For a workflow I’m working on I need to do a ‘batch’ export of Revit sheets to DWG according to the NLCS (Dutch) line styling, coloring, thickness etc.
What we’ve noticed is that quite a bit of these linestyles have some very special symbols which Revit doesn’t support. So I was wondering if anyone has already some experiences with having this discrepancy or thoughts in general on how to (post-process?) approach this.
Ideally the total process would be as simple as possible for the end users. Currently im thinking about just having a standard export from Revit to DWG using the export to dwg functionality and then a tool to update/ fix the issues in AutoCAD
This is more or less the way I’ve gone in the past. My overall workflow involved having the user open Civil 3D and Revit, then using a Dynamo For Revit graph to:
Set up the views to export
Set the export settings
Export the views
Modify a Dynamo for Civil 3D file to account for the new directory
Send a command to the Civil 3D that runs the modified Dynamo for Civil 3D file
I recommend skipping step 1, and you need not do the ‘export and modification’ in one go. One tool to export (the built in one is likely fine) and then a tool to modify. The end users found that ‘while it was nice to have one button to hit’ the length of the export coupled with tying up both all AutoCAD verticals and Revit meant they preferred two tools.
Ideally this would be an APS tool, but that’s a lot more work for something which should be a fairly rare process with a good amount of manual review anyway.
it all depends on the type of modification, but perhaps you can export in dxf and then modify the dxf with libraries such as NetDxf or ezDxf in background
What we’ve seen is that Revit simply doesn’t have some of the symbols/linestyles which exist in Autocad which the standard requires us to use. So it’s mainly about updating/changing those specific linestyles to the right ones.
It might be possible to use the acdbmgd.dll which ships with Revit to modify the initial export to swap the line style applie to a particular layer… not sure how feasible that is - big lift for sure.
Alternatively this is one of those things I know can be automated with Dynamo for Civil 3D or another AutoCAD automation method after the export is done.
Just wanted to let you guys know that I’ve done some further research and decided to set-up the export settings in Revit such that a mapping can be done afterwards in through a Civil 3D script.
Then in Civil 3D we can import the template file, as dwg, which then also contains all the right layer-names and their corresponding settings, like colours, thickness, etc. From here, we can simply set the correct layer for each exported object, which then already includes everything.
I also found out that (as opposed to what I initally thought) Revit doesn’t use any .dwt-file as standard export template, but handles it completely internally.