Zones Stamps to IFC to Revit Room Tags

[Anonymous]

I am working on putting together a guide for our consultants to use on the import of IFC files into Revit. The improved IFC Addin is great. The one problem I am seeing is that I cannot get Room Tags in Revit Structure or MEP (ArchiCAD's Zone Stamps). It seems they only appear if the IFC is opened in Revit Architecture. Our consultants want the Room Tags to help in coordination... making it easy locate areas during discussions. So, is there a way to get the room tags without Revit Architecture?

[Anonymous]

Michael wrote:
So, is there a way to get the room tags without Revit Architecture?

Probably not. Do you know someone with Revit Arch to do the conversion for you?

I've found Revit to be a bit fussy about importing IFC, giving variable results with different elements into the various flavors of Revit. It's a bit of a pain but I separate the IFC export models by discipline for import to Revit. Once saved in the appropriate versions they can be linked into any Revit model.

If I'm mistaken I'd love to know. I haven't tried the room tags (IFC areas) from AC to Revit yet. I'll give it a go some time when I can get the chance.

[Anonymous]

I have been working on the demos of Revit Arch Structure, and MEP and found that Arch with the Improved IFC Addin provides eveything the consultants want to see. It was my hope that they could do the conversions themselves instead of relying on us to provided Revit files as well as export them for our use. Thanks.

[Laszlo Nagy]

I have contacted GS about this. They investigated a bit and we came up with the following:
As it turns out the reason for this behavior is in the default settings.
Apperently Revit development feel that Architects do want to see Room Tags in their files but Structural and MEP guys do not. The "Room Tag" is a family in Revit. In Revit Architecture it is loaded with the default template file, in Structure and MEP it is not.

When opening an IFC file in Revit, the program first loads the default template file and imports the IFC content into that. The reason those Room Tags do not appear in Structure and MEP is because the Room Tag family is not loaded.

The solution is to modify the default template file in Revit. Open the Template file for editing, load the Room Tag family and save the changes.
Then next time you open an IFC file the Room Tags will be there and displayed because the Room Tag family is loaded.

Here is where to find the location of the default template file:
Click the Autodesk button in the top left and click Options. In the Dialog, go to the File locations tab and there you will see the name of the default template file.

[Laszlo Nagy]

There is an additional thing:
Obviously, the Room Tags category must be checked for Room Tags to appear.
It seems that when you open an IFC and the Room Tag family is not loaded, those Room Tags disappear or do not get imported at all. This is different from how AC works: the data about the library part is loaded but you will see a large dot that shows a library part is missing.; when you load the part it will appear correctly. In Revit they probably are ot even imported if the family is not loaded.

[Anonymous]

That is correct, Laszlo.
In a typical revit workflow, startup templates are lightweight, and families (tags included) are loaded when required.
It's a very simple procedure: open a file with those required families and copy-paste THEM into your working file. Of course there are more options for doing this: transfer all families and standards from another file, or insert a SINGLE family that was stored as a single file.
In the same way you insert a new family, you can update an existing one.
It is a load as needed comcept.
Just to add my 2 cents.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the information. Glad to know that it is doable with both structure and MEP version.