Autodesk User Group International

In the beginning there was dirt. Lots and lots of dirt. What do we know about dirt? We are architects and engineers. We know you have to dig a big hole to stick a building in, or make a big pile and compact it to bear on. We also know this costs a fortune. We also know that in construction, there aren't many variables we can count on time after time. One variable we can count on is there is always going to be dirt. Lots and lots of dirt.

This article is going to begin focusing on starting a site plan. Come to find out there is a lot that goes into removing and pushing around volumes of earth. It also has a huge influence on our structure. Not just for aesthetics, but for structural lateral bearing pressure. Big wall + heavy earth = reinforced concrete.

To start, Open Revit Architecture.
In Revit Architecture, make sure the Site tab is active on the Design Toolbar. If not, right-click on the design toolbar and select Site .

There are three ways to start a site. One is to steal a 3D site plan from Civil 3D.
Head over to the AUGI Training Program (ATP) forum and register for my Site Fast Track class. Or go to the AUGI HotNews forum to get this file. It is a 3D site drawing stripped of all of the AutoCAD nonsense we have been struggling with for the last 15 years.
Be sure you are in a Site plan level.

Go to File>Import/Link>CAD Formats

Browse to the CAD file, but do NOT click Open just yet. There are some settings we need to adjust.
For Import or Link, do not check Link (Instead of import) or Current View only.

Check Black and White for Layer/Level colors.

Automatically Place, and Center-to-center for the positioning should be checked. You can check on Orient to View. This view is oriented North.

Click Open.

Your site should be in place. It is good to note here that that if you have elevation markers that are underneath your site, move THEM, not the earth. The earth does not revolve around your little symbols.
Go to a 3D view and scroll around the model. 3D points are set up.
Go back to the Site plan
In the Site tab on the design toolbar, click on Toposurface

You are not in Edit mode for the Toposurface function.
Click Use Imported

You get two choices; select Import Instance.

Select your CAD import
You will now get a list of layers (0 and defpoints have still made their way into our lives). Select only the Contour layers. There are two of them in this example. It is good to note here that I did not just grab any AutoCAD file and drag it into Revit. I spent a good 15 minutes purging and cleaning it for this moment. Do yourself a favor and do the same thing.
That being said, select CONT-MJR and CONT-MNR.

Click OK

You may get a warning that your visibility settings are not set to the appropriate depth. If this happens, type VP.
Once in the view properties, go to the view range row and click Edit�
Set your View Range as shown below.

You should now see hundreds of points. Each point has its own elevation. We do not want to alter that information here though. Remember, this is a representation as earth as it was.
In the design toolbar, click the Properties button.

In the properties dialog, go to the material builder button

Select Site - Grass as the material.

In the design toolbar, click Finish Surface
Type VG for the visibility graphics of the current view.
Go to Imported categories. Notice you have additional control over the CAD display.
Uncheck Show Imported Categories in this view.
The contours are not very accurate. We can change that
Go to Settings>Site Settings

In the site settings, click the Insert button to add a secondary interval.
Change the Increment on the new contours to 6"
Make sure both are set to Multiple.

Click OK

This will give us a good representation of our site. Next session will involve labeling and adding cuts and fills. We will also be subdividing and splitting the surface as well as starting a brand new site from scratch. See you next month!

(Discuss this Article! in the HotNews Discussion Forums.)

Submitted by Eric Wing, who has been in the building, architectural design, and structural engineering field for 15 years and has been managing, teaching, and presenting Autodesk applications for 10 of them. Eric's activities within AUGI include: ATP Director, Survey Manager, ATP instructor, HotNews columnist and AUGIWorld columnist. He can be reached at atpmanager@augi.com