Exporting Inventor for Revit Family

[aconchado]

Hey all, 

I received .STP files from a vendor that were exported from Inventor. I need to use these as a Revit family. Have tried many different things, both exporting different ways from Inventor as well as importing them into Revit different ways. Using Inventor 2016 and Revit 2016.

I have tried (probably forgetting a few):

Converting .STP to 3D acad from Inventor (then importing or linking into Revit family)

Importing into Inventor, exporting to .ADSK (then importing or linking into Revit family)

Saving the .STP as .dwg and .SAT from Inventor (then importing or linking into Revit family)

Also have tried exploding and deleting some components in Inventor, but it's been time consuming and resulted in too many objects being deleted. 

All attempts have resulted the same, there's rogue objects that appear after importing into Revit, from talking to some people, we believe it's an issue with mesh surfaces? I can upload or send the files to someone if they would like to take a look.

Thanks

[robert.klempau]

Hello,

You mentioned that you received a .STP files from a vendor that were exported from Inventor.

Well, Why don't ask him to provide you a ADSK file?

This ADSK file you can load and place directly in your Revit project.

That will save you a lot of time and is a good BIM workflow.

In Inventor they can export a ADSK file through the BIM Exchange function.

please check the link below:

About the BIM Exchange Environment

[Anonymous]

I would also like to see .stp to revit family conversion because a lot of manufacturers put on their website .stp files.

This could also make a really good video tutorial, how to prepare some model in inventor for importing it and making a good revit family.  Does this video exist?

[robert.klempau]

Can you send me the .STP file?

I will make a Video for you.

[aconchado]

Robert, we're you asking me to send you the .stp, or mileticnikola? If you were asking me, message me with your email. I'm going to try and export the .STP to .ADSK real quick before I ask the vendor.

Thanks for the reply, i'll report back. 

[Anonymous]

Hello, 

If you can make a video of any .stp or .step file conversion I would be grateful! 

In example, one of revit family that I want to make is a circulating pump and "Wilo" has its links to various files, like this one:

http://wilo.cadprofi.com/Wilo-CronoLine-IL-E.html

And I would like to know how to make various Types out of it - by making its measures adjustable in Revit.

Thanks @robert.klempau,

Nikola M 

[pkolarik]

I receive equipment files in .stp (or .step) format too. Every now and then we get the same type of issues that your images show, but not all the time. Most of the time, in fact, I don't get any noticeable issues. It almost seems somehow related to the complexity of the mesh on the part/assembly, but I can't be certain.

The worst case item I went in and deleted the offending part of the mesh in Inventor but, like you said, more than just that part was deleted (I left it deleted since the other stuff wasn't critical for what I needed anyway).

I export all as .adsk files and bring them into Revit that way... every attempt I made at turning an .stp file into an actual revit file directly has failed (the result was always an empty revit file), and I don't know Inventor enough to be able to do much in the way of manually cleaning up the files there.

(the automated Inventor "simplify part" options don't seem to work well)

[aconchado]

@pkolarik Would you mind elaborating a bit on your process? I watched a few videos today and attempted 3 times to clean up and export as an .RFA and .ADSK with no luck. The two pieces of equipment i'm dealing with are fairly complicated, lots of components. 

[pkolarik]

Sure... keep in mind I really have very little idea of how to work Inventor. Alot of this was me discovering it via clicking things and seeing what happens.. lol

1. Open the .stp file in Inventor
2. "BIM" pulldown
3. "BIM Exchange" button
4. "Export Building Components" button.

At this point, Inventor tells me that is has to "save" the file before exporting.... so I click "ok". It begins the saving process, during which it sometimes (I haven't figured out the "why" to this part) generates individual files for each of the "parts" (I believe) in the .stp file.

• Once it's done saving (my most recent .stp file I ran through this was an entire 45' x 100' equipment skid.. it took almost exactly one hour to "save", and it generated over 1000 individual "parts" files... just an fyi that saving can take a while), the "Export Building Components" dialog box pops up and you'll be able to select the file type you want to export to. An .adsk format has worked for me every time, while every attempt at a .rfa file has resulted in an empty .rfa file. So I select ".adsk" and hit okay. A "Save as" box pops up and asks for location and filename.

I've tried several times manually cleaning up the .stp file as soon as I open it in Inventor, in hopes of making the resulting .adsk file smaller. Most with no luck. It's incredibly tedious to try and do and with very, very limited success or impact. (however, this could simply be due to my extremely limited knowledge of Inventor)... Early on, I'd also tried various options like the "Fill Voids", "Define Envelopes", and "Remove Details" buttons on the "Simplify" ribbon tab  (etc) with what I remember (this was very early this year that I stopped trying those) as little or no success.

I hope any of that helps.... if anyone has anything to add to what I've been doing that'll make it work better and/or make the exported files smaller that'd be much appreciated too.

[robert.klempau]

Sorry I was not able to make a Video yet.

Tomorrow I will upload a Video of a Wilo Pump family that I exported with the BIM exchange to ADSK.

Note:

Inventor is not good in exporting native .rfa.

The reason for that is that Inventor can't translate every geometry in Inventor to a Extrusion, Blend, Revolve, Sweep or Blend Sweep.

The way you create a geometry in Inventor is different than creating the same in Revit.

When you have a simple geometry in Inventor with basic forms like a extrusion or a sweep it works fine. But when geometry gets complex the best way is to export to ADSK.

[robert.klempau]

Hello,

As promised I uploaded the Video where I demonstrate how to create a ADSK file from a STEP file that I imported in Inventor and exported with the BIM Exchange tool.

When you follow the steps in The Video you will be able to create your own BIM Exchange.

Note:

There is a lot more to tell about the BIM Exchange. We have to cover that in a later Video.

[robert.klempau]

Hello,

As promised I uploaded also the Video where I demonstrate how to create a family with a SAT file as a CAD import.

I created a Revit family template first so I have my connectors and parameters set so I only have to insert the SAT file and set the parameters right.

When you follow the steps in The Video you will be able to create your own Revit family with a CAD import.

Note:

When you insert DWG files form an object with complex geometry, it can happen that you don’t see all the geometry.

[robert.klempau]

Note:

It is not possible to import STEP files into a family.

[Anonymous]

Thank you, this means a lot! Now I can deal with some issues I have. 🙂

[aconchado]

@robert.klempau @pkolarik   ...Thank you for both your responses. Followed both of your steps, but unfortunately, still having the same issues with these two pieces of equipment. The same random shapes are showing up. Not sure where to go from here. Vendor has basically been zero help, stating that they always send out .stp files like this with no issues. 

[robert.klempau]

Hi @aconchado,

can you upload the stp file so I can have a look at it?

[aconchado]

@robert.klempau See attached, thanks! 

[mairh_tsek]

Hello,

I have some STEP (.stp) files and I am trying to export them in .rfa format from Inventor to Revit. 

Before I make the export, I simplify my model and after I export this as Revit Family file. The result of this process is that the .rfa file is completely blank in Revit.

There is not a workflow to do the above export?

Thanks in advance.

[L.Maas]

HERE is a workflow for the export to Revit.

It would help if you could supply more information.

-What is the workflow you have tried?

-Which version of Inventor are you using?

-Do you have an example of a source (stp) file.

-Do you have the file with the simplified model?

[mairh_tsek]

-Open an Inventor (2017) assembly

-Import the .stp file into Inventor

-Using the command ' Shinkwrap ' I simplify the model (I would like to display all the details in the .rfa file but I suppose that it would be heavy)

-BIM Exchange > Export building components > choose .rfa , select a component type, ok. 

I also don't put any connector because in my model I don't have MEP elements.

I am not user of Inventor so I don't know a lot of things.

Thank you in advance.