LiveLink™ for Revit®
Interface Revit® with COMSOL Multiphysics® via LiveLink™ for Revit®
Simulation showing the acoustic pressure levels in a room due to a loudspeaker system. The model geometry was created in Autodesk® Revit® and synchronized using LiveLink™ for Revit®.
Bring the Power of Multiphysics Simulation to Architectural Projects
LiveLink™ for Revit® provides an integration tool and interface for transferring geometry of elements from your architectural design projects in Autodesk® Revit® software to COMSOL Multiphysics® software.
Autodesk® Revit® is a leading software for architectural design that supports CAD design and Building Information Modeling (BIM) workflows. Through the LiveLink™ interface, you can generate the geometry for selected rooms and included architectural elements in a building. The selected rooms and elements are synchronized to the COMSOL Multiphysics model, where you can include any physical effects for an accurate simulation.
Efficient Model Set-up
For an efficient model set-up, LiveLink™ for Revit® generates selections for the various elements. When applying modeling conditions or functionality to a specific element, you can simply select it by name via the interface. The selections also ensure that when changing your Autodesk® Revit® design, e.g. moving a wall, you will retain all of the settings on model domains and boundaries in COMSOL Multiphysics®.Geometry Preparation for Simulation
The architectural elements in Autodesk® Revit® can often contain many small geometrical features that may lead to less efficient meshing and simulation. In many instances, these features do not significantly contribute to the overall simulation and accuracy of the results, and can therefore be negated.
LiveLink™ for Revit® includes tools for manipulating your COMSOL Multiphysics® model geometry prior to simulation, so that you can choose which details to include. Geometry defeaturing capabilities are provided, which can automatically identify and delete slivers, small edges, faces, or fillets.
Architectural projects may also include elements such as furniture, which may not be defined as solid objects, but instead consist of only surfaces. To create a domain required for simulation of such elements requires converting the geometries into a solid, which can be done using the geometry tools in COMSOL Multiphysics®.
Robust Platform for Modifying and Creating Geometries
Furthermore, LiveLink™ for Revit® provides a robust platform for modifying or creating geometries, where all geometry operations are performed using the Parasolid® software geometry kernel. Geometry operations in COMSOL Multiphysics® are also parametric, so you may combine geometry created in the COMSOL Multiphysics® model with geometry synchronized from Autodesk® Revit®.
Another method of preparing your designs for simulation is creating a virtual geometry. The COMSOL Multiphysics® virtual geometry operations enable you to select specific features in a COMSOL Multiphysics® model geometry that you do not want to include in your simulation studies. This technique does not modify the geometry, but hides the selected details from the meshing operation. It is an excellent way to exclude fine geometry details that typically require complex meshes and long computation times. An added benefit of this method is that the surface curvature of your design is preserved, resulting in simulations with even greater precision when needed.
File Import and Export
LiveLink™ for Revit® provides the file handling capabilities available in the CAD Import Module, including options for file import and export.
File import capabilities offer complementing functionality to the concurrent use of Autodesk® Revit® and COMSOL Multiphysics® software for geometry synchronization. COMSOL Multiphysics® model geometries can be created by importing a CAD design from a range of platforms and file formats.
3D CAD file formats that are supported for import into COMSOL Multiphysics® include the widely supported ACIS® software, Parasolid® software, STEP, and IGES formats, in addition to the Autodesk® AutoCAD® software, Autodesk® Inventor® software, NX™ software, SOLIDWORKS® software, PTC® Creo® Parametric™ software, and PTC® Pro/ENGINEER® software formats.
Support for the CATIA® V5 software file format is also available as a separate add-on module. Additionally, the LiveLink™ products provide support for file export in the ACIS® software and Parasolid® software formats so you can readily share your updated designs with your colleagues.
ACIS is a registered trademark of Spatial Corporation. Autodesk, AutoCAD, Inventor, and Revit are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. CATIA is a registered trademark of Dassault Systèmes or its subsidiaries in the US and/or other countries. Parasolid and NX are trademarks or registered trademarks of Siemens Product Lifecycle Management Software Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and in other countries. PTC, Creo, Parametric, and Pro/ENGINEER are trademarks or registered trademarks of PTC Inc. or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and in other countries. SOLIDWORKS is a registered trademark of Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. For a list of such trademark owners, see http://www.comsol.com/tm. COMSOL AB and its subsidiaries and products are not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or supported by these trademark owners.
Product Features
- A LiveLink™ interface that synchronizes between the Revit® 2020 or 2021 versions of the software and COMSOL Multiphysics® when both are running simultaneously
- Geometric object for room volume is automatically created during synchronization
- Synchronize 3D architectural elements (solids and surfaces) between Revit® geometries and COMSOL Multiphysics®
- Synchronization of conceptual masses and mass parameters that allows for the optimization of conceptual shapes and forms in the Revit® project from the COMSOL Multiphysics® model
- The synchronized geometry is associative, i.e., the architectural model can be modified in Revit® without the need to re-apply model settings in COMSOL Multiphysics after re-synchronization
- Synchronize selections of architectural elements between the Revit® project and the COMSOL model
- Connect to COMSOL Server™ from within Revit® to browse and run apps from within the Revit® interface, including those that use geometry synchronized with Revit®
- File import of the most popular CAD file formats, see table below
- Encapsulate geometries to model phenomena in the surrounding domains
- Export geometry files to the Parasolid® and ACIS® file formats
- Geometry repair through identification of geometric inconsistencies and knitting surfaces to create solids
- Defeaturing through the finding and deletion of fillets, short edges, sliver faces, small faces, and spikes
- Manually deleting faces and healing the resulting gaps through filling (creating a new face) or patching (shrinking or expanding adjacent faces)
- Detaching faces from a solid object to create a new solid object
- Cap holes or empty spaces to fill the space and create modeling domains
- Patch gaps due to missing faces by generating surfaces from the surrounding edges and surfaces
Supported File Formats
Note that not all file formats are supported on all operative systems, for details see System Requirements
| File Format | Extension | Version | Import | Export |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACIS® | .sat, .sab, .asat, .asab | up to 2022 1.0 (import), R4, R7, 2016 1.0 (export) |
||
| AutoCAD® | .dwg | 2.5–2023 | ||
| AutoCAD® DXF™ | .dxf | 2.5–2023 | ||
| IGES | .igs, .iges | up to 5.3 | ||
| Inventor® assemblies | .iam | 11, 2008–2023 | ||
| Inventor® parts | .ipt | 6–11, 2008–2023 | ||
| NX™ | .prt | up to 2206 | ||
| Parasolid® | .x_t, .xmt_txt, .x_b, .xmt_bin | up to 34.0 | ||
| PTC® Creo® Parametric™ | .prt, .asm | 1.0–9.0 | ||
| PTC® Pro/ENGINEER® | .prt, .asm | 16 to Wildfire® 5.0 | ||
| SOLIDWORKS® | .sldprt, .sldasm | 98–2022 | ||
| STEP | .step | AP203, AP214, AP242 (import), AP203 (export) |
Every business and every simulation need is different.
In order to fully evaluate whether or not the COMSOL Multiphysics® software will meet your requirements, you need to contact us. By talking to one of our sales representatives, you will get personalized recommendations and fully documented examples to help you get the most out of your evaluation and guide you to choose the best license option to suit your needs.
Just click on the "Contact COMSOL" button, fill in your contact details and any specific comments or questions, and submit. You will receive a response from a sales representative within one business day.
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