Loren Cook Fan Company provides Revit Families of all of their fans use with Revit MEP 2009. I have a couple of questions regarding this.
1. How can I open these files Microstation or a Bentley Building Product?
2. If I can't open these files now, will I be able to in the future? Is this in Bentley's Plans?
3. My final question is for discussion. What is the best course of action for the community/Bentley to take? I know I keep harping on this issue, but the availability of Revit families from manufacturer's continues to increase and the availability of PAZ/BXC/CEL/DGN files continues to stay the same (from what I am seeing). I believe manufacturer data is incredibly important in the future of BIM/VDC. Are we as Bentley users responsible to continue to push our manufacturers into generating Bentley files? Is Bentley responsible to make conversions between Bentley and Revit "Just Work"? Is there a combination or middle ground?
There will come a time when using BIM tools as an "easier" way to extract 2D drawings will no longer be acceptable. There will be an expectation from Owners/Architects/Engineers/Facility Managers/General Contractors/Subcontractors to see the Rooftop Unit from the Manufacturer in their building. I hope we aren't headed towards a dead end...
I know exactly what you are talking about. I have to convert the Cook exhaust fans from Revit to AutoCAD to Microstation.
What we need is manufacturer's content delivered in a CAD format that can be used by any platform.
Why not use the Bentley Revit Plugin. Load it ontoa machine with Revit on it and you can then export from Revit straight into a 3d.dgn file.
In answer to Jordan..
1. As I understand it you have to export from Revit to dwg or dgn.
2. Open in Revit and export to dwg or dgn.
3. hmmm.. See other posts regarding discussions already.. the post titled The Wall? is a good one to read. Short of testing Revit - we will all just have to wait and see.
The big question is:
Why are Autodesk´s Products in the eyes of almost any supplier so hot, that they are worth to provide content (DWG, VIZ, Revit) while Bentley´s products aren´t worth a thought ... ?
Revit is a good example, because Revit´s history with Autodesk is evidently much shorter than the history of Bentley Products such as MicroStation. Nevertheless there are tons of content out there levering the productivity of any Revit user for free, while we have to build our own libraries from scratch. Bentley, how long do you think, we can afford this?
IMHO there is something wrong with Bentley´s marketing and with Bentley´s commitment for their SMB customers.
I just think that the building apps are at the bottom of the food chain in Bentley atm.
Bentley have other ideas on what needs development.
I can't give you any answer on that one either.
But as I've said quite often before - the CAD world does not exist of just Autodesk and Bentley. What about Archicad, Nemetschek and Tekla for example? Or Google?
If those providers don't deliver things that architects can use in Archicad, they are going to lose quite a lot of customers in my opinion (most of the architects here are using Archicad).