This topic is one I have been meaning to get to for a while. There's been more and more talk about being BIM ready. The truth is if you have Inventor 2010, you are BIM ready, except for a couple of things.
One very important thing I want to mention again is that you have service pack 1 for Inventor:
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=13713884&linkID=9242019
or the following hotfix:
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=13105818&linkID=9242019
Plus the person on the other end, the Revit user, must also have downloaded the latest update (build) for Revit which can also be found at:
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=13105818&linkID=9242019
And finally, one more thing to know before you send off the resultant adsk file.
If you have already tried to save out to AEC exchange for Revit and noticed that the preview gets flipped there is a quick UCS change you will have to make.
See, for Inventor users, or typical Manufacturing CAD users, the X-Y plane is our Front view. While for Architectural users, Revit users, X-Y is the Top, or plan view. Therefore, there is a quick and easy way to do that in Inventor so you have a much happier architect:
Once selecting Environemnt>AEC Exchange you will notice that the Y axis points up, X is pointing away from you and Z towards you,
If you were to click on export, what will happen is you get a preview like the following image which turns it on it's back:
To fix this you can use the UCS icon to specify an origin. I usually just use 0,0,0, but you may use another if you'd like.
QUICK TIP: hitting "tab" on your keyboard while typing in the coordinate will make a jump from x to y and or z depending which one you are editing.
Then click on the x axis (not the arrow, but the actual red line) and choose to rotate it 90 degrees resulting in your Z axis pointing up.
Lastly, when you choose "Export Building Components" click on the Named UCS box and choose UCS1
That will do it, now you can just fill in the property data and export it out.
Alternatively, if you know from the beginning that you will be making a model to export out to Revit, you can build your model so that the XY plane is the top of your model, or you can add a UCS also for your models.
Hope this comes in handy for some of you, now you are BIM ready.
