PDF and DWG files from Revit Majorly slowing down VW

[Grethe Connerth]

Hi VW lovers,

 

I am having major !!! problems with PDF and DWG files prduced out of a 3D Revit model.

 

• the Revit files are 3D models of a building with interior fit-out of a supermarket ( displays only no products ) which one of my clients generated
• the files I am using in Vectorworks are one floorplan and 4 interior elevations - all created from the Revit 3D models into a PDF and DWG
• I - at this point - only need 2D elevations and the top view of the floorplan in order to create layouts for signage on the walls
• when inserting ( import or drag & drop ) either PDF or DWG into VW the program slows down so bad that my workflow goes from minutes literally to days !!!
• I tried every work around I could think of
  • referencing the files
  • deleting all displays out of the files as I only need the building and the layout of the walls

 

So basically what happens is that my computer screen build up takes forever and I am looking at my 'wheel twirling' forever.

 

Is there by any chance a work-around?

 

Please note that I do need a vectorised file in order to be able to snap to the layout.

 

Your insights and feedback is much apprecaited.

 

Cheers,

Grethe 

Edited March 29, 2019 by Grethe Connerth

[zoomer]

I think the problem is that most of the 3D Objects from Revit aren't Solids

but loose 3D Polygons (not even mMeshes) - which most CAD's don't like.

Neither in OpenGL nor in data handling.

 

That happens with the defaults of Revit's DWG Export Settings,

in which very rare people a willing to look into.

I lately had someone at the phone while exporting and so he found an

option to "export DWG geometry as Solids". That made nearly everything

real Solids and was much better.

The next thing is that every part in Revit is a separate family, which comes

into VW as a Symbol. Although 90% of all these parts exist only 1 or 2 times

in the drawing. In that case these Symbols are counterintuitive and just

overhead. So it helps to "explode" these.

There are lots of other Options that make thins worse.

Like the option to cut all Story-extending geometry between Stories,

which provides you with more extra unneeded part count.

 

If you try a real *.RVT import, very very few Revit objects will come in as Solids.

Also each object, if cought in unnecessary Symbols or not, is kept in a "Revit Object"

Container which also is just extra overhead.

Inside another "Add Solids" Container overhead, as the geometry inside are again

just loose 3D Polygons. So the resulting Add Solid is just a fake Solid and not

editable with Tools like PushPull and such anyway.

So I would prefer asking for DWG exports from Revit, like you have.

 

 

For the PDF, which loads dynamically in VW views depending on zoom level

which can get very slow when you zoom in, my workaround is to convert PDFs

to standard PNG bitmaps, at a useful resolution that you can see all details.

You can't snap to it like a PDF (PDF Snapping ON is also very expensive).

But my experience was that snapping to PDF "geometry" was never really

accurate either. So I prefer them as Raster Images instead and Grid Snap.

Edited March 29, 2019 by zoomer

[Grethe Connerth]

Hi @zoomer

 

thank you for your time and insights.

 

I never worked with Revit. Should I ask my client to use the setting: "Export DWG geometry as Solids" ?

 

Yes, I see 3D symbols in the DWG imported into VW, but these seem to be 'flattened' symbols into 2D as they only show up in 2D. Also they have hundreds of lines ontop of each other. Therefore I PURGE the document thereafter which helps a bit on the file size and screen build up. 

 

GC

[zoomer]

I also don't know what Revit users do.

I often have things like 3-5 Walls or Facade Posts over each other.

Purge duplicates often fails for me as these are somehow on different Classes.