topic Re: Autocad to Revit text issue in Revit MEP Forum

Autocad to Revit text issue

isosa9APBT — Mon, 10 Mar 2025 19:34:20 GMT

What is the best font to use in AutoCAD that plays well with Revit? For as far as I can remember I had issues with text overlapping in Revit but looking fine in AutoCAD. Has anyone experienced this before? Any idea on how to fix it? Please see images below for reference.

Re: Autocad to Revit text issue

hmunsell — Mon, 10 Mar 2025 19:49:34 GMT

Most TTF (TrueType Font) work ok, we use Arial in my office with minimal issues. Nothing is perfect though, there is always some cleanup that needs to be done when exporting to DWG.

Re: Autocad to Revit text issue

isosa9APBT — Mon, 10 Mar 2025 20:00:56 GMT

We use Arial too, but we would like to have one set of general notes rather than two separate ones. I'd figured that by know Autodesk would have figured something to prevent the font issues, especially since both products are produced by the same company.

Re: Autocad to Revit text issue

hmunsell — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 11:45:44 GMT

I have seen the issue you show occasionally, but not regularly as it sounds like you're experiencing it 😊. Have you tried setting the font in the export settings? You may be using Arial in Revit anyway, but I also force it in the export settings too. It shouldn't make any difference, but doing this is basically telling Revit what to use instead of letting Revit determine it automatically.

Re: Autocad to Revit text issue

HVAC-Novice — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 12:38:32 GMT

@isosa9APBT wrote:
We use Arial too, but we would like to have one set of general notes rather than two separate ones. I'd figured that by know Autodesk would have figured something to prevent the font issues, especially since both products are produced by the same company.

This is like saying Hyundai has car factories, and shipyards. And this being the same company, the cockpit of the car and containership should work the same way.

AutoCAD is a general drawing software. Revit is a BIM software specific to building construction. That is two totally different applications. Revit was developed by Charles River Software and the successor company including the software Revit was purchased by Autodesk. There was no intention to make Revit be like AutoCAD.

Best course of action is to only use Revit. Or use Arial since that is used by Revit by default.

Re: Autocad to Revit text issue

hmunsell — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 13:06:38 GMT

@HVAC-Novice wrote
Best course of action is to only use Revit. Or use Arial since that is used by Revit by default.

I love your car analogy 😂 👍.

We have many clients who still want DWG Deliverables and use RomanS SHX font as there standard 😖. We choose to do the project in Revit, for a multitude of reasons. Then we deal with the few consequences of DWG export. I usually find that the time saved by using Revit more than makes up for the few hours I spend cleaning up the exported DWGs.

Re: Autocad to Revit text issue

isosa9APBT — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 15:20:50 GMT

Yes, I have tried that, and we do use Arial for both Revit and CAD. I tried re-typing all the notes but that didn't work either.

Re: Autocad to Revit text issue

isosa9APBT — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 15:29:31 GMT

I understand that the two products are day and night in comparison to their capabilities. There are some basics rules that even today cars have to follow, like tires, motors, oil. I don't believe that fonts are drastic difference to expect not working between the two programs. Heck everything, we type digitally still follows some kind of convention when it comes to fonts and how they are presented. Unfortunately, about 35% of our clients still use CAD only. Do you suggest we do 3D design with 2D CAD? I don't think is that hard personally, but not sure if that's what most companies are doing.

Re: Autocad to Revit text issue

isosa9APBT — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 15:35:42 GMT

Do you get 2D drawings and do your design on those? I don't mind doing that, it takes a little extra work drawing some reference lines without having to design all the architectural 3D components. I'm trying to get an idea of how other people are dealing with this issue. We typically have all of our details, general notes, schedules in CAD then import them to Revit since it seemed like it was easier having all of that stuff already in CAD. I personally don't have a preference as long as it makes the transition from one program to the other more seamless.

Re: Autocad to Revit text issue

HVAC-Novice — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 16:04:57 GMT

@isosa9APBT wrote:
I understand that the two products are day and night in comparison to their capabilities. There are some basics rules that even today cars have to follow, like tires, motors, oil. I don't believe that fonts are drastic difference to expect not working between the two programs. Heck everything, we type digitally still follows some kind of convention when it comes to fonts and how they are presented. Unfortunately, about 35% of our clients still use CAD only. Do you suggest we do 3D design with 2D CAD? I don't think is that hard personally, but not sure if that's what most companies are doing.

A 2D drawing software is significantly different from a 3D BIM software. and Revit is designed to be a standalone design tool not requiring AutoCAD.

To stay with your car example, no, you cannot use the same tranny fluid or wheels in two different cars. And you can't put a For Maverick engine into a Ford Fiesta. They are not compatible even if the function (moving people from A to B) is the same and they are made by the same company.

And you can create the same text in Revit. There is no reason to use AutoCAD at all. The text tools in Revit aren't great. But AutoCAD isn't a great text tool either. If we want to complain about, or suggest anything, it should be to improve the Revit text tools. And not to improve the import of text from another bad text tool like AutoCAD.

Re: Autocad to Revit text issue

hmunsell — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 18:28:13 GMT

Sometimes, we get 2D DWG Backgrounds, but most of the time, we model them from scratch. Sometimes, it is just easier to keep them in 2D CAD. we take it case by case.

@isosa9APBT wrote:

We typically have all of our details, general notes, schedules in CAD then import them to Revit since it seemed like it was easier having all of that stuff already in CAD.

ouch.... We converted all that into our Revit templates years ago. Too many issues with the imports.

If you want Revit to be your primary, my recommendation is to have it all done in your Revit template. Then if it's needed in CAD, export it from Revit. Most of our details live in Revit and there updated in Revit. So Revit always has the latest version. The Import View from File can be used to import them into your Project Models for Revit Projects. If a CAD project needs them, the user working on it can open the "Detail Model" and export the details they need. The same thing can be done with the schedules and general notes. keep the most recent in Revit and export them as needed.

Do your project deliverables include the DWG's to the client? or do you just provide PDF's?

Re: Autocad to Revit text issue

HVAC-Novice — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 18:43:06 GMT

@isosa9APBT wrote:
Do you get 2D drawings and do your design on those? I don't mind doing that, it takes a little extra work drawing some reference lines without having to design all the architectural 3D components. I'm trying to get an idea of how other people are dealing with this issue. We typically have all of our details, general notes, schedules in CAD then import them to Revit since it seemed like it was easier having all of that stuff already in CAD. I personally don't have a preference as long as it makes the transition from one program to the other more seamless.

Wait, how do you use Revit WITHOUT 3D components?

and how does one create a schedule for Revit in autoCAD? One of the major benefits of Revit is that schedules automatically populate based on the model.

Unless I mis-understand you entirely, this sounds like you use Revit in a very non-Revit way.

Re: Autocad to Revit text issue

isosa9APBT — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 19:55:18 GMT

I like your suggestion, I think upper management has been resisting changing everything to Revit since they know AutoCAD very well but have very little knowledge of Revit. I worked in AutoCAD for 12 plus years before I started working on Revit. I am very comfortable with both programs so to me it doesn't make much difference, but it will take a little while to change everything from AutoCAD to Revit. I'll bring it up during our next meeting and try to convince them that it be best way to go forward. I wanted to do some research to see if there was an easy way to fix the text issues, but it sounds like there really isn't.

Re: Autocad to Revit text issue

isosa9APBT — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 20:06:05 GMT

What I meant was that having 2D CAD makes it hard to do a mechanical 3D design. We can draw all the mechanical 3D components using a 2D CAD file as reference, I just don't want to go and draft the whole house in 3D then do the mechanical design.

We have a library of AutoCAD schedules that we just modify as needed. most of them have the equipment we specify regularly and just add or remove the equipment as needed. The downside with using the schedules that Revit automatically makes is that we typically show our notes at the bottom of heat schedule and as far as I know Revit doesn't have that, you can add columns to add notes, but it doesn't look right. Below is an example of our typical schedule for some grilles. How do you show your notes in your schedules? Can you share what they look like?

Re: Autocad to Revit text issue

hmunsell — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 20:05:38 GMT

@HVAC-Novice wrote:
Wait, how do you use Revit WITHOUT 3D components?

@HVAC-Novice, make sure you're sitting down for this one.....🤣

I see subs do it all the time (i even had my own FP doing this for a while). Most MEP content is Face or Level based, so in theory, you can pick the cad work as a face and add the elevation. not saying i support that, but i have seen it done 😂.

i can snap that air terminal right to the AutoCAD linked linework and can do the same with Electrical devices.

@HVAC-Novice wrote:
and how does one create a schedule for Revit in autoCAD? One of the major benefits of Revit is that schedules automatically populate based on the model.

an engineer gets a specific look they want, that you can't duplicate in Revit, so they do it in CAD so they get the look they want, and import it into Revit. I see this a lot with Panel Schedules and Column Schedules. again, i do not recommend it....

Re: Autocad to Revit text issue

isosa9APBT — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 20:11:55 GMT

Then do you draft the whole building using the architectural Tab when you get a 2D CAD background from the architect? Seems like a lot of extra work. I don't mind going all Revit I'm just trying to figure out what is the best way to approach the 2D CAD files we receive from Architects.

Re: Autocad to Revit text issue

HVAC-Novice — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 21:27:39 GMT

@isosa9APBT wrote:
Then do you draft the whole building using the architectural Tab when you get a 2D CAD background from the architect? Seems like a lot of extra work. I don't mind going all Revit I'm just trying to figure out what is the best way to approach the 2D CAD files we receive from Architects.

I don't know where you are located. But where I'm, architects have been using Revit for a decade. Maybe not in a great way, but they abandoned AutoCAD a long time ago. At least the ones that work in private firms.... the only architects I know of that still use AutoCAD, are government employees (= they don't have to learn new things and will use AutoCAD till they retire in 10 years). When I have to work with them and they give me dwg or PDF, I create my own architectural model.

For 99% of my projects I'm the sole designer. So for a Lighting project, I also create my architectural model.

That is some time investment upfront on my side. But I get high quality of design. 3D is just better and also the Lighting calcs and HVAC loads are calculated in Revit. it saves me time to build a model in 3rd party tools. Same for electrical panels etc.

https://rippleengineeringsoftware.com/

https://lightinganalysts.com/software-products/elumtools/overview/

I really recommend to use Revit. Here a book to start

You are correct on notes at the bottom of schedules. I actually had created an idea you can vote on.

But this small lack of feature is far outweighed by the huge advantage of leveraging Revit parameters and schedules.

Re: Autocad to Revit text issue

isosa9APBT — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 21:32:45 GMT

About 35% of our projects still come in as 2D CAD files. While is not a big number, there is still big enough that we don't want to draft the building then do our design. I agree that the design is done way better in 3D. I'll bring it up to upper management, but since they are more used to AutoCAD since that's where they started and haven't learned or don't want to learn Revit, this makes it hard to translate the challenges that come with having to draft things between Revit and AutoCAD. I'm thinking about using drafting views to do both the schedules and details, it's practically 2D CAD but on Revit. Once Revit fixes the schedules then we can fully use the Revit schedules, unless there are other issues that arise from that, but so far it looks like the best option.

Re: Autocad to Revit text issue

HVAC-Novice — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 22:19:57 GMT

@isosa9APBT wrote:
About 35% of our projects still come in as 2D CAD files. While is not a big number, there is still big enough that we don't want to draft the building then do our design. I agree that the design is done way better in 3D. I'll bring it up to upper management, but since they are more used to AutoCAD since that's where they started and haven't learned or don't want to learn Revit, this makes it hard to translate the challenges that come with having to draft things between Revit and AutoCAD. I'm thinking about using drafting views to do both the schedules and details, it's practically 2D CAD but on Revit. Once Revit fixes the schedules then we can fully use the Revit schedules, unless there are other issues that arise from that, but so far it looks like the best option.

Revit isn't able to create a "dumb" table. And there is another idea to vote on....

A manual table in 2D view wouldn't have the ability to wrap text etc. It basically would be lines and text and if you change text, you have to change lines. Totally useless. The schedules are tables, and powerful, but only represent what is in the model. So, this is where we are.

Besides the notes on the bottom of schedules, there isn't really much to fix. The intent is to model as it is built. If you include all diffusers, they will be in the schedule automatically. once set up properly, you never want to go back. When I add an AHU, the coil water flow and pressuredrop will be added to the hydronic system, the AHU will be part of the duct calculations, and the motor will show up in the electrical panel, and all technical data will show up in the AHU schedule. And the lighting calculation will recognize the light reflecting off the AHU. and if i change the AHU, it will automatically update. People that only used AutoCAD, can't imagine what they are missing. It literally is like explaining someone in 1920 that the rotary phone will turn into a mobile device with Internet.

How do you deal with the 65% that comes as Revit? Are they truly usable and 3D? Are you using Revit fully for those? Maybe start with those?

If you can't convince your peers/managers... my best recommendation is do as much in Revit as you can and don't let others hold you back. Project by project shift more items to Revit.

Where I work, we've had 8 Revit licenses for more than the last decade. And I'm the only one using Revit......... if I waited for others to use Revit, I still would use an abacus and draw in sand 🙂

Re: Autocad to Revit text issue

HVAC-Novice — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 12:31:00 GMT

I don't know if this helps you at all. But recently I had the issue that I had a table in Excel and wanted to find a way to get it into Revit. I tried a method to go through AutoCAD/dwg. this didn't look good at all! for example merged cells didn't work and the border formatting disappeared. I ended up importing an image. Not a really great solution.... but it was the best i could do since Revit can't natively handle dumb tables (or a smarter calculated table like Excel).

Ironically the above attempt made me install and try AutoCAD for the first time in over a decade. What a stone age tool that is... 🙂

It likely doesn't help you here, but have a look:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-architecture-forum/show-an-excel-or-word-table/m-p/13339230#M441748