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2017 Revit Import


nrkuhl

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Is the Revit import feature in 2017 intended to allow us to bring in entire Revit models, or just single objects (families)?

 

I'm trying to import a Revit model that a consultant generated right now, and all I'm getting is the title page of their drawing set.  The help file has no real information so far either.

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I am going to speak out of turn here and say that regardless of intention the Revit Import is not suited for full Revit models.  In my early testing, even small family objects like a faucet or window were unacceptably large.  I ended up finding other versions or converted them to generic solids or meshes which cut their size 50-70%.   These objects also took a minute or so to open.


I have not tried a full Revit import, but if it take a minute for a window or faucet - I did not dare importing our hotel project file with 1000s of these types of objects.

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I have tried to import a full REvit model of one of our schools into my site plans - and it doesn't work.  It takes 20-30 mins and when it finally does show up - there is no roof, only blocks of walls.  I have not been able to successfully use this feature.   The school Revit files are around 100 megs or so....... 

Edited by benboggs
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5 hours ago, nrkuhl said:

Is the Revit import feature in 2017 intended to allow us to bring in entire Revit models, or just single objects (families)?

 

I'm trying to import a Revit model that a consultant generated right now, and all I'm getting is the title page of their drawing set.  The help file has no real information so far either.

 

I believe the intent is that it can import both Revit Families (.RFA) and Projects (.RVT).

 

As noted in the other replies, it is very slow to import: I successfully imported a sample 14MB RVT file but it took 30-45 minutes to import. Navigating around the model is dreadfully slow. And what gets imported is not consistent, sometimes it's a just a wireframe. Sometimes each Revit family will be a group of 3D Polygons.

 

In its current state, I would not recommend using it for consultant coordination. You'd have better luck with another file format like IFC or DWG.

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Interesting, thanks all.  In this case it's not a big problem, we had a small side project that we subbed out to an even smaller firm.  They got busy and we brought it back in house for CD/CA, and now I'm trying to figure out the best way of bringing their drawings/model from Revit into Vectorworks.

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  • 8 months later...

I've not worked with Revit consultants but do exchange DWG files all the time in both directions. What I was told a couple / three years ago was the Revit didn't play well with ACAD, & it sounds like it is yet to play well with VW. 

I'm curious; how stable is the IFC import/export between VW & Revit? 

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4 hours ago, Jim Smith said:

I've not worked with Revit consultants but do exchange DWG files all the time in both directions. What I was told a couple / three years ago was the Revit didn't play well with ACAD, & it sounds like it is yet to play well with VW. 

I'm curious; how stable is the IFC import/export between VW & Revit? 

 

This current project is the first that I've worked on with a consultant (structural in this case) using a BIM program.  Nothing crashed, but in order to actually get the 3D models in the same space, I had to manually move some things.  I think this is a problem created by VW rather than Revit - I have our site modeled with absolute dimensions, which results in the model being ~500' above the origin.  The IFC import from Revit came in on the origin.  I'm not sure what the best method of coordinating origins between programs that operate very differently is.

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20 minutes ago, nrkuhl said:

 I'm not sure what the best method of coordinating origins between programs that operate very differently is.

 

Frankly neither am I. Sometimes XYZ is on the money, other times the imported items are parsecs away from 00. I have seen that some consultants' imports also have this issue, sometimes the result of an Imported Block way off in space.

 

Is there a best practice to keep origin 00 consistent between programmes? 

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2 minutes ago, Jim Smith said:

Is there a best practice to keep origin 00 consistent between programmes? 

 

Actually, 0,0,0 should be the same through every program.  But if everyone involved in a project doesn't keep their drawings in the same relation to the origin, things are going to end up off.  PEBKAC and all that.

 

Both VW and Revit seem to try to obscure origins and all the 3D modeling backend (I know VW has rulers and all that, but it's not the same), compared to actual 3D modeling programs (i.e Rhino).  I've found anything with a command line much easier to manage geometric relations in, since there's always some version of "move this object to 0,0,0" available as a command.  If there's a way in VW to move an object to a specified, absolute point in 3D space, I haven't found it.

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On 6/20/2017 at 8:09 AM, Markvl said:

The only place available that I can see is in the OIP when an object is selected.  Wishlist?

And the display of this varies by object type and view.  

 

I did just figure out that the move by points tool does let you do this if you tab all the way through the fields, you get to (working plane based) absolute measurements.

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  • 8 months later...

Hello:

In my experience, importing single models from a BIM Library isn't a problem. But if I try to import an entire building, for develop an extension for example, is completely a nightmare. ( adding to this, people that work with REVIT comes from AutoCAD and you know what's mean that).

 

Well, technically speaking, when import a REVIT file, grows and grows. And all are meshes. VectorWorks prefer work with generic solids. Then it is not a good idea import it.

 

The last file I try import from a 144.3 Mb rvt file, grows to a 1.2 Gb

Screen Shot 2018-03-17 at 20.47.15.jpg

Edited by Francisco J. D. Rogers
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