Formit over sketchup

[GREMMELS1]

Are there any firms / designers out there that have made the switch from Sketchup to Formit?  We currently use Sketchup for SD and then get into Revit once we go into DD/CD.  We would plan to use Formit the same. I would like to hear your experience and if it is worth us exploring further.  A few questions I have:

1.  Can Sketchup standards such as material libraries be brought into Formit?  Our current designer has lots of standards that fit his workflow and the worry is that those standards can't be transferred or the workflow is too different to allow him to be just as productive.

2.  Is it easier or harder to model in Formit?

3.  Advantages/disadvantages to exporting into and out of Revit?  I would assume the Formit export retains more material info and is a cleaner model?

4.  Is there a Formit Warehouse similar to Sketchup?

5.  Any other things to consider?

[HeatherL011]

Hi GREMMELS1,

Thanks for reaching out on the forum! I'm the Product Manger for FormIt and can help answer your questions. I know there are several companies that have moved from SketchUp to FormIt and many more are in the process, so I hope they will also respond to this post with their thoughts. Understandably, there are growing pains when transitioning from one product to another, especially for early stage design work. But, in my opinion, the benefits significantly outweigh any challenges.

1. Materials: You can create new material libraries in FormIt and they can point to a folder that contains a collection of image files and FormIt files and FormIt materials will be created from the data in the folder. Read more about it here: https://windows.help.formit.autodesk.com/tool-library/materials#linking-material-libraries

2. There are a lot of similarities in modeling between SketchUp and FormIt and you'll find that its not hard for designers to learn FormIt if they are familiar with SketchUp.

3. Revit connection: Materials from FormIt come into Revit and are listed in Revit's materials dialog box. They come over with textures, colors, and transparencies, which is something you won't see coming from SketchUp. Read more about under Edge Visibility Consistency and Material Consistency here: https://formit.autodesk.com/blog/post/formit-2021-2-and-new-revit-add-in-now-available  Since FormIt is a solid modeler(as opposed to a surface modeler) the quality consistency of data transfer to Revit is superior.  Additionally, with Revit and FormIt 2022.0, you will see a faster, more seamless import process; FormIt will launch automatically from the "3DSketch" button in Revit (with AEC Collection entitlements) and the resulting FormIt model transfers into Revit with one click of the "Send To Revit" button. Read more about the new workflow here: https://formit.autodesk.com/page/formit-revit

4. Any content that you already have in other file formats (DWG, FBX, OBJ, SAT, SKP, and STL) can be used in FormIt's content library. So there's really no need to re-make content for FormIt! Point your content library to any folder with these file types and they will be available to drag and drop into your FormIt model. Additionally, you can convert any Revit family file (RFA) to FormIt content using the "Convert RFA to FormIt" button on Revit's Add-Ins Tab.
Learn more in the "Content Library: All Importable File Types" section here:  https://formit.autodesk.com/blog/post/formit-2021-2-and-new-revit-add-in-now-available  Learn more about converting Revit Family files in the "Converting Revit Family Files" section here: https://formit.autodesk.com/page/formit-revit

5. Finally, check out the newly published Public FormIt Roadmap to understand what is in the pipeline! https://formit.autodesk.com/blog/post/formit-public-roadmap-may-2021

[josh.goldstein]

Adding onto @HeatherL011's informative post, I want to mention that for the question about the 3D Warehouse, you can simply open any SketchUp file in FormIt as if it's a FormIt file. Or you can import a SketchUp model into an existing FormIt model, or use the Content Library as previously mentioned. Either way, the 3D Warehouse for SketchUp can be considered a 3D Warehouse for FormIt thanks to FormIt's excellent SketchUp file support, which maintains geometry, materials, Group/Component hierarchy, Layers, and Scenes from SketchUp. Try it out!

[Anonymous]

In line with this topic, I was wondering if there is a list for FormIT with supported CAD entities similar to this linked/attached list for SketchUp. Importing and Exporting CAD Files | SketchUp Help

- Jan-Roelof