Friday, April 29, 2011

Navisworks Exporter Utility

Need to Export from Revit to Navisworks?


Don't own Navisworks though?


You can download the Exporter you need for free, well free in $$, you'll still have to provide some personal details to get the installer.

10 comments:

Geof Narlee said...

Steve. I tried this exporter. It does create an .NWC file from Revit. But Navisworks wouldn't take it. It said "No plugin exists that will open MyFileName.nwc"

Geof Narlee

Steve said...

Geoff, Navisworks does not open .nwc files directly. You need to Append the .nwc file. Once you've done that you can save the Navisworks "project" as a .nwf (working file). Later to share the Navisworks project you can publish to .nwd. HTH

Geof Narlee said...

Append? I serched for a Navisworks Freedom manual and found the 2011 version. The only reference to Append was on a toolbar that I could not find in Navisworks Freedom. Ugh.

Geof Narlee said...

Ok. Sorry, the 2012 Help file with the software is exactly the same, so far as I can tell with regards to Append.

Regards,
Regular CAD person trying to divine the ways of ADesk procedures.

Steve said...

Aah... Freedom is only a viewer. The exporter is intended to help Navisworks Manage or Simulate users "assemble" a model from various sources.

You don't "need" the .nwc file because you've already got Revit to view the model.

You'd export and then send the file to the other party. They can append your .nwc file to their Navisworks project file. They could send you an .nwd file for you to see in Freedom.

Geof Narlee said...

I should have given you the context. There's a thread over on RevitForm.org, called Project Newport, and we've been discussing Revit Viewers (and the desire to have one that non-techie customers can use to orbit and walk-thru a Revit model, without downloading a 3G file and wading thru the Revit interface. A "free & easy" viewer. Scott Davidson suggested Navisworks Freedom (though that's 600MB), which he thinks will take an exported Revit file (after, others on the Forum say) you install the Navisworks Simulator - but only the Revit exporter plugin only) and give that ability, including texture maps.

I've been chasing this Holy Grail for a while, and today I've been chasing the Navisworks Freedom possibility. Apparently (?) Scott and those guys are wrong?

Anonymous said...

Well, right. Here's the other thing to consider. I don't know about Navisworks Freedom, but with Revit, you need a pretty powerful computer to run it. Not a computer most of my clients have...

Steve said...

Freedom will read .nwd or .dwfx files so you could export from Revit to DWFx. If you sent them that format they can also view the model in Design Review, also Free. I believe IE8 is supposed to support viewing a dwfx file natively too so no extra application required for the "low tech" user.

Geof said...

THANKS!

Anonymous said...

I too have been looking for something (unsuccessfully) and I agree there needs to be a 'free & easy viewer' that can show a model no matter the file format. The closest thing I've found is Autodesk's A360 Viewer (https://360.autodesk.com/viewer), but it doesn't let me measure distances and takes a real long time to upload.