Without giving details as to when or how it would become part of shipping Autodesk product, today the Autodesk Building Solutions team showed an example of using the data tools and standards from the International Alliance for Interoperability known as IFC's as a data migration engine between Autodesk Architectural Desktop (ADT) and the Autodesk Revit product line.
In the demonstration Tuesday at Autodesk University, a older project needing an addition was opened in ADT. Using a data capture tool created by third party developer Inopso, parts of the building plan were exported and then imported into Autodesk Revit Building. When opened in Revit, the data from ADT was fully intelligent Revit data, which could be parametrically edited and used in reports as if it were native data.
IFC's are Industry Foundation Classes, a data standard developed by the IAI to provide a product-neutral method of sharing construction design information between products and disciplines in the building industry.
An Autodesk representative said the demonstration served two points. First, it showed Autodesk's committment to standards. Second, it proved that data migration between ADT and Revit can be a "seamless" experience.
The lack of such interoperability between AutoCAD-based ADT and Revit has been a sore point among ADT users who might otherwise be willing to switch to Revit. The availability of this functionality in the next release of ADT could help spur a faster rate of Revit adoption by existing ADT users.
--RSN