Forma modelling and export to Revit - Terrain Minimum Level, Additional Levels, Constraint, Extent of Import, etc.

[xinyi_wangQUQ3Q]

Hi Forma team, long time Autodesk user, but trying out what Forma offers for early feasibility study. A number of issues encountered: 

• I am testing it with a project in Australia, but I realised that while constrains are good at picking up the site boundaries, it doesn't pick up the extent where planning controls are added in as zones with limits set within the boundary, which is annoying. 
• The other issue I have though is that the height of the constraint can only be best managed by point of intersection of the terrain model. We use AHD which is the 0m level, and there doesn't seem to be an option to align to that, which results in errors in determining the max height for the project. Moreover when we import is in Revit, it shows something labelled as "terrain minimum level", which is AHD 3.765, not 0, and it changes the AHD 0 inside a new revit file with existing template to a different height as well. 
• We'd like to see when importing Forma to Revit, to be able to use the Scope Box in Forma to determine the import extent, instead of importing the whole larger areas, which was helpful when it comes to masterplan and context analysis, but not so much for when only importing the studied massing.
• In the plugin option for import, there is something to do with massing and levels. Every time we try to import with it on it adds many different levels per massing into the existing Revit model, and arbitrarily changes existing levels set up in the Revit model, which becomes a huge pain. We ended up turning it off. Works need to be done to make this option useful. 
•  Is the best practice for keeping Forma massing/modelling as clean as possible, to import into a new Revit file, and then link it to a site file, and the main design model too? Seems convoluted at the moment. Can it be imported in a way similar to design option and that doesn't interact with existing walls or slabs, etc? 
• When importing the Forma massing directly into a project already created, the orientation never seems to align regardless of true north or project north in plan views. It only worked when we imported it into a new clean file from scratch and link it back to the site and design model. 

We also discovered some inconveniences when modelling massing inside Forma. Such as:

• When using Linear building, when we want to change the shape or extent, we lose snap to direction / reference, and sometimes it comes with changing the length only, vs. other times changing both length and directional angle along the existing path. 
• Can Linear Building's floorplan be saved and used in a basic building? This will enable faster testing and layout options for apartment design exercises. 
• Can drawing floorplan be made more intuitive, using typical lift cores and stairs, and width of corridors for examples, to be directly dropped into the sketch, without having to cut the floorplan partially for them to be placed? Can the grid be displayed at 1 dimension, and snap be at a more detailed interval? i.e. grid 1x1m, but snap 0.1m.

Overall we like the potential of what Forma offers, but we'd certainly hope to see updates on the above to be able to use it efficiently. 

[kasper.herlov]

Thanks for the thorough feedback @xinyi_wangQUQ3Q . Many different levels of answers here, and I will try to answer below, but given the nature of some of the issues, we'd also really like to see your project in Forma and do some troubleshooting ourselves. Could you send me a DM on the forum with an invite link, would that be possible? Also, a screenshot of the load options you applied in the addin would be useful.

• Constraints feature 
  • I will share this feedback with the site design team, as in interpret it as a snapping issue for the constraints feature specifically. Correct me if I am wrong.
• Terrain minimum level
  
  • By default we center on the buildings. The bottom of the terrain is an arbitrary height that depends on how we center the building content and the particular site's height delta. You can ignore it and mark it as a non-building level.
• Use the Section Box to determine the import extent
  
  • That's an interesting idea, however not quite feasible for us to address given how things are currently made. I will carry the idea with me anyway and see if there is a way to apply such a scope in some way in the future.
• Massing and levels 
  • Would like some more info to assess this. It's not what we want for you, but I am not sure what kind of error is at play so access to your project would be very helpful, as mentioned above.
• Best practice, clean revit file + Orientation and project/true north
  • In a word, yes. These are some of the limitations we have encountered with the addin approach over time. The solution isn't coming through the addin, but through the larger Forma Connected Client for Revit approach, which was announced at Autodesk University in September and due to launch as a tech preview this spring. It won't necessarily solve the issue out of the gate, but it is very much being made to reduce friction in the workflows.
• Floorplans and building types
  • In the spring we will launch Building Design, which is a more capable app for designing the buildings on the site than Site Design. I believe it will help you in the issues you currently face. It will be included in the AEC Collection. Due to this new launch, as of now, we are not investing in enhancing the floor plans in site design, but instead on compatability between the two products to enable you to use the new and more powerful floorplan tools to be launched.

I hope this is helpful and respectful to your feedback? Would love to hear from you in my DMs to investigate the remaining issues further 🙂


Kasper
Product manager at @ Forma Design