When I import a Revit model into Tekla Structural Designer the walls are either missing or defined incorrectly. Why?

Environment

Not environment-specific

Question

Answer

Revit model

Four walls are referenced in the screenshots below for comparison after an export from Revit to Tekla Structural Designer.

Tekla Structural Designer model

Why is wall 1 missing from the import when brought into Tekla Structural Designer?

The Integrator for Tekla Structural Designer will only export objects that have the property Enable Analytical Model checked.

You therefore need to ensure that for all objects that you want to export from Revit into Tekla Structural Designer have this option Enable Analytical Model checked.

Note. You can use this property to limit the export to just structural objects. i.e. Ancillary items could be unchecked and they will not be exported.

Why are walls 2 and 3 different to wall 4 when brought into Tekla Structural Designer?

Walls are imported into Tekla Structural Designer with the object type dependant on the Structural Usage parameter set within Autodesk Revit.

All walls with the Structural Usage of Bearing will be imported as Bearing Wall objects. Please note that this is the default setting when creating walls in Revit.

All walls with the Structural Usage of Shear or Structural Combined will be imported as Concrete Wall objects

Bearing walls have very specific structural use within Tekla Structural Designer. They have no lateral stability and are only recommended for internal use within a structure.

We have found that in a large number of cases these needed to be replaced with Concrete Wall elements to provide the necessary structural stability to the model. Setting the correct Structural Usage value prior to export will set the style of the wall correctly.

Wall 2 and 3 have the default Structural usage of Bearing set so are imported as a Bearing wall.

Wall 4 has had the Structural usage changed to Structural Combined so is imported as a Concrete wall.