Attribute Differences
Why are there differences between the way Revit and SAP treat materials and profile libraries?
Physical vs Analytic object attributes
It's no surprise that the Material library supported by Revit varies greatly from that found within SAP or RAM Structural System. When looking at attributes, it's quite likely that even two 'physical' platforms like Reivt and Tekla will include some differences between the material and profile naming that need resolving.
The first upload will dictate which material or profile library you take as a starting point, and from there you have two options on first download.
Create New on Download
Konstru is able to create both Material's and Structural Profile's on download, and this is the default mode for any model download.
Materials
For Materials, it will use any available object attributes in the cloud database, including the name, to inform this creation in the local platform. Where no parameter is available, Konstru will find a best approximate match for the existing attribute using string matching between the Konstru material and the loaded library in the model being downloaded to.
Profiles
For Profiles; Konstru includes a competent 'Profile Shape interpreter' which can decompose a custom 2D Profile and rebuild it in the software being downloaded to as a native profile shape.
It should be noted that whilst Konstru can create materials and profiles in analysis platforms, many of the relevant analytic properties (density etc) may not have been present in Revit and thus the material that is created should be reviewed prior to running analysis.
One Way Translation: Quick and Dirty
The Create New material/profile can be a great way to quickly translate a model as part of a one way workflow. As mentioned above, there will likely be some review required of the model post translation.
To help limit this issue, we recommend users prepare the model they are going to download to by loading all the relevant material and profile libraries to help assist the matching process undertaken for missing properties on download.
Round Trip Translation: Mapping works Better
Even with a well prepared model for download, when looking to implement a round trip workflow, or simply aiming for the most accurate possible model download in terms of materials and profiles, the Konstru Mapper can be the most effective means of managing the differences possible between two models. It allows the users to define all the potential matches between incoming data and those libraries already loaded into a model. Where name matching falls short, the profile mapper leverages the users experience and knowledge to define the correct attributes to assign.
Best Practice: The Konstru Mapper
The Konstru mapping interface will be available upon any model download. It will list for the user the incoming Konstru attribute for Materials, Profiles and Areas, at the same time showing those present in the file being downloaded to. As mentioned, where a suitable match can be made the 'Assigned To' value will populate automatically. Where no match is found 'Create New' will be applied.
Mapping Areas - Analysis to Revit
When translating from analysis platforms to Revit it may be necessary to map the CSI 'area' objects, which include both vertical and horizontal faces to the correct Revit Wall and Floor type respectively. This will ensure than on download to Revit the correct families are used.
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