Export to DWG setup .txt file

[Anonymous]

How do you extract an Export to DWG setup .txt file from a Revit project model?

[Anonymous]

I haven't had time to dig too deep and find out if this messes up anything like modifiers, (or read every post in this thread, so 'scuse me if it's already been covered) but I needed to find a way to map Revit objects to my firm's internal layer standards - why they can't just use AIA standards is for another discussion...

Anyway, here's what I found

In the folder: "C:\Revit SDK 2018\Software Development Kit\REX SDK\Samples\DRevitFreezeDrawing\DRevitFreezeDrawing\Configuration" you will find the preloaded exportlayer files.

I copied the AIA one as it is closest to what my firm uses.

Pasted it to a folder on our server that is accessible to all

Renamed it so it's clear that it is a customized file.

Edited the TXT file as needed - be careful with syntax - in my case it was mostly a matter of changing layer colors and a couple of names, so that wasn't a big deal.

Now when we export to DWG, we can simply browse to that file in the export dialog, load it and create DWGs as needed...

Now if we could just find a way to have view title lines export to a plottable layer without the same happening to the view boundaries, I'll be a happy camper 🐵

[jaboone]

Your heading is confusing to say you want to export to setup txt file.  Or it sounds like your whole concept of using a txt file as a basis of exporting from Revit, if I interpret it correctly.

Let me just say, I have written a macro in Acad that will place a block on a drawing, using a toolbar button, based on an old fashioned 'ini' file.  With it, I can place blocks in a drawing to a specific layer, even if there isn't a layer in the drawing.  My macro will create the layer based on a definition in the 'ini'.

It sounds like you want to have definitions of layers in a txt or ini file that will help you to redact some layers that Revit uses and revert them to other layers that Acad uses.  I don't have the file references you are referring to in the SDK folder.

As far as I know, there is no good way to transpose those model lines definitions to layers in Acad.  Throw in demolition lines and that brings a most difficult situation to export the new Revit to something so antique as Acad.  I have been manually exporting from a much more sophisticated program and then importing to an antique Acad for many years.  This export process can take hours and is very complicated with no easy solutions.  A bain of the existence of having to working in 20th-century software as opposed to something from the 1980s.  Wouldn't the best process be to move the antique Acad into something that could be a lot better or serve better purposes of making it fit something you are trying to avoid?  I design electrical and there is a long way to go in Revit before it is of any use to what we need with no good progress for our discipline.  

I have said time and time again, make a professional version of acad so we can move on and move acad to BIM like other cad programs, and I can think of at least 3 that are heading to that direction while the "flagship" of Autodesk stays in 1980.  Move on guys!  How many architects have jumped ship for Revit?  Not hard to know why they jumped off that boat.

[RobDraw]

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@jaboone wrote:

A bain of the existence of having to working in 20th-century software as opposed to something from the 1980s. 

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1980s is in the 20th century.

[Anonymous]

I think you slightly misunderstood my post - so I re-phrased the heading to clarify.

I agree about ACAD being 1980's technology, it was great in it's time (I started with version 1.2 back then) but we've moved on.

The problem is that we still have a lot of people clinging onto it - (also others who try to run BIM like it's some sort of ACAD on steroids - big mistake) - So we regularly have to export Revit files into DWG and anything that can be done to make that process smoother is welcome.

The TXT file that I found in the SDK folder, then copied/modified will do just that although there are still some little "gotchas"  like the view title line issue.

[jaboone]

I don't think you got the point Rob.  but if you want to get technical, yes acad works for its niche.  Other players are incorporating BIM while Autodesk acad is not.  Who will win in the end, market, or users' needs?  Once sales drop more than they have already, I guess you can say we will find out then.

I think the direction they are going now, with this stupid crazy work flow and what acad does for users, while it is getting only worse will decide what will happen.  Being in the market with an unworkable direction and being in a market with a great workflow will decide it all.  Once the other guys figure that out, then, will be just the start and a big wakeup call, but to little too late.

[RobDraw]

You guys both misunderstood my post.

I was only pointing out the error in the quoted sentence that was making a comparison between 20th century software and 1980's software. 

[Seychellian]

Hi does that mean that you need to setup the layer modifiers for every revit file that you customise? That surely can’t be right. 

Has anything changed since the last post in this thread. I’m trying to set up a template for export to dwg which we can use for all our Revit to dwg exports. Preferably without fiddling in the text file where it's really easy to make errors. 

[RobDraw]

If you add the settings to the template or store them in a model, you will either already have them in any project that you start with that template or you can use transfer project standards.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

No, once you get the export file right, it will be available for all Revit projects on your system.

[Anonymous]

I agree 100% - When I first saw Revit at an AIA convention many years ago, I said to a friend of mine who was high up at ADESK "You guys had better copy or buy this application" - A couple of years later they bought it. I'm still waiting for my fat commission on that deal 🤣

The trouble is that many Architects are not that tech savvy - the principals at the firm I work for are still desperately clinging to ACAD - it drives me crazy.

[daniil_timin]

You can still modify the txt file with preferences via File - Export - Options - IFC Options.
Do not forget to load back exportlayers-ifc-IAI.txt once you finished othervise IFC export will not work at all.
Not sure is it a bug or "work as coded"