Not sure if it does exactly what you want, but the 3DBoundingBoxReplacer on the FME Hub might be worth a look.

Hi @david_r,

Thanks for your swift response, I don't think that's what I'm after though. It doesn't appear to make 3D object, more an extruded 2D bounding box. There's not a huge amount about how the 3DBoundingBoxReplacer works.

I'm not sure I understand exactly what you need. Could you maybe provide an example of your input data and describe exactly what you need? The more details the better.

@david_r

Ok, so imagine you have a 3D (BIM) Model of a house in Autodesk Revit

The house has been built and you're at the stage of undertaking snagging works and spotting defects ....maybe there's a broken light switch or a some paint missing in a spot.

So to track the defects you create an excel spreadsheet that consists of the following information:

1) Defect ID Number

2) X,Y and Z Coordinates

3) Description of the Defect.

You want to create a shape/symbol that is located in the correct x,y and z location, for that defect so that it can be combined with your 3D model of the house so you can easily see where the problems are.

You also want the ability to have it easily updated (as the defects are repaired) through the Excel file you have.

I'm after a way of using FME to drive the creation of multiple identical 3D elements just from a list of coordinates.

Does that makes more sense?

Thanks, that makes it much clearer. BIM/CAD is not really my area of expertise, but would using the VertexCreator be of use here?

You could read the Excel sheet the normal way, then send each feature into a VertexCreator that uses the XYZ coordinates to create a 3D point geometry which you could write out to whatever format you need. Some CAD formats need additional info to render points in a meaningful way however, e.g. using the DWGStyler which can help you reference block (symbol) names in a template file that you specify. It will also let you add text labels to your points.

That way it should be possible to generate e.g. a DWG file (can Revit read that?) that contains 3D points with, let's say, different blocks and labels depending on the type of defect. Would that get you closer to an answer?

@david_r

Hi David funnily enough that's what I tried the first time and for the life of me I couldn't understand why it wasn't working!

After a bit more investigation, I discovered that I needed to:

Go to the Navigator panel

Click the ACAD Writer

Click the Parameters

And update the "Template File" with the Template file I was using the DWGStyler Transformer.

So it all works now, many thanks,

Michael

Yes, the template file is key when using blocks, should've been clearer about that. Good to hear you worked it out.