As you know, Revizto is the best Integrated Collaboration Platform on the market today, especially if we are talking about AEC and BIM Coordination and Management. However, some people and companies still do things ‘the old way’. For example, some companies still create Viewpoints in Navisworks, share those Viewpoints as actions, and call that ‘coordination’ or ‘collaboration’ (which it really isn’t). Instead, with the Revizto ribbon in Navisworks, you can simply click Create Issue, Apply a Stamp, and immediately start collaborating with your team in the cloud.

But, we generally still have to sometimes work with people who do things ‘the old way’. So, if we still want to mainly work in Revizto, but we are receiving Navisworks Saved Viewpoints as a kind of action list, what then?

Years ago, there was a cool BIM and Technology company called CASE that got bought out by WeWork. CASE built and released some really nice free software, including addins and plugins for Revit and Navisworks. Those plugins were ultimately released as open source in dead link here, and partly maintained in a fork here.

Revizto allows us to import BCF files. So all we need is a Navisworks addin that converts Saved Viewpoints to BCF files … and CASE built one of those back in the day! I previously posted about the CASE BCF Exporter here.

I spent some time over the last day or so downloading the repos, setting references, and fixing the Build problems. I have now built the Case BCF Exporter ( CASE.Navis2BCF ) for Navisworks 2018 and Navisworks 2021 (update – I have also compiled and test for Navisworks 2020 as well):

you can download compiled 64-bit BCF Exporter plugins from here

How do we use this?

  1. Install the plugins. In the downloaded package, there is a ReadMe file. Depending on version, it says:
    Copy CASE.Navis2BCF folder into:
    %APPDATA%Autodesk Navisworks Manage 2021Plugins
    
    Restart Navisworks
    
    Open View - Windows and enable "Case BCF Exporter"
    
    
  2. Open your Navisworks model that includes Saved Viewpoints. Sometimes you may be sent a Viewpoint XML file and you need to import it to Navisworks.
  3. Now, with the BCF Exporter panel open, click “Refresh List”. You should see clearly the Viewpoints that you want to Export as BCF. You may need use Shift+select to select and Remove any Viewpoints from the BCF Exporter list that you DON’T want in the BCF.

  4. With your shorter list showing, click Export Issues

  5. Save the .bcfzip file when prompted. A descriptive name will be useful later, as the issues will be tagged with the filename.

  6. Open Revizto Viewer and open the Issue Tracker
  7. Click down arrow to Import issues from BCF

  8. Select the BCFzip file you saved, then click Open
  9. Now, the issues (including Camera location and Markup image) are all imported to Revizto from Navisworks Saved Viewpoints!
  10. To quickly view these, open the Filters, Custom Filter, go to Tags, and choose the relevant BCF filename from here:

I would love to go ahead and build the plugin for Navisworks 2019 and 2020, so I will update the post here when that is done.

Hope this helps some of you to keep using Revizto to maximum efficiency, even if some people around you are still doing things ‘the old way’ 🙂

 

UPDATE:

I have now compiled for Navisworks 2020 and tested it.

Installation location looks like this:
nameinline-794820919-4582504

The Case Apps were (are) great, but they are pretty hard to get now:

suspended.png

One thing you might try is downloading this zip and running the Application Reference file. Turns out something is still alive out there…

caseapps.png

at http://www.case-dev.com/revit/installer$/FreeAddInManager/CaseRevitAddInManager.application

Tick the Terms & Conditions box and then tick the boxes for the apps you want to install.

Note: we also had to disable Microsoft Security Essentials (Windows Defender Real-time Protection) to get this application reference to work.

Here is the big list of apps in the Apps Manager:

There was an API addin available a while back, but in recent years I have used:

  • the Case Batch Export Family RFA’s tool
    https://wrw.is/2012/12/how-to-determine-if-family-is-in-place.html
    This way is pretty robust, as it also gives you a list of inplace families and masses that it couldn’t save to rfas. Unfortunately, it is pretty hard to get now that Case have shut down their free app downloads 🙁 Hopefully someone in your office already has it installed? Just copy all the files starting with Case between the relevant addin folders to get it going.
  • You could also use the builtin method File – Save As – Library – Family – All Families to export the rfas, and then (for 2013 version only) the free Kiwi Codes Family Categorizer to sort them into Category folders. More on that here:
    https://wrw.is/2012/11/free-utility-that-will-sort-all-of-your.html

These are the steps to export the families using the builtin workflow:

Personally, I now usually use Unifi to export and manage Revit content.

Thanks to Matt Wash for prompting me to do an update post on these different methods.

There are a couple of options:

  1. Use BCFzip format to Export viewpoints from Navisworks 2014 and into Revit camera views (ortho or perspective)
  2. Use Kiwicodes Bonus Tools or BIM One Clash Sphere Generator to import a Clash Report XML directly into a Revit project

Some of you may say “why not use Switchback?” Well, you don’t always have access to original source files necessary to make this happen. BCF is environment-neutral, and if you are using Revit zero (origin to origin) linking, you should have no problems getting this to work.

Check out this 30 second demo:

My forum post:
Re: Revit to Navisworks to Revit? – Autodesk Community

To get the CASE BCF Exporter for Navisworks Manage 2014 working, you need to make sure you are running Navis 2014 with SP1 but WITHOUT any further hotfixes. The required version number is:
11.4.0.101763

If you have already installed the hotfixes, go to Control Panel, Programs and Features, Uninstall and then reinstall Navisworks Manage 2014 completely (you will need your install media). Then apply SP1. Then install the BCF Exporter using the Case Addin Manager. You can manually copy to the following directory if necessary:
C:UsersUSERNAMEAppDataRoamingAutodesk Navisworks Manage 2014Plugins

Once installed, it is quite easy to:

  • export the BCFzip from Navisworks, 
  • open in Revit addin, 
  • look for a particular view that you would like to solve, then 
  • click Open View. 
  • Set Discipline to Coordination, 
  • Detail Level to Fine, 
  • Far Clip Active – start at around 5m and adjust as necessary, maybe 
  • turn off Pipe Insulation. 
  • Make a view template of these “BCF view” settings to easily re-apply.

I think that BCF is going to become a significant part of our BIM workflows moving forward…

More info:
BCF Exporter for Navisworks 2014 – collective BIM

Navisworks .NET: Deploy Addins (Plugins) – RevitNetAddinWizard & NavisworksNetAddinWizard

NavisworksNetAddinWizard.zip – Google Drive 

Here is an easy way:

  1. Install Case Add-in Manager
  2. Using the Add-in Manager, install Batch Export Family RFA’s tool (I am running v2012.11.13.0)
  3. Open a Revit project and run the tool
  4. After families have been exported, you will be presented with an error message that tells you which families are in-place (see below).

NOTE:  The Case exporter also creates folders for each Category as it exports.  Nice.

This was in response to:

I think this was previously called DataSlider.  To get it, just close Revit and Vasari and open your Case Add-in Manager (it may want to update itself).  Then tick the Migrate Parameter to Parameter box and Install/Update checked.

From their website:
CASE APPS Migrate Parameter
Have you ever needed to schedule an item of data that Revit would not let you? This is a common hurdle for many and now there’s a free tool that you can use to get around this. Common uses include migrating Wall Base Constraint Element Names (Levels) into a schedulable parameter. I’m sure you guys will find lots of uses for this one.

 

David hinted at this a little while back:
Revit: Can’t schedule wall constraint – part 2