Introduction

This example demonstrates how to use the FME Exporter for Revit, from installing the plugin, to single and batch exports, creating .rvz files from .rvt to be used in FME Workbench.

Q: What is the FME Exporter?

A: The FME Exporter is a free plugin for Revit to export .rvz files. These .rvz files are essentially an IFC export, enriched with additional data such as property sets, and can be used within your FME integration workflows. Please note that while the extension is free, an FME license or trial license is required to use the Add-in.

Pre-requisites

• Revit, Revit Architecture, Revit MEP, or Revit Structure, versions 2013 - 2016
• FME 2015 or newer
• If you are working with 32-bit Revit, you will need to install 32-bit FME Desktop. To work with 64-bit Revit, 64-bit FME Desktop is required.

Installing the plugin

The plugin should be automatically installed when you install FME 64 bit, or the standalone FME Exporter for Revit. Note that the plugin won't be accessible until you load a project into Revit.

If you installed FME 64 bit, but the FME Export plugin does not appear in Revit, you may need to manually extend it. To do this start the application FME\Utilities\FME Integration Console from the Start menu:

If you get a message that ‘Administrative Privileges are Required’, close the program, right-click on it and reopen it with ‘Run as Administrator’. If the status of the FME Exporter for Revit is Not Extended, click the Extend button to the right. If the Status is Extended, click the Revert button to the right, then the Extend button to re-extend it.

The FME Exporter plugin has successfully been extended in the FME Integration Console.

Using the FME Exporter

After starting the FME Exporter, the Export dialog will appear. The FME exporter is essentially an extended version of the Revit IFC Exporter, so the dialogs are identical. The exporter offers a selection of pre-built setups to choose from.

To use your own settings, choose <In-Session Setup>, then click the Modify Setup button.

For more information on this dialog, please see the Autodesk Help (IFC Export Setup Options)

For most conversions, we recommend:

• IFC Version: FME can read both IFC 2x3 and IFC4
• File Type: IFC
• Phase to Export: Default Phase works in most cases, but you may need to explicitly choose a phase to get all of the project
• Space Boundaries: 1st or 2nd Level

Base Quantities and Property Sets: Check all.

Split walls and columns by level: Check this if you will be using the Floorplan data view in the FME Revit reader, leave unchecked for other data view.

Export 2D plan view elements: Check this if you will be using the Floorplan data view in the FME Revit reader.

Include IFCSITE elevation in the site local placement: Check this for better geo-referencing.

Once you have adjusted your setup, click the Export Button and choose the output RVZ file location.

The file is now ready to import into FME.

Batch Exports

The FME Exporter for Revit can be configured to be run in a "headless" mode. It is headless in the sense that you do not need to manually start Revit.exe, open a dataset, and click through the buttons to export the dataset.

Instead, you launch Revit.exe with a dataset and the export will happen automatically, with Revit.exe automatically closing when done. This can be very easily added to a batch script, so that multiple .rvz exports can be carried out without manual intervention.

For example, the following will export the dataset ' file.rvt' headlessly:

Revit.exe file.rvt

Of course, you don't want this Export event to happen every time a dataset is opened in Revit, so FME looks for the existence of "rvzAutoExportFile" in the Windows Temp directory (e.g. C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Temp). When that file is not present, Revit.exe will revert to its normal behavior.

You can automatically create the "rvzAutoExportFile" in your batch, then delete it when finished:

echo a > %TEMP%\rvzAutoExportFile
"C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Revit 2016\Revit.exe" "Building1.rvt"
"C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Revit 2016\Revit.exe" "Building2.rvt"
del %TEMP%\rvzAutoExportFile