Revit 2013 into Unity 3D

Asset & Content Management
1

Hey everyone. I have a problem that has been making me pull my hair out all week! I’m a newbie to all of this and I’m just hoping someone may be able to help me out.

I am trying to create workflows from the major BIM platforms; Revit, Sketchup etc… into Unity to allow for a 3D immersive environment which could be run in a CAVE.

I seem to be having major problems with Revit. This is my current workflow for getting a model into Unity:
Open up a 3D view of a project in Revit > Export FBX from Revit > Open 3ds Max > import the FBX from Revit > accept default settings > Click ‘render production’ on the main toolbar > Under ‘render preset’ select ‘mental.ray.daylighting.high’ and select ‘load’ > Export into the ‘Assets’ Directory of a Unity project.
Warnings appear regarding the geometries, and too many material faces. I am not sure how I should be cleaning up?
I am making sure that I am embedding media.

The project loses most of its textures and only basic colours appear, which for me is not satisfactory. I know that there are programs you can buy which work around this problem, however, I am a student and cannot afford to dish out if there is an alternative! If anyone could give me advice on this, I would be entirely grateful. Thanks!

Ben

2

If it already exported from revit as a fbx, try just bringing that into unity and see if that works. Seems like a lot of extra steps.

3

hey i have a question something related to the above one.After exporting the revit file into unity, what if i want to make some changes to the revit model like adding few more elements?? do i need to export the whole file with changes and work again from the start in unity?

4

If you’re using Revit 2013 or newer, you need to convert the materials from Autodesk’s default ones to standard ones that Unity can understand. personally I use http://materialconverter.com for all my HoloLens/Revit work.

5

Hi guys,

Just to let you know I’ve written a Revit plugin to export Revit project to Unity without using cloud transfer or IFC.
I can of course, on demand, add specific Revit Data.
I use the Revit API in this plugin so I can access a LOT of data and custom material properties.

For now, the plugin supports: hierarchy, meshes (with sharing), UVs, Materials, albedo and normal map textures and Family filter on export. If you are interested, please let me know via private message.