Civil 3D Coordination

[Johnbra1982]

I am hoping you guys can help me out. I am the civil on a design team that works together on a number of commercial stores. The architect recently moved from Microstation to Revit and I am trying to coordinate with my C3D files. They provide me with an ADSK file to bring into my model but unfortantely they work at 0,0,100 and I am working off the actual survey and coordinate system.

I can move the ADSK horizontally in my coordinate system but cant get the elevations in the ADSK file to come up to my datum. I have read through a lot of post but dont see any that address this.

Any words of wisdom?

[Anonymous]

I don't know anything about C3D, but I think possibly I can point you

in the right direction. 

The Revit user needs to set it up for proper ADSK export. And I think

they do that by importing coordinates from the civil guy first. 

I think I could figure it out pretty quick if I needed to. But poke around 

a little with it from there and if you don't have any luck, come back here

and I will tell you how to do it.

Also they probably talk about that exact same issue every other day

in the AC3D Discussion Groups.

[Johnbra1982]

If the bring in the coordinates and datum from me. Do all their elevations in REVIT have to be based off actual FF or can they leave it a 100 and adjust to FF when they export? The big issue they are having is they don't want to do all the math if we use the real FF rather than 100.

[Anonymous]

John, I would like to make some comments here first about
the "why" and then we can move on to your questions about
the "how".

Here is my interpretation, as a Revit user, of what the C3D
user needs from the Revit user so they can do their civil
work on the project, as well as why the Revit user should
prepare the project for civil.

C3D users can use my interpretation as a reference to

compare with their own as they become more familiar with

the BIM process.

It seems to me whatever the controlling coordinates set up

in C3D from the site survey, those controlling coordinates

should also be setup in the Revit project, before it's 
exported to C3D. Seems like it would be a lot easier to change
the project controlling point in Revit than change it in C3D.
And doesn't the building need to be built to the site rather than
the site built to the building?

Revit users can get these coordinates by importing the C3D
file. Also probably the C3D user should callout some point in
their drawing for the Revit user to see. And of course the
Revit user would save a copy of the project before this
change is made, as they always do save different copies
of a project.

As for Revit users not knowing how to change coordinates from
a project point to a civil point, they can go to Revit "help", 
lol, or maybe sombody in this forum can post some comments
for us Revit users on how to do that. I've never set up a project
for civil, I'm just a model builder for the first stage of construction,
presentation and review. I haven't thought about at what stage

the project should be converted to a civil coordinance, but I

would like to learn more about that.

I hope some members can post comments on what we have

here so far, so this thread can keep going.

[loboarch]

There is a series of videos about sharing information between Revit and Civil 3d via ADSK files.  You can find videos here.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=13734321

[Anonymous]

Thanks for that link loboarch, I didn't know those videos were

there. Stunning high quality video presentation like nothing 

else on the planet. I guess people either take Autodesk for

granted or they are in constant amazement at the stuff Autodesk

produces. I'm always amazed.

That video about preparing a Revit project for export via ADSK

makes very clear the things we need to know as Revit users,

but it makes no mention of who is going to locate the project for

who, or how, other than it says:

"You can also verify the model elements
selected for export, as well as the
project information and location."

But I guess you wouldn't expect a lot of detail with a video like that either.

I hope John is not in a hurry, because I think I can list all the important

steps for both the Revit user and the C3D user within a couple

of days. And I certainly will use those videos as a key reference.

[Anonymous]

The CAD site plan is where the Revit user gets the location from and changes

the Revit project location to a survey location that the C3D user will want with

their ADSK import. (Life begins at conception with an AutoCAD site plan).

1. Revit user goes to INSERT>LINK CAD> and selects the dwg site plan from

where it is located on their drive.

2. Revit user moves the imported site plan around until the building lines up

with where the building is supposed to sit on the site.

3. Revit user goes to ANNOTATE>SPOT COORDINATE and places a spot

coordinate anywhere on the building wall.

4. Revit user goes to MANAGE>COORDINATE>ACQUIRE COORDINATES,

and then selects the site plan in the view and sees the spot coordinate change.

5. With the spot coordinate still highlighted the Revit user verifies that Revit is

now using the coordinate from the linked file, by going to its type properties and

seeing that COORDINATE ORIGIN is set to SHARED.

NOW when this is exported to ADSK and then imported into C3D, it will all be at

zero zero.

piece-a-cake.

Anyone who knows this proceedure by heart is invited to
add or subtract to or from this learning experience, thank you.