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Import from CAD

How to get Revit views onto the INTERSTITIAL canvas: the Revit connector plugin uploads views to your extraction inbox, and you add them into a project as layers or dismiss them. Covers the Revit connector, the Pending Extractions inbox, the add-to-project choices, and Revit segmentation for click-to-select masking.

Import from CAD brings views out of Revit and onto the INTERSTITIAL canvas, so you can render them without a manual screenshot.

When to use

  • You model in Revit and want to visualize a specific view or elevation.
  • You want your CAD geometry as a base layer to render on top of.
  • You want Revit’s element data to power click-to-select masking later.

How it works

  • You install the Revit connector plugin and export a view. The plugin uploads the view straight to INTERSTITIAL — you don’t save a file and re-upload it by hand.
  • Each upload lands in your extraction inbox (the Pending Extractions page) and, if the app is open, pops up a Scene Extracted from Revit preview in real time.
  • Adding an extraction to a project doesn’t move the underlying files — the view becomes a layer, and its storage keys are updated in place.

Steps

  1. Export from Revit. Trigger the extraction from the connector plugin. A progress indicator shows while the view uploads.
  2. Review the preview. When the upload finishes, a preview dialog shows the extracted view.
  3. Choose where it goes. From the preview, pick one:
    • Add to Current Workspace — drops the view in as the topmost layer of the workspace you’re viewing (Editor only).
    • Add to Another Workspace… — opens a picker showing every workspace in the open project, plus a New workspace tile to start a fresh board (Editor only).
    • Add to Project… — sends you to project selection. With a project already open it reads Add to Another Project….
    • Create New Project — names a new project and adds the view automatically.
  4. Or dismiss it. Closing the preview marks the extraction as seen and keeps it in Pending Extractions, so you can add it later.

Manage the inbox

  • Open Extractions from the sidebar (the Pending Extractions page) to see every extracted view as a card.
  • Click a card to reopen the preview and add it to a project.
  • Delete a single card with its trash button, or use Select All and Delete Selected to clear several at once. Deleting removes the extraction and its stored files — this can’t be undone.

Colour maps for click-to-select masking

  • A Revit export can carry a colour map that tags each element in the view with its own flat colour.
  • When a layer has one, a segmentation control appears in the mask toolbars. You can then click an element to select it as a mask region instead of painting it by hand — useful for isolating a wall, a window, or a floor before an inpaint edit.
  • This is not limited to CAD imports: you can upload a colour map to any image layer, and a duplicated or generated-from layer inherits the one it came from.

Tips

  • Frame the view in Revit first. The extraction captures what you export, so set up the camera and visibility there.
  • Keep the inbox tidy. Dismissed extractions stay in Pending Extractions until you add or delete them.
  • The connector is Revit-only. Imagery from other sources — photos, sketches, screenshots — still reaches the canvas by uploading it as an image directly. Only Revit exports flow through this inbox, but click-to-select is not exclusive to them: any layer can be given a colour map by hand.