Export and Import Revit Data

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In this lesson, we're gonna look at how you can export data out of Revit, edit it using an external application,

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and then re-import the data back into Revit.

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Now that we've added our parameters to the project,

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we're gonna look at ways that we can export data out of Revit to an external application and then bring it back into Revit.

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And this process is useful if you have members of your team who may not be savvy in Revit,

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but could still contribute to the Room Data Sheet effort,

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maybe they could do some data entry or they have specialized knowledge that they need to add to the model.

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But again, they don't know how to use Revit.

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So, there are a lot of ways that we can do this in Revit and the easiest would be to create a schedule.

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And then we could add that data manually directly in the schedule.

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Now we could also use Dynamo and we could write a script that would export the Room Data to Excel.

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We could edit the data in Excel and then re-import it back into Revit.

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And there are also a number of add-ins that do this process, such as Ideate's BIMLink.

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Now, what we're gonna look at today is we're gonna use the DB Link add-in.

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And this is a free add-in that's available for download through Autodesk's desktop app.

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So, to use it, I'm going to go to the Add-Ins ribbon and I'm gonna click on "Revit DB Link" right here.

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And I need to connect my Revit Model with the database.

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I'm going to open my Project folder. And in my Project folder, I'm going to right click and create a new Microsoft Access Database.

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And I'm gonna call this database "Room Data".

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So, now I can go back to the Link Revit Model with database.

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So I'm going to click the "Export" button, then I'm going to browse to my database that I just created.

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I'm gonna set this equal to all files and then choose the Room Data database.

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I click Save and Revit is going to link all the Revit data with that new database that I created.

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And this process may take some time, depending on how big your Revit Model is.

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So, once the process is complete, I can open the database and I can make changes to the data that's presented there.

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I've opened up Microsoft Access, I'm gonna click on Enable Content.

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And inside here in the Tables, I'm seeing all the categories from my Revit Model.

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So, I'm going to scroll down to the Rooms category and I'm gonna double click on the Table.

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And here is all my room information. So, as you can see, there's a number of rooms in the project.

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I'm going to scroll over to find the fields that I want to update.

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So, here are the fields that I added, Program Area, then I have Program Comments and 240 volt.

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So I can start adding some program area numbers.

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Let's say if I know these off the top of my head, I can add them right in.

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I can add any values, really, if I just want to get some output on the Room Data Sheets.

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But you could imagine if you have a team member who knows this information, they could go through and update it.

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And let me add a couple of other things, Program Comments, Test comment.

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At this point, I just want to see the output in the model.

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And let's add another one here. So, for our 240 volts, I'm gonna add a 1 for Yes and a 0 for No.

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And those will correspond with our Yes and No values. So, I'll just add some random values in here.

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Okay, so that's enough data in there for now. I'm gonna minimize this and go back into Revit.

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So, now I can go back to the Revit DB Link add-in.

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And you can see that it has maintained the connection to the export database.

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So, I can click on Edit and Import Now, and this will bring that information back into the model.

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So, I'm going to scroll through and go down to the Rooms Table. And here's all the information that I just saw in access.

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I'm going to scroll over to my Parameters. And here is the information that I had added.

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I had added some program areas, I had added some test comments, and then I had added 1s and 0s for our 240 volt field.

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I'm gonna click "OK" to import this back into Revit from the database.

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Now I'm gonna go to a Room Schedule, and I can look at this information specifically.

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So I'll need to update my schedule to include the fields I added.

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So, I'm gonna click on the Fields button and I'm going to add Program Area,

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Program Comments and 240 volts.

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I'll add that over and they'll show up on the right hand side of my schedule.

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You can see here where I indicated 1 or 0 in the 240 volts column that's showing up here.

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Same thing goes for our Program Areas and our Program Comments. They're showing up in here as well.

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So, that information that I added through our access database has now been pulled back into Revit.

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Okay, now it's your turn to try. First, install DB Link if you don't have it already.

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And you can find it in the Autodesk desktop app and it's a free download.

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Next, export the Revit data to a Microsoft Access Database.

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Once you've done that, open the database and take a look at the Rooms Table.

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Now you'll see the new parameters will be added to the rooms.

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So go through and add some data to these new parameters.

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Then back in Revit, use the Edit and Import feature to bring the data back into the Revit model.

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Lastly, create a room schedule to review the new data.