Importing a Digital elevation model into Revit.

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone,

I have made a model in Revit of a contour topo surface using AutoCAD contour lines and have wrapped a high resolution aerial image with the contour (Image has been attached). It is good for the time being, but our client requires extremely precise topography (10cm contours) as it is to be viewed through a VR headset. 

We are a LiDAR company with access to survey data. I have a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the surface in a raster grid format (Geotiff.), I need to import this data into Revit and make it my topo surface. (Basically do the same thing I have done in the attached image with a DEM)..

Firstly, is it possible to import a Geotiff into Revit and view it in Revit live?

Secondly if yes, then is it possible to assign materials to the imported DEM like how the topo surface can be assigned materials?

A solution would be a huge kick start for me. Hope someone can help 

[Alisder.Brown · Accepted solution]

I do not think you can use DEM/GeoTiff files directly to create the topography, but you have the option to create a topography from a point file

http://help.autodesk.com/view/RVT/2017/ENU/?guid=GUID-35F36FD6-9648-4008-B117-6D7771E5FA9B

If you can get a .CSV or .txt file with the XYZ coordinates of each point from the DEM file, you could try this option. (If you have a detailed survey .DWG file you can do a data extraction of the survey points from AutoCAD to create a Points file)

[Anonymous]

Hi @Alisder.Brown, I am trying to import a .csv file into Revit. The file however is taking forever to load. It has been over 45 minutes and it still is at 75%. 

My .csv file size is 67,409 Kb. I am guessing this is because my file size is quite large and Revit is taking time to process it. Is there a way to speed up this process? 

Or is there a requirement for a better desktop to handle this? My current system's configurations are as follows: - 

Intel Xeon 2,60 Ghz processor

32GB RAM

Nvidia Quadro K4200 Graphics

[luisPDAN6]

The Lidar Topography plugin from the Revit app store loads large Lidar pointclouds in less than a minute. Then one can adjust the point density to create the terrain in Revit with a reasonable amount of time. Less than 100.000 points is a good rule of thumb and it takes then between 1 and 5 minutes.

[temah01p]

I have tried to use Archi however when I try to import multiple point files they all end up on top of each other if I choose "Auto" or if I choose "Manual" they do not import where they should be.
The topo area is large and the Lidar point files are split up into dozens of "block" files due to the size of the data.
There must be a better way to import the individual files into their correct x/y coordinates using Archi rather than importing them all then trying to match the edges like a jigsaw puzzle.
I have tried contacting Archi but no word back yet.

[luisPDAN6]

@temah01p You cannot use center to center (Auto) in multiple files to achieve correct geographical placement. That will just make all your different topography elements be created on top of each other, centered at the origin. You need to input a manual coordinate, so that the tiles are in their correct relation, usually the lowest bottom corner coordinate of your Lidar files. Check the minimum X and Y values of all your files when you open them in the program and take the one that has the lowest value. Then use the same X and Y value as manual origin for creating the topography all your Lidar files. How large are your Lidar tiles? You should know in advance what is the real world coordinate at Revit zero point, that is standard to deal with maps and topography, and import multiple sources with coincidence of coordinates.