Export a CAD file

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INSTRUCTOR: Sometimes, your extended team

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needs digital files instead of printed sheets.

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If they're using Revit, you can simply

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share your model with them.

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If they need a PDF, then simply print

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but choose a PDF printer instead of a physical device.

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If they're using AutoCAD or some other similar software,

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then you can export to DWG or other popular file formats.

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So let's look at the process to export to DWG.

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We'll go to the File menu and then highlight Export.

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And then up here near the top, you'll see CAD Formats.

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And notice that there are four different formats

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that you can export to.

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I will choose DWG.

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At the top, there's a dropdown for Export Setups.

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So optionally, you can save custom configurations,

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and they will show up in that list.

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To edit the setup, you use this Browse button right here.

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And that will take you to a rather extensive dialog where

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you have lots of settings that you can configure

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to create an export setup.

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Now, the one that's probably the most extensive

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is the Layers tab.

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Most CAD files are organized into layers.

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And you can see here that all of the Revit categories

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get mapped to a layer in AutoCAD and a corresponding color

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number.

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Now, you can go through this list

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and customize it object by object, layer by layer

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if you wish.

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Or you can use one of the pre-built industry

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standards that appears here on this dropdown.

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So feel free to explore this and make any customizations

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that you like.

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Now, you can do similar things on the Lines tab

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to map the line styles in Revit to line types in AutoCAD.

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Or the patterns in Revit to hatches in AutoCAD,

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and the text and the fonts.

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And how do you want to treat colors?

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And what do you want to do with 3D geometry

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when you're exporting 3D views?

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How do you want to treat your units?

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And finally, on the General tab are

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some miscellaneous settings, perhaps the most important one

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being which file format do you want to export to.

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So make sure you communicate with your recipient

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and find out which version of AutoCAD

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they're planning to open these files in.

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And then choose an appropriate format from the list.

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Now, I'm not going to make any changes to the export setup,

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so I will simply cancel that.

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But you're welcome to make whatever changes you like.

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Next, you want to go to the Export dropdown here.

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And you have two choices as far as

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what's going to actually be exported from the Revit model.

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Now, it defaults to the current view and sheet only.

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So whatever you have open here in the background-- in my case,

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this elevation sheet--

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that's what's going to be export.

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Otherwise, you can choose the second option,

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and that gives you another dropdown.

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So here you have some additional choices

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that let you look at the views and/or the sheets that

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are in your model.

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If you go to the very bottom here,

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All Views and Sheets in the Model, this

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will give you a complete list of every view and every sheet

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that's on the project browser.

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And then you can check the ones that you

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want to include in the export.

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So let's say that I wanted to include

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a floor plan and this elevation sheet, and I'll click Next.

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You want to browse to a folder where

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you want to make this export to, give it a file name prefix.

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Naming will default to automatic naming,

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which will use that prefix when creating the name.

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And then finally, at the bottom is perhaps

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what I think is the most interesting setting.

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It's a checkbox that says Export Views on Sheets and Links

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as External References.

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So what this means if you consider this sheet

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in the background is I would actually get three DWG files--

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one for the sheet itself and then one

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for each of the viewports that will be xrefed back

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into that main sheet.

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So assuming that you're satisfied with all the settings

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here, you can click OK, and it should only

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take a moment or two for the export to be performed.

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Now, if you have a copy of AutoCAD,

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you are welcome to open up the results and take a look.

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So here I have the elevation sheet with its two viewports

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containing the two xrefs.

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And here's one of those xrefs opened up independently.