By Coulter Heiberger · Updated
Real topography and surroundings in a Revit project: a native, editable toposolid, from the plugin or from real contours.
The shortest way to import site context into Revit is Mantle Place for Revit, a plugin that imports your bundle into the open project: the terrain as a toposolid with the imagery draped, plus context buildings, roads, and water. The same bundle also carries the files for the CAD route: contour lines as DXF for the terrain, CAD linework of the roads, buildings, and water, the source DEM as a georeferenced GeoTIFF, and aerial imagery for the site plan. Link the contour DXF, generate the topography from it, and set the project base point so the model sits where the site sits. The manual route is the same workflow with hours in front of it: find a DEM, generate contours in a GIS, export, and reconcile coordinate systems before Revit ever sees the site.
Not directly: Revit reads neither Google Earth KMZ files nor a DEM as terrain. It builds a toposolid from 3D contours or a points file, so the elevation has to become contours first. Mantle Place for Revit does that step for you when it imports a bundle. By hand, the bundle carries those contours as a DXF; in Revit 2024 or later choose Massing & Site, Toposolid, Create from Import, then Create from CAD.
The toposolid, introduced in Revit 2024. It is a solid with layered thickness that other geometry can cut, and it takes sub-divisions and graded regions. Toposurfaces remain only for existing projects: select one and choose Generate Toposolid to convert it, which leaves the original in place.
Revit 2024 downsamples imported points above 10,000. Revit 2026 makes the limit a Revit.ini setting, NativeToposolidMaxPointThreshold, between 10,000 and 50,000 with a default of 20,000. For a large site, contours at a wider interval keep the import under the limit.
It depends on the stage. At concept stage, download a site context: Mantle Place cuts the elevation from USGS 3DEP at 1 m wherever USGS lidar covers the site, and the DEM-derived contours in the bundle build a Toposolid in Revit 2024 or later, with heights in NAVD88 (GEOID18) across the US. For construction documents, commission a survey: grading and drainage need surveyed ground, not a DEM.
No. The bundle is not locked to Revit: the same contours, imagery, and vectors open in Civil 3D, Rhino, SketchUp, and more, so the architect and the civil engineer work from one georeferenced site.
Capture the parcel plus the context the drawings need: neighboring streets, footprints, and the terrain that frames the site.
Close Revit, download the zip from the latest revit- release of the mantleplace-dcc repository, and run Install.cmd. One build serves Revit 2025, 2026, and 2027 on Windows, with no administrator rights.
On the Mantle Place tab, open Vault to import an order, or Import Bundle for one you already downloaded. Pick the layers and press Import: the terrain arrives as a toposolid with the imagery draped, with context buildings, roads, and water.
For Revit 2024 or earlier, or to work from CAD, download the BIM set from your vault and link the contour DXF from the Insert tab, preserving the file’s origin so real-world coordinates survive.
On the CAD route, create a toposolid (or a toposurface in older releases) from the linked contour lines so the terrain becomes native, editable Revit topography.
On the CAD route, link Drawings/Linework.dxf for roads, buildings, and water on named layers, in the same real-world coordinates, and use the aerial imagery as a site-plan underlay.
Contour lines or points. Revit generates a toposolid or toposurface from linked CAD contours, which is exactly the form the bundle’s contour DXF takes, with no GIS conversion step and no extra cost.
Yes, if you link with the origin preserved and set the project base point deliberately. The bundle is georeferenced, so every layer (contours, imagery, vectors) shares the same extent.
Yes. Once generated, the toposolid or toposurface is native Revit topography. You can grade it, cut building pads, and host site elements on it like any modeled terrain.
Draw your area, read its Site Brief, and download a bundle you keep: terrain, imagery, CAD drawings, and more, ready for Unreal, Revit, Rhino, and more. $5 plus $2 per square kilometer, and 2 km² and under is free.
Native plugins: Mantle Place for Unreal and Mantle Place for Revit.
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