Revit Drafting Views
Typical Details are created in “Drafting Views” as 2D elements. These details can easily be exchanged between projects. So you only need to create them once and re-use them. You could even create a separate Project file in Revit and use this as your Details Library. Before you import DWG file you’ll need to follow a few steps.
- Separate out a Single Detail
- Your source DWG file may contain multiple details in Model Space. Separate these out as individual DWG files in a separate folder. You could use “WBLOCK” command to do this. This process provides multiple benefits. One important benefit is that your original file remains intact. In addition, when you import individual details into Revit Drafting View, each of these Drafting Views relates to one detail. Name each drafting view similar to the detail name you’re importing. Naming each of these views sensibly saves time in the long run as you would be able to quickly identify them right in the project browser without opening each one.
- Cleanup Separated DWG
- Your original files may contain unwanted layer of elements on hidden layers. Make sure you remove these so you have a clean DWG to import.
- Line Weight Mapping
- Few Settings in Revit can save you a lot of time. These settings can maintain “Line Weights” to match your AutoCAD CTB file. Similarly, Revit fonts can be mapped to those in Revit. If you use “Line Weight” settings to correspond to a layer, Revit will maintain the “Line Weights”. However, if you use a “CTB”, where a color corresponds to a pen weight, you can easily create a custom mapping in Revit. Make sure you save the custom settings as a separate file. and not overwrite an existing one.
- Font Mapping
- Revit uses fonts installed in your computer. AutoCAD can use these as well and in addition, it uses SHX fonts, typically present in old versions of AutoCAD. You have two options:
- The simplest is to change SHX fonts to Windows fonts in the DWG file itself. This can be time-consuming if you have a large number of files.
- The other method is to edit “shxfontmap.txt” file. This file can be located as indicated below:
<“%APPDATA%\\\\Autodesk\\\\Revit\\\\”>
- Simply edit this in Notepad. Make sure you use the following format to edit this. <filename.shx>[TAB]fontname> Where Filename.shx is the SHX font in your AutoCAD file. [TAB]: is the TAB key on your keyboard fontname: is the font you want to use and the one that replaces SHX font.
- Import CAD to Revit
Before you import your CAD file to Revit, you will need to customize DWG Import Settings in Revit. See the instructions below:
- DWG Import Settings
- Switch to Insert panel on Revit ribbon menu, and click on the small arrow as shown in the image below. This opens up DWG import settings dialog box. If the line weight settings do not match your office standards, you’ll need to modify the settings here. Before you do this, save the current file as another file so as not to overwrite any of the existing standard ones. Just match AutoCAD color to the line weight you want and save.
- Revit Import CAD Settings
- You’re nearly done. Create a Drafting View and name it similar to the DWG detail name and the View Scale to say 3”=1’. Now insert the DWG. Make a few changes here as indicated in the image below. Click OK. The insert DWG file maintains line weights and font settings. Just note that you may still have a few issues to deal with. Font heights may be incorrect if they’ve not been set correctly in AutoCAD. The other issue may be that some of the hatch patterns may look as solids. You’ll need to adjust the Hatch scale factor in your DWG file. Similarly, Check out if text height is correct. Use the formula below to determine if the text height is correct.
- <Desired Text Height On Paper> X <Print Scale>
- For example, if you want details to be printed at 3”=1’ and the standard text height you want is 3/32”, then your calculation will be as below: 3”=1’ = 3”=12” = 1” = 4″ 3/32 = 0.09375 Text Height in DWG will be = 0.09375 X 4 = 0.375” If you have these settings, Inserting DWG can be accurate. Nothing further needs to be done.
That’s it! You are now ready to import your CAD Library to Revit and on your way to building up your Revit Details Library
