Consultants CAD Details & Sheets

[ford347]

I am working with my structural engineer and I need to get his sheet, details etc. into Revit so I can keep my project coordinated, keep an organized sheet index etc. We have a good working relationship, so he has been willing to give me all of his autocad details, sheet setup and titleblock for my project.

I have read up on import/export settings, using cad dtls in revit etc., and am just not seeing a good way to do all of this and am wondering if I am taking this too far. I'm not a cad guy, so keep that in mind. I know enough to get some things done and maybe even to be dangerous, but I really don't understand CAD all that well.

When I import his details, his solid fills that are suppose to be grey come out black, his lineweights come in as 1, when they should be 3, or 5 or whatever. His fill patterns come in solid black or grey, depending on what hatch he's used. Earth comes in fine, but his gravel and sand do not.

So my first question; how do I successfully map his lineweights to lineweights in Revit. Do I do something with his CTB file? Do I create a text file that mirror his layers, and set them that way? Is this based off of color, if so, where the **** is that table at? I have no idea how to map his stuff to my stuff. So if someone helps me out with that one, please be very clear. I'm really unclear in the CAD world.

2- Is there a way to get his hatches to show correctly in Revit? Can I take his hatch file and successfully import that into Revit so that it will recognize it?, if so, do I need to do this before I import, or can I do it afterwords and have it update the CAD files that are already imported?

He has sent me all of his hatches, fonts etc, so I do have his information, but I just don't know how to use it? With the exception of the TT fonts, I installed them on my system and that worked fine. As far as his SHX fonts, I'm not sure what to do with those except get them in my Acad so they show up correct in there, which I've done.

Anyway, a simple explanation would be much appreciated. I would just like to know what the procedures are for something like this and whether or not I need to explode some of his details and draw over top of them or what.

Thanks a lot!
Josh

[aaronrumple]

You want to get all his AutoCAD in Revit? I wouldn't do it. Too much trouble.

I'd add blank sheets to keep the drawing index coordinated. And I'd link in his plans information for coordinations. But I would print his plan information - just use it as a background for coordination.

As for his sheets, I'd just print those from AutoCAD.

[tc3dcad60731]

I do not have the best answers to all of your questions but I will try to help you out here some. Others may have better answers or ideas.

As for the tb you can re-create that using the template inside of Revit. I opened revit and went to file - new - titleblock. Set all of the parameters for that and then opened acad and copied my tb from acad into Revit. Not all of the text converted properly so I had to fix that.

As for the cad details.... you do not need to explode and draw over them. Make sure that you have the font styles loaded and then you may have to edit them inside of revit. You can place them straight into revit as you are saying and the fills will come out like you said they are. I had to remove my fills and hatches from acad and then re-apply them inside of revit for all to look correct in the end.

[TroyGates]

So my first question; how do I successfully map his lineweights to lineweights in Revit. Do I do something with his CTB file? Do I create a text file that mirror his layers, and set them that way? Is this based off of color, if so, where the **** is that table at? I have no idea how to map his stuff to my stuff. So if someone helps me out with that one, please be very clear. I'm really unclear in the CAD world.


You can map the Autocad colors to a line weight in Revit by going to File -> Import / Export Settings -> Import Line Weights DWG/DXF.

[ford347]

Thanks for the help guys. I was able to map some line weights which seemed to work. It seemed a little clunky though. If my consultant uses .58mm for Color 1, or Red, then when I go to map that, all I have to compare color 1 to is a Revit line weight. so I have to look at the line weights table, which are in inches, do the conversion and see which one of Revit's line weights best matches the auto cad line weight. But which scale do you use? Revit's line weights are setup to be a specific weight per scale? So do I use the 1", the 1/2" or what? I got a little confused there. If someone could clear that up, that would help me understand better.

The filled regions started coming over OK, it turns out a few of the hatches in his file had some heavy line weights assigned to them, which was causing them to come into revit as solid. So once I set his line weight back to default, they came in OK. With the exception of the solid fills. They were coming in inconsistently. I would have a solid fill show correctly, then one not show at all, then one come in checkered. I believe it has to do with that particular hatches boundaries. So I opted to re-draw the solid fills. Easy enough.

As far as the title block, for their headers, they didn't use text, someone a long time ago had actually drawn small fancy block lettering, which contains a whole bunch of very small lines. These headers are surrounded by a hatch. So when I try to recreate the solid fill around these letters, I cannot select the line work for the letters to block them out from the filled region because the line work is too small to display on screen, so I can't create it. Which is too bad, because I feel like I'm stuck at this point. The problem is his uses different shades, so it can't all be black. I can't explode it either because the same errors come up, approx. 1100 of them, stating that elements are too small on screen and will need to be deleted. And I can't recreate the line work because they would be too small on screen also??

Anyway, that's where I'm at so far.

Josh

[mccurdyks]

I'm with Aaron on this one; don't do it

We tried early on to do what you're attempting with in house engineering on CAD and it turned into a management nightmare from the Revit side. We have also tried it with our architectural sections as CAD links (when we were in a crunch and couldn't find good Revit help) brought into the model with everything else in Revit, and that was also a frustrating.

And every time you link a CAD file, your Revit model size grows so you take a performance hit.

Kevin

[ford347]

You want to get all his AutoCAD in Revit? I wouldn't do it. Too much trouble.

I'd add blank sheets to keep the drawing index coordinated. And I'd link in his plans information for coordinations. But I would print his plan information - just use it as a background for coordination.

As for his sheets, I'd just print those from AutoCAD.
Hey Aaron, I missed your post for some reason. I like the advice, but what I'm dealing with is somewhat different maybe, you tell me. What we do quite often is a calc and sketch with the engineer, which means they will give us markups etc. and provide us with details on their sheets, wall sections etc. But we are responsible for drawing the floor plans, whether that be foundation, framing or whatever, and we must add section or detail cuts to reference their details, their sheets etc. So rather than create some dumn anno's to fill out for section cuts etc., I opted to go this route thinking it may be easier. But maybe I'm wrong here. With all that in mind, what is your(you guys) take on it?

Josh

[ron.sanpedro]

Our approach is to give consultants our title block in RFA or DWG format as needed, include a dummy sheet in our set so the sheet legend is correct, and request PDFs from consultants. We also ask for an updated sheet list a few days in advance so we can coordinate the dummy sheets. We can then make a PDF of our stuff, zip it up with consultant stuff, and off the printer. But we would never let the consultant provide us with a DWG that we sheet up and print on our end from Revit. It would barely work with one consultant, and once you do it you are likely to be doing it more and more.

Best,
Gordon

[dgreen.49364]

I believe that you are creating too much work for yourself. I agree with Aaron and even though I read your clarification, I still think this is too much effort. You are reinventing the wheel, IMO. Since you are creating foundation plans, structural plans within Revit, if I understand correctly, the issue is what to do with the engineers detail sheets? There are several different ways you can go, but keep it simple. If you're playing with pen settings, and fonts and this and that you are going to drive yourself nuts and spend way too much time on this...I am guessing you've spent too much time on it already.

If it is all set up in AutoCAD, plot the detail sheet in AutoCAD to a jpg and import the image into a blank sheet in Revit.