ODA Toolkit Will Allow Generation of Revit Model Files from Any Application

The Open Design Alliance (ODA), the leading provider of CAD interoperability and component technology, announced today the release of BimRv SDK 2020.

BimRv SDK 2020

BimRv SDK, formerly known as BIM SDK, is the leading stand-alone toolkit for interoperability with Autodesk Revit files.

“BimRv 2020 features the export of property and geometry data from Revit files, to JSON and OBJ, respectively,” commented Neil Peterson, ODA President. “These exports allow clients to access Revit file data from a wide range of applications, without the need to write complex code.”

BimRv SDK 2020 is the new name for the ODA’s Revit interoperability toolkit enabling developers to read and write native Revit files.

“In addition, significant progress was made toward our goal of parametric element creation. When completed, parametric element creation will allow clients to fully automate the generation of Revit models from any application.”

Sergey Vishnevetsky, ODA Development Director, said, “Version 2020 also features improvements to sectioning support, new parameter support for element sets, and new sweep and revolution elements. In addition, client applications can now add custom properties to elements, a useful feature for many types of applications.”

BimRv 2020 also contains fixes for several hundred member-reported issues. The SDK and release notes are available for download at www.opendesign.com.

Architosh Analysis and Commentary

We have already noted the importance of the ODA’s SDK for IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) last week in news here. The ODA’s developers have more easily attacked the ability to read and write Autodesk’s Revit file format for Revit models and families. Being able to access Revit files and families is particularly helpful for many of ODA’s clients who want to import Revit into their BIM applications. 

The fascinating debate about this functionality is whether such abilities will undermine the usage of the IFC format for BIM interoperability. The primary reason why IFC has struggled in the BIM market has already been acknowledged as its inconsistent implementation and data mapping between various applications. As IFC advances these problems are getting addressed but the consistency of implementation challenge is being met head-on now with the new ODA-based IFC SDK. 

There is another reason why BimRv SDK is valuable and this has to do with bringing and access to Revit family objects in the market, into non-Revit BIM solutions (chiefly rival authoring tools). We think ultimately this direction the ODA is taking with this SDK and the IFC SDK is going to improve BIM interoperability throughout the AEC industry.