Start Your Project in Autodesk Forma

Back to: Advance BIM Studio

🧭 1. Establish the project site in Forma

Takeaway: Forma gives you a fast, accurate, georeferenced base model of the Audubon Ballroom site.

🏗️ 2. Build conceptual massing + site logic in Forma

Takeaway: Forma is ideal for early massing, solar/wind analysis, and testing site constraints.

What to model in Forma

• Existing context buildings (auto-imported)
• The Audubon Ballroom mass (if you want a simplified placeholder)
• Potential interventions (e.g., plaza improvements, canopy, signage, landscape zones)
• Environmental analysis:
  • Sun hours
  • Daylight potential
  • Noise and wind patterns These analyses help guide façade decisions, entry sequences, and public‑realm design.

🔄 3. Send the site + massing to Revit

Takeaway: The Forma Add‑In converts your site into editable Revit elements.

Conversion rules (critical for your workflow)

When you use Send to Revit, Forma converts:

• Terrain → Revit Toposolids (Revit 2024+)
• Basic/Line Buildings → Walls, Floors, Roofs
• 3D Sketch Buildings → Mass families + mass floors
• Vegetation, context buildings → Generic Models
• Parking → Parking Components
• Geolocation → Project Base Point alignment

This gives you a fully editable Revit site model aligned to real-world coordinates.

🛠️ 4. Clean up and refine the site in Revit

Takeaway: Revit becomes your detailed modeling environment for the Shabazz Center.

Typical cleanup tasks

• Adjust terrain (fix slopes, add pads, correct materials).
• Replace generic context buildings with more accurate massing if needed.
• Correct road materials (Forma often imports them as generic subdivisions).
• Add site elements:
  • Hardscape (plaza paving, steps, ramps)
  • Street furniture
  • Lighting
  • Landscape families
• Insert detailed architectural model of the Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Center:
  • Use existing drawings, scans, or BIM if available
  • Align to the georeferenced site
  • Model the historic façade of the Audubon Ballroom
  • Add interior program spaces (exhibition areas, memorial spaces, circulation)

🔁 5. Iterate between Revit and Forma

Takeaway: The workflow is bidirectional—Revit refinements can be pushed back to Forma.

Update Proposal (Revit → Forma)

• Use a dedicated 3D view to control what gets sent back.
• Forma can then re-run environmental analysis on your updated geometry.
• This is ideal for testing:
  • New façade shading
  • Public plaza redesign
  • Roof modifications
  • Massing changes affecting daylight or wind

📐 6. Optional: Dynamo-driven automation

If you want rule-based modeling (e.g., parametric façade panels, program-driven interior layouts), Dynamo can read Forma‑derived rooms and geometry to automate Revit modeling.

 

🗂️ Summary Table — Revit/Forma Workflow for the Shabazz Center