Revit with AutoCAD Integration

[Rodrigo_Roa]

Hello everyone!

I'm part of a small company that creates models and plans in Revit. We specialize in floor plans, exterior elevations, and roof designs. The main software we use is Revit, but some clients request these plans in AutoCAD. In those cases, we export the drawings and then consolidate all the plans into a single CAD file.

The thing is, this process is quite tedious and very manual, each viewport has to be treated as an independent element, which is increasing our delivery time due to how manual it is to consolidate multiple Revit plans into a single CAD file.

Has anyone faced this challenge? How could I optimize this process? Do you think creating scripts or incorporating some programming could be the answer?

I appreciate any input. Cheers!

[s.borello]

Why not simply export your RVT views to separate CAD's... you can map the object to layer name you want in AutoCAD so there should be very little cleanup.  Save export settings to repeat the process - just like PDF'ing.  

[handjonathan]

Hi @Rodrigo_Roa 

Thanks a lot for posting your question to the forums!   Has the solution suggested by @s.borello helped with your issue?
 
We look forward to hearing back from you with more information so we can help you as a community! 

[TripleM-Dev.net]

Hi @Rodrigo_Roa ,

To build on @s.borello idea;

- Export all the views needed (those on sheets?) as seperate DWG's

- If a Certain layer names are needed setup the DWG export to match (some things may not be possible..)

- Create a new/clean DWG file and Xref all exported views into it.

- Order the Xrefs in the dwg where need etc. and save this file as a "Master" dwg and add titleblock etc.

- If it needs to be a single dwg to be send, bind the Xrefs and save Master under another name.

- When the Revit Model is changed export the views again and overwrite the old DWG's with the new ones in the same folder as before.

- Open the Master DWG + Bind + SaveAs.

- And maybe review the DWG before Bind, if any adjustment is needed (plan has become larger etc...)

Exporting the Views will normally preserve it's origin point on export, this is not always the case when exporting the Sheet, specially with multiple views on a sheet.

The thing is, this process is quite tedious and very manual, each viewport has
to be treated as an independent element, which is increasing our delivery time
 due to how manual it is to consolidate multiple Revit plans into a single CAD
 file.

What do you mean with "Each viewport" the Revit Viewport or AutoCAD viewport?

Each Revit View needs to be a PaperSpace layout in AutoCAD?

Or each Revit Sheet (layout) needs to be a AutoCAD Paperspace Layout?

- Michel

Or a search resulted in the app: Export sheets to DWG 

[SteveKStafford]

Setting client expectations is important too. Exporting to DWG from Revit is possible but it was never designed to be a better way to make DWG files. As such, any resulting DWG file IS in that format but it will never be equal to having a native AutoCAD user create such a drawing file based on their own standards and habits.

[TripleM-Dev.net]

@SteveKStafford,

Correct, and also depends what they do further with it.

If it's for further editing, a Revit export is going to be a pain, if it's just for subcontractors to be using as reference/underlay it's ideal (remember the XClips and tons of layers turned off and not updated with the rest etc...)