Category: Tekla

How To Move Tekla BIMsight Storage Folder Location

Luke Johnson

If you view a lot of IFC files in Tekla BIMsight, you may find that the cache or storage folder fills up quite quickly. If this is in its default location of \%localappdata%\Tekla\Tekla BIMsight\ then you could use up valuable space on your SSD.

We can easily move this folder using symbolic links. In the script below, we:

  • check the default directory exists, and if so rename it
  • make a symbolic link to a new target directory, in this case I have used E:\TeklaBimSight
  • make the new directory if necessary
  • copy existing contents to the new directory

To use the script:

  1. Close Tekla BIMsight
  2. Copy text from the script into Notepad and save as CMD. Modify the target directory to your preference
  3. Save the script with CMD extension
  4. Right click and Run As Administrator
  5. Open BIMsight and confirm all is working ok
  6. Optional: delete the bimsight.old directory to cleanup
if exist "%localappdata%\Tekla\Tekla BIMsight" rename "%localappdata%\Tekla\Tekla BIMsight" bimsight.old
mklink /d "%localappdata%\Tekla\Tekla BIMsight" E:\TeklaBimSight
if not exist E:\TeklaBimSight MD E:\TeklaBimSight
robocopy /mir %localappdata%\Teklabimsight.old E:\TeklaBimSight\

BIMSIGHT.png

How To Extract an IFC file from a Tekla TBP Package File

Luke Johnson

TBP is a Tekla container format, and part of what it typically contains is the model data in IFC format. Just open the TBP in an archive viewer like 7-zip:

ifc1.png

Now you can see the folder structure inside the TBP. If you open up the files subfolder, you should find some IFC data:

ifc2.png

You can copy or extract the IFC to a folder on your computer, and then open it or link it to Revit as usual.

Better Tekla IFC Export Settings for Revit Coordination

Luke Johnson

Tekla has issued an XML file containing preset IFC settings for export to Revit, specifically for Coordination. In some cases, this may already be available on your system, but in other regions you may have to install it manually.

Here’s how:

  1. Download the zipped XML at this link.
  2. Unzip the XML into this folder on all PC’s running Tekla Structures:
    C:\TeklaStructures\*version*\Environments\australasia\system
    Note: you may need to adjust the above path to suit your Region
  3. Once this file is included in the folder mentioned above it will be available in all projects. When the user goes to File – Export – IFC they will have a pre-saved setting named “RevitCoordination”. The user simply Loads that setting and exports the parts needed.

  4. This “RevitCoordination” setting also is setup to export additional property sets for Design Workflow data that is entered into the member properties (ie. Beam, Column etc.) in Tekla Structures.


More information at:
CUSTOMER QUESTIONS: What’s the best settings to use when sending Structural BIM to Revit Architecture?
and
Tekla Revit BIM workflow example | Tekla User Assistance