Revit to Advance Steel

[Drawtech]

I have an enquiry for detailing some staircases on a large project. (main steel by others)

I have various model files (RVT, NWD, IFC) and 2D drawings with few dimensions.

I can open the Navis file (NWD) to view it but of course cannot open this in Advance Steel.

The Navis model is way too big anyway - I'm only interested in the steelwork and only in the stairwell areas).

I tried the IFC import but nothing at all came through.

Is there a reliable export/import from Revit to Advance Steel?

I don't have revit myself, so would have to be chasing 3rd parties for it - is it worth exploring this avenue?

...so much for BIM 🙄

[dave_conibear]

Dave

There is an Advance Steel Extension for Revit.........you just need to persuade the Revit user to take the time to download and install it if they don't already have it..........and as long as their IT department allows it.

Me, I have had some reasonable success with this, but Revit users seem to have a strange way of inputting steel

members with the system line at say FFL, and then offset the actual member, so you need to go through the whole model and adjust it (if you want to use it for that purpose of course)

And as usual, not all Revit models I have had are accurate, they are able I think to fudge their GA's a lot easier than in Advance Steel.

But hey......that wasn't your question.........I have found the models that I have had via this Extension to import with no problems......and have exported my model back to the Revit user quite successfully.

[acbsdesign · Accepted solution]

@Drawtech 

Hi Dave,

DO NOT IMPORT from Revit, you will be thousand times better off if you build the adjacent steel supporting the stairs, it will be faster than dealing with all system lines misplaced, and other small but HUGE timewasting bugs around them.

[Drawtech]

...so in the imported model from Revit, irrespective of system line position, will the beams be at the correct levels?

[Drawtech]

Thanks Ilko. ...that's my usual approach, but the 2D drawings (as they stand now) don't have enough info to re-model  it.

[acbsdesign]

It is funny how they say the import is smooth. 

[acbsdesign]

And the Revit model will be the center of the design.

What a bunch of schmackos.

[bigcarl5000kg]

Hi Ilko,

use the german word "schmacklos" = tasteless  😁😳😉

[dave_conibear]

oh.........sure, they'll be at the correct level, Revit users just seem to have a different way of inputting the members

If you ran a fab' detail directly from that, you would have a system line maybe 200mm or 300mm above or below the shaft, but you don't want the model of that, so it's irrelevant really.

Like I said........it's worked well enough for me in the past.

Maybe others have had bad experiences, but hey........surely it can't hurt to ask if you can have this form of export from your client / engineer/ who ever and try.

If it doesn't work for you then it doesn't work, and you'll know for next time.

[Drawtech]

OK thanks.
I also just found out the steel contractor for the main frame used Tekla, so any usable export from Tekla could be an option. ...although I've never had any joy with IFC files. Advance Steel always asks to map every section and material and then after spending a load of time it still doesn't import anything!
...anyone know a quick and reliable means to get a Tekla model to Advance Steel ?

[acbsdesign]

@dave_conibear 

Hi, On a model of a two-story building I took from Revit, columns and beams were off, and I moved them at the proper locations.

The real troubles came when starting detailing beams. System lines did not behave as usual despite of being in the right place. Dimension requests started to behave weirdly. 

[dave_conibear · Accepted solution]

same for me dave.........I'm sure IFC stands for It's F**king Crap

I'm think X-Steel can export to 3-D solids .ie    .sat......acis or just 3-D .dwg

Have you got a nice friend / colleague with Revit who could open an IFC for you and do it that way? I guess not or you wouldn't be asking.

[dave_conibear]

Hi Ilko

I wouldn't disagree with any of that.......not at all

I've only ever used a Revit model for the same purposes as Dave.......when I've had some secondary steel to add in

As you mentioned earlier, I generally bite the bullet so to speak and drop a few dummy beams in and model round that.

But sometimes there is so much existing steel needed coupled with no available information on paper or 2-D last thing on a Friday, you get squashed between a rock and a hard place and have to take what you can get.

[Drawtech]

Thanks for your input guys.

I think best bet will be to get 3d dwg from the Tekla model.

Dumb solids that at least are in the right place and I can open in Advance Steel.

BIM at its finest!

...so glad they spend so much time developing all this useless crap at the expense of proper detailing functionality! 🙄

[acbsdesign]

@Drawtech 

Well said, as always.

I can only wish they had people like you there.

Happy Friday.

[AleckGiles]

Hi Dave,

If oyu want to iport form tekla we reocmmend usign hte CIS.2 format. It is slightly better than IFC.

First, make sure they set the export options to something like "Fabrication model" and not "Design model" or something like that. Telka tends to export everything as useless Boundary Representations that cannot be imported. It can export intelligent objects if they twist its arm a bit during the export.

When you import you will most likely have to wade through umpteen questions to map section sizes and materials. This is an annoying pain. There always seem to be more questions than beams but that is how it is. Persevere and eventually, you can end up with a very good import of their model with all beams placed accurately. No guarantees though of course 🙂.

[Drawtech]

hmm. 

Thanks, but I have played that game many times - spending the best part of an hour mapping everything only for the import to fail.  ...then all the mappings do not seem to get saved anywhere and has to be done all over again every time.

It's such a painful prodedure and rarely works.

...why hasn't Autodesk already mapped everything in a database table for importing from other popular softwares?

At least then if the import doesn't work, you have not wasted a load of time mapping everything.

Dumb 3D solids still seems the most reliable way to get the geometry and just re-model over the top!