About Preparing an Inventor Assembly as BIM Content

As a manufacturer of products used in the AEC industry you may want to produce models compatible with BIM requirements.

Users of BIM software, such as Autodesk Revit, expect to received simplified models to use.

Autodesk Inventor and Autodesk Configurator 360 (C360) work together to support your efforts in making BIM-compatible content and providing that content through an easy to use web interface.

You use Autodesk Inventor to create the fully-detailed model and then to prepare the BIM representation used for the simplified model.

You use C360 to publish the models to the web, where AEC users can view the detailed model, configure it as appropriate, and download the simplified model in a format they can use in Revit or other BIM software.

Preparing the Inventor assembly

1. Create a fully detailed, configurable Inventor product model.

   Recommendations:

   1. Create a rule-driven model using iLogic. iLogic rules can be driven by parameters, and the parameters can be limited to specific values or ranges.
   2. Use a simple iLogic 'form' to control the parameters visible to the AEC user.

      For more information about iLogic, see:

      1. About iLogic Functionality
      2. About Rules and Forms in iLogic
      3. About Functions for Rules in iLogic
      4. Form Editor dialog box
2. Simplify the model by creating design view representations (DVR) that contain only the content to be visible in the exported BIM model. This is applicable to both top level and subassemblies. At each level, you should hide components that:
   1. Are not visible to the consumer, that is, the Revit user, the architect, etc.
   2. Represent intellectual property
   3. Do not significantly contribute to the visual presentation, e.g. small parts like fasteners and others not necessary to indicate size/function/etc.

   For more information on view representations see: To Create, Edit, and Restore View Representations

3. Starting at the top level assembly, for each subassembly having a BIM-related design view representation:
   1. Set the Selection priority to Component.
   2. Right-click each subassembly and select Representation.
   3. In the dialog box, select the Design View Representation created for the BIM model.
   4. Click OK.
   5. Rename the top level DVR to "BIM". C360 requires that the DVR be named "BIM" as it uses the DVR for exporting. While this is required only at the Top level assembly, for consistency, you may want to use the same name in subassemblies.
      Note: The active DVR, when the model is saved, displays in C360. The BIM DVR is used when exporting to a BIM format. This lets you present the detailed model to the AEC user, but lets the AEC user export and use the simplified model.
4. Use the MEP Authoring tools in the Inventor BIM Exchange environment to add needed BIM connectors. For more information see:
   1. Cable Tray Connector
   2. Conduit Connector
   3. Electrical Connector
   4. Pipe Connector
   5. Duct Connector
5. Use Export Building Components to:
   1. Add BIM metadata for your product. Inventor provides access to:
      1. A searchable Revit Omniclass list so you can specify your product in Revit terms.
      2. Model Properties you may want to export.
   2. Specify the model orientation and insertion point.
   3. Click "Apply Changes" at the bottom of the Export Building Components dialog to save the changes without creating a new BIM file.

6. Recommended: Create an iProperty named "RevitFamilyTypeName". The value will be used as the family type name in Revit. The value of this property can be a static string or can be programmatically assigned using an iLogic rule to make it unique for the supplied parameter values.

Uploading to Configurator 360

When the model is ready for C360, with the model open in Inventor, on the Autodesk 360 tab, click Upload to Configurator 360.

Note: C360 requires a subscription. If you do not have one, you will be asked to begin a Trial. Or, if another person is the C360 Administrator, the model can be zipped up and uploaded through the C360 web interface.

For more about next steps, see these Configurator 360 Help topics:

1. Working with BIM Content on Demand
2. Configuring the End User Model

What is OmniClass?

"Construction Classification System (known as OmniClass™ or OCCS) is a classification system for the construction industry. OmniClass is useful for many applications, from organizing library materials, product literature, and project information, to providing a classification structure for electronic databases."

For more about OmniClass, go to www.omniclass.org