Best method for exporting Inventor model as .rvt with control of revit categories for individual element

[Richard_Morin83KL6]

Hi, I am currently working on an output study to figure out the best method for integrating Inventor models within Revit with control of it's categories and material finishes later in revit. 

I have accomplished exporting ''simplified'' .asm files to .rfa files through author & export building components which I can later change the "material & finishes" within revit after exploding the imported model and changing the family category as well. This is good.

I can also have an Inventor parent assembly with multiple ''simplified'' sub-assemblies in a new model state which I can then export as an .rvt. The issue is that within the revit environment, I now have the separated elements I need but I cannot explode the individual elements in order to add the ''material & finishes'' revit category required for the project. 

Short of making a parent assembly in Inventor, then exporting to an .rvt and then exporting each inventor sub assembly (converted as a .rfa) and re-assemble the model again within the .rvt, is there another way to export an .rvt from inventor while being able to change the material finishes later on within revit?

I've also tried the AnyCAD method of importing the revit model to inventor and sending back the linked model but I cannot seem to figure out how control the "material & finishes" or categorize the elements within Revit. Basically, the goal is to prevent having to assemble the model twice while having control of material & finishes and categories (i.e Structural Framing) 

Would InformedDesign be the only way to allow for control of revit categories after importing? Any help towards the right direction is greatly appreciated. 

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Richard,

I believe you may want to sign up Inventor Feedback Community (https://autode.sk/InventorBeta) to check the latest RVT export workflow.

Many thanks!

[James_Willo]

RFA will give you a small selection of Categories but you have to infer them by picking an Omniclass. 

Informed Design will let you pick a specific Category from a list. 

The main difference of ID over local RFA workflow is that ID can give you different sizes of RFA in Revit, whereas Inventor will just export the current geometry in a local workflow. 

[Richard_Morin83KL6]

Ok I understand. I was wondering though if the workflow wanted was an .RVT model exported from Inventor but with the ability to assign Revit Categories or changing material & finishes to ''each top level component'', is this possible through ID or would each element would have to be exported individually in either .rfa or ID in order to assign these BIM parameters?

In other words, can the OmniClass be inferred to ''Each Top Level Component'' before the model is exported to .RVT?

Thank you for your help

[James_Willo · Accepted solution]

No, ID will only do a single RFA file. You'd need to export each one separately and reassemble in RVT. 

[kostremEEC7J]

I'm having similar issues. I have a workflow where I'm extracting volume based civil3d solid bodies and importing into inventor. Normally any parts I create in inventor I can get to take a material through either material styles or materials themselves. However, these solid bodies from civil 3D will not take any modification when imported to revit. Tried native exports from Inventor. Tried using BimDex add-in to export the data. Tried exporting as .sat and other files types. Tried informed design. They all end with the same default color in revit.  I feel like I've exhausted all workflows to get this 3D civil data in with some kind of contracting color.

With that said, Look into BimDex as an add-in. That did a really good job of importing a highlevel assembly from inventor and reassembling and assigning individual rfas for part files in revit when using native inventor files.

[James_Willo]

Hi Richard, please check out the new release of Inventor 2026. 

You can specify a location for RVT export, include properties and assign categories to individual elements. 

You can include material information but please note that it cannot be mapped to Revit material parameter, it would become a custom parameter. 

There is an overview video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFSHFTOhf_U

[autodeskVJ5AC]

Hey James_Willo,

Inventor 2026 complete breaks my RFA explort. Maybe you can help. I build models in Inventor and I need to be able to assign Materials in Revit to apply textures for visualization. Previously this work great: I would great custom named Appearances in Inventor and apply to in Inventor. In Revit all I had to do was create a Material with the exact same name and the family would automatically pick it put and apply the texture. I doesn't work anymore. I can export material information, but it's just text in the RFA in Revit.

How can I actually apply textures/material in Revit for visualiation?

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! I am sorry I am not aware of any change in behavior in RFA export. If possible, please share the Inventor files here or send them in zip to me directly at johnson.shiue@autodesk.com. I would like to understand the behavior better.

Many thanks!

[autodeskVJ5AC]

Hi Johnson, 

Thanks for paying attention to this. I'll send you three files. The Inventor ipt with a small demo object and two BIM exports to RFA, one done with Inventor 2024.2 and one with Inventor 2026.1. I am not sure how 2025 behaves, I haven't tested. The demo object in the IPA has a bunch of placeholder appearances defined. Check Tools > Appearance and you will see several Appearance named "xxxx Inventor xxxx" with basic flat colors just be able to apply them to surface in Inventor and differentiate them.

 The difference will we quite easily reproducible:

 - First import the 2026 RFA into an empty Revit project and you will see no additional material created when you check the Material browser in Manage > Materials. The object is assigned the colors sometimes and I can't control them in Revit.

- Import the 2024 RFA (which was created from the exact same ipa) and you will have all the "xxxx Inventor xxxx" appearances defined in Inventor, created as Materials in Revit (search for Inventor in the Materials browser). I can now use these materials and change the simple flat color to a fancy texture.

 This used to be a great workflow for advanced visualiation with Revit PBR Material, definable and changeable from within Revit.

[rena_andrews]

Hi @autodeskVJ5AC, thanks very much for reporting the issue, I've reproduced it and created a defect to investigate and fix it: (INVGEN-87295)

I think I found a couple workarounds that can be used in the meantime, let me know if it works for you..

1. From Inventor 2026, choose the Options button to use Revit Core Engine 2024 during export (it seems the issue started with Revit Core Engine 2025). From my testing, the resulting RFA can be opened and upgraded in Revit 2026 if needed and works as expected.

2. To use any Revit Version during export, set the environment variable RFA_VIA_DWG=1

The newer versions use SAT as the intermediate file format during translation (not sure if this is the cause of the issue), but it appears using DWG fixes the issue when exporting using version 2026. Using SAT did improve some geometry specific issues we saw previously but these issues only applied to certain models, in your case the DWG translation seems okay if you'd prefer this workaround.

Huge thanks once again for reporting this issue! And apologies for the inconvenience caused here.

Best,

-Rena

[autodeskVJ5AC]

@rena_andrews 

Thank you so much for the insights. I tried both of your workarounds and they both do the job an Materials/Textures can be controller in Revit. Both have the disadvantage the model apears to be exported at a much lower resolution than the standard RFA2026 format. With the 2024 Inventor export and the 2026 via DWG export small circles of 10mm become squares and larger circles become octagon. The standard 2026 produces quite nice circles, even for sub 10mm.

I hope you can fix the texutres for 2026 format. Any chance of this happeneing in Inventor 2026 or do I have to wait for Inventor 2027? Can I see the progress on INVGEN-87295 anywhere or it an internal bug tracker?

[rena_andrews]

Hey @autodeskVJ5AC great, I'm glad it helps even though the workaround is unfortunately not ideal. Thanks for sharing the feedback/caveat on it so it can be helpful for others as well. As far as I'm aware there's no public access to our internal defect status. It's difficult to give any estimates particularly on "interop" defects e.g. in the event the issue is actually in Revit/Core Engine vs. only Inventor (or occasionally both). So far, I have set the defect to a high priority with a target of 2026.3 and 2027 but obviously can't make any guarantees

[autodeskVJ5AC]

@rena_andrews Thank you very much for setting it to high priority. This is good enough for me. I can live with the workarounds until this is resolved and look forward to having the higher 2026 resolution export and textures at the same time in a future version.