ArcGIS Pro 3.3 Crashes When Enabling “Architecture” Layer in Revit Model

Question

Hi everyone,

I’m having issues working with a Revit building model in ArcGIS Pro 3.3 and would really appreciate any help or advice.

My goal is to georeference a building model from Revit in ArcGIS Pro in order to run various analyses, such as solar analysis. The georeferencing process itself works fine, and I’m able to import the model without issues. However, once the model is loaded, only the “Exterior” layers are visible by default, everything else is turned off.

For the solar analysis, I need access to the roof layer, which is nested under the “Architecture” layer. The problem is that when I try to enable the “Architecture” layer in the Contents pane, ArcGIS Pro crashes.

I’ve tried reducing the size of the Revit model by removing all interior elements that are irrelevant for the analysis. I also attempted to export the Revit model as an IFC file and then load that into ArcGIS. In this case, the elements are misinterpreted: the roof doesn’t show up under the “Exterior” category but instead as interior building components. However, enabling the “Architecture” layers in this case doesn’t crash ArcGIS Pro.

Has anyone encountered a similar issue or knows a workaround? I’d also be happy to share the Revit model if that helps with troubleshooting.

Thanks in advance!

DA_BIM-GIS · Answer

Hello @PaulaMarie

However, once the model is loaded, only the “Exterior” layers are visible by default, everything else is turned off.  That is the expected behavior when a BIM File Workspace (Revit or IFC) is loaded into Pro.

For the IFC issue not showing on the exteriorshell, could be related how the data was created in the first place. The roof is defined as floor on the Revit side and the function is set to interior rather than exterior.

If you drag and drop the roof feature class into a scene. Does Pro crash ?

David

VenkataKondepati · Answer

Hi @PaulaMarie ,

I haven’t personally worked with Revit models in ArcGIS Pro at that level, so I can’t say I’ve run into this exact issue. But from what you’re describing, it definitely sounds like ArcGIS Pro is struggling to fully interpret the nested structure or metadata of the Revit file — especially since it crashes when enabling the “Architecture” layer.

The fact that the IFC version doesn't crash but misclassifies the roof is a clue — it suggests the issue may not just be file size, but possibly how certain elements are tagged or organized in Revit before import.

That said, I’ve seen others in the BIM-GIS space take a “component extraction” approach — isolating key features like the roof in Revit or Navisworks before bringing them into Pro. It’s not a clean out-of-the-box workflow, but it might give you what you need without the instability.

Would be great to see what others have done here — I’d definitely be interested in any workarounds people have found.

I hope this helps and let me know.

Regards,

Venkat