Way to automate Revit model to DWG export or "live-updating" reference?
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There is a previous thread from a year ago called Automate Export to DWG that is unanswered as of last May. I'm a computer engineer with some light Autodesk experience and our users posed a question. Today our process is roughly something like this:
- Architectural and Structural users work in Revit.
- They periodically export the model to DWG.
- Other disciplines can then create CAD drawings that reference content in said DWG.
Our project schedules aren't perfectly sequential, they overlap, so Architectural is still making changes to the model when others disciplines begin using it. So Architectural then has to manually export and overwrite the DWG file from step 2 again and again to make it available to other teams.
The users are asking if we can automate Revit to do this export and eliminate the human-effort. Maybe this is an API question and belongs in the API forum. Maybe there are commands we can call with the Windows Task Scheduler? Automate clicking with this forum's preferred macro software package? Use software automation tools like Selenium or Appium?
I'm also wondering if there's another way to meet the goal of a "live-updating" reference without exporting at all. I don't know Navisworks well but maybe between Revit or Navisworks there's some way to expose a "live" version of the model for AutoCAD users to reference? I've heard rumors that this might have been a work-in-progress but that a few years ago snapping to the resulting model didn't work properly. When our users have tried something similar (using coordination models?) they lose access to controlling layers. But maybe we're doing something incorrectly?