Mirrored link cannot be exported to IFC

[Anonymous]

Hi guys, I have a problem with mirrored linked instances. I'm not able to export them as separated IFC files. It works all fine for non-mirrored instances.

Workaround from https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/revit-products/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles... says that I could create a copy of the un-mirrored project, and link this model instead.

I'm Revit newbie and all I need is only this export with all linked models as separated IFCs. I don't know how exactly to do it for mirrored ones?

Could someone help me please and give me step by step instructions?

I've attached also sample project.

[MostafaElashmawy]

Revit will never export the mirrored link.

But in your case, you can rotate 180 degrees instead of mirroring.

In your case it will give the same result.

[Anonymous]

Thank you very much, that works for my sample.

I'm not sure how I would apply this on my real project though.
It's a big building with lot of flats, some of them are mirrored.

I assume, I'd need:
1) "de-mirror" mirrored ones first
2) rotate each by 180 degrees
3) re-position

It means a lot of manual work for my project. Moreover any manipulation with existing flats comes with some Revit warnings.

Isn't there a simpler way? Plugin, or so?

Thank you again. Really appreciate your help.

[MostafaElashmawy]

You can create two revit links one original and one mirrored. So for ifc they will not be same link.

[Anonymous]

Thank you again. It seems it won't be easy with my project.

I'm trying to replace all mirrored ones with new linked (180 degrees rotated) model.

When I tried to create flat-rotated-by-180-degrees.rvt it gave me a lot of warnings (which couldn't be ignored):

- Constraints are not satisfied

- Can't keep elements joined.

- Element is reversed

- Room Tag is outside of its Room.  Enable Leader or move Room Tag within its Room.

- Multiple Rooms are in the same enclosed region...

- A wall and a room separation line overlap... 

At the end, I was able to create the rotated model, but now I'm worried that I lost something from the original.

Anyway, when I wanted to replace mirrored instances with my 180 version, it gave me a wrong position and some warnings again. Can Revit tell me if the instance is rotated or not? I’d prefer to cancel rotation, export it to IFC and rotate the geometries myself later.

My Revit project is quite big and it already crashed 2x when I tried to manipulate with it 😞

[RDAOU]

Not sure how 180 degrees rotated layout is similar to a mirrored on but if it works for you with rotation then you should definitely be able to work with 1 link..Otherwise mirrored geometries should be modeled in a new file and linked as a separate model. I think there should be a prompt error in Revit which says that when you try to export mirrored links to separate IFCs

when you say you need to export the links as separate IFC...Question: How many IFC models are you anticipating to extract from your model once exported to IFC?

I am thinking why don't you try working with Groups and Assemblies. It is easier and more practical to work with groups and assemblies on such projects than linking 50 flats into one model

[Anonymous]

Great, thank you, I'm making progress.

I thought that only flats rotated by 180 degrees would work in export, but now I see that mirrored and linked flats work too. You are right of course, I can't only rotate them, I need to mirror them.

For simplicity, I have now:
flat-orginal.rvt (50 instances, half of them mirrored - and not exported)
flat-mirrored.rvt

I'd like to simple replace mirrored flat-original instances with flat-mirrored. Is that possible? I'd like to:
1) remove mirror "flag" from the instance
2) replace instance link from flat-original to flat-mirrored

That way I could keep the position and avoid misalignment, but I may be wrong.

[RDAOU]

Should work

[Anonymous]

I wish I knew how to do it. I'm lost.

I have no idea how I could swap an existing mirrored instances with my flat-mirrored.rvt.

First problem, instances are mirrored, so I need to turn "mirroring" somehow off. Is it actually possible?

Swapping the links only isn't probably enough and I'd need to set the position correctly. I have no idea how...

I think that my initial question has been already answered, but to achieve what I really need - export mirrored flats is still a challenge for me. I wish IFC export worked for mirrored links too.

[ToanDN]

Why don't you save as to a new file, bind the links and export to IFC from that file?

[Anonymous]

I have attached PDF describing my issue. I hope it makes sense. I don't have enough experience with Revit, so if you suggest anything further, please give me step by step instructions. I believe that what I need is simple thing, but I don't know how to do it. Thank you all again.

[RDAOU]

Check the below screen cast...Ideally I would link mirrored models this way.

Alternatively you can either mirror a link and bind it (it will be converted to a model group) basically/more or less similar to what I suggested in my earlier reply that you work with groups and assemblies instead of Linked models

76050d23-dd48-4ac0-949e-419265e0ef3c,640,710

[Anonymous]

Thank you. This is exactly what I did also on my side with testing sample. It all works great.

The problem with my project is that flats are already placed in the building. When I create my mirrored* version, I don't know how to replace already existing flats in the building.

* I'm also worried that if I pick wrong mirroring axis, it will break position.

[RDAOU]

I am not sure why you would still need to pick mirroring axes...you do not need to mirror anything in the host model. When you work with linked models it is best that u set up shared coordinates. Each placed instance of the link can have its own/different shared coordinates which once positioned/recorded properly they should never breaks. 

If you are not familiar with shared coordinates it might be easier to work with model groups. Anyhow this is a new topic 🙂 if the original post is solved, I prefer that you close it and start a new post titled "placing multiple instances of  linked model"

...I need to head out before I miss my train 

LG

[ToanDN]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have attached PDF describing my issue. I hope it makes sense. I don't have enough experience with Revit, so if you suggest anything further, please give me step by step instructions. I believe that what I need is simple thing, but I don't know how to do it. Thank you all again.

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That was exactly why I asked you to bind the links before exporting to IFC.  When you bind the links (original and mirrored) they will become model groups and you will have no problem exporting the file to a single IFC.

[Anonymous]

This works, but it exports only single IFC with everything. I need to export each flat as individual IFC.

I quite like this approach though. I'll check it again tomorrow.

[ToanDN]

- Open the original flat and export it to IFC

- Create a new revit file, link the original flat in, mirror, bind, export to IFC

[sathishkumar.muthumanickamGVRJN]

Hi, 
We have tried out one of the projects, Structural and Architecture works well, but when it comes to the MEP project, the mirrored or Link model mirror and binding option. pipe and duct connections are disconnected and the displacement element location. Any suggestions to fix this issue?