Civil 3D/Revit Jamboree: Part 1

So exciting: My Esteemed Colleague Russ, our most babe-a-licious Revit AE and I had a little geek party on Friday involving the round-tripping of information from Civil to Revit and back again.

Imagine this:
You are an architect using Revit Architecture 2008. Your civil department has a surface they created in Civil 3D 2008. You need their grading plan to locate a building. Put your $5 latte down and follow these instructions for importing the data.

First, when the civil person is not busy looking at the Bass Pro shop website, ask him or her to create a Layout with a viewport showing the surface in isometric view. You of course have no idea what this means, and shouldn't care, since you are an artist and can't be bothered with trivialities.








Have the drafter export the file as an Autocad 2007 format using File > Export > Export to AutoCAD > 2007 Format...
If he/she asks why, laugh condescendingly and walk away.


Back in Revit:


Click the 3D button.



Go to File > Import/Link > CAD Formats. Browse to the file your civil person exported.

Make sure Link is not checked. Set the import colors to Black and White.

Click Open

Type ZE to zoom the entire surface into view. Scratch your goatee, as you are not quite sure what you are looking at.

On the far left side you will see the word Site. Click on it.
You will then see the word Toposurface. Click on it.

Now, we need to force Revit to recognize our surface. Click on Use Imported > Import Instance.

Click on the Imported Surface.

A dialog will pop up asking you to select the correct layers.

Click OK.



If it looks correct, click Finish Surface.
There you go, my black-turtleneck wearing friend. You have a surface on which you can create the next Fallingwater, Lourve, or Rite-Aid.