In this short post I wanted to present a new key feature for the coordination of AutoCAD based data such as AutoCAD Civil 3D to Revit. AutoCAD has been able to utilise Bing mapping services to capture mapping and allow the coordination with many different coordinate systems since AutoCAD 2013.
Revit 2018 now supports this workflow by allowing consistent setting out between civil, structural and architectural disciplines using differing platforms.
If you have not used this feature within AutoCAD the process is shown below. The Set Location tool is found on the Insert Ribbon or you can type GEOGRAPHICLOCATION on the command line. This can be set before any geometry is created or you could set this at a later date and then move your geometry to the correct ‘map’ position.
Once the Geographic Location command is started you can set the desired location marker and then click next.
In the next dialog you can set the coordinate system that you want to use. In this case I have used British National Grid (OS) and set the units to millimetres.
Click Next and you then select a point for the location and point up the screen to set true north. Your model is now geolocated and you will see a map in the AutoCAD viewport.
You can now trace site boundaries, roads and any other features that you may require. IN the example below a few existing buildings and the new site are traced.
The AutoCAD DWG is then linked into a Revit project. If you are starting a completely new project then you can use acquire coordinates from the manage ribbon which will set the same British National Grid coordinates. If the project is already set up using the same coordinate system then you can simply link the DWG using Auto – By Shared Coordinates and the AutoCAD drawing will ‘land’ in the correct position.
In the image below another AutoCAD drawing is linked in by Auto – By Shared Coordinates.
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Autodesk Revit Structure 