How to: send your Forma Site Design proposal to Revit

Forma Site Design, available in the AEC Collection or as a standalone subscription, offers powerful AI-powered tools for architects and designers in pre-design and schematic design phases.

Watch this video to learn how to easily move from early-stage design in Forma Site Design to more detailed modeling in Revit.

Step 1: Install the Forma Add-in for Revit

1. In Forma Site Design, click the three-dot menu on any proposal.
2. Navigate to Revit and select Download Revit Add-in.
3. The installer is saved to your Downloads folder.
   • If your Downloads folder isn’t on your local Windows system, move the installer to a local folder before running it.
4. Double-click the installer and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.

Step 2: Prepare and send the proposal from Forma Site Design

1. Locate the proposal you want to send to Revit and open its three-dot menu.
2. Duplicate the proposal to keep the original intact.
3. Rename the duplicated proposal and open its three-dot menu
4. Navigate to Revit, and select Send to Revit Add-in.
5. When the process completes, a notification appears confirming that the proposal has been sent to Revit.

Step 3: Load the proposal in Revit

1. Keep Forma Site Design open, then open Revit.
2. Create a new model, select a template, ensure Project is selected, and click OK.
3. Open the Default 3D view, then go to the Massing and Site tab.
4. Locate the Forma options in the ribbon, select Load Proposal.
   • A dialog opens showing the proposal that was sent from Forma Site Design.
5. Click Advanced Settings, select the data options to load, Click OK, then click Load.
   • Select only the elements you need. Loading more data increases file size, so it’s best to be selective.

Step 4: Review informational dialogs

1. An Open Data Attribution dialog appears, listing third-party data sources used in the Forma proposal. Click OK to continue.
2. A warning dialog then appears. Review the warnings and close the dialog to proceed.

Step 5: Review the imported model

1. Hold Shift + right-click to orbit and view the proposal in Revit.
2. If annotation elements clutter the view, press VV, go to Annotation Categories, and turn off Levels and Scope Boxes.
3. Switch between visual styles as needed. In Realistic view, satellite imagery appears over the topography.

How Forma data translates to Revit

Contextual data

• Terrain is imported as a toposolid.
• Contextual buildings are grouped as generic models.
• Site limits and roads are imported as model lines.

Building proposal

• Walls become basic exterior 400mm walls, which can be changed to other wall types, such as curtain walls.
• Roofs become generic 225 mm roofs.
• Floors become concrete 100mm slabs, which can be edited to different slab types, such as a 300 mm concrete slab.

Now you can continue developing your building design in Revit while keeping all the contextual site data imported from Forma Site Design.