Hello, Lindsay here from Equator and
today I'm going to show you how to create a 3D Terrain in Revit
using a DWG or AutoCAD file. First thing we want to do is source our contour
data or our topographic data, and we can do that in Equator. So we want to open Equator, either log
in or create a new account, and then we can either search for our site by using the search bar or we
can just zoom into the area that we need to go to. okay Zoom into this area right here, then we want to go to the data tab and we want to
turn on elevation data just to make sure that the site we have chosen actually has LiDAR coverage.
It looks like it does have LiDAR coverage, so now we want to create a new site by
selecting the new site button down here. Okay we will zoom in to our designated area. We can change the site boundary if
we would like to but for this purpose we will just select okay. This is an okay
boundary for our project. Now we want to go again to the data tab and the second option is
Contours as a DWG so select the plus symbol. We would like it for site one, that's the
site we've just created. Select site one, the highest quality, and then we can choose if
we want smooth or detailed contours. For this project I will select detailed which gives us
a contour interval of 0.3 meters. Hit generate. It is currently processing, we can
see that by the green bar down here. There we are, these are our contour
lines here. Now we want to download those by hitting that download button. We
would like to export it to a DWG file in this coordinate system. If you need to
download in a different coordinate system, then you can choose custom and enter the
coordinate system that you need to use. We're going to use match the project so
meter for vertical unit and select process. Okay so our files are now downloaded.
If we go to our download folder we have two files that were just downloaded:
a readme file which shows all of our metadata and then a zipped file which will contain
our DWG file. Let's just extract that. Okay and let's check what's in that folder. You
have a couple different files that get downloaded with that but what we are really interested
in is this .dwg file. Now we want to go into Revit and we say new model.
You probably have a template that you use for your work but for my
case I'm just going to select none. Okay, and then metric because we've downloaded
our CAD file in metric units. First step is bringing our CAD drawing in, so we can either
link our CAD drawing or import our CAD drawing. If our CAD drawing may change in the future,
then we should link it, and then we can easily upload the new changes. If you have no changes
that are going to be made in the future to that CAD drawing then you can just import it. For this
demonstration I am going to link the CAD drawing. We want to navigate to where our CAD drawing
is, so in this case it's in my downloads file. Select Contour. Now we want to make sure the current view only
is turned off. This ensures that we can see it in 3D and that the x, y, and z coordinates are
there. Then I change my import units to meters because that is what we downloaded our DWG file
in and then the rest should be okay. Click open. Here is our CAD drawing. If we go into our 3D view we can see that it is indeed 3D, the lines are
3D. If we don't have z- coordinates attached then this would be completely flat, and we
wouldn't be able to create a topographic surface from it, but because our z-
coordinates are attached we can create a topographic surface. We want to go into Massing
& Site, select toposurface and create from import, select import instance and
then select your CAD file. Then we want to make sure we know what our x,
y, and z coordinates are saved in within our CAD file. If you've downloaded it from Equator,
they are going to be saved in the Contour layer. Select the layers that have the x, y,
and z coordinates on them and select okay. If we zoom in we can see that our CAD
drawing contour lines all have points on them. These points can be changed if you need
to change the elevation of one of the lines or if you're okay with it, which
I'm okay with this surface and all the elevations within this surface, you hit
the green check mark for finished surface. Okay and there it is. Let's hide our CAD file. Okay, this is our surface. Let's see
if we can see it in realistic view, and there it is. We can see
all the changes in elevation. And that is how you create a 3D Terrain in Revit
using a DWG or AutoCAD file. Thanks for watching!
