Current Challenge: Humbly requesting guidance
I’m working with a Freeform geometry originally created in 3ds Max and later imported into Revit as a Generic Model. The geometry is not natively editable in Revit, which poses a challenge for further modeling and documentation.
My objective is to use Dynamo 2024 to process this imported freeform in one of the following ways:
- Option 1: Extract and convert the freeform into a solid polysurface directly within Dynamo, and then export it as a SAT file for use in other platforms or reimport into Revit as a Mass.
- Option 2: Alternatively, use Dynamo to trace the geometry (e.g., edges or profiles), reconstruct surfaces, and then loft or stitch them into a solid. Once the solid is rebuilt, I’d like to bake or load it back into Revit as a valid native geometry.
Keep in mind that Revit isn’t a modeling software, but a BIM tool. As such there is no such thing as a ‘generic solid’ which can be imported and edited using native tools as CAD formats (i.e. SAT) don’t include the trail of primitive shapes such as the sketch planes and curves loops which define the end result and instead only provide the end result. This is the case with CAD interoperability in almost all tools - 3DS Max is no exception.
In many cases if you can’t work with the import as is, no amount of ‘extracting and reimporting’ will produce the outcome you want, and as a result rebuilding in Revit using the UI is often the only path forward.
I recommend starting by outlining how you would model this in native Revit modeling tools using the massing environment, and from there you can extract which content you need (i.e. the curve loops, sketch planes, etc.) and how you can get it from your SAT. Since the initial geometry is a ‘must know’ in that process, anyone who wants to help will need the original SAT, so I recommend you post it here for reference.
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