Import BIM Data into Advance Steel

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DEEPAK MAINI: In this third objective,

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we are going to import the structural BIM

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data that we exported from Revit into Advance Steel.

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So for that, I'm going to start Advance Steel program.

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When you run Advance Steel, the Country Settings

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and Configurations dialog box is displayed.

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This dialog box allows you to select the country content

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that you want to start with.

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In my case, I'm going to leave it to United States.

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If you do not want this dialog box to be re-displayed,

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you can select this checkbox here that says

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"Don't show this again on startup."

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To import the structural BIM data,

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I need to first start a new file.

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To start a new file, I'm going to go to the Quick Access

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toolbar available on the top left of the Advance Steel

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window, and then I'll click on the New button.

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In the Select Template dialog box,

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I'm going to double click on the ASTemplate.dwt file,

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because that's the Imperial template.

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As you can see here, a new file is started.

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I do not like my command line to be floating like this.

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So first I'm going to dock the command line.

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Advance Steel is out-of-box ready for BIM data

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exchange with Revit.

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So we don't need to install any plugin for Advance Steel.

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I can simply go to the Export & Import tab,

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and then on the Revit panel I've got these tools

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to import, export, or synchronize

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BIM data from Revit.

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In this case, we are going to use the Import tool

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because we are bringing in the structural BIM

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data for the first time.

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When I invoke the Import command,

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it displays the Open dialog box.

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I've already browsed to the folder where I saved my SMLX

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file, as you might remember from the previous objective,

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this file was saved in the SMLX format and it was only 8 KB.

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All I'm going to do now is double-click on this SMLX file

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and the process of importing the structural BIM data from Revit

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will start.

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During the import process, if there are some sections or some

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materials that cannot be automatically mapped,

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you get the option to manually map those sections

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or materials.

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In our case, we have got this material

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called concrete masonry units, which was used in Revit.

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It is not automatically mapped in Advance Steel.

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I can now click on this Define conversion name dropdown list

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and I can manually map this material.

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I'm going to use the concrete material.

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I'll click OK.

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For the default wall material, it is automatically

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mapped to concrete.

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I'm happy with this.

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I'll click OK.

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And same thing with the cast in place gray.

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I'm going to leave it as concrete.

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This one as well.

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And that's it.

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So it has imported the structural BIM data.

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Now because Advance Steel is an AutoCAD based

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program, the AutoCAD commands and the navigation tools work

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in Advance Steel as well.

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For example, in this case, I want to do a Zoom Extents.

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I will simply double-click my real mouse button

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and it does Zoom Extents.

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Currently, this model is displayed

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in the wireframe mode.

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I'm going to change my display from 2D

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wireframe to conceptual.

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And I can now see the structural BIM data.

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We can also see all the grids imported along

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with the slabs, structural walls, and structural sections.

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Now the good thing is that it's not

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a dumb model that Advance Steel has imported,

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it's a smart model.

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If I double-click on any of these grid lines,

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they're imported as proper grid lines in Advance Steel.

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Similarly, if I double-click on this concrete slab,

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it is imported as a concrete slab.

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The material is automatically mapped to concrete

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because that's what we defined while mapping

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when we were importing the structural BIM data.

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Similarly, if I double-click on this concrete wall,

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it's set to a wall component.

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Similar to Revit, we can hold down

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the Shift key and the real mouse button,

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and we can orbit the model.

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If I double-click on this structural section here,

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it is now imported as a proper structural beam.

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The section type and the size is automatically

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mapped to the right section type and size in Advance Steel.

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In this case, as you can see here,

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it's an AISC 14.1 w, w 18 by 46 size.

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If I go to Revit, it's the same section here.

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Similarly if I double-click on this column here,

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it's w 12 by 40 size I section.

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In Revit, that's the exact same section.

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So the fantastic feature here is Advance Steel

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lets you import the structural BIM data from Revit,

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and it automatically maps the sections to the right section

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sizes, which means that we are now ready to start working

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with this structural BIM data imported from Revit,

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and we can use some really smart tools inside Advance Steel

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to add additional sections, add connections, and also start

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detailing the structure model.

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Because we are going to use this file in the next course,

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let's save it.

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I'm going to save this file with the name Medical Center.

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So that's my Advance Steel file saved.

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I can now use it in Course 2.