Link a Sketchup file (via dwg) to Revit

[dc.109967]

Ok guys, I've searched all over for this and no one seems to be able to give a clear answer on this.

How do you LINK, a dwg file into a new mass family?

What I am trying to do is LINK, not import, LINK, a dwg file exported from SketchUp into a mass family. However, the "link" option is grayed out when you import into a mass family.

Here's what I'm after in the end.

1. Create a massing model in SketchUp as a preliminary design study.
2. Import that model into a Revit mass and use it to create walls, floors, roofs, etc.
3. Then, if something changes in this early design phase, I change the sketchup model.
4. Then, I update the dwg that's linked into the massing model, and since my walls, floors, and roofs, will readjust themselves to the re-shaped mass, I don't have to repeat the Wall by Face, et al commands.

This is completely possible according to the RAC 2008 help file. I quote:

"You can use SketchUp to create large-scale massing studies, and then use Revit Architecture to associate host elements (walls, roofs, and so on) to the mass faces. In SketchUp, be careful of the origin (with regard to the Origin in the Revit Family Editor), so that subsequent revisions in SketchUp can be predictably maintained.

In order for Revit Architecture to understand the exported geometry as a mass object, link the file to a Mass Family component. Revit Architecture then treats the geometry as a mass, allowing the faces of the mass component to be selected and associated to Revit host elements. Furthermore, the relationship between imported mass geometry is maintained if the SketchUp file is modified, exported, and reloaded in the Revit project."

Later in this same help file, Autodesk has even created a tutorial for this where they once again tell you to LINK the dwg file into the family:

"In SketchUp, create the massing study, and export it to a DWG file.
In Revit Architecture, click File menuNewFamily. Select Mass.rft.
For details, see Creating a Mass Family Outside of a Project.

Link the exported DWG file into the family.
For details, see Importing or Linking CAD Files Using the Import/Link Command.

Save the mass family.
Load the mass family into the Revit project and place the component.
For details, see Placing a Mass Instance from a Mass Family.

To convert the faces of the mass component, use the Wall by Face, Roof by Face, and Curtain Wall by Face commands."

The problem is, the "link" option is grayed out.

Has anyone cracked this issue? If so, please help us all out.

Thanks.

[mruehr]

your on to something
Linking Clearly doesnt work
and importing and overriding the same model either
Factory wishful thinking
or a Beta mystery Feature

[Dimitri Harvalias]

Give this a try.
In your Revit model (not a mass family) you can link a native sketchup file so create your SU model and link it into the Revit model. Becasue it's not a mass you can't use the wall by face tools. Select the liked SU model and copy it to the clipboard.
Open a mass family and paste the linked SU from the clipboard. Finish the mass.
The mass now contains a linked SU model and you can delete the orignal one you linked in.
That's the good news. The bad news is that if you modify the SU model and update the link, it will make the changes to the mass but when you try to remake the walls they won't be able to reaquire the faces they were based on. You will still have to re-select the faces that have changed.

[dc.109967]

I guess that what I want to do is truly not possible at this time.

I think Autodesk needs to re-write the help file or at least give us the magic decoder ring in case we're all missing something.

Thanks guys.

[Steve_Stafford]

The link option is not available in the Family Editor so it is definitely a mistake in the tutorial. In the field I find the word "link" is used interchangeably with importing and external referencing so that makes it pretty easy to misuse when they really meant "Import".

As Dimitri said, no need to use dwg as a "middle man", just import the SKP file itself.

Imho, Sketup models make better context models (by context I mean all the adjacent buildings) than actual massing for hosting elements because a sketchup model is just faces and that does nothing to offer a floor area face because there is no face/mass inside the building. If all you want is walls and roofs then a simple sketchup model will work okay but most of the time a simple enough sketchup model is just as easy to make using massing itself. Not knocking Sketchup, just that simple solids are pretty easy to make in Revit.

Fwiw, I routinely see simple blocking/stacking model/diagrams done in Sketchup that could've been done in Revit in just as little time and don't offer any of the additional information or value that the massing would have in Revit. Again, not knocking the software but often it is just the familiarity with the tool that prevents trying it in Revit and finding out it isn't really all that different except for the beautiful way you can so easily alter the faces you make in SU.

[twiceroadsfool]

Ive scaled an imported DWG/Sketchup model in the mass family, and had it update the related hosts when i reloaded it in to the project. What i find being the issue is this:

If i draw two walls and dimension them in Revit, and then move or alter a wall (but keep the same wall element) the dimension changes. If i delete and replace the wall, obviously the dim goes away.

This is true for masses as well. If i update a blends shape, then use related hosts... It updates. If i edit the mass, delete part of it, and insert new geometry, related hosts is a no go.

Similarly, how would Revit interpret changes to the sketchup file? If you altered it, you would (if it worked at all) have to vferify that you ALTERED faces, and not replaced them...

Just something else to think about.

[jeffh]

The functionality allowing a "link" of a DWG to a family file was removed from Revit 2008. I thought this section in the help file was changed to reflect this, but apparently not. I will file this change with the help writing team to correct the error. Sorry for any confusion.

[dc.109967]

Hey Jeff, thanks for letting us know that the help file has an error and even better that hopefully it will get fixed.

But more importantly, why was this ability removed? Does this mean that at one point it worked, then someone decided to remove it?

Can we get it back? Please. Pretty please.

[jeffh]

But more importantly, why was this ability removed? Does this mean that at one point it worked, then someone decided to remove it?

At one point (Revit 9) linking a DWG into a family was an option. I am not sure of all the reasons why development removed the ability to "link" a DWG into a family? I suspect it was performance related but there may be other reasons???? I guess you can always post it to the AUGI wish list to have it brought back.

[Calvn_Swing]

My guess is that Aaron nailed it on the head. Some programs, if changed/updated, will not retain the same object information when you re-load them. Since sketchup is a face-based modeler and not a solid modeler, I would imaging that as you're editing faces you are changing them in substantial ways. When you re-load the changes so much of it will be new face objects that the ability to keep the ones that didn't change mapped to existing elements defined by those faces isn't all that helpful. Probably there were also a lot of complaints when it "broke."

Who knows though, only Dev...