Thursday, September 16, 2021

Free Autodesk Cloud-based File Viewer - Two Examples - Revit and gbXML

Did you know Autodesk has a robust cloud-based file viewer, and it's free? You can drag and drop full Revit files (incl 3D model and 2D sheets) and even gbXML files. Learn more in today's post...


keep reading to learn more...

Autodesk Viewer is a browser-based file viewer which supports a lot of file formats. It requires a free login, and is not tied to any BIM 360 subscriptions (from what I understand:)).

When a Revit RVT file is dragged and dropped from your hard drive, it is uploaded and processed for view. This will take a few minutes. Once complete, you will see it listed, like the first image below (which also shows several things you can do from here). The shared link is good for 30 days, but can be extended manually... otherwise it will self-expire.



Here is a list of file formats currently supported:


The first image above shows the 3D view of the model. The image below shows a sample sheet view. Below, I link to a video I created showing the whole process.


Jarod Schultz and I are regular participants in an Autodesk beta program for some next-gen energy modeling tools Autodesk is working on. It is funny when someone who knows a lot about something learns something total new.. that has been out for a while (i.e. not something totally new, technically). We both paused when we saw a guy from Autodesk open a gbXML file in this viewer! lol

Below is an example... when the gbXML model is exported from Autodesk Insight (or Revit directly) you can rename the .xml to .gbXML and drop it into Autodesk Viewer:) The result in the view is a view for spaces and another for analytical surfaces. This is similar to what you can see in Revit, bit just cool to know this option exists.





Here is a video I created, and posted on YouTube: https://youtu.be/yTIr8m_rIf4 



Have you used the viewer? What do you like, or dislike about it?



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