views. Tell Banana Chat which sheets to create or which views to place. It creates the sheet, places the view, fits the crop box, and applies view templates — you move to the next one.
Construction details. Ask for a wall section, a door jamb detail, or a full detail sheet. Banana Chat uses Revit's drafting tools directly — lines, filled regions, detail components — and places existing unplaced details from your model before generating new ones.
Schedules. Request a door schedule, window schedule, room finish schedule, or keynote legend — Banana Chat creates it as a live Revit schedule and places it on the sheet you specify.
Finishing. Ask Banana Chat to populate titleblock fields, check scales, or flag empty viewports. Each pass tightens the document set toward issue-ready.
5. Correct it — Banana Chat remembers everything
If something is wrong — the wrong scale, a missing view, a sheet that needs to be reorganized — just tell Banana Chat. It applies the fix immediately and remembers it for every future session.
BIM Monkey stores three layers of persistent intelligence, collectively called Standards:
Firm Memory stores rules and preferences that apply to every project. Say "remember: bathroom elevations always go on A3.2" or "always do X" — Banana Chat saves it to your firm's account and loads it automatically at the start of every future session, on any machine.
Project Notes store observations specific to one project. Say "note for this project: unit 1A is the model unit, all others are mirrors" or "save that for this project" — it's saved against that project name and loaded only when you have that model open.
Generation Standards are built from your correction history. When you override something Banana Chat produces — move a callout, change a line weight, edit an annotation — that correction is captured as a structured rule. Rules are applied to your firm automatically. At the start of every session, your full rule set is assembled and loaded automatically — the model drafts the way your firm drafts, not because it's been retrained, but because it's been briefed.
Architect control: Only a licensed architect reviewing their own firm's output writes directly to the training loop. Corrections flow from the professional who is contractually responsible for the work — every rule in your Generation Standards traces back to a human decision made by someone at your firm.
View and manage all three layers at app.bimmonkey.ai/brain. Everything applies automatically — you never need to remind Banana Chat of something it already knows.
You can also ask questions mid-session: "what views are on sheet A2.01?", "is the stair section placed anywhere?", "create a door schedule and put it on A0.3." Banana Chat can read and modify your model at any point during your session.
6. Load redlines and regenerate
When a client or reviewer marks up your drawings, load the redlined PDF directly into BIM Monkey using the Load button in the Redline Review panel of the BIM Monkey ribbon. Banana Chat analyzes the markup — identifying what was circled, crossed out, dimensioned differently, or flagged with notes — and extracts a structured list of changes.
Those changes become the instruction set for the next generation. You don't manually translate redlines into model edits — you load the PDF, review what Banana Chat found, and tell it to regenerate. The output incorporates the feedback automatically.
7. Code checks and compliance
Ask Banana Chat to verify zoning and building code compliance directly against your model. It can check occupancy classifications, egress path requirements, accessible route compliance, and flag elements that don't meet applicable code — returning structured findings you can act on without leaving Revit. Compliance notes are saved as project notes and loaded automatically in every future session on that project.
8. Access the external data layer
Banana Chat connects to three distinct live data sources for any US address:
Parcel & ownership data — lot dimensions, legal description, assessed value, year built, and ownership pulled from county assessor records. Available nationwide.
Zoning & development standards — zone designation, setback requirements, height limits, floor area ratios, allowed uses, and conditional uses from the applicable zoning code. Available nationwide. For the following markets, code checks draw on standards pulled directly from each city's authoritative zoning layer — giving Banana Chat more precise data than a national aggregator, including base vs. bonus height distinctions, overlay flags, and build-to setback requirements:
Permit history — recent permit filings pulled live from each city's open data portal, including permit number, type, description, status, and valuation. This is a direct integration with 23 city datasets — not a third-party aggregator — so records reflect what each jurisdiction has published. Available for the following markets:
9. Share your library with your team
Invite colleagues at app.bimmonkey.ai/team — anyone with a BIM Monkey account can join your firm's team. Team members share a combined training library, so uploads from any member contribute to everyone's generations.
10. Build custom skills for repeating workflows
When a multi-step sequence comes up on every project — a specific sheet setup, a naming pattern, a code check you always run — you can turn it into a one-line custom skill. Any team member can invoke it by name from Banana Chat, without re-explaining the steps each time. Skills compound with your firm memory and generation standards, so the more you define, the faster each session runs.
You can write a skill manually or ask Banana Chat to generate one for you — describe what you want the skill to do in plain language and it will draft the steps automatically. Skills can be created directly from the BIM Monkey plugin inside Revit or from the web app at app.bimmonkey.ai/skills — both libraries stay in sync, so a skill created in the plugin is immediately available on the web and vice versa. Once saved, a skill is available to every team member immediately.
Slack notifications
Connect BIM Monkey to a Slack channel at app.bimmonkey.ai/settings. You'll receive a message whenever a new project finishes uploading to your library — so you can step away while the AI processes your drawings and get notified the moment it's done.
Claude API cost
When you upload a CD set to your library, BIM Monkey analyzes every page using our own Claude API account — that cost is on us, not you.
Banana Chat runs Anthropic's Claude directly on your machine using your Anthropic API key. Generation conversations consume Claude API tokens billed to your Anthropic account at standard rates. A full CD generation is a long multi-turn conversation with many tool calls — typical cost is $0.75–$1.50 per session depending on project size and how many corrections and follow-up instructions you give.
You can monitor your usage at console.anthropic.com.
How to tell if your library is working
Click Standards in the Documentation panel of the BIM Monkey ribbon. Your library score (0–100) reflects coverage across all major detail categories, page volume, and project count. Below the score, the Library Gaps section lists every detail type that is missing from your library or has fewer than 5 examples — flagged as Missing or Thin. Upload completed CD sets that include those detail types to fill the gaps.
The real tell is in the generated output: if annotations match your firm's exact callout strings (R-21 BATT INSUL @ 2X6 WD STUD WALL) rather than generic descriptions (exterior wall insulation), the AI is drawing from your library.
Do not upload redlined PDFs to your training library. The AI reads markup notes and reviewer comments as architectural callouts and adds them to your vocabulary. Upload only clean, approved, permit-ready sets. If you accidentally upload a redlined PDF, go to Library → find the project → Archive it.
System requirements
Software
| OS | Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit) |
| Revit | 2024, 2025, or 2026 |
| Claude Code | Get Claude Code → — installed automatically by the BIM Monkey installer. Banana Chat reads your API keys from its settings file. |
| Account | Anthropic account with billing enabled — generation sessions are billed to your API account at standard rates (typically $0.75–$1.50 per session) |
| API key | BIM Monkey key from bimmonkey.ai |
| Internet | Required — Banana Chat communicates with the BIM Monkey backend and Anthropic API during generation |
Hardware minimums
| RAM | 16 GB minimum · 32 GB recommended for generation sessions |
| CPU | Modern Intel or AMD, 4+ cores |
| GPU | DirectX 11 · 4 GB VRAM (Revit requirement — no AI GPU needed) |
| Storage | 5 GB free · SSD strongly recommended |
Practical recommendations
| 32 GB RAM | Generation sessions keep Revit active for 10–120+ minutes. Memory pressure during long sessions causes crashes. |
| SSD | Revit reads and writes the model file throughout a session. Spinning disk adds latency and increases the chance of timeouts. |
| Wired internet | Banana Chat communicates with the Anthropic API and BIM Monkey backend continuously. Ethernet beats Wi-Fi for long sessions. |
Not required
| Local AI hardware | All AI inference runs through Anthropic's API — no GPU acceleration or ML setup needed on your machine |
| Server or Docker | No self-hosted infrastructure of any kind |
The bottleneck is almost always Revit's own performance on your model — not the plugin or the API. A well-maintained model on capable hardware produces the best results.
What it is and isn't
BIM Monkey is a tool for licensed architects and designers. All output must be reviewed and approved by the architect of record before use in permitted construction. The AI assists with the mechanical work of document production — it does not replace professional judgment, code compliance review, or the licensed professional's responsibility for the final documents.
Get started
Sign up at bimmonkey.ai/pricing to create an account. Your API key arrives by email and the installer walks you through the rest. First-time setup takes about ten minutes.