Discover the process of detailing within a building and wall section setup using three methods: AutoCAD DWG file import, creating a detail from a 3D model view, and creating a detail from scratch using a drafting view. Learn how to effectively manage and convert CAD files into Revit files for a streamlined modeling process.
Key Insights
- Detailing in architectural design can be achieved through multiple methods such as using an AutoCAD DWG file import, creating a detail from a 3D model view, or generating a detail from scratch using a drafting view.
- CAD files contain a wealth of information that may not necessarily be relevant to a Revit model, resulting in potential duplication of text types, hatch types, and line patterns. Therefore, an important step in the import process involves creating a 'junk file' to convert CAD files into Revit files, minimizing model clutter.
- Drafting View is a crucial tool that enables the creation of detail within the CAD file, which can then be copied over to the actual project file. This process involves changing color schemes to black and white, exploding the CAD file to its core elements, and making necessary edits.
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Now that we have our building sections and wall sections set up, we are ready to start detailing. And so we're going to go through three different methods. One of them is going to be using an AutoCAD DWG file import.
We're going to create a detail from a 3D model view, and then we're also going to create a detail using what's called a drafting view and creating the detail from scratch by drawing all the components. The first one we're going to do is creating a detail from an AutoCAD import. So before we do that, we want to go ahead and close all of our hidden windows.
And then the families that we created previously, we're going to want to close all those out as well because we are going to open up a new view and we want to make sure we don't have many windows cluttering our tab browsing here so that we can make sure we can find which views we need to work in. CAD files have a lot of information and that information is not necessarily relevant to a Revit model because most of it doesn't translate super well into Revit. And what ends up happening is we'll get duplicates of text types, hatch types, and line patterns that just end up cluttering up a model.
And so when we bring in CAD files, we need to go through this very simple, but very, very, very important process before we do that. And so what I actually do is I'll create what I call just a junk file. And it's nothing I save or anything, but it's a file that I use to import and convert CAD files into Revit files.
So I'm going to do that first by creating a new project. So I'll go to File, New, Project. And it doesn't really matter which template we use, but I always like to start with the architectural just to make sure I have a lot of the same line styles that will be available to me.
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So I'll hit OK. And this is just a new project, so it's completely blank. So it doesn't really matter where we start or how this ends up in the long run because we're just using it as a temporary stop along the way here.
The next thing I'll do is I'm going to go to my View tab. And to import the CAD file, what I need is called a Drafting View. And the Drafting View will allow me to create my detail in here and then copy it over into my actual project file.
So I'll go to Drafting View. And the name doesn't matter so much, but the scale does. We are going to use a inch and a half equals a foot scale.
So that's fine. I'll hit OK. And now we can go ahead and import in our CAD file.
To import the CAD file, we need to go to Insert and Import CAD. In our class file, we have a CAD file. It's called BIM 201 HM Door Threshold.
This stands for Hollow Metal Door Threshold. And we're going to go ahead and bring these elements into the project. We're going to go ahead and change the colors from Preserve to black and white because, well, we're not going to use those colors at all and it'll just be a distraction for us.
And then we're going to go ahead and we can just leave the import at origin to origin because, again, it's not going to be relevant for us. We'll hit Open. And it'll load the CAD file.
And the first thing we're going to do is we're actually going to explode the CAD file so we can get it down to just its core elements. And when we do this process, what's going to happen is some of these finer lines are going to get deleted. And it's going to be OK because you can see how far we have to zoom in to actually see that line work.
And so it won't be something that'll impact our view so much as it is something that's just really cluttering it up. So what I'll do here is I'm going to select my import instance here. And before we do anything to it, because I selected the auto origin to origin, we need to unpin it.
And now we're able to make many edits.
