BEAM

Import Rhino® geometry and blocks into Autodesk® Revit™

BEAM imports a .beam file exported from Rhino. Families become loadable families or system families, curves become model curves, and blocks are placed as family instances.

Import in a project

Click BEAM on the BEAM tab.

Select .beam

Pick the file. The list shows every .beam in the .beam directory, newest first, with its date and time.

Loadable Families Options

Option	Default	What it does
Place Instances	On	Place the imported families in the project. Turn it off to only load or update the families.
Update Parameters	On	Write instance and type parameter values from Rhino
Append Geometry	Off	Add the geometry to an existing family with the same name, instead of replacing its geometry

See Loadable Families.

System Families Options

Option	Default	What it does
Split Geometry	Off	Create one DirectShape per Rhino object, instead of one per family
Force Update	Off	Delete existing DirectShapes of the same type before importing

See System Families.

Curve Options

Option	Default	What it does
Import Curves	On	Import lines, arcs, circles, ellipses and polylines
Import Nurbs	Off	Import the lines and arcs Rhino produced from NURBS curves
Import Loose Curves	Off	Create curves with no family in the project

See Curves & Linework.

Location

Where Rhino's export origin lands in Revit.

Option	Rhino's origin goes to
Internal Origin	Revit's internal origin
Project Base Point	The project base point
Shared Coordinates	The shared coordinate origin of the location you pick. The active location is marked (Current).

Import As

Option	Result
Loadable And System Families	Each family is imported the way its category allows
System Families	Every family is imported as a DirectShape

Click BEAM to import.

Blocks in the .beam are placed as family instances, the same way BLOCS does with Workplane Based on. Use BLOCS if you need more control.

Import in a family

Open a family in the Family Editor and click BEAM. Pick the .beam file. There are no other options.

BEAM adds the geometry straight into the family, without grouping it. Solids, meshes, curves, materials, subcategories and visibility settings come along. Use it to add Rhino geometry to existing families or to build special families.

Pages in this section

Loadable FamiliesSystem Families