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Thread: Ecotect and Revit - IFC or GBxml

  1. #1
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    Default Ecotect and Revit - IFC or GBxml

    im downloaded a trial of ecotect and knocked up a simple cube with a roof on in Revit, exported to IFC and GBxml and imported to Ecotect and nothing shows - it is like my exported files are empty.

    am i doing something wrong

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    AUGI Addict Andre Baros's Avatar
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    Default Re: Ecotect and Revit - IFC or GBxml

    Put a room into your Revit model. Ecotect only imports spaces and the elements which bound or shade them.

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    All AUGI, all the time kyle.bernhardt's Avatar
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    Default Re: Ecotect and Revit - IFC or GBxml

    Check out the White Paper on this subject, as it explains how the conversion is completed between the Revit Physical Model, and the gbXML Analytical Model.

    Cheers,
    Kyle B

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    Default Re: Ecotect and Revit - IFC or GBxml

    I have read through the white paper and gone through all the steps. I have all the rooms correct and bounding elements even tried a simple house and nothing imports into ecotect through gbxml or IFC. I tried IES within revit and it worked fine in the revit model although i did not export to gbxml because There was no need as I used the revit plug in.

    So after 7 hours of repetative trial and error with ecotect nothing worked with IFC or gbxml so i gave up. I then exported the revit model to ecotect with dxf. This worked although the rooms and areas i dont think are imported to ecotect and also it is hard to select the right materials(mind you one of my slab on the second floor did not import correct. I feel this is very unrealiable way to work is there any better information on how to use revit with ecotect in a reliable manner? I want to do minimum modelling in ecotect as this seems pointless and a waiste of time if i have already modelled in revit. If anybody knows a good work flow between revit 2009 and ecotect 5.6 I would appreciate If they could point me in the right direction thanks.

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    AUGI Addict Andre Baros's Avatar
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    Default Re: Ecotect and Revit - IFC or GBxml

    Not getting anything at all seams a bit unusual, I've always gotten my test files to come through. Not getting everything is much more common, as I've never gotten a full project through.

    When you export to gbXML, are you exporting from a 3d view?

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    Default Re: Ecotect and Revit - IFC or GBxml

    Quote Originally Posted by Andre Baros View Post
    Not getting anything at all seams a bit unusual, I've always gotten my test files to come through. Not getting everything is much more common, as I've never gotten a full project through.

    When you export to gbXML, are you exporting from a 3d view?

    Yes i did 3d view even tried a simple hiped roof. 2 rooms and 4 walls. The room heights were correct everything bounding. And nothing am i missing something?

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    All AUGI, all the time kyle.bernhardt's Avatar
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    Default Re: Ecotect and Revit - IFC or GBxml

    The IES plugin runs on gbXML, so you should be getting roughly 1-to-1 results between IES and Ecotect. If you're not, then it sounds like something's up. Here's where I would start:
    • Check phasing of your Volumes (Rooms or Spaces), and make sure that the Phasing in which they are defined is aligned with the Project Phase parameter, which is located in Settings -> Project Information -> Energy Data.

    • Check the size of the gbXML file output, is it really small?

    • Look at what's displayed in the Import XML dialog in Ecotect. Do the Volumes from your Revit Project show up in the dialog (see attached)? Additionally, make sure to check the "Import Only Surface Geometry" box, as that will allow you to import the Analytical Surface geometry, versus the Inner Room Volume geometry.
    It also would be helpful for you to post your gbXML file from your simple house example. We can check to see if there's something wrong with that file.

    Cheers,
    Kyle B
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    Default Re: Ecotect and Revit - IFC or GBxml

    Another useful technique for importing gbXML from Revit to Ecotect is to create the surface type to material and building element mapping template and reuse those based on the project type. This is particularly significant as Ecotect allows you to define your own building materials.

    Cheers!

    Tomislav

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    Default Re: Ecotect and Revit - IFC or GBxml

    On interoperability.

    First try to determine the kind of analysis you want to do in Ecotect, then figure out if this will require zones or building geometry. Ecotect with imported geometry is a very strong tool for architectural design studies related to sun and solar gains. For thermal analysis using zones Ecotect is an easy program to create or cleanup models in a format that includes both geometry and zones, and is interoperable with most everything else out there. This interoperability alone makes Ecotect an ideal basecamp to import and export between the architectural programs that generate geometry and the more advanced analysis programs such as IES, Energy Plus, Radiance, Daysim, and hopefully they'll have a solid CFD solution quickly.

    Zones:
    From Revit you can export the gbxml to quickly get all of the zones into Ecotect, which were hopefully modeled accurately in Revit. You can also import complex shading elements such as louvers, or anything also you can make in Revit, as geometry. From here you can run your own analysis or export to other programs which would otherwise have a difficult time translating shading devices.

    Geometry:
    For architectural sun studies you only need some of the Revit geometry, and you can develop workflows to track and import only the elements you need based on the .dxf export assigning properties and material on import by Cad layer. Alternatively you can go through an .fbx export and import into 3DS Max or another program to export as an .obj that Ecotect will read--both file formats track materials. Ecotect FBX soon?

    Not all of the import/export functions work well. I don't think the eQUEST export works at all and I'm having a hard time with Energy Plus (could really use some pointers about making this succeed). The import to IES works well for me. I'm looking forward to the IFC development, if it's still in the works. I hope both Ecotect and Revit are quick to take advantage of work being done to standardize IFC exchange requirements for energy modeling which will be completed in early spring, promising to make interoperability issues between all of these programs go away for us frantic users. This would be a parallel or seemingly redundant effort with the continued gbxml development, but would win big Kudos from many of the skeptics.

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