Possible to auto-update topography with linked dwg file?

[Anonymous]

Hi,

   I'm new at Revit and working on a small residential project. I'm trying to figure out the best way to make and edit topography. The way I'm trying to do it now is to create a set of 3D contour lines in Rhino, export (or save) as a .dwg, link that .dwg file into Revit and then create a toposurface from that. When I update the file in Rhino and reload the .dwg into Revit, the topo I've made doesn't seem to update. If I were to make a new topo from the reloaded .dwg, I would lose my building pads. Is there a better way to do this?

Thanks!

Nate

[Anonymous]

Build the topography in Revit and eliminate Autocad and Rhino all together?  Is there a reason you are using Rhino to create the surface?

[Anonymous]

A fair option. Just much more familiar with Rhino and adjusting lines and surfaces there. Thought it might be a more dynamic toolfor creating complex or variable surfaces.

[Anonymous]

You should check this out...

https://www.autodesk.com/autodesk-university/class/Designing-Island-Lair-AutodeskR-RevitR-2012#hando...

As well as:

https://twitter.com/marcellosgamb/status/686117215259643904

And this:

http://therevitcomplex.blogspot.com/2013/03/revit-site-topography-modeling-class.html

There are lots of cool things you can do with the topography in Revit. 🙂

[barthbradley]

If you already have the CAD Link and Building Pads in place,  a possible workaround would be to Split the Toposurface (Split Surface tool) around the Building Pads leaving about a 1-inch gap between the Pad and Split Surface Boundary.  Then delete all the Toposurface around the Split Surfaces w/Pads. This will leave behind just the Pads, their Topo Infills and a 1-inch sliver of host Topography all around them. Then recreate a new, updated Toposurface from the updated CAD Link, and again use the Split Surface tool to "split away" and remove the portion of the Toposurface which is covering/overlapping the Building Pad Topo.  

FWIW.  

[Anonymous]

This is an interesting idea. Not the ideal, but I think it could work in certain situations. Thanks.

[ralvarez1976 · Accepted solution]

Save a copy of your current file (detached if using worksets) before recreating the topography. Close the file.

In the original file, recreate the topography from your updated AutoCAD link.

Then open the copy and the updated Revit files in the same session of Revit, and copy / paste the pads over. The pads will host themselves to the new toposurface they find.