Connect your CAD Plans and Revit Models to Archibus

To effectively use Archibus, you must have floor plan drawings showing office space, vertical penetrations, open space, and so on available in Archibus and the mobile apps. The overall procedure is below, and is detailed for CAD and BIM in separate sections.

Note: Some sites choose to outsource their floor plan development. See Outsourcing Drawing and Data Development.

Overall Procedure

1. Draw your floor outline (gross area) and room boundaries.
   • Room boundaries include typical rooms (conference rooms, offices), as well as vertical penetrations and service areas.
   • If managing leases and suites, you can develop suite polylines.
2. Connect these boundaries to Archibus.
3. You now have a set of records in the Archibus database. You can add more details to the rooms using the Space Console or the Define Rooms task. For suites, see Suite Inventory process.
4. When you finish depicting the areas on the floor, publish the floor plan as enterprise graphics so that Web Central and the mobile apps can display it.

CAD Procedure

CAD users work with the Archibus Smart Client Extension for AutoCAD to make floor plans available in Archibus Web Central and in mobile apps.

If you have CAD plans

1. Prepare CAD floor plan drawings for Archibus (video - 8:06)
2. Create gross area and room polylines with one of these methods:
   • Draw new gross and room polylines (video - 14:06)
   • Use existing gross and room polylines (video - 5:17)
3. Register the polylines in Archibus and publish the floor plan (video - 6:28).

If you have a scanned floor plan

1. Start from a scanned floor plan drawing (video - 13:54)
2. Publish as Enterprise Graphics

Help topics

• Draw Gross Areas
• Draw Vertical Penetrations
• Draw Service Areas
• Draw Rooms
• Draw Suites
• Develop Floor Plans for Use with Team Space
• Draw Boundaries Accurately

• Publish as Enterprise Graphics
• Area Concepts
• About the Drawing Name and Detail Drawing Fields

BIM Procedure

BIM users work with the Archibus Smart Client Extension for Revit to make models available in Archibus Web Central and mobile apps.

If you have BIM models

1. Register buildings, floors, and rooms (video - 9:30).
2. Register the internal gross area (video - 2:50).
3. Publish as enterprise graphics for use in Web Central.

Other steps

• Prepare the model (video 5:15).
• Draw rooms within rooms (video 9:43).

If you have a scanned drawing

1. Create a Revit model from a scanned drawing and connect to Archibus (video 17:00).
2. Publish the model.

Revit Help Topics

• Creating Internal Gross Areas
• Creating a Room Area
• BIM Execution Plan: Space Inventory 
• Standards for Area Accuracy
• Drawing Room Areas Accurately
• Modeling Workstations and Rooms within Rooms
• Using Area Elements to Model Rooms

• Area Concepts