JT Files?

[ben]

We have a cooling tower that were hooking up to. I went to the manufacturer's website & downloaded the Revit family for the make & model of the cooling tower that is being supplied. (Side note: We're not supplying or setting the cooling tower, just hooking up piping to it, so don't ask me why I'm going through all of the work of trying to find the correct one, I guess it's because were prefabbing all of our piping and I want to make sure it's all correct so were not chopping out pipe apart on site to make it fit). Unfortunately, the Revit model I got from their website, none of the configurations from the dropdown list in the Type Selector, fit the connection size and dimensions that are shown in their shop drawings. I asked the manufacturer for a Revit model of the configuration they spec'd and they said their Revit models are just generic...yippee.

He sent me back a 2D CAD drawing, which does me no good, and a 3D JT file. I'd never heard of a JT file before, so I Googled it. I figured out that I can import it into CAD as 3D, but it doesn't have any connectors or anything; it just looks like a nice pretty 3D concept drawing and nothing more.

Has anyone ever had to use a JT file in Revit? Is it even possible? Any suggestions?

[RobDraw · Accepted solution]

Use the correct information provided to adjust their generic family so that the connectors are in the proper location or make your own simplified version of the tower.

[ben]

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@RobDraw wrote:

Use the correct information provided to adjust their generic family so that the connectors are in the proper location or make your own simplified version of the tower.

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That's kinda what I figured, and what I was just starting to do. I took the one tower that had the correct outside size (HxWxD), went into the family editor, deleting connectors that wont be used and adjusting them to the correct size and location. Unfortunately, the shop drawings they provided are s*** and don't have much for dimensions on them either. Lot of emailing back & forth trying to fact-find the correct information. They seem to put a lot of work into a generic model; as much as they put into it you'd think they'd make a catalog for the all the ones of different specs.

[ben]

Ok @RobDraw, I have a bit of a head scratcher for ya. I went through and modified the cooling tower family to make it fit the info they gave me in a pdf (connection sizes, locations, etc). I loaded it into the project and overwrite the parameters, and the connectors are showing up on both of them, but the extrusions are only showing up on one of them. Any ideas?

[RobDraw]

Yeah, share the family and I can look at it over the weekend.

[ben]

Thanks @RobDraw

The one I tried modifying was the MD5016_D_SingleCell (seen in the Type Selector)

[ben]

@RobDraw Here's my chicken scratch, if it helps

[ben]

@RobDraw all the manufacturer keeps sending me are dwg import symbols

[RobDraw]

Sorry to hear that. Also sorry I left you hanging. I forgot that I didn't have a computer set up at home.

Do you still need help with the visibility issue?

[ben]

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@RobDraw wrote:

Sorry to hear that. Also sorry I left you hanging. I forgot that I didn't have a computer set up at home.

Do you still need help with the visibility issue?

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No worries. Attached is the latest one they sent me. Even though it's just a dwg import symbol I tried adding connectors, but that doesn't seem to work all that great. I try adding a connector on a connection up high, and it puts it either near a connection towards the bottom or in the bottom corner. Now I'm trying to add reference plains in hopes I can snap connectors on the intersection.

[RobDraw]

I'm not going to be much help with working with imported objects beyond suggesting doing whatever is required for changing them to native Revit objects before trying to work with them.

[ben]

@RobDraw so keep bugging the manufacturer for a native Revit family/object, and not just dwg imports?

[RobDraw · Accepted solution]

They have no obligation to provide that. Some will but I wouldn't bug them about it. I would try a quick fix and see if exploding the imports is successful in converting at least what you need. If exploding throws errors, I would make my own family to the manufacturer's specs.

[ben]

@RobDraw ok, I did the full explode and was able to put my connectors on the Generic Model parts. Now that it should be functional, is there a was to "unexploded" it so it all goes back together? Do I just create a group? Is it even a necessary step? 

[RobDraw]

The family is the grouping mechanism. Save as a new family and test it in a project. 

[ben]

@RobDraw It seems like it works. How's it look to you?

The one that's clicked on is the old one that's an actual Revit family, but generic with wrong connectors in wrong locations

The one that's clicked on in this picture is the new one that's a dwg import, but with connection ports shown in the correct location, I added the connectors

How does it look to you?

[RobDraw]

I thought you exploded the import objects to Revit objects but aside from that, it looks great. 

[ben]

@RobDraw I guess I'm not sure how to explode import objects into Revit objects.

I just did this

And this is what it looked like after I exploded it, when I click on the different objects/generic models

[RobDraw]

Generic models are native Revit objects. You're good to go in my book!

[ben]

@RobDraw Thanks for your help!