TAKING THE FIRST STEP

Starting new project usually requires a list of tools that you’ll need to complete the task at hand. In this case that list looks like this:

Google Sketchup 6.0 (or higher)

Autodesk Revit 2010

Autodesk Ecotect 2010

Patience (lots)

I already had the other programs, but surprisingly Ecotect took under thirty minutes to download on my wireless connection and maybe another ten or fifteen minutes to install. Success!

The following steps admittedly required much more patience on my part. Importing into Ecotect is actually very easy, once you have the right format. To my surprise, you can export from both Revit and Sketchup and load directly into Ecotect. For the sake of design, this is a great feature. While Revit is extremely useful and has many great qualities that Sketchup does not, for myself and many of my peers, Sketchup is the preferred program for modeling very basic and preliminary designs. 

To export your model from Sketchup, simply go to file >> export >> 3D model, and save it as an OBJ (*.obj).

When you export from Revit, it is recommended you export the model as gbXML. For myself, this did not work.

The 3D model I am using consists of a few urban blocks given to my architecture studio by an urban design firm we worked with in the fall. In this Sketchup model of downtown is a particular building I have been researching and looking to remodel. I believe it might be due to the complexity, size or perhaps preset parameters of this model that I encountered several problems when trying to export or import. In an effort to simplify the model I deleted many blocks and unnecessary buildings and detailed elements. This certainly helped.

After playing around with formats for exports I ended up with the following: I took the simplified 3D urban model I had and exported it directly from Sketchup as an OBJ. I took this same model and also imported it into Revit, and then exported it once, unsuccessfully as an XML, and then again, successfully as a DXF. In addition, I downloaded an example file from the square one website. I used this in most of my trials because of the simplicity and clarity of it.

Following a few successful and unsuccessful imports, I chose one of the working files and continued by watching a series of tutorials. I then proceeded to try these tasks on my own and found them to both rather easy and very useful in their results.  


One of my successful imports!