Export BIM Data from Revit

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DEEPAK MAINI: In the second objective,

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we are going to talk about exporting the structural BIM

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data from Revit.

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I'm going to switch over to my Revit program.

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And now, we are going to open the model available in the data

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set folder of course one.

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As most of you might already be aware,

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Revit is a preferred program when

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it comes to creating a structural steel design.

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So for creating designs, lot of engineers

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and structural designers prefer Autodesk Revit.

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However, when it comes to detailing structural models,

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lot of steel detailers prefer other programs

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such as advance steel.

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Hence, we are going to export this structural model

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from Revit, and we are going to import it in Advance Steel.

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Notice that this model is similar to the one

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that we created in one of the other learning parts.

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It's a structural model, which has

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got some structural slabs, some structural walls,

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and also some steel sections added.

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If I go to the bottom of steel plan,

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notice that there are some grids available in this model

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as well.

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Now because we have installed the Advance Steel plugin, when

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I go to the Add-Ins tab, I can see the Advance Steel Extension

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plugin here.

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Now before we start exporting this model,

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we are going to look at some settings.

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In the settings dialog box as you can see,

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there are some checkboxes available.

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The first checkbox I'm going to select

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is this one here called Export Grids.

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This will ensure that the grids are also exported,

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and we can then reuse them in Advance Steel.

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I'm also going to select this checkbox here

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that says ignore beam cutbacks and extension on export.

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Now, I would recommend not to select the export based

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on view settings checkbox.

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This is because selecting this checkbox

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will not export the grids.

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And because we need to use the grids in Advance Steel,

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we'll not select this checkbox.

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I'm happy with these settings.

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So I'm going to click the OK button.

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And now I'm ready to export the structural BIM

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data from this Revit model, so we

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could use it in Advance Steel.

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Now the way the export works is, if I go and select

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certain sections or certain elements

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and then select the Export option from the Add-Ins tab

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Advance Steel export, then it will only

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export the selected elements.

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In our case, we want to export the entire model.

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So make sure you click somewhere outside,

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so nothing is selected.

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And now I'm going to go into the Advance Steel flyout,

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and I'll select this option called Export.

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There are a number of different formats

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in which we can export the file.

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The preferred format is the advance export format.

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If I click on the Other Formats radio button,

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I've got these formats available, SDNF, CIS2, and PSS.

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But as I said, we strongly recommend

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to leave it as advance export.

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My country library is US.

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If I click on this, you can also select other country libraries

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depending on what libraries were used to create

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this structural model.

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And now when I click on the OK button,

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it allows me to save this file.

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Please note that it's saving this file

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in the SMLX format, which is the steel markup language format.

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I'll use the default name and click the Save button.

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It starts the process of exporting the structural BIM

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data from Revit.

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Now I'm going to show you a really cool thing.

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Let me go to the folder where the structural file was saved.

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And notice that my Revit file was 9.3 megs,

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whereas the SMLX file that we have just exported

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is only 8 KB.

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So it takes the entire structural model

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with all the metadata and smart properties.

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And it creates a really small file

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as you could see here, only 8 KB.

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I'm going to go back to the Revit program.

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That was the second objective of this course.