Problem with UTM coordinates from AutoCAD 2009 to Revit

[joaorcunha]

We are experiencing some problems when importing a Topography Survey in .dwg to Revit, and we've followed the best practices found in this forum and others without success. The procedure is:

1. The survey is in UTM and only has World UCS, in .dwg format, cleaned and without any blocks or elements outside the 2km-diameter limit.
Its coordinates are around the point x=430730.6660, y=4588602.2850
My Autocad units are set to meters.

2. When importing it to Revit, using center-to-center, link and units set to meter, it imports easily.

3. When I try to acquire coordinates, it doesn't match, giving the former point at:
N -197.51, E 98.46

If I relocate the project to the original coordinates set into Autocad, it goes far away the Revit origins...

I've tried with different files, and the result is the same. Also tried to import a square drawn
from scratch in AutoCAD, with 200m each side, but with its lower left corner set at 100000,100000. When importing into revit it recognised the coordinates without problem. However, when I created another square with same size, but its corner positioned at 1500000,1500000, it didn't match either.

Has anybody experienced such issues?
Should I try a workaround?

Here is a .dwg point (exploded) with you need to try out.

Thank you in advance,
Joao Cunha

[ptranberg]

Hi Joao

Try going around this without using "Aquire Coordinates". Put in a Survey Point in your DWG with a text telling the exact N,E of the point. Import the DWG as you did beforer with Automatic Center to Center. Then use the "Specify Coordinates at a Point" tool to get the location in place. Pick the survey Point of the DWG and enter the coordinates manualy.

[cliff collins]

If using RAC 2010, take a look at this new feature.

From Revit 2010 Help:

"Every project has a project base point and a survey point , although they might not be visible in all views, because of visibility settings and view clippings. They cannot be deleted.

The project base point defines the origin (0,0,0) of the project coordinate system. It also can be used to position the building on the site and for locating the design elements of a building during construction. Spot coordinates and spot elevations that reference the project coordinate system are displayed relative to this point.

The survey point represents a known point in the physical world, such as a geodetic survey marker. The survey point is used to correctly orient the building geometry in another coordinate system, such as the coordinate system used in a civil engineering application."

Perhaps this can help align the cad and Revit origins? Have not thoroughly investigated it yet.

cheers...............

[joaorcunha]

Thank you ptranberg and Cliff for your answers.
We decided to move the survey to a relative point in Autocad, caring to mantain the original CAD survey as a separate file.
So we can avoid the 2-mile size problem which is the main issue we are experiencing.

Best regards,

Joao.