Revit to Sketchup Workflow...

yahellid · 26 Feb 2011, 15:42

I indirectly posted about this recently, but I want to be more explicit.

Does anyone have a Revit to Sketchup workflow that they would recommend?

My situation is a client who ultimately wants a sketchup model to tool around in. I want to build it in Revit for the variety of values that Revit has.

The trouble seems to be that every time I import into sketchup, I have to reapply textures to everything. While this is bearable for one round of edits, any additional revit edits become tedious.

Does anyone have a good workflow to deal with this?

Thanks. Not sure where to post this in this forum.

numbthumb · 26 Feb 2011, 17:29

I don´t use Revit, but maybe you´ll find something useful here: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=24230

yahellid · 3 Mar 2011, 18:22

So I'm the only person who needs to do this? Really?

brodie · 3 Mar 2011, 18:32

I've done this a couple times using this method...

http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=3271&p=15926&hilit=revit+layers#p15926

It's worked quite well.

-Brodie

thomthom · 3 Mar 2011, 18:33

You're not the only one. I need a good one too, but I've yet to find one.

If I use DWG I get components, which is good. But no materials and curved walls often miss faces.

If I export to FBX and then convert to 3DS I get materials, but all components are unique.

My experience with Revit to SketchUp has not been good. All the methods I've tried is flawed, with always some data loss, resulting in a messy SU model which is hard to modify.

yahellid · 4 Mar 2011, 01:43

@Brodie:

That topic you linked to was considerably helpful, thank you very much. In fact it was so helpful that I feel foolish for not having discovered it myself. However, when I believe that I searched for it in the search box before posting. Additionally, in searching for "Revit to Sketchup" the aptly titled "[tutorial] Revit to Sketchup - How to" still does not come up on the first few pages (I didn't check all 25). How can this deficiency be explained.

Should my search method be improved?

Back to topic. Thank you! As is agreed, there is no beautiful way, but the layer material exchanger moves me many spaces towards a better approach than what I previously had.

Now if only there were a way for the exterior and interior faces of walls to be exported from Revit on different layers...

Bueller? Bueller?

yahellid · 4 Mar 2011, 01:47

Regarding my search method, I do see that I was searching poorly, using the box in the upper left. I should have searched the forums using the box in the upper right of the forum sections.

brodie · 4 Mar 2011, 13:49

The search function here can be flaky sometimes. I seem to recall it being at the top of the list when I first found it. It took me about 3 different searches to find it this time around (and that's knowing that it was there and roughly what it contained).

Glad it helped

-Brodie

yahellid · 28 Apr 2011, 04:14

I posted about this issue on Revit City, and you can import a FBX file from Revit, which can be converted into Sketchup with all materials remaining. I was able to do it through SimLab FBX converter demo. The person who mentioned it opened the fbx file in 3d Max, exported a 3ds into Sketchup, which retained the material properties.

I don't know if there is a free fbx converter or not.

Whatever values or merit Revit, or any other modeling software has, Sketchup has a fantastic quality of moving around a model that none of the Autodesk softwares have.

Luds · 16 Jun 2015, 13:25

@yahellid said:

... into Sketchup with all materials remaining. I was able to do it through SimLab FBX converter ...

Thank you for pointing the Addin from SimLab, having played with the demo for a few minutes it looks quite powerful indeed.

Thank you !

KrisM · 16 Jun 2015, 14:41

I am using a RevitLT / SketchUp workflow. I've tried all manner of programs and in the end settled on RevitLT. The documentation is what sells it for me - grids, schedules, tags for windows and doors, etc. That being said, nothing rivals SkecthUp for the 3D modeling of odd stuff and all the possibilities of presentation.
I model everything I can in RevitLT and export the file as an acis solid dwg. This imports into SketchUp without any problems with all the Revit objects becoming components or groups. What doesn't happen is the importing of the textures. I do the texture application in SketchUp. This isn't as onerous as it sounds.
I use Simlab for 3D pdfs from SketchUp and find it quite useful. I can't use the Revit plugin as LT doesn't support plugins so I can't comment on that.
Not a perfect workflow but pretty good.

KrisM