translation to autocad

[sopori]

hi:

I wanted to know whether Revit does export to AutoCAD seamlessly. I did have layer files as text and I used it in Revit to export to AutoCAD. But my interior walls still comes out 0 layer in cad. This increases my work to change layers after exporting. Please help.

Ss

[Tom Weir]

Revit does not export seamlessly in my experience. Have you set up your layer export file? That's a first step.
Some of the problems with exports I have experienced:
ltscale is set to 1, no matter what the scale of the drawing might be.
grid lines don't export to a center linestyle.
linked files lose their clip regions.
viewports aren't put onto a noplot layer.

Maybe some of it is my lack of familiarity but I do not think export is seamless.
Good luck.

Tom Weir
Los Angeles

[Scott_Bloss]

Revit does pretty much a seamless operation when it comes to exporting to AutoCAD. This is the best I have seen in translation from one software to the next. However it did take us about two days of setup to make this happen but once you are done you never have to do it again.

[Wes Macaulay]

It might not be flawless, but it's still very good. And much better than so many products - even 2D ones.

Having your export to DWG settings worked out is a must. Check out the export settings and load one of the export settings files under Autodesk Revit 6.1\Data.

[keelin.reekie]

some comments on 'problems with exports I have experienced'

'ltscale is set to 1, no matter what the scale of the drawing might be.'
When we export to dwg, lineweights are assigned to exported lines relative to view scale. For example, a 1/8” view exports a wall line with width 0.50mm. When exporting a view at 1 ½” , wall lines have width 0.70mm.Since ‘ltscale’ command is a global change to scalefactors for all lines, I think that on export it makes sense that it is initially set to ‘1’, while individual lines have thickness based on view scale.

grid lines don't export to a center linestyle.'
Grid lines export with correct line type Grid_Line_1_2. Could there be any other factors causing your problem?

linked files lose their clip region
I see this in 6.1 but links get clippped as expected in 7.0

viewports aren't put onto a noplot layer
This is true. If the viewport is visible, then it is exported to layer 0. If it is turned off, it is not exported. I do not think that it should be put on defpoints layer by default because user may want it printed. Turn off visibility of crop region in view if that is desired. Maybe we should request option (as in the print settings dialog) to Hide or ‘put on defpoints layer’

[Cathy Hadley]

linked files lose their clip region
I see this in 6.1 but links get clippped as expected in 7.0



Hello?!? You obviously know something the rest of us do not... Could you please elaborate on 7.0 !!!!

[Steve_Stafford]

Thanks for replying to this thread Keelin.

I offer the attached summary of issues that we experience with exporting to dwg files. Some of these issues we are resolving post export through the use of our own application written to automate the actions required (in AutoCAD) to accomplish them.

The fundamental export issue Revit must resolve is BYLAYER behavior. In AutoCAD, for others to work on and control these externally referenced files objects must reside on a layer and use BYLAYER for their color, linetype and lineweight settings.

Some objects in Revit, upon export, offer too few subcategories to adequately segregate these "pieces" of "whole" objects that Revit fully understands how to represent internally without the layer structure required in AutoCAD.

Regarding the specifics discussed in the previous posts...

GRIDS
The linetype issue with grids results from the lack of BYLAYER compliance for gridlines, bubbles and text. The bubble uses an override on linetype and the line does as well. So a default export of these objects "looks" okay. But for external referencing purposes we need BYLAYER observance. If we make these objects BYLAYER we lose the linetype for one or the other. We need more control over the gridline object categories...line, text and bubble upon export.

Viewports
We need object level control in the export settings to tell Revit which layer to put viewports on. There is no such object available in the export settings now.

Consider also the ability to replace a sheet border block reference with an externally referenced sheet border. Sheet border exports are difficult to make match existing dwg project sheets and it would be "simpler" to substitute the exported block with an xref of the project's stock dwg version.

Keep in mind that this information is with a bias toward sharing the resulting Revit design with a "downstream" architect that will continue/finish with the project documentation natively in AutoCAD. Not just sharing backgrounds. Also not our ideal world where everyone uses Revit, but for us a current reality.

A relatively minor refinement of the current methodology will make the process very fluid, for us at least.