VW 2011 Export to Revit

[jfmarch]

We have begun a project where we will be the design consultant to a architect of record firm that uses Revit, and we use VW 2011. We have played a bit with exporting our simple VW BIM test file to see how it imports into their system, and the results so far have not gone well. The Revit firm is planning to redraw our designs, but we want to exhaust all export/import possibilities to save them some time. Are there any tips anyone can provide us with?

Edited April 4, 2012 by jfmarch

[willofmaine]

Are you exporting to DWG or to IFC? I'm hoping the IFC format will make sharing files between Vectorworks (an AEC software) and Revit (an AEC software...) close to seamless. It seems it should, if the purpose of the IFC format is to allow the sharing of BIM models between many different types of software (including both AEC and non-AEC softwares...)...

[Peter van der Elst]

We have just been testing IFC export from VW 2012 to Revit 2012 and 2013. It still doesn't seem to work. The IFC files open perfectly in Solibri and Tekla Bimsight. The solution we use now is to export each layer to a separate DWG file (only 3d) and let the constructionengineer import it in Revit. I know the IFC data is lost, but the constructor uses our 3d model to trace it's construction, walls, beams and so on. I don't know if IFC's from Tekla or Archicad import correct in Revit.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

[willofmaine]

Interesting; it almost sounds like Revit could be having import issues, rather than Vectorworks having export issues (since Solibri & Tekla seem to open what, if I'm understanding correctly, are the files exported from VW). Disappointing that it all doesn't just work! Anyway, thanks for the informative response, Will