Importing Revit RFA Families in BricsCAD

Commands: IMPORT and BMINSERT

Overview: In this lesson, you learn how to import Revit family files in BricsCAD BIM. 

Lesson Objectives

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

• Import a Revit RFA family file to BricsCAD. 
• Use BimInsert command to insert a RFA file as a BIM component.
• Insert RFA files from the components panel. 

Important notification before getting started

RFA import is a work-in-progress. See the BMINSERT command.

Procedure: Importing RFA family files 

1. Launch the IMPORT command. 
   The Import file dialog box displays.

2. Select Revit Familiy (*.rfa file) (1) in the Files Of Type list.

   

3. Select the .rfa file you want to import.
4. Click Open to import the Revit Family.
   When the RFA family file is imported the geometry from this file is included in BricsCAD as separate 3D solids.

Procedure: Inserting RFA family files

Notes:

• When DUCS = ON (Dynamic UCS) the RFA entity aligns with the 3D solid face under the cursor.
• When DYN = ON (Dynamic Dimensions) the distances from the nearest parallel edge on the face of the 3D solid display.

Using BmInsert

1. Launch the BMINSERT command.
   A File dialog box displays. 
2. Browse to the folder where your .rfa family files are saved.
3. Select Revit Familiy (*.rfa file) (2) in the Files Of Type list.

   

4. Select the .rfa file you want to import.
   The selected file is attached to the cursor (3).

   The following illustration shows inserting a Revit family sofa when both DYN and DUCS are on.

   

3. Do the following to place the selected RFA family file using the dynamic dimension fields:
   • Hit the TAB key to select one of the dynamic dimension fields, then type a value and hit the TAB key to lock the dimension. The locked dimension will turn red.
   • Repeat the previous step to lock another dynamic dimension field.
   • Optionally hit the TAB key to adjust the dynamic dimensions.
   • Press Enter to accept the current position.. 

Using the Components panel

1. To insert an RFA family folder in the Components panel, add the RFA root folder path to the COMPONENTSPATH system variable in the Settings dialog box. The content of the root folder and all subfolders will be available in the Components panel.
   The following animated gif shows how to add the RFA root folder path to the components directory path.

   

   The RFA family files are ready to insert in the model space.
   If necessary, choose Generate Thumbnails in the hamburger menu on the Components panel.

2. Drag and drop the RFA file from the components panel into your model space.