Workflow convert rfa files to sketchup files

And it’s so easy to model most things as simple as possible in Sketchup…

What kind off models from vendors do you need from a RFA file that you can’t model easily in sketchup?

The kind of things that manufacturers post as Revit RFA families or Archicad GSM objects are typically things like complex doors and the idea is that they have a lot of user configurable parameters that ideally are passed back to the manufacturer to be fed into the actual production process. Thus what the object is like in Revit or Archicad is totally dependent on correct user parameter input. A SketchUp Live Component comes closest to the same functionality, but it is as totally different from RFA and GSM as they are from each other. I don’t really see an automatic conversion between the formats cming very soon.

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I know that RFA are parametric definitions and that they require a lot of investment in their creation, just as live components.

However what I’m trying to say is:

  • I think parametrics are a cool idea as long as they don’t represent more trouble than it’s worth otherwise direct modeling is better.
  • revit requires them to work, sketchup does not
  • parametrics in sketchup, as live components or even DC is overkill, unless those models are rather general and represent more than a single vendor.

What I feel like is that if you are modeling in Sketchup, it’s faster to not use parametrics like DC or Live Components, find ways of modeling and adapting models and be free from those constraints. Being constrained to vendors is not a cool idea in my opinion.

So, if you need those families for Revit you should have Revit and can convert from it to Sketchup.

If you work on your models in Sketchup is it that hard to model what you need?

Is it a matter of LOD?

Is it a matter of how RFA work within the Revit ecosystem that should be emulated in Sketchup?

If tany of this is the case, should that converter even exist inside Sketchup or should it exist in the live components editor project?

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Most people I know who work in BIM with Revit try to avoid manufacturer files as much as possible. They dirty the models and make them practically unusable.

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That is a bit exaggerated, but yes, I too prefer things I have made myself or that are part of the Revit package.

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I mean, purchasing a Revit is just an extension of option C. If anyone is buying a Revit license, it’s not just to import and adjust families. Option D reinforces the idea that SU should just be for modeling and out of the AEC space.

Even if some people can’t grasp the idea that Sketchup can be a strong option in AEC industry for a lot of reasons, there are a lot of alternatives to Revit and clinging to RFA files outside the Sketchup realm.

Seems to me that it’s a bit far fetched to say that the AEC space is all about RFA.

Your idea.

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I’m a bit outside of my depth here but… isn’t this one of the goals of the IFC ? to have a shared format everyone can use instead of a proprietary one ?

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The ideal would be a shared standard BIM model format that all different applications could use as their “native” but we are still about a century away from that. Instead, vendors promote their own proprietary formats and invest the absolute minimum into interoperability. IFC can be mainly used for viewing.

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It is, but as

Ifc seems to be at a stage, right now, where everyone claims to produce it, but it is flexible enough to allow for a lot of different classification methods to exist, so there isn’t a standard practice between software vendors. Also either it doesn’t support all the features each vendor wants to develop, like parametrics, properties, textures, geometric definitions, etc, there will be a lot of problems roundtripping a model.

What I mean is, for example, if you parametrize a door in revit, it won’t be parametric in archicad.

So, what everyone does is export and import ifc files as reference, or because they are good enough to carry the geometry and info needed for BIM management, however it they can enforce users into an eco system that allows vendor specific features, they’ll do it and lock them out of ifc.

That’s the case of rfa here.

Autodesk, being autodesk, is perfectly aware on how to do what they do to take over the market as a standard.

Fortunately there are a lot of vendora and the idea of BIM and BIM management requires interoperability for a lot of stakeholders and the minimum requirement ended up being ifc.

From following BlenderBIM experiences and FreeCAD, as well as Sketchup’s own progresses, and other vendors, it seems ifc can still grow a lot as a standard, binding all revit alternatives yogether, while Revit keeps pushing for market dominance.

In this push for dominance it also seems that they want to find alternatives to ifc, creating more confusion among everyone as autodesk is one of openbim or buildingsmart biggest donors.

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We are lucky that we can use an IFC file to continue modeling in SketchUp