WUFI Passive & Revit workflow

Emily Purcell

Sustainable Design Lead

CannonDesign

LEEDuser Expert

379 thumbs up

September 27, 2022

Hi all,

We are looking to study Passive House on a couple small multifamily projects. Our understanding is that WUFI Passive only integrates with SketchUp at this time. Our BIM manager has been trying to find an example of a firm that works in Revit and uses WUFI Passive, to point him in the right direction on workflow. I offered to ask this group, so, does that sound like anyone here? Any help would be appreciated!

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Keihly Moore

Architect | Sustainable Design Coordinator

Studio G Architects

LEEDuser Basic Member

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Wed, 09/28/2022 - 13:08

Hi! We work in Revit for our drawings, but we use Sketchup for WUFI Passive because the program really needs a simple model in order to properly work. Revit has too much information. There are ways to export your revit model into sketchup, but I wouldnt advise that either, because the program is very picky about planes and overlapping lines and it would be faster just to make one from scratch rather than to delete what you dont need. I know that's not the answer you're looking for, but that is what we have found. Maybe there is an update on the way that would allow different file types. Let us know if you find a different solution! Keihly

Sara Bayer

Associate Principal and Director of Sustainability

Magnusson Architecture and Planning

LEEDuser Basic Member

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Wed, 09/28/2022 - 14:33

Hi! Are also looking for a better workflow from REVIT to WUFI, and have found that building Sketchup from scratch is simplest. But we are also thinking of looking into incorporating Cove.Tool for example, which in our understanding can import a REVIT model and export a Sketchup model. Havent tried it yet, maybe its too good to be true?

Emily Purcell

Sustainable Design Lead

CannonDesign

LEEDuser Expert

379 thumbs up

Wed, 09/28/2022 - 14:44

Thanks Keihly and Sara! I also got another answer offline that confirmed there is no great solution and Revit > Rhino > Sketchup was probably the best. Very interesting about cove.tool as we recently purchased a subscription - I've passed that along to our BIM manager to see if he's tried exporting a sketchup file from it. The complex geometries of a Revit model do give cove.tool a hard time with the import sometimes, so, while I'm intrigued I doubt it will be a really tidy solution. (I'm not a designer myself and barely touch any of these programs, so anytime Revit geometry throws a wrench in my cove.tool process I hit a wall - sounds like others who are used to working in Revit daily are finding it not too hard to simplify enough to import.)