Revit and Solidworks

[smc340]

The company I am currently working for is considering purchasing Revit, however we need to know how compatible Revit and Solidworks are together. If anyone has any information or experiences with using the two together that might be helpful it would be greatly appreciated!

[scott_d_davis]

If you can give me a little more info, i may be able to answer your question better.

Solidworks is primarily a design-to-fabrication tool for the manufacturing industry

Revit is a design-to-construction tool for the buildings industry

How do you plan on using them together?  What types of models from Solidworks do you see needing to bring into Revit?

Solidworks will definitely export to a file format that Revit can read and import, but it may not be the "best" fit, just because there is always something lost in an export/import of modeling formats.  IFC might be the better exchange method, but I'm not sure at this point.  You may want to consider bringing Solidworks models into Inventor, Autodesk's manufacturing design-to-fabrication tool, and then from Inventor, create an RFA file (Revit Family). This will create native Revit geometry and be the best way to "exchange" data because then it involved no "export" from the Inventor side.

So please share some additional info of how you see the 2 working together, and I can then come up with a better answer for you.

[arunag · Accepted solution]

http://communities.autodesk.com/india/sites/default/files/india/resources/SAT%20file%20to%20Revit.pd...

Check the above mentioned link where it is explained how objects created in solidworks or similar applicatons can be imported in Revit family teplate through .Sat format & converted to .rfa file. This method has its limitations in the sense that it cannot be fully parametric like originally created in Revit families but can be used for a quick fix time saving jobs.

[Anonymous]

Hi Scott,

could you please explain more on what you mean by 'IFC might be a better exchange method'? thanks

[Anonymous]

Did you ever find a solution for converting or import Solidworks files into Rivet?

My company uses Solidworks and many of our customers are requesting Revit files so that they can spec in our product into thier construction project.

Any help would be great, thanks.

[Anonymous]

Is this still not possible?

[Dandman01]

Hi, It seems the link about to the SAT file to revit PDF is broken, It seems to default to the community page. Is there any chance you could post an updated link please?

Dan.

[L.Maas]

Try THIS link

[Dandman01]

Thank you kindly Sir.

[chrisplyler · Accepted solution]

Be careful with this workflow. You do NOT want fully detailed Solidworks models just directly becoming Revit families.

Let's say, for example, that your company designs and sells a few models of submersible sump pumps. The kind that might be specified for installation in a sump pit at the corner of a loading dock truck well. Let's say I'm a designer who is looking for a sump pump family to add into my Revit file and place into the truck well.

I do NOT want a family that has the impeller, the shaft, the motor, the seals, and every nut and bolt all modeled accurately. I just want a cylinder that's close to the right diameter and length, maybe a couple of bosses for pipe connection locations, a clearance box for any minimum spacing requirements, and appropriately sized/placed mechanical and electrical connectors.

If providing usable Revit families is important to your company, it would do well to hire somebody, who has experience using Revit to design in the appropriate area (plumbing, in the above example) to make acceptable families from scratch using the Solidworks files (or even just a cut sheet) as a reference.

[Anonymous]

Hi there,

Solod Works is way beyond Revit.

Revit has a long way to go to become even slightly similar in ease and functionality to Solid Works.

Besides, there is nothing revit can do, what SW can't.

If some people say you that revit can do calculations of materials and easy to compile schedules of items and whatever you need for your project,

Please don't believe them.

First: SW can calculate and compile data as well.

Second: It's far from easy in revit to organise easy that data as in SW.

If you guys are working in SW, trust me, nothing else you need.

[MeganH_Skanska]

Except load into any of the major collaboration software properly coordinated and the right way up. Solidworks can't do that. In collaborative, BIM projects,  it's a big headache that one! Manageable shareable, single files also a struggle.

Don't get me wrong, Solidworks is a great package. But claiming it is better than Revit in every way is like saying a spanner is better than a hammer drill or a Total Station.

But if you are working in Solidworks, and want to work with collaborative model packages from the big software houses like AUTODESK or Bentley Systems, you will need other software to re-orient and coordinate your exported step files or IFCs.

[Anonymous]

Hi Scott,

Your Post below is from a while ago but maybe you can till answer my question-

We're an architectural lighting manufacturer and use Solidworks for design.  Our customers use Revit models of our products to assist in the specification of our product and the layout of lighting designs.  We've been outsourcing the Revit modeling but this is slow and time consuming.  Is the best way to convey SolidWorks models into Revit still via Inventor (per your post below)? 

Thanks a lot-

Brian Thomas, LC

Product Manager

Architectural Lighting works   

[chrisplyler]

The best way is to have someone experienced in Revit family creation, and specifically light fixtures...someone who understands the requirements of Architects AND Electrical Engineers/Designers...build you well-designed Revit families from scratch. It's not that hard to do. I build usable families quite often, using just a manufacturer's submittal data.

I built this Chiller family in about fifteen minutes, for the project I'm working on now. It's not anywhere close to the detail that the manufacturer has in their design files. But it's the RIGHT amount of detail for me, the Mechanical Designer, to use in my Revit file. It's got the right dimensions. It's got the right piping connection sizes and locations. It's got the right system connectors for the water pipes, natural gas pipe, and for electrical. And that's all. It' looks close enough to produce accurate layout drawings, have my piping system materials schedule correctly, etc. But it's just a handful of forms. No fasteners are in it. No internal voids. No nonsense that bloats my file for no useful reason. In fact it's a bit more detailed than I really need. Just enough that I don't look lazy! Shown below in red. The same thought process should be used to make your light fixture families. If you think just turning a whole Solidworks file into a Revit family is the better choice, then you don't understand Revit and its users. And if you think it's easier, then you're delusional.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your advice- makes sense.

[Anonymous]

• My experienced deal with solidwork was by using autodesk inventor..u can open solid work format with autodesk inventor..and after that u can convert to adsk or rfa format for family in revit

[chrisplyler]

You DO understand what I've been saying, right?

I'm a Design/Build Construction designer. I do Architectural, Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing design and construction drawings, and I use Revit to do it.

I definitely DO NOT want a manufacturer's product design files just "converted" into Revit rfa files. A manufacturer's Solidworks or Inventor design files are going to be crammed full of content that is useless in Revit and construction drawings, and in fact bogs down the Revit file and makes it difficult to work with. And MEP products will not have the appropriate mechanical/electrical/plumbing connections/data that a Revit user needs either.

I will actively avoid specifying a product from a manufacturer that supplies such crap files for Revit, or else just make my own file from scratch utilizing printed cut sheets as a guide, which is easy to do with just a few days of learning. And since it is easy to do, manufacturers should do it instead of trying to figure out how to "convert" their files into crap that Revit users don't want. If I can knock out a decent representation of your product for my use in Revit in fifteen minutes, then the resources necessary to do it aren't that much. It takes me ten times longer to try "fixing" your converted file than it takes me to just create one the right way from scratch.

I'll give you an example. PACO Pumps supplies Revit family files done well. They are NOT just converted from their engineering design files. They do NOT contain anything but a reasonably accurate representation of the exterior shape of the pump modeled using just solid forms, with Revit Types that adjust properly, along with the correct Revit MEP connectors. They work right, represent right on the drawings, and don't have any bloat. And you know what? I spec the crap out of them because they make my job easier (also they make decent products of course). If you want to lose a sale, send me a "converted" Solidworks file. You want to make a sale, make it easy for the people who might spec your product.

[Anonymous]

The Data in Revit is pertinent to the building needs, steel, concrete, drywall, insulation, windows, doors, etc.  It is not intended to provide the BOM of a specific piece of equipment.  The Buildings BOM is extracted from the Revit Model.  Solid Works is great for what it does, I do not want to build a building using Solid Works and I would not want to create intricate machinery with Revit.

[korecom]

Hi Chris

I understand your point and  it is true that these are two diff software's  and no point in anybody claiming one is better than other.. it depends upon what the end product you are designing.

If I have to sum up  Solid works/ Inventor/ Pro E / Solid edge etc are more for Industrial / Mech design and Revit is more for built environment ..

and in some areas there is a grey area where both could be used 

having said that there ae many like me who use Solidworks because our product is at the end of the day is a manufactured product but happens to be used in built environment. so although the product is not like a consumer product of medical device it is an Architectural product it is same as if CAD modelling for factory manufacturing

So from a OEM perspective I also have a similar issue with Revit

My native CAD is SOlidworks and there is no chance company will use Revit because some times within our product we do stuff which is more like industrial design which SW and like can do far better than Revit

BUT now a days in Built environment OEM like us are expected to give out BIM friendly models ... and that is where the conflict comes

A) Even if I dumb down the parametric SW model before converting to a BIM friendly Revit the conversion is not that easy ! ( may be Inventor and Revit being owned by Autodesk the pathway from Inventor to Revit is easier! don't know!)

B) TO get BIM models alternative is to start from scratch ... and that is where management is thinking hang on .. we have already spent time and money on getting a pure 3D model so why can't we somehow convert it?

- Doing from scratch has many issues

1) Re interpretation of design

2) Possibility of errors 

3) Even if Revit creation is outsourced the time that will required by internal staff to educate  the external contractor !

And at the end of the day management says why not spend that money in creating new product models in SW ( INV/ Pro E etc) 

Because we still need the accurate models in our native parametric CAD