What Software Can Produce Family Files ?

[Bill Tillman]

The time to talk real turkey is at hand. I have been asked, once again what is needed to create a family. Of course one can do it in Rivet but I've been told by some not so believable sources that one can create a 3D drawing in AutoCAD and then import it into Rivet which can then produce the family file. Or Inventor I am told is capable of producing either family files or files which can be imported into Rivet and made into families.

What's the straight scoop on this? I was told once by these same folks you don't need Rivet Arch to produce BIM ready drawings and I found out that's not exactly true so I'm taking their advice this time with a grain of salt.

Oh yes, what about Solidworks? Can you produce a 3D drawing in SW and get it into a family file easily?

[StykFacE]

First of all its not Rivet, its Revit. (Sorry, I'm not trying to be a grammar nazi but a lot of people get this wrong).

Secondly, yes you can import 2D or 3D DWG drawing data into a family. However, this is highly discouraged. In fact, at my company, it is not allowed at all. The only application that needs to be used in creating a Revit Family is Revit - period.

Hope this helps.

[Lee Roy]

SolidWorks is great at 3D objects.

AutoCAD can make 3D objects.

If you want 3D objects in Revit, make them in Revit.

I tell people here it's just not possible...or flat-out "No, I won't do it and no one else knows how."

[Bill Tillman]

Sounds like very sage advice. I am meeting with some more people here tomorrow morning and I will pass it on. Revit is the only way we want to go with this.

And yes, I let me spell checker talk me out of the correct spelling for R-E-V-I-T...!

[StykFacE]

Have you ever used Revit before? I'm using Revit Structure today. I learned how to apply coping to beams and truss'!! I'm getting there. Its fun but definitely demanding.

[Lee Roy]

Once you get used to it, it's very easy and fast. On a daily basis I use both AutoCAD (Vanilla, MEP) and Revit (Architecture, MEP Structure). I turn out much better work when using Revit as intended without work-arounds.

Previous CAD Managers tried making parametric parts in AutoCAD, spent days doing so. I made the same part in Revit in under 30 minutes.

Why people insist on using AutoCAD for 3D and why Autodesk continues to try to develop it as such is beyond me.

[Jack_O'neill]

Once you get used to it, it's very easy and fast. On a daily basis I use both AutoCAD (Vanilla, MEP) and Revit (Architecture, MEP Structure). I turn out much better work when using Revit as intended without work-arounds.

Previous CAD Managers tried making parametric parts in AutoCAD, spent days doing so. I made the same part in Revit in under 30 minutes.

Why people insist on using AutoCAD for 3D and why Autodesk continues to try to develop it as such is beyond me.

People continue to do it for a variety of reasons. One, they don't have unlimited resources to buy every bit of new and shiney software out there. Two, if you have decades of legacy Autocad work, you don't want to switch to a packet that can't edit or produce those drawings. Years ago I was part of a review group that took a pass on Solidworks for this very reason. Had the dealer come in and even he couldn't pull our dwg files over adequately. At that time, we had about 28,000 active assembly drawings, many of them in 3d. None of us had the time or desire to redraw them. Three, inspite of what you read in the trade magazines, there are thousands of companies that do quite well out there that are using old versions of Autocad. I know one place that is still using the last release of Mechanical Desktop and have no intention of giving it up. It does what they want, and there's no reason to change because of that.

When you get hold of one of these super packages, it's real easy to sit back and pontificate about how much better it is than everything else out there and how you just don't know how the rest of the world makes it without your new toy. All that other stuff was there before the shiny new toy, and insulting those who still use other systems is not a very professional practice.

[SLW210]

Shop Drawings.

[StykFacE]

I still love vanilla AutoCAD and its 3D capabilities for various reasons. I will never see myself completely getting rid of a CAD app like AutoCAD for really quick and easy stuff that I like to tinker with. However, for trade-specific stuff, Revit is suiting all my needs just fine.