Sketchup to Revit

nickallen

Hi Out There

Has anyone experience or understanding what parameters sketchup can define in IFC to export a simple wall with an opening to Revit as a system family, i.e. a native Revit ‘wall’. To generate a system wall I believe, Revit requires the base plan of that wall and its height. To define the opening for a window, presumably sketchup can somehow define the location of that window and its size within the surface (that it sits in Sketchup) and possibly export that information to Revit via IFC along with the plan area of the wall and its height. In IFC speak, as I understand it, Revit requires the following information. "A wall (IFCWALLSTANDARDCASE) with a simple rectangular opening (IFCOPENINGELEMENT)"

Anyone any thoughts or ideas?

Pixero

We've come to the conclusion that to avoid possible errors by importing SketchUp model directly into Revit we do it like this: (Translated with Google so there might be some errors in the translation.)

Import a SketchUp model to Revit

In Revit, Stand in the view level the model be set to.
Create an In-Place Mass in a Revit project, or create a family in the Family Editor.
Choose Insert panel and "Link Cad".
In the "Link Cad formed" dialog, navigate to the folder with SketchUp file.
Select the SKP file format.
Select the SketchUp file you want to get into.
Specify the import settings. These are the recommended:
Colors: Preserve Layers: All Import Units: Auto-Detect,
Positioning: Auto - Origin to Origin Place at: Level 1 or Ref. Level Orient to View,
Click Open.

The fact that you link the SketchUp model you can "drive" the form in Revit.
Changing the shape of the existing object in SketchUp and update the SketchUp model in Revit
with the "Manage Links" and "reload".
Can you draw the shape of the Revit objects with "Update to face" that is applied to the sketchup mass "By face". It is here possible to import the SketchUp file with the consequence that changes made in SketchUp is not updated, but if you import the SketchUp model again.
Do you use linking, update the SketchUp model in Revit with the "Manage Links" to reload.

You may also need to do this to see the SketchUp model:
Switch to a 3D view.
To make the model clearer select (Shaded with Edges) under the View Control.
Click on Home Work Plane panel (Set). In the Work Plane dialog, select a plane.
Enter ZF (Zoom to Fit) to zoom in / out so that the entire model is visible.
If you are creating a mass family, click on the Massing & Site Conceptual Mass panel (Show Mass).
Select Massing & Site panel and click on the various model parts with the respective "Model by face" tools (wall, ceiling, etc.) to make smart objects of them.

A Revit Wall can not have holes in it to place the window.
If you have a wall with a window hole do this:
• Double-click on the elevation to view and select the work plane.
• Use the Rectangle tool to draw the contours of the windows on top of the holes.
• Back in the 3D view, select the wall object and select Edit Profile.
• Mark all the window holes and press Delete. Click Finish Edit Mode.
• Insert the Revit window with the right location and size by using the lines you drew with the "Rectangle" tool.

Hope this helps!

rv1974

Pixero, have Revit completely replaced Autocad in your office?

Pixero

Mostly.
Every new project we do is to be started in Revit but we have a few customers that still wants us to use AutoCAD.

rv1974

And where's SU in your pipeline? Does it get involved in preliminary stage or you render revit made models in SU?
P.S. Are proficient in Revit? May I humbly ask you (rare!) Revit related questions in PMs?

Pixero

I feel like we've hijacked this thread...
No, I'm not very good with Revit. I know how to get stuff out of it though.
We use SketchUp in early stages and in some cases when the architect wants to try different facade solutions and stuff that is a lot harder to do in Revit. Then we export from Revit to SketchUp.
We also use SketchUp for rendering archviz.

nickallen

Gents

Thanks for your responses. No problem with the hi-jack. Enjoying the chat.

Pixiero. I think the process you are describing is similar to our current process. We use SU for spatial planning and concept design. Once at concept design we transfer the concept model to Revit for detailed development.

The tool we use is a Sketchup plugin called Quarter1 www.quarter1.com The model output from this is an IFC file which carries the building spaces, geometry and any associated data (room naming and numbering etc) and any classification. (It's not the generic IFC export from SU but one we have developed with better functionality).

The problem is that the imported geometry is not parametric. The external walls, internal walls, floors etc are .brep I.e. They are dumb. so we have to trace over them to deliver Revit functionality.

This is obviously time consuming, so a better solution would be for the walls to come in as native Revit objects with the inherent Revit functionality.

Herin lies the problem. Whilst you can define what Revit needs from an IFC file to produce a Revit wall, it seems SU is unable to provide this information hence my original post. It's more of a coding problem defining the IFC file from Ruby than an Export / Import process.

It can be done, because you can move a wall from Autodesk Architecture into Revit via IFC which imports as a native Revit wall. It just seems that it can't be done from Sketchup.

P.S. I'm not a Revit user either.

rv1974

by 'tracing' you mean 'wall by face' manual boring clicking?

nickallen

Not quite...

Thanks for this, we will check it out. The essence of the post is about IFC and sketchup, for which we are looking for an answer. However, if this is a better get around, it will be an improvement on what we have at the moment.

I'll report back.

Nick

nickallen

We've checked it out. This is old hat really. We still have to trace off the geometry to form editable Revit families.

Here's the solution to the problem of SketchUp to Revit.