Design Smarter Substations with SDS-Physical and Revit

Why Substation Design Suite – Physical and Revit Are Better Together

As utilities and EPCs adopt more sophisticated digital tools for capital project design, we hear this question often: Should we be using Revit for substation design?

Revit offers robust capabilities for BIM coordination, civil structures, and architectural features such as fencing and control buildings. However, it lacks native support for critical substation design needs like electrical equipment layout, clearance envelopes, grounding, cable modeling, and material tracking. The best workflow uses the right tools for the right job, paired through strong interoperability. For substation design, that tool is Substation Design Suite – Physical (SDS-P). SDS-P delivers the engineering intelligence required for accurate substation modeling, is built on top of AutoCAD or Inventor, and outputs interoperable data for use with Revit.

Watch the Full Workflow in Action

Why Not Just Use Revit for Everything?

Today, Revit does not have an out-of-the-box understanding of substation design and connectivity requirements. Substation designers need to perform clearance checks and phasing validation, lightning protection, place assemblies like breakers or CT/PTs, build a BOM for equipment ordering and project cost, and grounding and cable logic.

SDS-Physical is Built for Engineering Detail

With SDS-P, your team designs substation layouts in Inventor or AutoCAD, where they benefit from:

  • Smart components for substations (transformers, breakers, bus supports, etc.)
  • Clearance validation tools using SDS logic
  • Cable trench, grounding, and conduit modeling
  • Automated BOMs with part tagging
  • Reusability of standard assemblies across projects

Today, we’ll explore the workflow that demonstrates the interoperability between SDS-Physical using Inventor and Revit.

Step-by-Step: From Inventor to Revit

1. Prepare the Model in Inventor

  • Use SDS logic to generate a clean view representation for Revit export
  • Strip out small hardware for performance
  • Assign Revit categories using iProperties

2. Define the UCS (User Coordinate System)

  • Match Inventor UCS to Revit project base point
  • Fine-tune using measurements between environments

3. Export to RVT

  • Use BIM Content tools to export as RVT
  • Select proper height-clearance Revit template
  • Preserve tags and colors
  • Create the schedule in the export RVT file and close
  • Use Import/Link Revit, open the target RVT file, insert RVT using Internal Origin to Internal Origin        

Optional: Use Coordination Models for Complex Model Fitting

  • Export Revit views for Inventor reference geometry
  • Align and constrain Inventor assemblies accordingly
  • Use multiple RVT exports (equipment, cables) for detailed control

What You Gain

✅ Faster Design Cycles

✅ Better Accuracy

✅ Cleaner BIM Models

✅ Improved Collaboration

✅ No Redundancy

Let’s Talk About Your Substation Workflow

If you’re using Revit today for substation design, or thinking about it, we can show you the path to preserve the efficiency in designing with a toolset built for substation designers while retaining the BIM coordination and architectural specificity of Revit. Reach out to the SBS team to see how our Inventor-based solutions integrate with your existing BIM workflows while giving your electrical team the tools they need.

Want a guided demo or to try it out on your own model? Contact us here

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