Autocad Mep Or Revit

[Rashawn Devegowda]

okayhere is what I am trying to do. I'm using some 2d autocad files in my Revit model. One is a floor plan and one is a ceiling plan. The ceiling plan has a hatch pattern where there are dropped bulkheads.

I've laid the two files on top of one another, with offset, so the floor plan is at 0' and the ceiling is at 8'. I can then lay down my lights and stuff (I do electrical). All of this works just fine, and it lets me use very similar processes when I have projects where I am supplied a Revit model and projects where I only get AutoCAD.

The only problem I am fighting is that I want this bulkhead hatch to be transparent, so that items on the floor plan show up. (so that I can show that a pot light is centered over a sink for example).

VG settings doesn't seem to give me any transparency options on the linked cad file. The only workaround I have so far is to change the hatch pattern away from solid but the plots are less than satisfying.

I'm not sure if you've imported or linked your cad file but if you link your cad you should be able to use the halftone option which should make your CAD import fairly transparent as the image shows the option here.

Ok, well if you import instead of link, you can go into visibility graphics, imported categories and then hit the plus symbol to open up a list of all the layers from your AutoCAD file. From there you can edit the lines thickness and colour, making it whatever you wish. Hope this alternative helps.

Apparently the same overrides work for changing the display of a linked revit file that they do for an inserted one. Do you get a similar option that lists all of your layers when you go in to the Manage > Manage Links dialog box? Do you get a similar list of layers and the option to edit their line styles/weights?

guys, the workaround is not all that bad - I just have to edit the hatch in the source AutoCAD file from a solid pattern to a linework based pattern and then the floor plan shows up in the pattern gaps. If anyone has any other ideas I'll try them out but i have other things to deal with that are more important.

Hey, it sounds like a good idea to change your lines in AutoCAD to linework based if you really want it to be a link. If not then I'd go for the import but its really up to how your practice want things done I guess. Glad your making some headway on it.

Hi, I ran a test with all setting same as your second screen shot. No change in output. I don't find anywhere a screen like your first screenshot but I'll dig some more. But could this be some difference in my file vs your test file?

This idea came from working with the Adobe software collection, where you can copy from Illustrator some lines, text, fills etc. and paste them straight in In-Design or Photoshop without any problem or saving a file.

The Idea is very simple, since they are both Autodesk software, it should be a more harmonic way how you transfer elements between them without saving 1000 files and creating a lot of junk in your computer.

And as you said, detailing (small scale drawings) and urban planing (large scale drawings) is still and will still be 2D for a while. Why not have a smoother way how to get elements inside Revit. Automatic conversion between ACAD blocks and Revit Detail Items or Detail Groups etc. etc.

Copy/paste goes through the Windows clipboard, unlike a dedicated import function. Trying to implement PASTE-handlers for every possibility would get quite taxing as opposed to the more regimented dedicated process. The latter can also be treated as a completely separate module for development and testing.

Having the ability to copy vector lines from autocad to facilitate the drawing of details and save time. Well, autocad has many vector drawing facilities, while Revit improves its drawing capabilities, I consider a good alternative to just do Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V from autocad and insert into the work plane.

Yeah, we are familiar with importing and inserting - a process that's clunky, messy, imperfect, and also has seen little improvement. Importing is why our Revit models have a hundred layers, two dozen text types, etc. You can copy paste into/out of cad to/from word, excel notepad (with just text, and imperfectly but at least it tries). I did this almost 20 yrs ago with cad.

The excuse of 'every one will soon work only in revit' is as inaccurate as it is lazy. While this stood a chance once, a decade or two of stagnation coupled with massive cost increases and decreases usability has fed real fuel to the Anti-Revit crowd.

Even if more people were happy with revit, the transition will be extremely lengthy. And made longer by needless complications like this. Why? Because transferring those thousands of master details from CAD to Revit was such an expensive process and didn't' have great results. It's still underway. Most small to medium sized firms (up to 100 or even 200 employees) still used CAD on old projects up until recently or still do today. Almost all have details or other relevant graphical info in CAD form.

I am working as an architecht in Revit. Now the vent-people who works in autocad want the elevations and plans of the bathrooms... I have made them in revit and layed out the various views nicely on a sheet. (don't mind my wierd colors)

I want THAT sheet in to model space in autoCad! I want that layout there. This is what happens. I export to DWG from revit. When opening dwg in autocad the layout window looks identucal to my revit sheet. BUT! in modle space the layout is messed up! Like this:

You cannot export a Sheet from Revit directly to AutoCAD model space, but there is a workaround. Open the AutoCAD file in AutoCAD (of course), stay in Paperspace, and use command: _EXPORTLAYOUT (or GUI as screenshot) to save the paperspace layout to another file. Open that file and you will see everything on modelspace, scale accordingly to get full scale.

is there any update for Revit 2023 or newer ?

this is a good solution for a hand full DWGs, but i have to export about 50 DWGs, then this is no way to go with

maybe there is a plugin? or any other advice, pls

It is easier to create a macro or lisp to save layout to DWG for multiple files than finding an adding in Revit. Even if you don't manually, it may take 20 minutes to do 50 files so it is no where near "no way".

What you are trying to do is not recommended practice. Revit does not like imported CAD stuff. You would be much better off creating new objects in Revit. Any families that we (the company I work for) get from external sources are fully examined and imported CAD entities are stripped from them before being used in a project. I am currently converting our entire detail library to native Revit objects. These are 2D drawings and I simplify them as much as possible before I import them. Any solids that I come across in the CAD files, I delete before importing and recreate in Revit.

Yes - I completely agree - however we have in excess of 50000 solids in the completed model - don't really fancy trying to re-create all them in Revit! - is there a work-around to do what I want to do?

I can't remember how to upload images or the dwg, however if I create a drawing in Autocad with 3 solids (say a pyramic, a box and a sphere), save it and then go to revit / open system template / import cad to bring in the drawing, then I get the 3 elements as a single entity hence the bounding box if I hover over any of them....when I try a partial or full explode I get a warning saying "Import contained 3D data or points which can't be exploded. Only 2D data was exploded.

I'm well aware of the "proper" way to do it - I'm trying to find a way around an issue we have at the moment with people who know Revit better than I do - please refer to MY question and answer if there is a way to do it or not please

My full intention, as a seasoned Revit user who has been through all the growing pains, is to give it to you "straight" - as most people would want it. I (or any experienced Revit user) will not promote any instruction on exploding DWG files in the Revit platform. Autodesk themselves have admitted that it's only a matter of when you will have a corrupt Revit model from this procedure, and the tool is there as a very last and only resort, or a temporary and sacrificial way of transitioning geometry from one platform to another.

On a simpler level from a not so seasoned user, 2D solids give you the same message. That is why I don't import them. Dimensions don't import so well either, so I explode them (he, he, he) and delete the solids that were once arrowheads before importing. Think of it as trying to convert an image to a .dwg in AutoCAD. It can be done but the results are always too messed up to fix. The simpler the entities the better the result in Revit and vice versa.

Your solids are disappearing because you are trying to explode 3d solids into a software that models 3d solids very differently then AutoCAD. Thus Revit is unable to recreate the solid. Also exploding dwg files into Reivt is the #1 no no. I would fire the person who exploded a dwg on the spot. Sounds like you already have exploded DWG file so your Revit model is already toast and you will experience model corruption sooner or later. This is guaranteed.

I'm sorry if I was rather touchy yesterday - it's been a very long week and I have no wish to antagonise people who put themselves out to help. To give a little bit of background to the situation and myself, I have inherited a problem from someone else, where all the services in a building have been drawn using cadduct (30 separate drawings), with the simple items such as pipework, ductwork, tray etc being created with the standard cadduct tools and the items of plant such as fire alarm panels, boilers, fire alarm sensors etc being created in native autocad solids. The cadduct entities will IFC out so they become single elements when brought into revit (thus allowing BIM information to be added to them), however the IFC export doesn't export the solids within the drawing, so I have to import them in. This however comes in as a single entity (comprising sometimes several thousand blocks) and I was looking for a way to allow them to come in a individual entities also so BIM info could be added to them. My own background is a very experienced Autocad (30 years nearly) and Cadduct (20 years nearly) user, and whilst I have used Revit for a few years I wouldn't pretend to be a superuser at all in that. I've been brought in on this project since the nature of what's being asked of the coordinated model has changed (ie the client now wants to go down the BIM route), and try as I might I can't find a way to do this short of as you say creating families and doing it correctly (which the client won't pay for). I understand that it is a bad practice to do what I asked, and likely to lead to a corrupt revit model, however I was hoping there was maybe a "work-round" that you, more experienced, Revit users would have come across to allow it to be done.

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