Announcements
Welcome to the Revit Ideas Board! Before posting, please read the helpful tips here. Thank you for your Ideas!
cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Link PDF into Revit

Link PDF into Revit

Will Revit ever support the feature of linking or attaching a PDF into the revit file?

 

 

 

98 Comments
Anonymous
Not applicable
Hi Neerav-
Thanks for your reply and suggestion. I think this type of work flow could
be quite useful as an alternative to full-pdf support. I would be willing
to spend $9/year for such an add-in. An option to insert a PDF as image or
.dwg would be very handy. Also, I would like the option to insert or link
the .dwg file.
Thank you,

Matt
Anonymous
Not applicable
Since this issue is marked as Under Consideration, I would not encourage you to develop a plugin or this. Now, since autodesk has many of the top 10 most voted items for Revit "Under Consideration" with no further announcement over the last two years, you may actually want to develop a plugin. I just depends how much you believe or not in Autodesk listening to their customers. so far they have a pretty mediocre track record in the Ideas forum seeing as they ignore most of the top voted ideas for many years or forever. I guess if they don't have it in the upcoming 2019 version coming out soon, it will be worth developing.
Anonymous
Not applicable

@Anonymous Thanks for your response. You mentioned "Also, I would like the option to insert or link
the .dwg file." Is this in relation to conversion of PDF file to DWG and then inserting the generated DWG file or is it for importing any DWG file? I thought Revit could already insert or link to a DWG file. Am I missing something?

 

@Anonymous Good point! Any idea when does Revit 2019 come out?

 

 

Anonymous
Not applicable
Anonymous
Not applicable
Neerav-
My reference to insert vs link is related to the converted .dwg file. Most
of the time, I think users opt for linking .dwg files vs inserting to keep
file sizes down and allow for refreshing the linked files as needed.


Anonymous
Not applicable
I would definitely support this add-in. We have asked this for years from Autodesk and it wouldn’t appear this feature would be coming in the next update. I would like to see the option to link/import a PDF as a PDF not a DWG conversion. Thank you!
Anonymous
Not applicable
I love your optimism sarsenault2CCSS! I don't have much faith that
Autodesk cares at all about user suggestions. There are so many absurdly
simple features lacking in Revit that haven't been addressed over the past
10+ years. They've clearly made the internal decision to outsource
user-experience features to plug-in developers. Unfortunately, for us, that
means more cost every month, but at least it offers work to entrepreneurial
developers like Neerav.
RolyNZ
Enthusiast
I have given up hope that Autodesk will implement ANY of these wish list
items.

Simply fixing things such as text glitches I have experienced with the text
editor for the last 2 versions is beyond Autodesk.

I have owned Revit outright for over 10 years, paid for updates every year
only to be left disappointed.

I have decided to stop paying the yearly subscription fee from now on.

I will continue to use 2018, as far as I am aware I can do this indefinitely
at no further cost.

Possibly the main drawback will be great no access to addins people such as
@Anonymous will create.



Anonymous
Not applicable
Indeed, Autodesk has done a terrible job at responsive to the top voted ideas. For shame, they pretend to listen to customers but the software is full of fundamental bugs after many years and it does not align with architect's way of working. There is something fundamentally wrong with the way bugs are (not) being addressed and how customer's top request are being ignored for many years. I hope that firing 10% of employees got rid of a few rotten apples, but I feel like it probably just weakened a slow and clumsy beast instead. Autodesk, wake up! Read the top voted feature, read the complaints on the forums, talk to users, engineers and architects!
Anonymous
Not applicable

@Anonymous Thanks!

 

@Anonymous Now I understood your comment about linking vs inserting. What you said does make sense. You want to keep the file size down and refresh the link when the PDF file gets refreshed. One problem I see with refreshing the link is that technically, Revit is linking to the DWG file that was auto-generated from the PDF by the add-in. Revit itself will not know about the PDF. So if the PDF gets refreshed, you'll need to press "Insert/Link PDF" again. Is that a dealbreaker?

 

@Anonymous Thanks for your support! Unfortunately Revit API doesn't provide any way to insert/link a PDF directly. The only two options are: link/insert an image or link/insert a DWG file. You could achieve the same functionality as the add-in by manually converting PDF to image/DWG and inserting/linking to it. The add-in just saves you the manual effort. Is this a dealbreaker for you?

 

@RolyNZ From what I understand, there is no perpetual license for Revit 2018. It will stop working as soon as you stop paying for subscription.

ttourangeau_svn
Enthusiast

omg i got a link to a survey about PDF LINKING!!!

 

it's pretty clear that they vastly over-estimated users' needs. As far as I know no one has been clamoring for layer control and snap-ability. I've just only ever wanted the **** program to rasterize the PDF and place it on a sheet. I still don't know why they couldn't have phased in PDF support (rasterization say, 10+ years ago because autocad has always had it).

anyway, it's the faintest glimmer of hope. still, I'll believe it when I see it.

Not sure about whether the dev team over-estimated the user's needs. For us, vector support and snapping are important features.

 

I guess that's why they do these surveys 🙂

Anonymous
Not applicable
I got a link too. 😊
Anonymous
Not applicable
These surveys are supposed to be confidential...... Also, pretty sad that it took 2 years for Autodesk to do this after putting it "under review" in 2016....
RolyNZ
Enthusiast
Too late for me, I'm not paying for any more upgrades


samuelsanf
Mentor

@RolyNZ, as far as I now, there is not perpetual licencing for Revit 2018, so if you are working in 2018 you have a suscription contract, even if you don't upgrade.

RolyNZ
Enthusiast
You had me worried so I called my Autodesk reseller, they have advised me
that I own the perpetual licence

I haven't swapped to the "Subscription" yet

As my plan is a "Maintenance" plan I can continue to use my 2018 software
even if I stop paying them money.

I won't have access to "Support"


dplumb_BWBR
Advisor

@RolyNZ ...or anyone else's Revit projects.

with no Save Back, and everyone else on Subscription, it won't be long before your 2018 won't be able to open anyone else's models.

RolyNZ
Enthusiast
True hadn't considered that, but I am small 1 man band.

In 10 years I have never imported anyone elses revit files.

That's a risk I am taking.


This idea is on the new revit roadmap! http://blogs.autodesk.com/revit/2018/04/13/revit-roadmap-update-april-2018/

I guess it will be marked as "accepted" soon.

Can't find what you're looking for? Ask the community or share your knowledge.

Submit Idea