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How do import large Revit Data into VW ?

 

When was asked I decided to send me DWGs.

It looked fine at first,

Only sub 30 Classes, lots of Materials came in.

 

But none of the Materials are applied to anything by Class or Object.

Millions of Symbols for each part, even if there are only 1 or 2 instances.

2 imported DWG Stories wer sub 15 MB each, VW file >200 MB.

And it stresses VW's OpenGL as well as C4D.

 

When trying to estimate what will not be seen and could be deleted to optimize

my ModelI realized that the few Classes weren't enough to separate Elements.

E.g. a Class for Curtain Wall Glazing, is also used for opaque Acoustic Panels.

(Not sure if that should have been just done differently in Revit ?)

 

I can at least Custom Select the Symbol instances by Name Contains.

But am not sure if it is better to degrade Symbols to Objects,

As I will get even more "real" separate Objects.

But I also can't go into 400 Acoustic Panel Symbols to change their contents Classes ....

 

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I don't get the Revit logic and Data Management.

 

Everything comes in as a VW Symbol.

But these are just Revit Families, kind of what we know as PIOs.

They aren't used in a Symbol in a VW logic (edit one - edit all, save file size ....)

They can, but aren't always used to create more than 1 instance copies.

Often such Symbols appear only 1 time in the Model.

 

And even worse, there are a lot of Symbol copies, that have the same content

and could be a single Symbol only. But no chance to find them.

Edited by zoomer
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I'm having similar frustrations, even on a small (24MB) Revit file. Part of me feels it's a good start to trace over, but that's about it. Sheet layers have the title blocks, but none of the cameras/planes from Revit. Roofs are a disaster (walls punching through, etc). It's a lot better than 2017, especially around converting objects (e.g. making a Revit window in wall and VW window in wall), but there's a ways to go to say that it's really working.

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What is a real problem is that Revit seems to cut any Element at a Story Plane.

So like part of a Stair Body is at 1st Floor while an upper part is in 2nd Floor.

That made Solid conversion very very error prone.

Also Walls running through the whole Building seem to be cut along every

Room Space.

 

It is a bit of a night mare from an Archviz perspective.

A bit pity that there was no chance to not dump all Symbols.

But every Software I imported the Model does much easier after the Blocks

were exploded ....

 

I don't think these things would be better with a direct RVT import.

I try it with every new VW Version by Autodesk's Demo Files.

But the result doesn't look much better than re-modeling from scratch.

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@zoomer

Another workaround.

Kinda depends on how vwx interprets the location, rotation, etc of the rtv fake symbols, but something like this might help solve the separate instances acting like individual objects:

 

•Select one of the rvt/dwg "fake" symbol instances. Then Modify>Convert to Group, then Modify>Create Symbol.

•Edit the new symbol. Ungroup the content (if desired), rename, change classes or attributes, etc. Exit the edit.

• Test the insertion point: Select another one or two of the rtv/dwg instances>Duplicate in Place>Modify>Convert>Replace with Symbol> choose your new vwx symbol.

• If needed, Edit Symbol to adjust insertion point and/or attitude to match the rvt/dwg original.

• When all is in order, delete the originals from the Duplicate in Place.

 

Now use the Magic Wand tool or Custom Selection command to select ALL the other rvt/dwg fake instances of this symbol.

Examine the selection (in a Group?) to make sure it captures only the objects required.

Then Modify>Convert>Replace with Symbol > assign your new vwx symbol.

 

All the selected rvt/dwg instances of that symbol should now display as instances of your vwx symbol with the advantages of global edits and file efficiency.

If you find strays that missed the initial selection, convert them as you find them.

Repeat for other fake symbols.

 

-B

Edited by Benson Shaw
backtrack to dupe orginals
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The problem is the missing indication of how often a Symbol is used.

So to find those Symbols you want to keep.

Within about 400 hundred Symbols, about 80 % are only used as a

single instance. If I could separate the good Symbols from the bad

Symbols, I could explode the bad only and keep the rest.

 

I think I understand now why Autodesk users pack everything in Blocks,

they don't have real Groups, like the rest of the world.

Their Named Groups are just named Selection Sets.

They misuse Blocks for Grouping, but invented Dynamic Blocks instead.

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3 hours ago, zoomer said:

The problem is the missing indication of how often a Symbol is used.

So to find those Symbols you want to keep.

Within about 400 hundred Symbols, about 80 % are only used as a

single instance. If I could separate the good Symbols from the bad

Symbols, I could explode the bad only and keep the rest. 

 

You could create a simple worksheet and make it count al the symbols in your drawing.

In this way you easily see of which one there is just one, and of which ones there are more then one.

 

From the worksheet you can select each individual symbol of which there is just one and convert it to a group.

The only downside is that you can not select all symbols with just one instances at the same time (as for as i know)

So you have to select every symbol and convert it by hand.

 

But maybe someone can create a simple script to convert all single symbols...

 

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