Mastering Revit Project Setup: Using Geolocation Coordinates and Real-World Elevation for Precision

in this video I will show you how to set up your project so that it is geolocated according to your received Lan survey from the land survey we typically receive an AutoCAD drawing this can be in either 3D or 2D as it is in this case the trick here is to convert the 2D points to 3D points which you can learn how to do by watching this video check out the link in the comment section stepping into Revit I will use an out of the box template the architectural template comes with some pre-packaged elevations which can be deleted we need to determine this file's origin point which can be turned on in the visibility graphics this is done through the site category in this case I will also turn on the project base point and the servo point at this stage these are all hosted in the same spot from here I will insert the received 2D AutoCAD survey select current view only this will become what's called a working View other important settings are import scale and the positioning settings origin to internal origin this means that the center of the AutoCAD drawing will be placed in alignment with revit's internal origin with the reference file now linked I can isolate the AutoCAD layer that I want to work with the easiest way to do this is to firstly deselect everything and then turn on the site boundary [Music] following on switch back to the Revit model categories and isolate the survey point let's take a moment to understand what has happened thus far the received AutoCAD drawing has been linked in the true north orientation and has been placed in Revit to align with the Revit files origin point using the visibility Graphics tool the site boundary has been isolated now select the survey Point ensuring that it's unclipped and snap this onto the site boundary setout point the setup point should be a known point in the physical world such as an intersection of two property lines following this switch to a 3D View and then from the ribbon find massing and sight and select Topo surface from there click on create from import and then select specify points file and now select the required CSV it is important to understand that the CSV is the result of converting the land survey points from 2D to 3D so if you haven't done that at this stage go back to the video link I posted in the comments about this process and follow those steps here is the site using the viewcube I can demonstrate the default levels here below and so the next task is to create new levels Associated to the project design switching back to our working floor plan view from the manage tab find rotate project North this tool is used to rotate model elements and Views so that these align with the north south orientation of the Revit file simply select the relevant line and the view and Survey boundary will rotate in the 3D view you should now notice that the north has been rotated [Music] select the current floor plan and duplicate with detailing rename the copy and use project North as a suffix then rename the original true north if prompted to rename the corresponding level select no with the true north active find the orientation parameter on the properties and toggle the setting to true north for demonstration purposes I will now have both views opened and tiled so that you can see the difference side by side [Music] now turn on the project base point and the internal origin and following this place a section line just below those indicators and extend the farkly boundary so that this extends past the indicators in the sectional view zoom into the default levels [Music] [Music] select level 0 and rename this according to your local identification label for datums in my case it's ahd this will be moved to the finished floor level of the proposed design which in this example is 28.15 remember that the survey is in meters and the rivet model is in millimeters so you will need to move the decimal point accordingly and now rename that level FFL if you have further information about the building's overall height add that in now [Music] [Music] and lastly I add a level that corresponds to the highest point of the site [Music] back to the messing and site tab trace the AutoCAD boundary using the property lines tool use the create by sketching option [Music] to control the visibility of all datum elements I will use a scope box [Music] [Music] next create floor plans for each of the new levels on The View tab from the ribbon pick plan views and then floor plan select top of site this is the top of site floor plan view to see the whole topper surface toggle The View wrench properties for view depth choose ahd and then for the bottom range choose the finished floor level the whole topper surface is now visible in plan View and we can use this to further set up our project switching back to the sectional View we need to set the height constraints of the scope box only element enclosed by the Box will be associated firstly drag the bottom boundary below the ahd and then drag the top boundary above the top of site level then select all project levels and Associate them to the scope box using the properties palette the v-port can now be turned off as this is no longer required now we need to set up the projects coordinate system starting with the project base point to do this we insert a sketch it's important to note that sketches can be received in different forms but one of the most common is PDF we receive this from Design Consultants on the project North plan view find a insert Tab and then locate and import the PDF we can click the imported PDF and send it to back the PDF now displays behind the model Elements which I couldn't get this functionality to work using the link function with the PDF correctly scaled and positioned to move the project base Point ensure it's not clipped and move and snap to the desired location but notice the project base point is still at the default elevation of zero we need to fix this but before we do that the PDF can be deleted [Music] so to set the elevation coordinates go back to the sectional View and turn on the base Point using the visibility graphics [Music] foreign [Music] if the base point is not visible ensure that it's enclosed by the far clip boundary this can be done from any floor plan View [Music] now zoom into the target area select the base point and move it snapping to the finished floor level [Music] notice the elevation is now matching and this sets the Z coordinate but we still have to locate our project on the latitude and longitude using the original AutoCAD survey locate the corresponding survey point and using the ID tool record the coordinates transfer those points into Revit using the coordinates tool found in the manage tab find specify coordinates at Point now type in the values to match remember to move the decimal point accordingly to account for the difference in units once you click OK this survey point will default to the coordinates of zero zero zero we can zoom to fit to find it and then with the survey Point unclipped simply move it back to the required intersection [Music] and now we should cross reference an alternate point on the site to ensure that the coordinates are correct you can cross check this with the AutoCAD drawing [Music] from here if you have not done so already create a floor plan view Associated to the floor finish level you'll need to turn on the base point using the base point draw a grid intersection as shown once the grid intersection has been defined associate these to the scope box through the properties palette one last step remains type di on your keyboard to launch the dimension options choose spot elevation [Music] and then select the dimension and click edit on the type selector duplicate the current type and then following the renaming change the elevation base from Project base point to survey this will now report the reduced level for the building [Music] the same concept needs to be applied to the project levels [Music] [Music] finally I'll do some minor cleanup [Music] and there you are the project has been set up when we started all of these indicators were placed on top of each other at the default coordinates of zero zero zero now each indicator has been strategically placed in accordance to its function and the project site coordinates have been correctly defined I hope that you found this video useful and that you learned something new if you did consider subscribing give the video a like and drop a comment and I'll see you in the next video thanks for watching foreign

Channel: Sergio Barata

Views: 4,501

Keywords: geolocate revit models, revit shared coordinates, revit project base point, revit survey point, revit origin point, revit sea level elevations, revit specify coordinates, revit project setup, revit toposurface, revit true north, revit project north, rotate project north, revit import land survey, land survey in revit, revit civil

Id: 0G7LK2JpmW4

Length: 17min 10sec (1030 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 30 2023