Session 12

Design to Fabrication Workflows with Revit,

Rhino, and Inventor
Frank Fralick, The Beck Group

Class Description
This class will discuss various methodologies for dealing with
interoperability between Revit, Rhino, and Inventor. This presentation
will also address in a broader sense the motivations behind these
various approaches.
As the lecture was prepared as a last minute substitution, this
document will attempt to be more detailed than just a basic outline.
Any questions or comments can be directed to
frankfralick@beckgroup.com.

About the Speaker:

Frank Fralick has worked at The Beck Group, a Dallas, Texas based
integrated practice of architects, contractors, and real estate
developers, since 2006. In that time, Franks day to day focus has
become looking for and pursuing opportunities for specialty selfperformance work and unique procurement opportunities across the
organization. This also includes developing technology strategies for
efficiently producing digital prototypes of target scopes of work and
the integration of these processes into design workflows. Past
experience in this regard ranges from structural and ornamental steel
to millwork. Frank is based in Atlanta, GA.

Design to Fabrication Workflows with Revit, Rhino,

and Inventor
Frank Fralick, The Beck Group

How we build
Our aim is to create processes that support and organize construction
efforts from the earliest design phases. How the building will come
together is part of the concept.
We start out to build this:

Then this happens. All the parts and pieces show up for assembly at
the site:

This is what we want. The process is organizing the work at earlier times
in other locations:

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Design to Fabrication Workflows with Revit, Rhino,

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The parts and pieces are assembled into a seemingly ad-hoc solution:

When the situation changes, if this work is truly ad-hoc, the process is
typically designed again.

However, though different at first glance, the work fits within productprocess families designed to efficiently deal with the variability of
scope.

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Frank Fralick, The Beck Group

Flow of Information
Marketing around digital prototyping and BIM usually involves emphasis
on how digital prototyping can support building information modelling.
The methods for using digital prototyping to support BIM are well
documented and will not be discussed in this document.

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Design to Fabrication Workflows with Revit, Rhino,

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Frank Fralick, The Beck Group

Inventor to Revit vs. Revit to Inventor:

Inventor Revit:
Moving simplified modelled geometry from Inventor to Revit is the only
direction that you will typically hear Autodesk talk about. There are
built in tools in Inventor to assist in preparing a model for import to Revit,
but no similar tools to handle moving data in an intelligent way from
Revit to Inventor. Most people working in very traditional practices,
whether design, construction, or manufacturing, cant imagine a world
where an entire team of people would design processes where each
step, from conceptual design to maintenance, feeds the next step of
the process.
Put cooperation into the infrastructure. Design systems that
coordinate the output of the group as a byproduct of the
operating of the system -Clay Shirky
Instead of tools aimed at true collaboration, we get tools that
fabricators and manufacturers use within Inventor to help someone
who is farther upstream in the process do their job. Creating a model
only to have someone inform me how to change it, when the
information to model correctly existed previously, seems backwards.
The constraints of the detail model should flow down from the design
model.
Ask yourself where coordination should happen. Or rather, what
attributes does a good environment for coordination have? Above all
else, a coordination tool should be inclusive of project participants,
and make their inclusion easy. How foolish it is to imagine that a design
team that receives an Inventor model of a mechanical unit will
understand the best way to resolve an issue! Maybe there is another
configuration that costs the same and doesnt involve moving 5 walls
and a plumbing riser.
Promoting one-sided coordination is inefficient and is not in the best
interest of any client. In a large internal study of subcontractor
change orders, we found that the impact of issues related to system-tosystem design coordination were far greater that geometry based
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Design to Fabrication Workflows with Revit, Rhino,

and Inventor
Frank Fralick, The Beck Group

problems. The potential value of solving geometric coordination issues

has a relatively low ceiling when compared to the value of issues that
arise between system designs, and the particulars of manufactured
building products. Seeing if something fits is just one aspect of seeing if
it works.
It may seem nice or convenient to have an Inventor model in your
Revit model, but the most efficient thing to do from the perspective of
an entire building project is for a party to model only their work, with all
work coming together in a federated model, in a purpose built
collaborative coordination platform. Also, Im sure that many design
firms feel as we do, that the inconsistency of 3rd party Revit content
requires us to forbid its inclusion in Revit models as a policy. If
something needs to be in the Revit model, we model it.

Inventor to Revit vs. Revit to Inventor:

Revit Inventor:
Some readers will have to suspend their disbelief for this next scenario.
Image a project team and all its participants, develop processes that
propagate efficiencies all the way down from concept to fabrication
and beyond. See the next section for the answer to the obligatory
but what about the risk! question.
How might the process of designing the building and creating
construction documentation interact with the process of creating
digital prototypes for fabrication and installation?
Revit is representational. It is building scale, and is very limited on the
amount of detail that can be included. This is as it should be. While
Revit models are representational, critical aspects of these models are
very literal. While a curtainwall mullion in Revit may just be a box, the
designer very much intends for the centreline of the real mullion to be
located as it is in the Revit model. Examples of this are everywhere,
and paying attention to those critical, literal aspects of the BIM is one
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Design to Fabrication Workflows with Revit, Rhino,

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Frank Fralick, The Beck Group

key in building efficiencies into a process where the design team is

collaborating with downstream partners.
Utilization of these aspects downstream requires early involvement from
the end user of the data. An architect would need to collude with the
end user of their data about what it represents, so the downstream
process can be set up to take advantage of this information. I will talk
through some real and hypothetical examples to clear up what I mean
by this.

Risk
Much is made about the role risk mitigation plays in preventing
collaborative workflows.

Consider
For both architects and builders, fees have dwindled in the last 40
years. This is mostly a result of risk aversion on a massive scale. In the
same time period, the cost to build a building has gone up past the
rate of inflation. This is for the same reasons (this isnt true everywhere,
however).
Often, its likely that the cost of separating your firm from a particular
risk is much higher than the cost of actually realizing that risk. Its like
taking a lower fee in exchange for inordinate amounts of clerical work,
no time for those with the experience to focus on the execution of the
project, project partners that by default see you as an enemy, and a
disjointed process that dysfunctional, change-order-filled projects are
symptomatic of!
Often risk is not truly evaluated. Old modes of behaviour drive
decisions, even when less than beneficial. The scope and responsibility
held by project participants is taken for granted by most.
Viewing the use of design information in this light, and re-evaluating the
approach to doing business, can allow for new opportunities for
designers and those building the building.

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Design to Fabrication Workflows with Revit, Rhino,

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Frank Fralick, The Beck Group

Risks are real, and they require specific strategies on a case by case
basis that rely on good processes and solid execution as opposed to
giant contingencies. However, shifting attitudes and changing
economics around risk, partly made possible through new
technologies, bring popular risk mitigation strategies into question.

Process Design
Designing processes to support new means and methods, and new
division of responsibility can become complicated.

Often technology processes that support innovative ways of doing

things can end up like this:

It may work, it may not. No matter what happens, the person along for
the ride will at best be extremely uncomfortable, at worst, feel a lot of
pain. Investing in testing new methodologies is essential for successful
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implementation. New ideas, implemented on the fly, usually wont get

repeated, even if the idea is a good one

Examples of Work using RevitInventor Workflows:

Hinman Research Building, Georgia Tech College of Architecture:
Self-performed millwork and furniture scope. Beck detailed, generated
g-code, installed with own labor force, etc. Project was designed in
Rhino and Revit.

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Design to Fabrication Workflows with Revit, Rhino,

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Frank Fralick, The Beck Group

Examples
Hinman Research Building, Georgia Tech College of Architecture

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Design to Fabrication Workflows with Revit, Rhino,

and Inventor
Frank Fralick, The Beck Group

Examples
Hinman Research Building, Georgia Tech College of Architecture

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Design to Fabrication Workflows with Revit, Rhino,

and Inventor
Frank Fralick, The Beck Group

Examples
Hinman Research Building, Georgia Tech College of Architecture

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Design to Fabrication Workflows with Revit, Rhino,

and Inventor
Frank Fralick, The Beck Group

Examples
Tuttle Courthouse Annex. Self-performed blast glazing support
structural steel.

This project was a renovation to a 1915 five story brick building,

modified to meet blast requirements. The structural requirements for
anchor location and spacing were very specific to the opening size.
With hundreds of openings with somewhat random sizes, detailing the
structural steel for the faade became a nightmare for the steel
contractor. Beck took this work over and used a process to automate
the use of the Revit model, made accurate using laser scans, to
generate the unique steel frame for each rough opening. We used this
information to buy the steel direct and also hired erectors directly.
While the steel contractor wanted additional money to complete this
work, we were able to complete the work ourselves and make
additional fee for a few reasons. First, we were able to put a process in
place to solve the problem effectively. Second, Beck was the architect
on this project and the model was made with the intention of being
used in the field. Third, we evaluated the risks accurately. We could
have detailed 25% of the steel incorrectly and would have still broken
even compared to what was originally budgeted for. This was
acceptable. Measuring the risk situation realistically, combined with a
technology based process that can support it, is how a risk like this can
be undertaken.

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Design to Fabrication Workflows with Revit, Rhino,

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Frank Fralick, The Beck Group

RevitInventor, the basics

If we want to make a digital prototype from Revit, we at least need
some geometry. The easiest, non-programming based solution to this
involves the use of point families within Revit. There are many tools
available, some for free, made for reporting coordinates and other
attributes of nested point families.
Understanding where the point family is located and what a
coordinate actually represents within the context of the Revit model is
critical for this to be a useful workflow.
After reporting points to a CSV or excel file, you can then reformat the
Excel file to match Inventors required formatting for Excel data import.
There is a freely available Autodesk Labs plugin for Inventor called Point
Importer that works well for this. The drawback is that it only brings in
sketch points. The upside is the sketch points will be associative to the
Excel file, and changes to this file will be reflected in the Inventor
model. This is the layout sketch for a large steel trellis at the Dallas
Arboretum Childrens Learning Garden, created with the process
described above:

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Frank Fralick, The Beck Group

Within Revit, an adaptive component was created that contained nine

instances of a point family. After placing the trellis adaptive
components within the Revit model, the coordinates of the critical
points where reported and then sketch points were placed. The real
downside to starting with sketch points is that you need work points to
constrain assemblies to in Inventor. Without programming, you will be
clicking a lot to place all the work points in the image above.
A built in function within Inventor called iCopy was then used to place
the digital prototype instances at each location. Associating the iCopy
assembly with a drawing file and details prior to this means detailing is
generated automatically. iCopy is a powerful feature when everything
works right. Even Autodesks tutorials make creation of reliable iCopy
assemblies sound like a voodoo science. When constraining these
assemblies, unpredictable results can often occur. Here is an
example:

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Frank Fralick, The Beck Group

In the end, with enough tweaking and prodding, iCopy can be made
to work:

The biggest single drawback to iCopy is that there are very few
situations where repeating, but different assemblies can be instantiated
all at once. If components arent parallel or along a path, you must
instantiate iCopy assemblies one at a time. If you cant program, this is
better than nothing, otherwise, this limitation becomes very frustrating
quickly. Internally we have abandoned the use of iCopy for API
functions that are more flexible and robust. The next few sections will
discuss programmatic approaches to this kind of interoperability
problem.

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RevitInventor Through the APIs

What about IFC??? you might ask. A lot has been invested in IFC
and still is today. It still doesnt work. Autodesk, Tekla, Catia, Bentley
and others are not incentivised to invest money supporting a format
that makes their own products less competitive. Bentley and Teklas
current OpenBIM (read: MakeAutodeskMatterLess) marketing
campaign about IFC should not be taken as a sign of their altruism. Let
me have your source code, then start using a phrase like OpenBIM.
Rather than rely on unmotivated developers to make interoperability
really work, or hope that year after year they support the new IFC
standard, our approach is to focus on the scopes that this is an issue
for, or that are of particular interest, and use each API to do the
interrogation and generation processes within each platform.
Software developers, especially for platforms like Inventor that have
large third party applications written on top of them, are somewhat
married to their APIs. Even though you may see a PowerPoint from
Autodesk describing the 300 changes made to the API from one year
to the next, 95% of the time, code written for 2009 will work in 2013.
Some things may change, but nothing major that will severely break
your code. Maintenance of an investment in API interoperability will
not be a large annual expense.
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I read a lot of API code examples for Revit, Rhino, and Inventor. With
Revit and Inventor, what you will notice is that the vast majority of
example code you will find will deal with interrogating the model.
When I move data from Rhino to Revit, or Revit to Inventor, these
processes need to be generative. I want to make the detailed model
automatically using the lower level-of-detail model.
As model generating code samples are scarce, especially with
Inventor, there is hardly any downside to using a language that is not
commonly used for these platforms, but is better for generative model
making procedures. Rather than VB.NET or C#, we predominantly use
Python when programming in all three of these platforms.
Why Python:

Python is an open source, incredibly popular language whose

popularity is still on the rise.
It is a relatively mature language. Brian Ekins said in an article
Beginning API on ModTheMachine that Python is a relatively
new, fringe language. C++: 1983, Python: 1991, VBA: 1993,
Delphi: 1994, VB.Net:2001, C#: 2001. It is true there arent code
samples. That is changing, and Beck will be a large part of the
new Python sample codebase.
Python is optimized for speed of development, where other
languages like C++ are optimized for speed of execution. For
AEC applications, your Python program will not be the
performance choke point, the software you are programming for
will be. It is advantageous in real world situations filled with
deadlines to optimize your programming process around speed
of development.
Pythons syntax is clear and expressive. There is usually one right
way to do something. This makes reading others code much
more intuitive, and makes the learning process easier.
There are several flavors of Python. CPython is the technical
name for what is most commonly referred to as just Python.
IronPython is Python for .NET. There is also a Java
implementation called Jython. Not to mention various packages

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for wrapping existing C and C++ libraries. You can learn Python
and accomplish a lot before feeling the urge to learn your next
language.
Direct access to COM automation APIs like NavisWorks,
MSOffice, and Inventor. Effectively becomes similar to a
command prompt. .NET languages cant offer this kind of direct
access feel in most situations.
There are few differences between how IronPython is coded and
Python is coded. Beginners will not likely run into these nuances.

How do we use it?:

Python is a great scripting language but its real power is in its object
model. Class hierarchy and inheritance aspects of Python make it
natural for relating common types of building elements. We work out
of a common Python package that contains the functions and classes
used to work with various platforms. At the highest level, classes are
generic and contain hook methods for generating subclass instances
that are more specific to a software platform. Subclasses contain
platform specific descriptions of what the generic parent class looks
like within the software platform in question. This approach, coupled
with a data persistence model, offer flexibility and opportunities for
creativity.
In simple terms, an example might be that of a Panel. An instance of
the Panel class could be several things, a metal panel, a curtainwall
panel, a window, a door, a louver etc. All of these things have
attributes in common. They have centroids, normal directions, corner
points, and more. What we aim to do when writing code for a specific
problem, is to generalize the object being represented, and then
create a subclass that inherits those attributes, and describes what it
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Frank Fralick, The Beck Group

means to be a Panel in Revit, or Rhino, or Inventor, or other

applications.
The generic Panel class might have a method called
MakeRevitPanel that allows the creation of the subclass instances.
This is the basic structure for how we take one set of items in one
model, and create the comparable set of items natively in a second
platform.
Over the past year this approach has developed into somewhat of a
framework for building these types of solutions. We intend in the near
future to release the package of modules we use internally as an open
source project. Prior to that some clean-up has to take place. We
were previously using Pythons Pickle and Shelve system for data
persistence, but it is fairly limited. I have started testing a new
implementation that uses postgreSQL to represent class objects, but
can also handle migrations and changes to class structures. In
addition to the class/database structure, there are several useful
platform specific utilities for common tasks. Users would have the
choice of either a database based project or, even simpler than the
pickle system, but easier for beginners to understand, data persistence
based on text files.
I am also working on a method that automagically creates a Django
project with our modules class structure, which would become the
starting point for developing web applications in Django that are
related to model data. This is something Im extremely excited to get
to a point where I can start distributing it.
The following is not to give a tutorial about how to use Python, but
rather, to give a broad idea of what it looks like to use Python with
Revit, Rhino, or Inventor.
Using Python with Revit:
There is a plugin developed by Daren Thomas called Revit Python Shell
that is the Python access point to Revit. IronPython is required for Revit.
This has some drawbacks, but does have the benefit of access to most
.NET functionality available to the .NET languages. The same plugin
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Design to Fabrication Workflows with Revit, Rhino,

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Frank Fralick, The Beck Group

works with Vasari. Python within Revit is great for generating geometry,
placing families, modifying instance parameters, and a host of other
things. One of the more powerful aspects is you can go into a tool like
Rhino that is better suited for creating freeform geometry, get a
dataset out of it, and go into Revit and create native Revit geometry.
There are several basic examples of using Python with Revit available
on Nathan Millers Revit API Notebook:
http://theprovingground.wikidot.com/revit-api

Using Python with Inventor:

You can use either CPython or IronPython. There are some peculiarities
associated with programming a COM automation API that can be
avoided by using regular Python. Python use with COM requires the
creation of a wrapper that is essentially a Python mapping of the
applications type library. A google search for Python Early Binding
will turn up several examples of how to do this.
Using Python with Rhino:
As of Rhino 5.0, Rhino comes with an embedded IronPython
environment. Rhinos API is simple and powerful and a lot of fun to
program with. There are many API examples available as well as a
great free book by Skylar Tibbits called Rhino Python 101 Primer.

RhinoRevitInventor Python Example

A colleague and fellow pythonista, Brandon Coates, drew this concept
and created the subsequent model within Rhino. Being in conceptual
design, there are a few things we want to know right away about this
part of the design. Two things we would like to know are what it will
look like, and how much it might cost.

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Frank Fralick, The Beck Group

There are a couple of hurdles to getting those two tasks accomplished

effectively. Its a fairly complex shape and it will be difficult to model
the parts in literal waynormally that task is reserved for months into
the project. But we have some tools that will make this possible. We
also care about producing something very close to what might get
built because we might start thinking about how we are going to buy
this, because there could be opportunity to get a lower price and
make more money. Those decisions need to happen now, when all
there is a sketch. Even if this gets bought traditionally, we can expect
inflated, non-competitive pricing for anything this representational.

Rhino model of the concept:

The code samples I show here are not meant as a tutorial so much as
they are meant provide some ideas about how to most effectively use
Python, and reuse code. These code samples use an internal module
with a variety of classes and functions that are meant to be reused.
Writing most of the code you write one time is the key to gaining
forward momentum with API programming. The final result of this
exercise will look like a lot of work, but it will have been accomplished
with very little coding.

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The first thing we need to do is evaluate the Rhino surface, check and
make sure we dont have any panels that have their normal directions
facing the wrong direction, and create class instance objects with
certain attributes. For what we are doing we dont need many to
move forward. This example uses text files to temporarily hold data, but
long term you will be better off learning some other form of data
persistence like pickling.

The first line imports an external module that contains the functions and
classes we need to obtain panel data in a way that we can use later.
Again, the point is if you choose to start learning Python, learning to
organize your code for reuse is the key to success. Without this module,
this program would be five times as long.
The second line imports Rhinos API module and names it rs. The 5th
line makes a call to a function calls MeshToRhinoPanel which does
what it sounds like. The interesting thing to note for programmers
reading this coming from other languages, is that rs is being passed
into the function without ever having called the function. Classes and
functions are first class objects in Python and can be passed around
just like variables. This is an important feature of the language. If this
were not so we would have to import rhinoscriptsyntax again within the
function since functions have their own isolated namespaces.
After we call MeshToRhinoPanel, data is written to a file, and we can
move on to Revit or Inventor.
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Adaptive components are the easiest way to create something like this
form in Revit. For instantiating families for something like this, fairly
custom content is required but it can be worth the effort. When we go
into RevitPython Shell, a similarly short script that relies on an external
module instantiates all the adaptive components:

Its hard to tell, but the program was told to create deeper louvers at
the bottom, shallower at the top.

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Design to Fabrication Workflows with Revit, Rhino,

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Frank Fralick, The Beck Group

Now say we want to produce an Inventor model. Today our process,

at the beginning, resembles iCopy. We make an adaptive assembly
that we will copy and place over and over. This is somewhat of a trick
due to Inventors file structure. Here is a simple structural glass module
and a metal panel system unit that we will use for the faade and the
roof:

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The code that was written to generate the instances of these models
was fairly short, maybe 20 lines. The code within the imported module
it relies on to do this however is hundreds of lines. This strategy also
allows intermediate and beginner Python users to be able to be able
to do more and learn faster. The 20 lines to do this in Inventor is
something a beginner can handle. Writing the whole thing is not very
approachable for someone just starting out.
The results of the program running are very informative. This information
can be used to get accurate pricing as well as really inform the
designer about what a proposed set of systems might look like. This
was all generated in thirty minutes.

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Frank Fralick, The Beck Group

Summary
The previous example showed a workflow where the doing of each
step produced the information necessary to complete the next task as
a by-product. This type of back-and-forth API based interoperability
process will become more and more prevalent in progressive projects
where a premium is placed on efficiencies through collaboration. The
hurdles to improving and expanding the technology associated with
these types of workflows are still relatively small compared to the hurdle
that entrenched, old-school cultures can impose. Deep process
innovation that is based on cooperation will protect design intent,
allow architects to accomplish more, reduce the cost of work, enable
new means and methods, and reduce schedules. These things will be
very achievable only if organizational leadership can see the
opportunities, and be willing to rethink how they do business, create
new business models, and start to define a new culture within the
design and building professions.
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