DWG 3D Points to Topo - Help, Urgent!

[barrie.sharp]

I've been asked to create a 3D file showing site levels and apparently it's urgent! I have been sent a DWG with 3D points but Revit ignores them in 3D! Can this be converted into a CSV text file or made so that Revit will see it? If this requires specialist software, can anyone convert the file for me? :beer:

[m20roxxers]

Create a table of the points in AutoCAD, export them out to excel, then put them in x,y,z rows and save them out as csv files.

if they are far away from the origin I would them them closer note the original poitn of the original then update the co-ordinates in Revit.

I would only do this if you don't want to import the cad files or the cad file is large lots of layers and very messy easier jus to extract your selection of points from cad then trying to carve up the model,contours,drawing.


However it should be working fine with the standard import system in Revit.

What sort of point objects are appearing in cad?

[barrie.sharp]

Create a table of the points in AutoCAD, export them out to excel, then put them in x,y,z rows and save them out as csv files.

if they are far away from the origin I would them them closer note the original poitn of the original then update the co-ordinates in Revit.

I would only do this if you don't want to import the cad files or the cad file is large lots of layers and very messy easier jus to extract your selection of points from cad then trying to carve up the model,contours,drawing.

How it should be working fine with the standard import system in Revit.

What sort of point objects are appearing in cad?
Standard nodes I believe. How do you create the table of points?

[Mike Sealander]

Are you using the Toposurface>Create From Points File command? I'm really surprised that's not working.

[barrie.sharp]

Are you using the Toposurface>Create From Points File command? I'm really surprised that's not working.
I have tried that but no joy. I attached the dwg if you want to try. It might be something I missed.

[Captainkb]

I have tried that but no joy. I attached the dwg if you want to try. It might be something I missed.

These should work! :)

Captain

[barrie.sharp]

These should work! :)

Captain
That really is helpful. Thanks. How did you go about preparing the DWG? Or do you use third party software for the task?

Revit doesn't create the cleanest topo does it. Wish topo was better developed.

Cheers:beer:

[barrie.sharp]

Revit doesn't create the cleanest topo does it. Wish topo was better developed.
It was imported in the wrong units. When in meters, Revit provides a decent topo :)

[Captainkb]

It was imported in the wrong units. When in meters, Revit provides a decent topo :)

It was done with a 3rd party app called Foresight. It can create contours from a .dwg file.

I do most of our construction layout to help the supers out in the field. Pretty neat as soon as it is created I can tell them everything in location northing & easting where stuff is at. Center of grids, footing corners, pile cap locations, parking lot radius, if we can get the civil .dwg it helps us a bunch.

http://www.tdsway.com/products/foresight

[barrie.sharp]

It was done with a 3rd party app called Foresight. It can create contours from a .dwg file.

I do most of our construction layout to help the supers out in the field. Pretty neat as soon as it is created I can tell them everything in location northing & easting where stuff is at. Center of grids, footing corners, pile cap locations, parking lot radius, if we can get the civil .dwg it helps us a bunch.

http://www.tdsway.com/products/foresight
Thanks for the link. Looks expensive ;) It is a shame that Revit can't read dwg points. Surely that suits the software as much as a txt survey. Sites are definately a big part of architecture.

[Scott D Davis]

There is an easier way. While Revit wont read the AutoCAD points (because they aren't really geometry in AutoCAD, they are nodes), Revit will read anything else snapped to those nodes. So you can set your osnaps to Node only, and draw a circle (or anything else...circle seemed easiest) with the center at the node. After drawing one, use Copy and copy the circle from node to node, placing them on the 3DPoints layer in your file. It will take only a couple of minutes and you will need to zoom into to get to some of the nodes that are close together, but be sure to copy a circle to all the nodes. When finished, save the file, import into Revit, and use the Topo>Use Imported File and pick the 3DPoints layer from the list. Now that Revit sees real geometry, it will make the topo.

At one time, someone dropped a LISP routine here on AUGI that would automatically create a circle at every node in a DWG file. Maybe search and see what you can find.

(Edit; here's the thread with the LISP attached: http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=36503 )

[Captainkb]

There is an easier way. While Revit wont read the AutoCAD points (because they aren't really geometry in AutoCAD, they are nodes), Revit will read anything else snapped to those nodes. So you can set your osnaps to Node only, and draw a circle (or anything else...circle seemed easiest) with the center at the node. After drawing one, use Copy and copy the circle from node to node, placing them on the 3DPoints layer in your file. It will take only a couple of minutes and you will need to zoom into to get to some of the nodes that are close together, but be sure to copy a circle to all the nodes. When finished, save the file, import into Revit, and use the Topo>Use Imported File and pick the 3DPoints layer from the list. Now that Revit sees real geometry, it will make the topo.

At one time, someone dropped a LISP routine here on AUGI that would automatically create a circle at every node in a DWG file. Maybe search and see what you can find.

(Edit; here's the thread with the LISP attached: http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=36503 )

I don't like the outcome that this creates, way too many added points to get the topo. Looks like the topo surface uses the circle as the connection geometry instead of the node from the station location?

Revit just needs to be able to create contours first from the station points, than have the option to create a toposurface from the contours, not from objects placed around the station point. :(

[Scott D Davis]

I don't like the outcome that this creates, way too many added points to get the topo. Looks like the topo surface uses the circle as the connection geometry instead of the node from the station location?

Revit just needs to be able to create contours first from the station points, than have the option to create a toposurface from the contours, not from objects placed around the station point. :(

I agree...but the AutoCAD file was probably created from the TXT points file in the first place, which is an option in Revit. So get the survey data as a point TXT file rather than a DWG from the surveyor.

I found the circle thing a bit much, too, especially since the first time i ran it, I didn't scale up the DWG by 12 to be feet instead of inches. The circles in the LISP by default were set to 5...which ended up being inches. So I had these huge circles in DWG, and Revit put topo points all along the edge of the circles. It was a mess. So I would probably rather do this with really short line segments rather than circles, as Revit would just place a point at the endpoints (i think?)

That file has some serious peaks in it as well!

[Alfredo Medina]

Actually, without the need of programming or adding more entities to the .dwg, it is possible to extract the X,Y,Z coordinates of a group of points (nodes) from AutoCAD, and eventually produce a topography in Revit. From AutoCAD, begin with the Table command. See illustration.

[barrie.sharp]

Actually, without the need of programming or adding more entities to the .dwg, it is possible to extract the X,Y,Z coordinates of a group of points (nodes) from AutoCAD, and eventually produce a topography in Revit. From AutoCAD, begin with the Table command. See illustration.
Just thinking about the circle idea, could you use a line with both endpoints at the same coordinate. That said, the table idea works a treat but Revit did moan about some of the rows. Similar results though.

Thanks all, I now know all 100 ways to skin a cat!

[mostafa90]

thanks it helps much