Context:
I’m a fan of pushing designers to follow object based modeling practices when they are working in less structured applications, like Rhino, Maya, AutoCAD, and Sketchup. This means if you have an asset that needs to be identified, you would Block it if you are in Rhino or AutoCAD. You would group the geo node into a group node if you were in Maya, and you would make the geoemtry a Component if you were in Sketchup. This allows a designer to name that asset, attach attributes/metadata to that asset, and instantiate that asset if needed.
Problem:
The problem I’m having with being able to implement Speckle into my company is that when these models from these less structured applications get received into a highly structured application like Revit, they lose that structure. Currently a Block instanced 500 times in Rhino is received into Revit as 500 direct shapes individually grouped and not associated to a single type object. So in memory what should be one family instance instantiated 500 times is now 500 unique family instances instantiated a single time.
Question:
Are there plans to allow speckle streams that contain “organizational structures” like Blocks, Groups, Components to be received into Revit as loadable families and placed instances?
If so, I’d love to be involved in those early discussions!
What you are asking for totally makes sense and we are aware of this limitation. Currently, we are working hard on a Mapping Tool that will (eventually) allow us to get rid of this limitation and better enable this kinda workflow.
With this tool, you’ll be able to create native Revit elements from your existing geometry in Rhino. This will happen either by using existing elements from Revit or creating new ones using Rhino geometry. Users will have the option to convert Rhino Attributes to Revit Instance/Type parameters.
Your feedback is more than welcome. Give it a try and let us know what you think.
Bonus answer, we have some demos/tutorials simmering in the kitchen around what benefits a structured block based workflow brings, not only in Revit but also through to asset savvy applications built with Unreal/Unity.
that will (eventually) allow us to get rid of this limitation and better enable this kinda workflow.