How to import AutoCAD elevation drawing into Revit Elevation

[akamildxb]

Hello,

I am practicing Revit 2013 modeling and I am using AutoCAD plans as a base for Revit Plans, I want to know how to import AutoCAD elevation into Revit Elevations? and is it possible to place those ACAD elevations on reference plan? I have try this but could not do it, any help will be highly appreciated.

Thanks

[tedg]

Hello,

I am practicing Revit 2013 modeling and I am using AutoCAD plans as a base for Revit Plans, I want to know how to import AutoCAD elevation into Revit Elevations? and is it possible to place those ACAD elevations on reference plan? I have try this but could not do it, any help will be highly appreciated.

Thanks

Hello there,
To be brutally frank, this doesn't make sense.
Why would you be bothering to place a 2D AutoCAD elevation in 3D environment when REVIT will simply show you the elevation once you've properly modeled it.

Have you modeled the "plan" yet in 3D in REVIT?

To answer your question, I don't think you can place a cad file in an elevation (vertical view) but maybe I'm wrong.

[akamildxb]

Hi Ted,

Thanks for reply, I need the Autocad elevations because the wall has many recesses and these details not shown in the plans, see the attached I want to know how to have elevations as in this picture.

regards

[CADastrophe]

Edit: jessica's method is correct!

[jessica.146534]

Yes, you can import a 2D ACAD drawing into a Revit elevation view. This can be very useful when a project has already been drawn in ACAD and you want to show a quick 3D view of the building without having to model everything (I've used this for siteline studies in historic projects many times).

Open the elevation in Revit, click the "Insert" tab, then the "Import CAD" button. A window will open that allows you to browse to the ACAD file you want.
MAKE SURE THE BOX THAT SAYS "CURRENT VIEW ONLY" IS UNCHECKED!!!
You need to be able to see the ACAD drawing in multiple views in order to move it to a wall surface.

You can then select the Color & Layer options (if you plan on printing the Revit view with the ACAD drawing on it, make sure you change the Colors to "B&W").

Once you're happy with your selections, click OK and the ACAD drawing should appear in your Revit elevation (check your Crop View settings and Zoom Extents if you don't see anything).

Now you need to move your ACAD drawing to a wall surface. The easiest way to do this is to select the ACAD in the elevation view (it will turn blue), then switch to a plan view (it will look like a blue line). You can move this (or use the align tool) to where you want it to go. Just get it aligned to the wall surface you want in plan, then switch back to the elevation view to move it to its final location (like aligned with column grids).

That should do it. If you have any other questions, let me know.

[akamildxb]

Open the elevation in Revit, click the "Insert" tab, then the "Import CAD" button. A window will open that allows you to browse to the ACAD file you want.
MAKE SURE THE BOX THAT SAYS "CURRENT VIEW ONLY" IS UNCHECKED!!!
You need to be able to see the ACAD drawing in multiple views in order to move it to a wall surface.

Hi Jessica,

But if CURRENT VIEW ONLY" IS UNCHECKED!!!, then the imported ACAD drawing will in all plans?!

I did not understand the procedure you explain to align the drawing to wall surface?

The imported elevation drawing should then rotate 90 degree ?? how to do this??

[tedg]

Yes, you can import a 2D ACAD drawing into a Revit elevation view. This can be very useful when a project has already been drawn in ACAD and you want to show a quick 3D view of the building without having to model everything (I've used this for siteline studies in historic projects many times).

Open the elevation in Revit, click the "Insert" tab, then the "Import CAD" button. A window will open that allows you to browse to the ACAD file you want.
MAKE SURE THE BOX THAT SAYS "CURRENT VIEW ONLY" IS UNCHECKED!!!
You need to be able to see the ACAD drawing in multiple views in order to move it to a wall surface.

You can then select the Color & Layer options (if you plan on printing the Revit view with the ACAD drawing on it, make sure you change the Colors to "B&W").

Once you're happy with your selections, click OK and the ACAD drawing should appear in your Revit elevation (check your Crop View settings and Zoom Extents if you don't see anything).

Now you need to move your ACAD drawing to a wall surface. The easiest way to do this is to select the ACAD in the elevation view (it will turn blue), then switch to a plan view (it will look like a blue line). You can move this (or use the align tool) to where you want it to go. Just get it aligned to the wall surface you want in plan, then switch back to the elevation view to move it to its final location (like aligned with column grids).

That should do it. If you have any other questions, let me know.

Thanks for the info Jessica, I stand corrected.



Not only is it possible, but it can be useful for certain applications.

We learn something new every day, I guess I can go home now.

[jessica.146534]

Hi Jessica,

But if CURRENT VIEW ONLY" IS UNCHECKED!!!, then the imported ACAD drawing will in all plans?!
YES - BUT THIS IS THE ONLY WAY YOU WILL BE ABLE TO MOVE THE ACAD DRAWINGS ONCE IMPORTED. IT'S ANNOYING BUT YOU CAN JUST HIDE THE ACAD STUFF IN THE OTHER VIEWS ONCE YOU HAVE IT ALL SET UP IN YOUR ELEVATIONS.

I did not understand the procedure you explain to align the drawing to wall surface? YOU NEED TO IMPORT THE ACAD IN AN ELEVATION VIEW, BUT IN ORDER TO MOVE IT WHERE YOU WANT IT TO GO, YOU NEED TO BE IN A PLAN VIEW. WHEN I'VE IMPORTED ACAD ELEVATIONS BEFORE, I USUALLY MODEL THE BASIC SHAPE OF THE BUILDING WITH WALLS JUST TO GIVE MYSELF AN IDEA OF WHERE TO PLACE THE ACAD ELEVATIONS. SO THAT'S WHAT I MEANT WHEN I SAID TO ALIGN TO A WALL. IF YOU DON'T HAVE WALLS DRAWN, THEN YOU CAN MOVE THE ACAD DRAWINGS WHEREVER YOU WANT.

The imported elevation drawing should then rotate 90 degree ?? how to do this??

IT SHOULD ROTATE LIKE ANY OTHER OBJECT - JUST OPEN A PLAN VIEW. IF THIS DOESN'T WORK, YOU NEED TO IMPORT IT INTO THE CORRECT-FACING ELEVATION IN REVIT.

[Steve_Stafford]

In AutoCAD most elevation drawings are actually drawn using the plan orientation of the file. I seldom find people that rotate their viewpoint so that elevations are actually elevations. You can check this by using the View Cube in AutoCAD and changing the orientation to Front. If you get a "line" then the elevation is drawn in plan.

When you uncheck the Current View Only option Revit treats the drawing file as a "3D" object, meaning it will appear in all model views. If you want your 2D elevations to be visible in a 3D view then that's appropriate.

With Current View Checked, notice another option on the right side of the dialog, called Orient to View. When checked (by default it is) this option will tell Revit that you want the "plan oriented" DWG to be oriented to match the view orientation you are in. The trick is to import the DWG into the elevation view instead. If you import into a plan view then it isn't oriented the way you want and you have to rotate it into the correct orientation. If you import it into an elevation it will be oriented correctly.

If you don't want the elevation visible anywhere except the elevation view then leave it checked and Revit will place your DWG oriented to the view you are in, that's the key. Import it into the elevation view you want to see it in. You'll still need to move it to the correct location, side to side.

[MikeJarosz]

You can check this by using the View Cube in AutoCAD and changing the orientation to Front. If you get a "line" then the elevation is drawn in plan.

There is another reason to do this: to check your plans for erroneous z-coordinates. I have seen many, many Acad drawings that look like a haystack when viewed on edge, because somebody got a non zero z-coord into their data, then spent a month developing the drawing, snapping to the non zero z-point. This can cause all sorts of problems. For example: distances. Since a line is not flat, it is technically a hypotenuse. Viewed in plan, it appears flat. But when you measure it, acad reports its true length which, since it is sloped, is longer than its projection on a flat surface.

The best example of this phenomena I have seen was a huge drawing of an entire airport. The airport authority had assembled the data a piece at a time by collecting files from consultants that were doing work at this facility: a baggage processor here, a tank farm over there, the new parking ramp, plus odd renovations all over the place. Needless to say, every file was done by someone different. Then the time came for the grand new terminal, and we got the job. They proudly handed over their file. I started analyzing it. I noticed that short distances were returning unusually large numbers. So I did an Acad extmax and extmin command. The z-difference was over 32,000 feet, at an airport that was basically at sea level. We were unable to trust any measurements taken from that plan.

I didn't win any friends when I pointed out that Mount Everest was only 30,000 feet! What was happening was that I was measuring points that were 5 feet apart in plan, but 32,000 feet apart in height. I taught a lot of people the extmax & min command that day!

The ability to think in the third dimension is an essential skill to master Revit. Sadly, there are many people out there who can't.