Your team coordinates in Revit. Now your Dusty layout starts there too.
How many times have you lived this chain of events: the work in the field drifts away from what you coordinated in the model. Which leads to rework. Which blows your schedule and cannibalizes your profit. It threatens your relationships with your partners. It disappoints your client and puts the next job at risk.
It all started with the failure to build to the model, and that’s the real value of Dusty: getting information out of the model and onto the slab, so the field builds exactly what your team coordinated, with nothing lost along the way. But for teams working in Revit, the Dusty workflow has historically taken a detour through AutoCAD. Someone exports the plan view to DWG, opens it in AutoCAD, cleans up the linework, runs the Dusty AutoCAD plugin, and uploads the result. Every step takes time, and that time lands on the critical path between VDC and getting teams moving in the field. Worse, every hand edit to the linework moves the layout a little further from the model your team worked so hard to get right.
As of today, that detour is optional. Our all-new Dusty plugin for Autodesk® Revit®, rebuilt from the ground up, is generally available, and you can see a brief overview here:
Revit users can export a 2D plan view straight from Revit to the Dusty Portal, ready to print, with no DWG export and no AutoCAD cleanup step. It's included at no additional cost for Dusty customers, runs on Revit 2022 through 2027, and installs from the Autodesk App Store. (If you want to start using it now, this user guide walks through every step.)
Every handoff pulls layout further from the model
Every handoff between tools is a chance for layout to drift from the model. But that runs counter to the goal: eliminating deviation from the model. At the end of the day, tool handoffs introduce risk to your projects. Dusty’s Revit plugin is a direct-line connection from the model to the slab.
The detour also cost time in ways that are hard to see on a schedule. A team that does all its coordination work in Revit still had to keep their AutoCAD skills sharp just for layout prep. Files moved between tools and people by hand, which is a perfect recipe for sending outdated information to the jobsite. And when layout is scheduled to start right on the heels of model sign-off, every extra step lands on someone's critical path.
“Even though I have been using Dusty for a few years now, Dusty layout still feels like cool new tech. As Dusty continues to be innovative, their new Autodesk Revit plugin cuts hours off processing multiple exports, layer cleanup, overlaying floor plans, all working towards a flawless completion. This is fast and simple, and allows me to provide quick and accurate layout direct from Revit to Portal, ensuring less wait time for our crews.”
You coordinated the model for a reason: to build the project that way. That’s why your layout process should start in the model, and with Dusty’s Revit plugin, it does. The plugin automates the creation of print layers from Revit categories, but also gives you flexibility to define the mapping yourself, so what prints stays tied to model data rather than to someone's redraw. And because the plugin uploads straight to the Dusty Portal, there's no file to email, rename, or lose.
What your team gets: faster file prep and clearer layout on the floor
The step-by-step is in the support article. Here's what it means for your team.
- You decide what prints. You map Revit categories, like walls, doors, and columns, to Dusty layers. The plugin can generate those layers for you, one per category or one per subcategory, or you can load a mapping saved from a past project. Anything set to Do not export stays off the slab, so you communicate only what the field needs without extra clutter.
- Layout is more than lines. Each layer gets its own Dusty line style, line width, text height, and trade. A rated wall can print differently from a standard partition, tags and text from the view come through, and each trade's work is labeled as theirs. You can select printable Dusty line styles directly in the plugin, so what you set up in Revit is what the crew reads on the floor.
- Every trade lands in the same place. Before export, you choose the coordinate system: Project Base Point, Shared Coordinates, or Internal Origin. The plugin shows the coordinates for each so you can check them first. Beta testers running multi-trade jobs told us this mattered more than anything else, because one file landing in the wrong spot throws off the combined layout for every trade on that level.
- The file goes straight to the Portal. Sign in from Revit, pick the project, building, and layout, and upload. In the Dusty Portal, your team adds control point and MEP CSVs, combines files from other trades on the same level, reviews, and publishes.
- Tune your layout to the layout schedule. Before upload, the plugin shows a print time estimate along with line, arc, and text counts by category. If the density of your file is causing long print times, you’ll know going in instead of finding out on the jobsite, and you can see which category is responsible and fix it in the model.
- You set it up once. Save your layers, line styles, and your category mapping. Load them on the next level or the next project, and every job prints to the same standard.
Built for VDC teams at GCs and trades alike
The plugin is built for VDC and BIM teams who coordinate in Revit, whether at a general contractor or a trade. It's perfect for architectural, framing, and drywall scopes, and it also handles some structural elements and ductwork. Control points and MEP points still come into the Portal as CSV files, the same as today.
“Robotic layout is the missing link between coordination and construction. Most coordination takes place within Autodesk Revit. This plug-in helps weld that link.”
Get the plugin: no additional cost for Dusty customers
Download the plugin from the Autodesk App Store, then follow the setup guide. Dusty Academy covers file prep practices that cut print time. Teams that work in AutoCAD can keep using the Dusty AutoCAD plugin the way they do today.
Not on Dusty yet? You don't need a Portal account to try it. Install the plugin, export a .dusty file from one of your own plan views, and see the print time estimate for your project.
What the office knows and what the field builds should match, and every step we remove between them makes that more likely. The Revit plugin shortens the workflow and removes risk of deviation during layout prep, so you can deliver exactly to the coordinated model, confidently and efficiently.