What comes to mind when you think of building information modeling (BIM)?

Many site design professionals who are considering updating their workflows by incorporating BIM think about the discomfort of change or the perceived complications of working so closely with other stakeholders.

It’s been said before that workflow reinvention doesn’t have to be uncomfortable. Working with external stakeholders, though, is something any BIM-curious firm must consider, especially when it comes to exchanging files authored by other software programs. The last thing you want is to be held back by a process that’s supposed to make you more efficient, right?

Meet Lonnie Landmark. Lonnie is the sole practitioner at Lonnie’s Landscapes. He’s been using Vectorworks Landmark comfortably for over five years but is now feeling the pressure to evolve his workflow with BIM, largely because he’s been noticing that recently more and more architects have been requesting “BIM” files of him. Undoubtedly, the owner or client has translated the statement of required use of BIM to the format of their chosen BIM authoring tool. His current project, in fact, requires the delivery of these “BIM” files because it’s a government-procured project.

Lonnie is confident in his ability to design in 3D with data even though he’s accustomed to only producing 2D drawings. He understands that his design software treats 3D and data as key aspects of the design process. What he’s worried about is exchanging files with the project architect who uses Revit.

What’s Lonnie’s solution? After all, because Revit features intelligent model-based objects, it might be expected that items saved or exported from Revit would be less usable in other programs.

Well, he can rest assured that working with Revit (RVT) and Revit family (RFA) files is standard procedure in Vectorworks Landmark. In fact, to start importing intelligent Revit geometry, all he has to do is select the Import Revit command from the File menu in Vectorworks. These elements will import with all their information and textures attached.

So, once Lonnie imports the architect’s 3D model, he has a great base from which to design his landscape. Magic! But what about sending his site model back to the architect?

You guessed it: he can count on Vectorworks Landmark to export to Revit. He could send simple colored geometry as reference, but for this project he should choose to send intelligent geometry tagged with IFC specifications. This is because it’s what was established in the BIM Execution Plan (BEP). Really, Lonnie has nothing to worry about.

Download the “Revit Interoperability with Vectorworks Landmark” guide now.