I work for a landscape architects and we have invested a lot of money in Revit, the problem with Revit is that it’s not really made for Landscape architecture. I want to use VisualARQ with Rhino for as much modelling work as I can, meshes that can be exported as IFC files to Revit and read as native Revit objects.
I haven’t found a way of doing more organic conversions with VisualARQ, if you see the image of the topography I would like that to be converted and read as a wall/floor so that when I bring it to Revit I can apply the same properties that you can with walls/floors. I have a workflow but VisualARQ is so fussy with anything that isn’t exactly planar and when I use the ‘from Solid’ command under wall to convert a surface it either doesn’t allow me to select the surface or does allow me to but then doesn’t allow me to select the curve afterwards.
It would be a great help if anyone can advise on exactly what kind of surfaces VisualARQ can bring across to Revit so they can be read as Revit native objects and of what is the workflow?
Cheers,
Hi Martin,
You can use the IFC tag function to export Rhino elements (Surfaces, Polysurfaces, Meshes (closed meshes only), etc…) with some IFC information.
Take a look at this video: https://youtu.be/AMKXYyJpEe4
So in the case of that geometry from your picture, you can tag it as a ifcSlab or ifcWall, so when you export it to IFC Revit will read that as a Floor and as a Wall respectively. So you don’t really need to turn this geometry into VisualAR objects. But take into account that eventhough Revit recognizes that geometry as a “floor” or a “wall”, since it doesn’t know how this geometry has been created, the object won’t have exactly the same parameters as a native Revit Floor or a Wall.
On the other hand, the VisualARQ objects are exported to IFC with the corresponding ifc category according to their object type. Revit recognizes all of them as the object type they are, and in most of the cases Revit also reads them as native Revit objects.
Cheers,
Martin, if you work for landscape architects you might be interested to take a look at Lands Design for Rhino (http://www.lands-design.com/)
Best,
Francesc
Thanks for the advice Francesc, standard IFC exports aren’t of much use, I’m primarily interested in meshes that can be brought across that retain Revit information and can be used with Revit parameters. So going back to the query with the ‘from Solid’ command and problems, can you tell me if there is a workflow for converting slopes/curved forms, to walls/floors so I can then edit them as a Revit object within Revit?
I’ve looked at Lands Design and Land FX, I might have to look further into them but we really need software that can bring meshes across and be read as Revit meshes, I don’t think either of them do.
I am looking at Hummingbird for Grasshopper Rhino, but I also can’t find how to export irregular shapes with it whilst retaining Revit information.
Martin, VisualARQ has a command to convert Rhino solids into VisualARQ walls (vaWallFromSolid) so you can insert doors and windows in them. But I’m not sure if that will solve your request.
Either if you turn a Rhino irregular shape into a VisualARQ wall, or if you tag that shape as ifcWall, since it comes from non-parametric geometry, you won’t be able to edit this object as a native wall in Revit. But you will be able to see it in Revit, show it in drawings, list it and check the ifc information you have assigned to it.
And the same happens with the other irregular shapes that you export as ifcSlabs, ifcColumns, etc…, using the ifc tag.
Best,