Final Report

Objective
With the abundance of elements available on Google’s 3D Warehouse the designer, particularly the interior designer, is provided with opportunities to place the furniture that they specify into 3D modeled space. However, there are a much more limited number of 3D furniture models (families) currently available for Interior Designers using Revit. This project blog’s purpose is to experiment with the integration of Revit Architecture 2010 and Google Sketch UP 7; more specifically, the importing and modifying of SketchUP models into Revit. The creation, importing, modification, material assignment and tracking of these elements will be researched.

Methodology
The process I followed was:
a. Introduce both programs
b. Describe the best way to make a SketchUP model that will import properly into Revit
i. Saving SketchUP models for optimum compatibility
c. Show examples
d. Importing a SketchUP model as an Import CAD symbol
i. Assigning materials to an ImportCAD symbol
e. Other options for importing
i. Importing as a conceptual mass component
f. Scheduling

Throughout the study I introduced tutorials and other similar projects to show the many options one can take with SketchUP>Revit.

Outcome
The project resulted in an outline for the small scale integration of SketchUp and Revit. The goal was to benefit the interior designer and make their space planning and layouts more accurate. Using the blog’s techniques will curb the lack of 3D furniture models currently available. There is a focus in the study towards importing SketchUP models as an Import CAD symbol. This is likely a result of my personal experiences of which is most efficient.
I adjusted the scope of my project from exploring all the ways of integrating and importing the two programs to ways that I was most familiar with exploring. I also was sure to be clear from the beginning that there was to be a very limited scope—dealing with mostly interior fixtures/furniture.
I learned through the study of this project that the concept of integration of programs is much more complex than I originally thought. There are different issues that effect each program, version and file type that dictate its ease of integration.
In the future, I hope to refine my skills of importing these two programs and I hope to explore the other methods of integrated not explored by this study. Also, I am very interested in taking a model from SketchUP>Revit>3D Studio Max to explore its rendering capabilities.
My peer, Victor, provided inspiration for my future study. Also, I thought it was an interesting comparison looking at SketchUP>Revit and Revit>3DS, especially when looking at the level of sophistication of SketchUP vs. 3DS. The level of sophistication we achieved in our renderings is similar even though we approached the process from different angles.