Exporting Autodesk Building Systems Designs to Revit Systems

The first step in linking an Autodesk Building Systems MEP design to a Revit Systems project is to use the Export to AutoCAD functionality included within Building Systems. This feature saves all design data as AutoCAD entities (such as lines, circles, arcs, and blocks), which can then be read and understood by Revit Systems.

Creating a Design with both 2D and 3D Views

Autodesk Building Systems, through its use of intelligent objects, automatically creates 2D and 3D representations of the MEP designs which can be viewed by other AutoCAD-based applications, as well as Revit Systems. Use the following steps to create an Autodesk Building Systems drawing with both a 2D and 3D display for use in Revit Systems:

1. With the MEP design open in Building Systems, create a new layout and then two viewports.
2. In one of the viewports, set the view to Plan. Use the built-in display configurations of Building Systems to set the view to either 1-Line or 2-Line.
3. Set the second viewport to an Isometric view.
4. With the layout page still current, use the Export to AutoCAD feature.

Use the Export to AutoCAD feature in Autodesk Building Systems to export an MEP design for use in Revit Systems. Note the Export to AutoCAD feature exports all linework/objects in the Building Systems drawing, regardless where the linework/objects reside. Therefore, before using the Export to AutoCAD feature, detach the external reference of any structural floor plan. This will enable only the Building Systems data to be exported.

The exported file contains two block representations in model space; one in 2D and the other in 3D. These blocks represent the Display Configuration Views that were currently active in each viewport of the layout prior to export. Furthermore, each block representation is on its own layer (named for the layout viewport) as well.

When linking this file into Revit, users can control the appearance of the floor plan and 3D views by working with the visibility of these layers. The exported file contains the 2D and 3D representation of the MEP design in model space.