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From ArchiCAD to Revit using IFC (with video)

It's in Dutch so maybe not for everybody, but I recorded a few video-tutorials discussing how to get a model from ArchiCAD into Revit in a more or less editable form, so you can still do some things with it. Using IFC and Solibri to inspect the exported model and see what is indeed exported but missing upon import.

Inside Revit, we make a Schedule and notice that the room does not pick up the ArchiCAD Zone Height properly and the category needs special attention to get through.

Important lessons: some ArchiCAD model simplification can make life easier (e.g. a SEO between wall and roof resulted in the window being placed one floor below its opening). Not sure if going back and forth between ArchiCAD and Revit to finetune IFC export is feasible for many people, but we have to deal with the current intricacies of the IFC implementations as they are today.
FWIW, Revit 2013 was running inside Windows 8 in Parallels, whereas ArchiCAD 16 and Solibri Model Checker 8 were running natively in Mountain Lion. But Revit was very usable still. And Screenflow was recording all 2880x1800 pixels in full glory. That said, I had a crash and some long IFC loading sections have been edited out of the video.

From ArchiCAD to IFC


From ArchiCAD IFC to Revit (Part 1)


From ArchiCAD IFC to Revit (Part 2)


From ArchiCAD IFC to Revit (Part 3)

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Comments

  1. SW19 March, 2013

    In my Archicad Model, the building has a slope(30Deg) roof . When I input IFC into Revit, all slope roof become flat and straight up over the roof. Does Solibri can correct this issue, or We need to manually correct in Revit?

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  2. stefkeB19 March, 2013

    When I tested, the sloped ArchiCAD roofs were still sloped, but came in as "in-place" families, with no properties to read or schedule. Import improved when I removed Solid Element Operators (SEO) in ArchiCAD first. Import was also improved by converting multi-plane roofs into single-plane roofs and use the Crop to Roof option instead of a SEO when connecting with walls.

    Solibri can read the IFC, but cannot alter it in any way. So I advice you to optimize transfer first and then fill in the blanks manually inside Revit. That way, the model is more native. This is a bit more work, but you get a much more usable Revit model as a result. Of course, you need some experience (and licenses) for both applications, which might not be an option for most people.

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