BIM Coordinator – An easier way to share coordinates between Revit, Civil 3D and Navisworks

When you want to share coordinates between a Revit building model and Civil 3D site in the past it has tended to be a manual process. This tool from Autodesk Consulting allows you to share coordinates and height of a site to Revit to ensure you can simply create a true 3D site model. BIM Coordinator is a technology preview on Autodesk Labs for AutoCAD® Civil 3D® 2012 and Autodesk® Revit® 2012 software to assist project team members with building and site grids.

Please watch the video for an example of how to use the tool. Or follow the brief instructions below.

• Select the Add-in in the Toolbox in Civil 3D
• Select 2 points on the same level as a reference for the model location
• Choose the relevant units and save the coordinate file
• In Revit go to the Add Ins tab > Import Shared Coords from ACCSXML file.
• Select the same two reference points for the model
• Choose the coordinates file you just saved.
• In Manage > Location > Site make the Shared Coordinates the current coordinate system in Revit
  • Changing the orientation from Project North to True North will allow the model to reflect the new orientation
• Export the model from Revit to a DWG for Civil 3D
  • You should change the export options to Solids > ACIS Solids for optimal export for Civil and correct the Units for your project)
  • You can then XREF this into Civil 3D ensuring accept all current coordinates and the model will be in the correct location
• Export an NWC file from Revit for Navisworks
  • Ensure the Navisworks Settings use Shared Coordinates rather than Project Internal
  • This can be brought through and appended to the Civil 3D DWG in Navisworks for a complete site model.

See http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/bim_coordinator/ to get hold of it for free.

This is currently only available for the 2012 products but please provide your feedback so we know if you want this for later versions and how it can be improved.

Comments

[Jborregoy2k]

Great tool, hope you will integrate this to the RAC 2013 in the near future