What's New for CAD and BIM (June 2018)

by Don Kuehne

The release of ArcGIS Pro 2.2 introduces two new capabilities for CAD and BIM-direct reading of Revit (RVT) files as attributed 3D GIS Objects and georeferencing in 3D Scenes for BIM and CAD data.

Also included in this release is updated support for reading and exporting AutoCAD version 2018 and 2019 format files.

ArcGIS now reads BIM data.  Revit models in the past were supported through conversion to IFC files and then a secondary conversion to a geodatabase using the ArcGIS data interoperability extension, and this capability is still available.  New in ArcGIS Pro 2.2 is the ability to open a Revit BIM model directly off disk (Revit 2011-2018 files).  This YouTube video  shows highlights of working with Revit files in ArcGIS Pro 2.2.

Within Revit, data is organized into categories, these Revit categories like Walls, Windows or Doors will be directly understood as ArcGIS 3D multipatch feature classes within ArcGIS,  These Revit-sourced ArcGIS feature classes include many Revit properties and user defined parameters as ArcGIS feature attributes.

I can add an entire Revit model, or just the feature classes from a specific construction domain, like Mechanical, or I can add feature classes one at a time.  When I add the entire Revit model or a construction discipline like Architectural, I will get feature class layers that are organized into composite layers to help me keep them organized. When Revit models contain real world coordinate files I simply need to use the Define Projection tool on any of the feature classes from the Revit model and select the coordinate system my Revit model was drawn to.    Otherwise there are tools I can use to georeference the Revit data in the same way I would for CAD.  Revit data added to ArcGIS Pro behaves like any other 3D  GIS data within ArcGIS Pro and can be queried, measured analyzed used in geoprocessing models and tools, or simply copied to a geodatabase.

Once saved as a geodatabase the Revit-sourced information can also be shared as scene layers to be included in web scenes online or consumed back in other desktop applications like ArcGIS Pro or ArcGIS Earth.