Ceating Revit Families from DWG Blocks

[Anonymous]

I'm a strategic planner at The Boeing Company. I'm currently attempting to capture a proposed office configuration in Revit Architecture. The vendor has provided a 3D DWG in which I created a Revit Family.

When placing the RFA in plan view the furniture system comes over in a 3D orientation, almost as if it needs to be flattened- sort of speak. Unfortunately, this system is unavailable through both Revit and Sketchup platforms so I was wondering if you had any tips on how to stabilize/flatten the RFA-furniture system by attempting the conversion again. I also considered the model type I'm using when the Revit family dialogue box is open- Generic Model, most commonly used is the choice, could this be a possible issue?

Any help you can provide would be great as I have a deadline to capture the space for a presentation.

Please reply at davidpauline35@yahoo.com or ivan.pauline@boeing.com

Thanks,

[Alfredo_Medina]

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@Anonymous wrote:
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When placing the RFA in plan view the furniture system comes over in a 3D orientation, almost as if it needs to be flattened- sort of speak. ...

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Welcome to the forum.

What do you mean by "in plan view the furniture system comes over in a 3D orientation"?

[Anonymous]

What I mean is after I "LOAD FAMILY" then "PLACE COMPONENT (my new rfa.) on level 2 floor plan, the object comes in as a 3D model and not as a 2D flattened object. I have never seen this happen before. So what I did was try going to my default 3D view and place it on level 2 and I can not control the movement, I did'nt think that would work anyway.

So I think my issue may be more related to the conversion from DWG block to Revit family possibly. Is there anything I can do in the Family editor or in CAD through the block editor?

Does this make sense now?

Thanks

[Alfredo_Medina]

Why do you go through the step of bringing this CAD model into a Revit family? Why not simply use Insert > Link CAD, into the project? 

Before bringing the link into Revit, I would spend some time in AutoCAD making sure that the geometry of the furniture makes sense in 3d. It seems that this was exported when the UCS was set to "View" in AutoCAD, instead of the default World UCS. 

And, if what you need is a 2D drawing, create a view that is just 2d in AutoCAD. If I remember correctly, there is a tool in AutoCAD to create a flat snapshot of a 3d view. Then, create a new file with that flat view, and link that into Revit.

[Anonymous]

So I have taken a look at the AutoCAD geometry and not familiar with changing the parameters to World UCS (default). Does this require the full export process or can I just change the geometry setting to the default UCS? How is this done?

Please advise on the procedure to prepare the 3D furniture model for linking to Revit. The current Revit model is based on a 2D AutoCAD layout with the furniture already in the space. However I requested just an extruded version of the 2D CAD layout for inserting once the other components of the space were complete (i.e. new flooring finishes and walls etc) so I needed the furniture out and added as a separate object.

Thanks for your help thus far!

Ivan

[Alfredo_Medina]

In your AutoCAD file, does the furniture look correct, not twisted? If the answer is yes, then, in Revit, in a project, simply do Insert > Link CAD, in your floor plan view. That's all.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately the furniture does look twisted. The view is set to "TOP" so the furniture should appear straight or as if looking down on the geometry ...does not. So can I correct this in AutoCAD before linking to Revit?

[Alfredo_Medina]

You said that you are receiving this .dwg from another office. Can you request them to resubmit the drawing properly? It seem that what you received was a view that was exported from a viewport that was showing an isometric view of the furniture, with the coordinates set to the view. I would request the file again.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I agree. Thanks for the direction on this!

[Anonymous]

I may have misunderstood you, could you explain more simply?

What i gathered is you have a 3D object in autocad and you want to link it into revit as a 2D plan?

If that is the case, open the drawing in autocad from the top (the view you want it from) and use the flatshot command, copy and paste this new 2d object into a new dwg and you have your 2D plan. Now you can go into revit and link this dwg file

[mp_thompson]

Can you send the DWG to look at? Could always forward you a revit project with it linked in for you

[chrisplyler]

I promise I'm not being snarky here.... I'm just mentally stumbling on the notion that Boeing - "the world's largest aerospace company" - doesn't have somebody who is an Autocad whiz.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your reply, very helpful information that I was not aware of. It turns out, however, that (2) views were provided by the vendor. I went back and linked the correct view to the Revit project and it worked out great!

Thanks again for your time and expertise, much appreciated!!

Ivan Pauline

[Anonymous]

Matthew,

Thanks a lot man! I went back into the CAD file and noticed there were 2 views provided (World UCS) and a viewport view. I chose the WUCS and that was the correct view in which I linked to CAD and it was like having an RFA. I checked the 23D view and there the furniture was, placed, just had to adjust some. So I was able to go back, regroup and proceed successfully.

Thanks for your time and expertise!!

Ivan D. Pauline