The following information is transferred from Autodesk Revit to Tekla Structural Designer :-

• All grid lines in Autodesk Revit are imported.

• All levels in Autodesk Revit are imported as levels with floor and diaphragm flags set.

• There is no suitable mapping between Boundary Conditions in Autodesk Revit and Supports in Tekla Structural Designer, so by default supports are created at the bottom of every column unless a supporting member can be detected.

• All selected Autodesk Revit beams, columns and braces are imported, including curved beams. Their snap alignment position, orientation, material type, grade and section size will be maintained. In addition:-

  • Member releases at the ends of the physical members will be maintained.

  • In Autodesk Revit, horizontal brace should be defined as beams with the structural usage property set to horizontal brace.

  • Structural Parametric Trusses are identified as Tekla Structural Designer Truss Members.

  • US Joists are transferred from Autodesk Revit to Tekla Structural Designer as Steel Joist objects.

  • Slanted columns are handled.

• All selected Autodesk Revit Slab objects will be imported:-

  • Horizontal and sloping slabs will be imported as slabs covering the same area. Holes where they have been modeled in the Revit model will be transferred to suit the requirements of the Tekla Structural Designer software.

  • Slabs in Autodesk Revit without concrete plank or decking information will be transferred as generic slabs. These can be differentiated using the TSDI_Type parameter.

  • Slabs with a metal deck layer or the appropriate shared parameter will be defined as composite slabs with the relevant decking.

  • Slabs with concrete plank shared parameters will be defined as composite slabs with the relevant precast concrete plank. Please note that the planks themselves are not supported as yet.

  • Slab span direction will be determined and imported. To set the span direction in Revit, refer to the Autodesk Revit Help.

• All selected Autodesk Revit Walls will be transferred if they are linear and their structural usage is Shear or Combined for shear walls, or Bearing for bearing walls. The type parameter Function must be set to either Exterior, Interior or Core-Shaft. Foundation, Soffit and Retaining function settings will not be exported.

  • Composite and cavity walls cannot be transferred.

Please note that members without an associated Analytical Member are not considered in the Export from Autodesk Revit.

Please also note that due to the current limitations of Autodesk Revit certain items may have to be modeled as In-place families. Due to the lack of analysis settings, these items will be flagged as non-structural and the export process will not consider them.

The following limitations exist in the current release:-

• No curved walls or warped structural concrete slabs

• No Foundation objects created within Revit

• No Rebar objects

• No web openings and stiffeners will be transferred from Autodesk Revit to Tekla Structural Designer.

• No slab overhangs will be returned from Autodesk Revit to Tekla Structural Designer.

• Portal Frame members will not be exported to Tekla Structural Designer.

• Round tripping will not work properly where Revit members have been grouped.

Autodesk Revit does not currently have the ability to handle a number of section types (e.g. some SlimFlor beams, some deck types and some cold rolled members may be missing). Users with models requiring these section types should access the Tekla library to load and model the correct families.

The following information is transferred from Tekla Structural Designer to Autodesk Revit :-

• All grid lines in Tekla Structural Designer are exported.

• All construction levels are exported if set to floor.

• All Columns are exported; all rotations are exported. For concrete filled a user attribute of concrete grade is set up.

• All Beams are exported; all rotations and end releases are exported.

  • For Composite Beams, the standard Revit parameters Camber Size and Number of Studs are set up along with an additional parameter for the Transverse Reinforcement.

  • If a Beam changes size along its length in Tekla Structural Designer, it will be split into separate physical members.

• US Steel Joists are exported including Special Joists and Joist Girders although the physical representation of the latter two categories will be limited in Revit.

• All Truss Members are exported; all rotations and end releases are exported.

• Braces are exported.

• Portal Frames are exported as separate members but due to limitations in the Revit API, haunches are not exported and the physical positions of various members will need to be adjusted. As a result, it is not possible to export such members back to Tekla Structural Designer.

• Slabs are exported with metal deck or concrete plank information as appropriate –where possible, metal decks will be represented physically, where not possible they will be represented by shared parameters.

• Foundations in the shape of Pad Base Columns and Strip Base Walls are transferred as Autodesk Revit Floor objects. These items will also be returned to Tekla Structural Designer in the case of updating the Tekla Structural Designer model with changes made in Revit.

• Foundation piles are integrated as Structural Column objects. Note that both pile caps and pile objects are imported as individual object instances.

• Please note that (new) foundation items created from scratch inside Revit will not be transferred into Tekla Structural Designer.

• Shear Walls are exported.

• All bearing walls are exported.

It is worth noting that :-

• Members which are set to Auto-design and thus have no size are sent to Autodesk Revit as a special UB.

• During the import process one or more Reload Family dialog boxes may be displayed but these will be closed automatically.

The following limitations exist in the current release:-

• Column, brace and truss member snap points and offsets are not exported.

• No wind walls are exported.

• No roof elements are exported.

• No connection information is exported.

• No loading, load case or load combination information is exported.

In addition, due to current limitations in Autodesk Revit itself and operations it permits during the import process then :-

• Grid line moving may not work 100%.

• The section sizes in Revit Trusses can be updated, but no geometric changes can be made.

• It is not possible to update the floor type of an existing slab or its outline during the import process, so modified slabs are deleted and replaced with new items.

• It is not possible to create a new slab with metal deck unless at least one floor type was previously loaded into the model with the correct profile, (i.e. the user should load from the Autodesk Revit library and search for the relevant deck profile). If this has not been done, then the slab will be imported with no deck and the user will be warned to update it manually.

• Bison Planks cannot be modeled physically in Revit, but information is available through shared parameters.

• It is not possible to create analytically sloping slabs in Revit. The user will be warned, but nothing will be imported.

• Structural Framing Tags are not created automatically for new beams and braces. These can be added by using the Tag or Tag All Not Tagged commands in the Annotate Menu.

• Span direction symbols are not created automatically for new slabs. These can be added manually using the Span Direction command in the Annotate Menu.

Autodesk Revit does not currently have the ability to handle a number of section types (e.g. some SlimFlor beams, some deck types and some cold rolled members may be missing). Users with models containing these section types need to take care when transferring models.