Frame for Excel 1.2.0: Export from Visible, Offline Mode, and a Cleaner Ribbon

A focused update for teams who live in Excel

The Frame for Excel Add-in just reached version 1.2.0.

This release is not about adding everything at once. It is about making the daily workflow faster, cleaner, and more flexible for teams who work with BIM data inside Excel.

Four things changed in this update:

1. You can now export data from visible elements only.
2. A new Prepare Offline button lets you work on site without a reliable connection.
3. The ribbon and taskpane have been redesigned to reduce clutter and keep the most-used actions closer.
4. The Refresh feature (Beta) now focuses on unfiltered tables for better performance.

Let us walk through what each of these changes means in practice.

Export from visible elements

This is the headline feature of 1.2.0.

Until now, exporting data from the Frame Add-in would always pull the full model dataset. That works well for many workflows, but it does not match how teams actually review models.

In the 3D viewer, you often isolate or hide elements to focus on a specific system, level, or category. You might hide all furniture to look only at structural walls. You might isolate a single floor to check MEP elements.

With Export from Visible, the add-in now respects what you are looking at.

Here is how it works:

1. Open your model in the Frame viewer inside Excel.
2. Use the standard viewer controls to isolate or hide elements. Narrow the view to exactly the elements you care about.
3. Click Export from Visible in the ribbon.
4. The add-in exports a table with only the elements currently visible in the viewer.

The export works with the same options as the standard Export Data feature. You still get flat tables, pivot tables, and the same column controls. The difference is the scope: only what is visible gets exported.

This is especially useful for:

• System-by-system reviews: Isolate plumbing, then export. Isolate electrical, then export.
• Level-based takeoffs: Hide all levels except the one you are reviewing.
• Clash or issue focus: Isolate the elements involved in a coordination issue and export just those for a report.
• QA workflows: Filter down to a subset, export, and check quantities without noise from the rest of the model.

You do not need to change your existing viewer habits. Isolate and hide the way you always do. The export now follows.

Prepare Offline

Construction sites do not always have good internet. Some have none at all.

If you are heading to site and still want to interact with your model through the Frame viewer in Excel, you can now click Prepare Offline in the ribbon.

This button does one thing: it sets up your current model for offline use for a couple of hours.

Here is the typical flow:

1. While you still have a connection (office, hotel, hotspot), open your model in the Frame Add-in.
2. Click Prepare Offline in the ribbon.
3. The add-in caches what it needs.
4. When you reach the site, even with weak or no connection, you can still interact with the viewer and your exported data.

This is not a full offline sync engine. It is a lightweight, practical way to keep working when the network drops. The cached model stays available for a few hours, which covers most site visit scenarios.

For teams that spend time on site reviewing models, checking installations against the BIM data, or walking through coordination issues with contractors, this removes a real blocker.

Ribbon and taskpane redesign

The second big change in 1.2.0 is about where things live.

In previous versions, the Refresh action and the Add Other Properties action were inside the taskpane. That meant you had to open the panel, find the right section, and click from there.

In 1.2.0, both of those actions have moved to the ribbon.

This matters because:

• Refresh is a high-frequency action. If you are working through model updates or checking data changes, you refresh often. Having it one click away in the ribbon is faster than opening the panel every time.
• Add Other Properties is used when you want to bring in additional property columns that were not part of the original export. Moving it to the ribbon makes it easier to access mid-workflow without losing your place.

The taskpane itself is also cleaner. With those actions moved out, the panel focuses on model selection, export options, and viewer controls. Less clutter, fewer clicks.

The overall ribbon design has been improved as well. Button grouping, icons, and spacing have been refined to make the add-in feel more like a native part of Excel and less like a bolt-on.

Refresh: performance improvements (Beta)

The Refresh feature is still in Beta, and this update brings an important change to how it works.

In 1.2.0, you cannot refresh tables that are filtered. If your Excel table has active filters applied, the refresh action will not run.

This is a deliberate change. Refreshing filtered tables introduced performance issues that made the experience unreliable. By restricting refresh to unfiltered tables, the feature is now faster and more predictable.

The practical workflow is simple:

1. Clear your filters before refreshing.
2. Run the refresh to pull the latest model data.
3. Reapply your filters after the update completes.

This keeps the refresh operation focused and performant while we continue to improve the feature. As the Beta progresses, we will look at bringing filtered table support back in a way that does not compromise speed.

What this means for your workflow

If you are already using the Frame for Excel Add-in, version 1.2.0 makes your existing workflow smoother without changing how you work.

• Export from Visible gives you a faster way to get targeted data out of the model without filtering after the fact.
• Prepare Offline removes the dependency on site connectivity for model review.
• Ribbon-first actions reduce the number of clicks for the things you do most.
• Refresh performance improves by focusing on unfiltered tables during the Beta.

If you have not tried the Frame Add-in yet, this is a good time to start. The combination of direct BIM data in Excel, a live 3D viewer, and now offline support makes it one of the more practical tools for teams who need model data in a format everyone can use.

This is version 1.2.0

We are calling this 1.2.0 because it builds on the foundation we set in earlier releases and adds real, usable improvements to the daily workflow.

And we are not stopping here. There is more coming for the Frame for Excel Add-in, and we will share it as it lands.

Stay with us.

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Ready to try it? Get started with Frame or update your existing add-in to version 1.2.0 in Excel.