I recently had the pleasure of presenting at the 1st Build SA event of the year. Overall, it was a very informative event that packed heaps of useful content into a half-day of presentations, labs and discussions of real world case studies.
You can get tickets for BuildSA Event 02 – Documentation and Deliverables Part 1 here at this link.
(The one missing piece that you don’t get access to is the larger resource download package. If you want to get hold of some of these extra goodies, may I suggest that you attend Build SA Session 2 as per link above? )
Update: this version added some comprehension of IfcElementAssembly. What this means is that your converted IFC may end up with a subelement, and then a duplicate of it inside an IfcElementAssembly. If you are trying to do 1:1 item count comparison between Revit and Tekla BimSight, you will have to selected and hide or delete the IfcElementAssembly components.
You can use this filter to isolate them and then delete select them to delete:
Significant improvements added thanks to CADQ (see release info below).
We have upgraded the 2015 Open source IFC project to version 15.4.0. Changes include: (15.4.0) IFC for Revit 2014 v15.4.0.msi IFC for Revit 2015 Source v15.4.0.zip General:
Special thanks to CAD-Q (http://www.cad-q.com/) for their contribution of this improvement to the Open Source. Their contributions will be marked with (CADQ) below.
The installer has been updated to once again work with Revit LT.
New Export Functionality:
(CADQ) Ability to export only schedules whose titles include “PSet”, “IFC” or “Common”.
(CADQ) Added option to use the active view to generate the exported geometry. Note that this can have unexpected effects if used in a non-3D view.
(CADQ) Added an export progress report to the status bar, similar to how Link IFC displays progress.
(CADQ) Allow export of multiple loaded exportable projects. Note that for phasing, the list of available phases will be based on the current project only. If a phase other than the default phase is chosen, it will be used for all projects assuming that they have the same phase with the same element id. If multiple projects are chosen, default names will be used for the created files in the chosen folder.
(CADQ) Split walls and columns by level now also splits duct segments by level.
(CADQ) The “Advanced” tab tessellation level of detail controls now also apply to pipe fittings. In addition, instead of being a checkbox, there are now four options: “Extra Low”, “Low”, “Medium” and “High”. The default setting is Low, which is slightly higher than the previous setting.
(CADQ) When splitting elements by level, if the splitting operation fails, use the original solid.
Added a setup for the IFC4 Design Transfer View MVD. This is still a work in progress and is intended for advanced users to experiment with. The bulk of the new functionality is around using the IfcAdvancedBRep to generate non-faceted geometry and topology on export.
Added support for properties with friction loss and linear velocity units, both for standard Revit properties and user defined property sets.
All properties for PSet_ZoneCommon are prepended with “Zone” to distinguish them from Room properties. See the wiki for more information.
Export Bug Fixes:
(CADQ) IFC2x3: PSet_ZoneCommon now correctly exports “GrossAreaPlanned” and “NetAreaPlanned” properties (instead of the IFC4 GrossPlannedArea and NetPlannedArea).
Allow export of IfcElectricDistributionPoint (IFC2x3) and IfcElectricDistributionBoard (IFC4) entity types.
Allow export of DirectShapes in certain categories that were previously ignored.
Allow export of some infill elements in host objects. Infill elements are created when a host object has an opening that is not in the currently exported phase.
Exporting schedules as property sets will now include room elements.
Fix orientation of some floors exported as containers.
IFC2x3: Allow export of type properties for elements whose corresponding IFC entity doesn’t have a type in user-defined property sets assigned to “IfcElementType”.
Significantly improve the export of walls with openings in the corners. Both the wall profile and the opening geometry have been improved to reflect user intent, and fewer clip planes are used.
Switch between the IFC4 IfcBurner/IfcBurnerType and IfcSpaceHeater/IfcSpaceHeaterType and their IFC2x3 counterparts depending on the schema version.
New Import Functionality:
Always reload a linked IFC file if the importer version is different than the one used to originally link the IFC file.
Better handling of IFC color information when scaling is involved.
Create the log file earlier, allowing for logging of more general failures.
If the default log file is locked, create a log file with a temporary name in the same directory.
Log an error if no template file could be found to generate an IFC file.
Log an error if the IFC file contains a zero length vectors used in local coordinate systems.
Process IfcPresentationLayerAssignment for grids.
Store IfcProject, IfcSite and IfcBuilding parameters and GUIDs in Revit Project Information if no element was created for them.
Import Bug Fixes:
Correctly rotate projects whose true north deviates from project north.
Correct unit scaling and symbol display for friction loss, linear velocity, luminous efficacy, thermal transmittance, and volumetric flow rate.
Include units when displaying material thicknesses in the IfcMaterialList parameter and in some log messages.
Import extruded geometry whose profile is a single, unbounded, closed curve (e.g., a fule circle or ellipse).
Improve creation of geometry in cases where a Solid couldn’t be created, and we reverted to Mesh geometry instead.
Improve material assignment for geometries where the material was attached to the first argument of a Boolean operation.
Properly scale IfcVertexPoint input.
Stop displaying irrelevant property sets in the IfcPropertySetList parameter.
– Allow IfcLongName to override the “LongName” attribute for levels. – Rooms can now be exported from 3D views even when exporting only elements visible in view. If the option is chosen to export rooms, then all rooms inside or bordering the bounding box of the section box will be exported. If the section box isn’t active, all rooms will be exported. – Work in progress: users can now opt to export files according to the IFC4 Reference View MVD. This will result in IFC4 files that use IfcTriangulatedFaceSet instead of IfcFacetedBRep, resulting in significantly smaller IFC files. There are still some cases where IfcFacetedBReps show up in these files, and there are some cases where the tessellation isn’t optimized for the reference view; this will be improved in upcoming releases.
Export Bug Fixes:
– Fix export of files with a project north value different than true north that would cause a slight shift in elevation. – Fix export of some IfcCurveBoundedPlanes with more outer loops than inner loops. – Fix the location of some assemblies on export. – Fix the base quantities export for walls and columns when they are split by level. – Improve splitting of walls in some cases when they are split by level on export. – Improved the export of some entities with extruded surface geometry with clippings and openings where some clippings and openings were not being exported. – Properly scale the volume of columns when base quantities are exported for non-imperial projects. – Update the French resources file that prevented IFC export from working on computers with a French OS.
New Import Functionality:
– Add ElevationWithFlooring and InteriorOrExteriorSpace/PredefinedType for IfcSpaces. – Add IfcContainedInHost parameter for doors and windows to contain the name of the hosting wall. – Add IfcElevation parameter for Levels. – Add IfcElementAssembly parameter for elements inside assemblies. – Add IfcSystem parameter for elements inside systems. – Add material thickness to the IfcMaterial parameter for elements who have an associated IfcMaterialLayerSetUsage. – Better handing of nameless grid lines. – Heal some curves with short curve segments, small gaps between segments, and vertices that are too close and better log file error reporting of the above problems. – IFC4: Import IfcTriangulatedFaceSets, generally created for the IFC4 Reference View MVD. – Import Box (i.e., the bounding box) representation for elements that have it, but only if they have no Body representation or it contains no visible geometry. – Import IfcAssemblies. – Import Construction Type and Operation Type for IfcDoorStyles. – Import IfcPorts. – Import IfcSystems. – Import IfcZones.
Import Bug Fixes:
– Accept “Profile” as an alternate name for “FootPrint” when reading in entity representations. – Force some entities to have a default name if Revit requires them to, even if there is no name in the IFC file. – Improve processing of faceted BReps with gaps and short edges. – Improve processing of walls and slabs whose geometry is defined by IfcMaterialLayerSetUsage. – Properly scale IfcCompositeCurveSegment trim parameter for non-imperial files. – Use gray, not black, as the default material color for materials with no color assigned.
What’s new for IFC Exporter for Revit 2014 v3.13:
New Export Functionality:
– Allow IfcLongName to override the “LongName” attribute for levels. – Rooms can now be exported from 3D views even when exporting only elements visible in view. If the option is chosen to export rooms, then all rooms inside or bordering the bounding box of the section box will be exported. If the section box isn’t active, all rooms will be exported. – Work in progress: users can now opt to export files according to the IFC4 Reference View MVD. This will result in IFC4 files that use IfcTriangulatedFaceSet instead of IfcFacetedBRep, resulting in significantly smaller IFC files. There are still some cases where IfcFacetedBReps show up in these files, and there are some cases where the tessellation isn’t optimized for the reference view; this will be improved in upcoming releases.
Export Bug Fixes:
– Fix export of files with a project north value different than true north that would cause a slight shift in elevation. – Fix export of some IfcCurveBoundedPlanes with more outer loops than inner loops. – Fix the location of some assemblies on export. – Fix the base quantities export for walls and columns when they are split by level. – Improve splitting of walls in some cases when they are split by level on export. – Improved the export of some entities with extruded surface geometry with clippings and openings where some clippings and openings were not being exported. – Properly scale the volume of columns when base quantities are exported for non-imperial projects.
What’s new for IFC Export Alternate UI for Revit 2014 v2.13.0.1:
New Export Functionality:
– Rooms can now be exported from 3D views even when exporting only elements visible in view. If the option is chosen to export rooms, then all rooms inside or bordering the bounding box of the section box will be exported. If the section box isn’t active, all rooms will be exported. – Work in progress: users can now opt to export files according to the IFC4 Reference View MVD. This will result in IFC4 files that use IfcTriangulatedFaceSet instead of IfcFacetedBRep, resulting in significantly smaller IFC files. There are still some cases where IfcFacetedBReps show up in these files, and there are some cases where the tessellation isn’t optimized for the reference view; this will be improved in upcoming releases.
Export Bug Fixes:
– Update the French resources file that prevented IFC export from working on computers with a French OS.
Teun De Vries shared an: “Excel document (download), with which you can build the mapping tables that Revit can use when importing from, or exporting to IFC. It is still a bèta. You can use it or even change it, but at your own risk of course. And if you do so, Teun would love to know what your experiences are. The RevitGG is also using this tool to help build some parts for in the Dutch Revit Standard the DRS.”
Automation is the key to productivity. Don’t we use computers so that they can do the repetitive, boring stuff while we focus on the creative, interesting things? In BIM world, if there is something that is repetitive and requires little or no user interaction, it should be automated by some addin or script. RTV Xporter Pro is a great example of this.
Basically, it allows automatic exporting to a number of different formats, with little user interaction required. You can set up task schedules to export the formats that you need, from the Views or Sheets in your Revit model. You can use parameters from inside the Revit model (Views, Sheets, or Project Parameters) to automatically generate the correct names for the exported files. You can even integrate with the built-in Revision Schedule in Revit.
Coming from an architectural documentation background, I have spend many hours trying to find quicker ways of doing exactly these things. But RTV Xporter Pro takes a lot of the pain and guesswork out of it – you don’t have to reinvent the wheel, just use this to get the job done. My current work is more on the subcontractor side, and I have seen the time involved in generating deliverables that need to comply with certain requirements. This addin for Revit can help automate these deliverables, meaning you have more time to meet other deadlines.
This review is a collection of tip, links and resources to help you see the value in RTV Xporter Pro, and hopefully give you a head start in using the tool to accelerate your productivity.
When launching the addin for the first time in a Project, you will see this screen:
If you don’t need to use Project Parameters, click “Don’t load Project Parameters” Once the pane loads, you will be able to choose between the Revit Sheets and Revit Views tabs. On the right, you will see a Batch Process section. The two little arrows can add selected items from the left (current Revit model) section into the right (Batch) section.
Exporting PDFs … is very easy. Just add the Sheets you want, then click the Export button in the top-left. Tick the PDF box, and set any options you would like for target folder and naming, then click OK. Done!
3D Deliverable Export What about exporting multiple views to DWF, DWG, FBX, IFC and NWC with the click of a button?
Start RTV Xporter, then
Add the Views you want to export to the Revit Views tab.
Click Export in the top left
On the Export Views dialog, flick through each tab and set the options you would like. (Notice how the settings you see in the top of this dialog are essentially the same as the settings you would see in the DWG, IFC, or NWC export dialogs in Revit.)
Set each export tab to suit your preferences
Tick all the filetypes you want
Set output folder
Set File Naming Format
optional – Click Save to save your settings to an XML for future use or scheduling
Click OK
Do some other work in another instance of Revit, or grab a coffee
Come back and transmit your files to the required parties
Revisions RTV Xporter can load and edit your Revit Revision Schedule. This means that there remains one point-of-truth for Revisions, and it is stored in your RVT file – great! Additionally, the View / Sheet Set selections are also read and written by RTV Xporter straight into your Revit model. There is no external database to manage, and I must admit, I love that.
Summary As you can see, this addin could become an integral part of the way you handle the creation and transmission of documentation. It provides a powerful yet simple automation engine, that integrates well with native Revit capabilities. I recommend that you give it a try…
Activation: Once you have purchased a license, RTV Xporter Pro is activated using the send email request… receive activation code method. Features:
output to multiple formats at one time
automatic naming (including revision)
print to two different printers at the same time
batch processing (unattended)
task scheduling
uses native Revit Revisions
can use Sheet, View or Project Information parameters in automatic naming
ability to Check for updates from inside the addin
Advanced Features (some are ‘coming soon’):
new Transmittal function (RTV Xporter and RTV Drawing Manager share some of the same space but the Xporter is built to work on top of Revit’s internal functions where as the Drawing Manager has been built to extend Revit functions, particularly revisions and giving users in the UK an option to comply with BS1192)
remote processing server for Revit, which will allow you to send printing and exporting jobs to a PC other they your own for processing, like backburner for rendering in 3DS Max
new file export extension to export Revit files to GSI via Safe Software’s FME Server
Output formats:
DWF / DWFx
DWG
DXF
PDF
IFC
NWC
Drafting Views (as RVT)
FBX
DGN
RVZ
Configuration and Deployment: Batch settings can be saved to XML to allow for easy sharing of consistent options
Tip: Right-click in the data grid to see various ways you can manipulate it (add columns, filter by columns and rows etc)
Training: I also reviewed some of the course material for the official Xporter Pro 2015 Training course, and there were some good step-by-step guides to get you started.
“Revit makes available the following IFC-specific files:
IFC Metric Template.rte. This file allows you to create new projects that are already set to the IFC standard.
IFC Parameter Upgrade.rvt. This file enables you to upgrade an existing project to contain IFC parameters by reading the instructions contained in the IFC Parameter Upgrade.rvt file.
IFC Shared Parameters.txt. This file contains the shared IFC parameters if you want to manually update an existing project to contain all or some of these parameters.
Note: It is recommended that you use the IFC Parameter Upgrade.rvt file. If you use IFC Shared Parameters.txt, you must add parameters one at a time, setting the correct categories for each. If you use IFC Parameter Upgrade.rvt, you can use the Transfer Project Standards tool to add the parameters in one operation.”
It hasn’t shown up on Exchange yet, but it is already available for download on the Sourceforge page. There is an update to IFC 2015 (the one that is really robust, fast and accurate for Import and Export), and also some updates to 2014 IFC addins.
Some of my testing: 30% file size reduction in RVT when using Link IFC on 85mb steel model from Tekla v16.1 v15.1.0 = 297mb v15.2.0 = 210mb
66% file size increase in IFC when using export IFC to all proxies: v15.1.0 = 288mb v15.2.0 = 478mb
Some key Export improvements from the readme (I’ve underlined points of interest): – The functionality for creating and using user-defined property sets has been greatly enhanced. This includes: – Added a “DefaultUserDefinedParameterSets.txt” file to allow a user to create user-defined property sets for any setup, including the in-session setup. – Added the “IFC2x3 Extended FM Handover View.txt” user-defined property sets file to the installation. This also fixes a typo in the original version. – Allow the user to specify any file as a user-defined property set file, instead of being forced to use the default name and location. – Increased the types of fields that can be used from the original 4. The full list is detailed in the DefaultUserDefinedParameterSets.txt file. – The Setup dialog for the export alternate UI has been split into 3 tabbed pages to make it easier to find and understand the export options. – Significantly improve performance when trying to export a highly-tessellated geometry. New Import Functionality:
– Add an “IfcMaterial” field that contains the material name(s) associated with the element. – Add an “IfcSpatialContainer” field that contains the name of the project, building, building story or space that contains the element. – Create multiple layers for simple cases of elements where IfcMateralLayerSetUsage is defined. – Import IfcGrids. There are some fundamental differences between IFC and Revit Grids, most notably that IFC grids are per-view, and Revit Grids are per-model. As such, there may be cases where some grid lines show up in more views than initially designated in the IFC file. – Improve healing and logging of imported solid data that is slightly dirty. This should result in fewer missing objects.
Import Bug Fixes: – Fix “missing” faces when elements were cut by openings and the IfcOpeningElement sub-category had its visibility turned off. – Handle unbound circles used for profile definitions in certain cases.
