Friday, September 28, 2012

Sites - SketchUp to Revit


Part of our current workflow is to create a schematic model in SketchUp - which often includes the site.  Many client meetings occur as the team is busy convincing them of our great design.. Once they make a decision on a direction to proceed.. we often turn the SketchUp model into a Revit model to take the design to the next level.
We don't need to scrap the entire SketchUp model to proceed. The buildings need to be recreated using Revit geometry.. but the site can be used to create one in Revit. Often we use geographical topo data from the civil engineers, but we can also use the SketchUp model site.
Here below is a quick shot of a sample Sketchup site. It may have roads, sidewalks, etc on it. We need to isolate the site by turning off (hide) all buildings, entourage, etc.  Then export to DWG.
Linking the DWG into Revit and then using the Site>Toposurface tools, we can generate a full 3D site inside Revit. It takes a little gymnastics to get the roads and walks separated to sub-regions.. but we have to do that with the geo data from civil also.  We can then control the materials in Revit for our construction documents and renderings.

So there you have it. You can use the SketchUp site and turn it into a Revit site for your next project.