3D Drafting Views

[DrakeCanyonArchitecture]

It would be great to be able to draft 3d Drafting Views. I have created a detail in an empty drawing and saved thinking that I would simply be able to import that view. I have so far been unsuccessful. The only way that I have been able to come up with so far is to save as an image and import into a drafting view, and the resolution is terrible. I would think that it would be simple enough to make the drafting view work area into a 3d environment and save those views externally for use in other drawings. The ability to use and reuse, and organize details is huge. And the ability to show details in 3d is huge as well, but drawing a new detail in every drawing isn't practical. Here is an example of what I have created but having trouble moving between drawings.

Here is the link to my original post in the Revit Forum

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-architecture-forum/3d-detail-workflow/td-p/10171442

[hmunsell]

sounds like a topic for the Ideas Forum.....

that said, it sounds like you want to make a standard detail of the condition so you can use it in other projects. Drafting views are only 2D, no way around that unless Revit changes it. You could export the view to a DWG. Once exported, you can then load the DWG back into Revit as a Link or Import. 

In my case, I have a Detail Library.RVT file for each of my disciplines. The library file hosts all the standard details each discipline uses. I have imported all our old AutoCAD DWG details into the Library files. As new Revit ones as there developed and approved they are added to the library file as well. Its a bit tedious to set up initially, but once the library file is created, details and standard schedules can be imported from the library file into projects as needed. 

[constantin.stroescu]

I agree with you that a good way would be to export as .dwg file, but I think it will be better to import the .dwg file back into a Generic Model Family and so, manage it as a Family. This Family can then be inserted in any Project and place in any need position freely..

 

[lucdoucet_msdl]

@DrakeCanyonArchitecture 

I would think that it would be simple enough to make the drafting view work area into a 3d environment and save those views externally for use in other drawings.

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I think the problem here is that any 3d geometry you bring into the revit project file needs to be placed somewhere and it seems reasonable for Autodesk to create a seperate 3D space for that geometry the same way that 2d annotations are hosted in the drafting view.

It would be great to be able to draft 3d Drafting Views. I have created a detail in an empty drawing and saved thinking that I would simply be able to import that view. 

A workflow I have used for sharing 2d/3d detail views between project files should also work for you with 3d annotated detail views. The idea is to link a project containing the geometry and views containing the annotations to your project file. Once linked, you create a 3D view corresponding to the same position and add the linked view to get the annotations. The advantage would be to not mix the project geometry and the typical detail geometry (say if a user changes your 2x8 dimensions!)

The challenge involved are:

1. creating the same 3D view in the project file and standard detail file which can be done by using a standard isometric projection and scope boxes. Easier if they already exist in a template file.
2. placing the linked project on either a design option or phase previous to the existing phase;
3. updating the standards file across new and in progress projects.
4. some difficulties in linked views being broken in BIM360.

Hope this helps,

-luc

[DrakeCanyonArchitecture]

@hmunsell  I will try to make it a point to post to the ideas forum as well. It seems like from a programming point of view, this should be easy.

About the exporting and re-importing as dwg, I tried this actually. The way that I did it was to export as dwg and import into a drafting view. When in came into the drafting view, it was oriented as a plan view rather than an isometric. I would be okay with converting a dwg to 2d line drawings for use in a drafting view, I'm just not sure how to do that yet. I'm guessing some editing in AutoCAD would required to do that.

[DrakeCanyonArchitecture]

@constantin.stroescu , that's an interesting thought. Do you know if it's possible to insert a family and annotate in a drafting view? One thing that I for sure want to be able to do is to refer to the detail as we do in drafting views.

[AGGilliam]

@DrakeCanyonArchitecture I'm not sure how familiar you are with the API, but I just recently created a tool that works similar to the flatten command in AutoCAD which sounds to me like what you're looking for. It creates a drafting view based on selected elements from the current perspective of the 3D view. You just grab the geometry of the elements, loop over the edges, project them onto a 2d plane, and then create detail curves within the drafting view. Here's a link I used to better understand the geometry stuff. Hope this helps!

[ToanDN]

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@DrakeCanyonArchitecture wrote:

@hmunsell  I will try to make it a point to post to the ideas forum as well. It seems like from a programming point of view, this should be easy.

About the exporting and re-importing as dwg, I tried this actually. The way that I did it was to export as dwg and import into a drafting view. When in came into the drafting view, it was oriented as a plan view rather than an isometric. I would be okay with converting a dwg to 2d line drawings for use in a drafting view, I'm just not sure how to do that yet. I'm guessing some editing in AutoCAD would required to do that.

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AutoCAD command: FLATSHOT

[hmunsell]

@ToanDN  I completely forgot about the FlatShot tool LOL. I was going to suggest orienting the 3D view in AutoCAD the way you want and use "Flatten" but "FlatShot" is a much better option. 

[GaryOrrMBI · Accepted solution]

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About the exporting and re-importing as dwg, I tried this actually. The way that I did it was to export as dwg and import into a drafting view. When in came into the drafting view, it was oriented as a plan view rather than an isometric. I would be okay with converting a dwg to 2d line drawings for use in a drafting view, I'm just not sure how to do that yet. I'm guessing some editing in AutoCAD would required to do that.

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If you're ok with converting it to 2D linework (ie: what you want is an old school Isometric, 2d linework to represent 3d geometry) and going through AutoCad is ok...

Let's go back to your previous attempt at creating your 3d view, then exporting it to Autocad then reimporting it into a drafting view...

When you exported the 3d view, did you perform the export to AutoCad directly on the view itself? I believe that this is probably the case. If so, that method exports 3d autocad geometry.

If, however, you place the 3d view on a sheet and remove the title and titleblock and/or anything else that you don't want from the sheet environment, then export the sheet (making sure that "Export views on sheets and links as external references" is not checked to keep it simple) I believe that you will find a nice pretty ISO waiting for you in modelspace of the created drawing that can then be imported into a drafting view in your detail library resource file where it can be cleaned up and be ready for use in your projects.

Of course, this being the "flagship" product now for Building design, none of this should be required but, until Autodesk realizes that we still actually have to document our designs and gives us the tools that we have been asking for since this thing hit the streets to be able to do so with, we'll just have to continue making due with using their old product to bridge the gap 😉

-G

[DrakeCanyonArchitecture]

Thank you guys for the additional info. I haven't messed with this much lately but intend to get back to it when I have a little more time. My goal is to hopefully create several models that I can use to create various 3d details as needed. I know that it's possible to create some high quality 3d details in Revit as I have used a lot of them that were created by Simpson StrongTie. I just need to find the workflow that works well, but it sounds like some of the suggestions above might be the ticket.

[DrakeCanyonArchitecture]

Thank you for that bit of information @GaryOrrMBI . I haven't tried it yet but I have confidence that it will produce the results that I'm looking for. I couldn't agree more that Revit should do this without having to rely on AutoCAD, since that is another subscription that I don't currently have. 

It sounds like your method would allow me to export as a dwg and re-import back into Revit without actually opening in AutoCAD, is that correct? I have some detailing to do pretty soon and am going to give this a try again, as well as some of the other methods mentioned in this thread. Well, the ones that don't require me to purchase AutoCAD I guess.

[GaryOrrMBI]

It should allow you to roundtrip without actually having to open the cad file since the pieces that you want will be in modelspace and that's what you'll be importing when bringing it in to Revit.

I'm so used to bouncing over to AutoCad to solve Revit documentation problems that I never thought to test a complete round trip without verifying the export and perhaps making some tweaks before reimporting (AutoCAD has tools for dimensioning an Isometeric, not to mention the ability to create them).

But yes, it should work.

-G

[DrakeCanyonArchitecture]

I finally got around to trying out your suggestion @GaryOrrMBI and it worked beautifully. I exported the view as a dwg as you suggested and imported that result into Revit on the first try and everything looked great except the lines were all in red because of the Generic Models layer that Revit created. I have AutoCAD LT now so I opened the drawing and put everything on the 0 layer and resaved. The red lines would have been ok, just a little OCD on my behalf. Now to create a template specifically for creating these details as there will be a limited number of families that I need to do this type of modeling so I want to make it as simple as possible. Is there a category in Revit that will export on the 0 layer or a way to change layer color within Revit? It appears that that is a system function.

Here it the result of your method, and thank you for the solution!

[GaryOrrMBI]

A couple of things you should look at.

First, CAD exports have settings that control how different entities get mapped to dwg file layers and colors:

Then you have CAD import options that allow you to convert colors to black and white:

Finally, Visibility and graphics overrides can give you yet another opportunity to modify the colors in the view itself:

-G

[DrakeCanyonArchitecture]

Excellent information, thank you again @GaryOrrMBI!

[GaryOrrMBI]

No problem, just glad I could be of assistance. I've received my share of pointers from here myself so I try to pay it forward where I can.

-G