How to insert external data into a Revit model?

[Anonymous]

My current challenge is to position:

 - A Street (Elm)

 - A presidential limousine.

with the utmost accuracy into a Revit model.

I have two preliminary sources of data for the former:

(1) This one is only visual, the producer cannot be found and I have no idea about the source of the data (or the application) used to draw those contour lines:

Data Origin is Unknown

(2) I hired a Freelancer who went to a commercial service (Nearmap). They seem to have the most accurate satellite-based data:

Data from Nearmap

Once I have the raw numbers (format unknown) I will need to feed them into a Revit model. I am an experienced software engineer BUT have no exposure to Revit internals.

I recently discovered and installed the Revit Site Designer.

Can it be controlled by the Revit SDK?

Any details, tips, etc. are very appreciated.

TIA,

-Ramon F. Herrera
JFK Numbers

[jeremytammik · Accepted solution]

You definitely need to research how to solve this manually through the user interface first.

Once you have an efficient working solution up and running manually, you can start thinking about automating it.

However, trying to automate something in Revit without knowing whether it is supported by the manual BIM workflows is not recommended.

In general, if a feature is not available in the Revit product manually through the user interface, then the Revit API will not provide it either.

You should therefore research the optimal workflow and best practices to address your task at hand manually through the user interface first.

To do so, please discuss and analyse it with an application engineer, product usage expert, or product support.

Once you have got that part sorted out, it is time to step up into the programming environment.

The Revit Architecture forum is probably the best place to start:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-architecture-forum/bd-p/133

I hope this clarifies.

[Anonymous]

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@jeremytammik wrote:

You definitely need to research how to solve this manually through the user interface first.

Once you have an efficient working solution up and running manually, you can start thinking about automating it.

[...]

I hope this clarifies.

---

Thanks for your good advice, Jeremy, it certainly makes sense.

This is what happens. I am a software engineer by training. Due to the nature of my project (Free Open Source, Not-for-Profit, volunteer based) I am learning the basics of about 6-8 applications, concurrently. A friend who specializes in "Inventor" asked me: "Why so many models, Ramon?"

See here the models of the Lincoln Continental limo that my project supports, BTW:

Kennedy Limo from Russia and Hum3D 

I replied: "Adrian, I want everybody to feel welcome to this project. Those of the Inventor religion, SolidWorks, 3ds Max, Blender, Maya, Rhino, etc. How would you feel if I told you: 'I am going to accept your offer to design some models, but we do not have use for Inventor, you have to learn 3ds Max'"?

He agreed immediately.

I am the high level manager and R&D, have to know -and research- many applications, plugins and workflows. Having been fooled a couple time by Freelancers, I come here for expert advice.

BTW: In my table of import/export, I decided to add Revit and *.rvt, *.rfa. It has become very relevant at this stage.

Thanks again (don't go too far, I will be back)

-Ramon
JFK Numbers