Revit to Inventor workflow

[pcrawley]

For a manufacturer of building products, it's highly desirable to be able to receive all (or part) of a Revit model and be able to use it inside Inventor as a reference model or underlay.

Currently the only option is to import it either directly as a SAT file, or by opening the RVT file in Inventor - which is actually doing a SAT conversion in the background anyway.  Importing data is a really bad workflow because it's a "one-time" function.  If the Revit file changes, you have to re-import the model - effectively trashing most of the hard work already completed in Inventor.

Yesterday it struck me that if Revit could directly export a STEP file, then Inventor's AnyCAD technology can already handle dynamically updating everything built around that STEP file as an underlay.  If the Revit model changed, a new STEP file could be exported, and Inventor would update everything based on the new geometry.  (Perhaps the better "idea" for the Inventor Idea Station is that they extend the AnyCAD supported formats to include some more of Autodesk's own file formats!)

I realise there is a STEP translator available in the Revit APP store, but my "idea" is that it should be added to Revit as a "standard" feature.

[Anonymous]

You should build an app for that...

[dsl145]

I whole heartedly agree with your suggestion, and would also just like a more general plan for how Autodesk assumes we are supposed to work with Revit and Inventor in parallel. The idea of having to use the AEC and import/export back and forth is just horrible. Models are only accurate if all the information in them is current, and not having a seamless workflow breaks this and creates errors.

In general, Autodesk should adopt your idea or just FIX IT in general.

[chrisplyler]

Sounds like a great idea, if your workflow requires it.

But I'm curious...why does your workflow require it.? I mean, who is responsible for telling a manufacturer what to make, and why are they starting in Revit in the first place? It certainly isn't the best choice for product design.

[dsl145]

Easy. Consultant Engineers who have to do both structural design (and analysis) as well as machine design. I've worked on dozens of projects where the structural department is using either Revit, or Microstation, or some other software and the mechanical department is using Inventor. Right now there's no easy way to merge the two workflows together (maybe Navisworks... but not the best solution).

Revit has it's place and Inventor has it's place, and it's not typical that you would just force one group or the other to use the wrong software for their application just to get the files to be consistent.

[chris]

Hi there! 

Do we have a proper workflow for this yet in 2018?

We are in the same position, having the mechanical team (Inventor) working alongside the steel & concrete teams (Revit).

Chris Els

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@dsl145 wrote:

Easy. Consultant Engineers who have to do both structural design (and analysis) as well as machine design. I've worked on dozens of projects where the structural department is using either Revit, or Microstation, or some other software and the mechanical department is using Inventor. Right now there's no easy way to merge the two workflows together (maybe Navisworks... but not the best solution).

Revit has it's place and Inventor has it's place, and it's not typical that you would just force one group or the other to use the wrong software for their application just to get the files to be consistent.

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[dsl145]

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@chris wrote:

Hi there! 

Do we have a proper workflow for this yet in 2018?

We are in the same position, having the mechanical team (Inventor) working alongside the steel & concrete teams (Revit).

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In short answer...No.

We're moving to Vault Professional right away which might help a bit of the versioning issues associated with the mixed software workflows, but the plan right now is to just use the generic file formats to keep the other team apprised of each other's work.

I should also note that the structural/civil program we use (Microstation) will likely remain the software of choice for that department. The next version of the software apparently has a major upgrade and will include better than 1995 graphics and will include parametric modeling. Since Revit itself doesn't play any nicer with Inventor than Microstation, once we get the updated version there will be 0 reasons for us to transition. Autodesk missed the opportunity to pull in a lot of business by not having a seamless link for mechanical and civil IMO.

[chris]

I agree..  we are making the decision right now and Autodesk will be losing out.

Autodesk might be more cost effective but at the cost of functionality. I hope we can integrate in the near future.

[pcrawley]

@chris - I'm curious to know what you are planning to buy instead of Revit/Inventor?  

I'd be keen to understand which other vendor(s) offer a better "solution" to this workflow problem.