3D Sketch Importing at Incorrect Elevation

[eklingerHFVZ3]

I am testing workflows before introducing this to the company and am currently testing the limitation of the connection to Revit, which there seem to be many. For simple test, I modeled a box on my site using the 3D sketch tools, nothing complex, just a box. I sent that to Revit and loaded it in. For whatever reason the box, that I modeled sitting on the site was imported 24'-8 177/256" above my template level one. No clue why this is happening, but this is yet another fail I have experienced while using the Revit connector too. Is there any way to ensure that the geometry I model in space maker comes in at a consistent level one elevation in Revit?

[kronz]

Hi, thanks for the feedback. For locating the Forma data in Revit, we use a couple of fallback approaches, first we use the location of any buildings (context or designed ones) to be lowest ones with respect to project origin, and if there are no buildings, we use the lowest area of terrain. We ignore any non-"building" geometry for location purposes. So, I'm guessing that the 3d Sketch element that you created didn't have floors? And therefor was not a "building". From other posts you have, it looks like you have uses for sending pretty minimal sets of information to Revit, like only Site Limits, so in general it sounds like we should consider adding more fallback routines for smaller sets of loaded data.

[eklingerHFVZ3]

The rules for setting the elevation were helpful in allowing me to better understand what happening. You were right, my 3D sketch did not have any floors so I went back and added some to test it out. It still imported at the same elevation above my level one. I then thought that maybe my context building model was causing it to import incorrectly. I had imported my own context model and parts were clipping below the terrain, which from the sounds of it might throw off the import. I deleted the context model entirely and sent it back to Revit again but the building still imported above my level 01 in Revit. Something interesting is happening and I still do not know what.

I attached a screen shot of what I am seeing upon import. The Forma model, although being modeled directly on the topo surface is importing above my level 01. More strangely, the Forma model is being brought it at a Forma created Level 2 while the Forma created level 1 and my template level 01 are aligned.

To further test, I tried to import the building model with terrain but when trying to bring in the terrain I got the error message "Something went wrong, the Forma team has been alerted. You may try again, or contact Forma Support for further Assistance."

Ultimately I would like to send larger data set to Revit but I wanted to test out in the simplest terms possible. However, I think it would be a great addition if I could reliably import something simple, like just a site boundary. The workflow I was trying to test was this... Import a site boundary from Forma (to create the link between Revit and Forma) > Model in Revit and send that model back to Forma for analysis > Study analysis results and make changes in Revit > Push back to Forma to rerun analysis. Since I cannot go from Forma to Revit multiple times I was trying to go the opposite direction in a way that gave me the most flexibility.

It might also be a valuable addition if users were able to set the Revit elevation that they want their concept model to import at. Having it import at an arbitrary elevation does not make the workflow very attractive for moving from the forma environment into Revit for design development. It is also really undesirable that the Forma import overwrites the project coordinate settings. If the import could happen while maintaining the original project settings that would be better. 

[eklingerHFVZ3]

I just wanted to share that I was able to import a much larger model from Forma into Revit at the correct elevation. However, it did create an odd level 23'-8 65/128" below my template Level 01. It is unclear where this level is coming from. Just after this experience, I think it would be really beneficial if the end user had more control over what levels and location everything comes in at. I know that is probably not a simple task but it might make continuing the project in Revit that much more frictionless. 

Again, i was not able to bring in any topography because I kept getting an error message when trying to.