In Blender and Revit at once.

Live bridge between Blender and Autodesk(R) Revit(R) software: the geometry modeled in Blender is visible inside Revit in real time, without becoming an element of the document.

The idea is to have something that works like the Grasshopper preview in Rhino.Inside. It is not exactly an exporter or a file converter: it is a live channel between two separate programs running on the same computer.

Bilocus is a free and open source independent project, not affiliated with nor endorsed by Autodesk or the Blender Foundation.

What it does

• Live preview, Blender -> Revit. Put objects in the Blender collection ToRevit, press Sync and the geometry appears in the Revit 3D views. Move, rotate or scale an object (in object mode) and Revit follows in real time. The preview is graphics only: nothing is added to the Revit model. Face and edge colors, and the opacity of the faces, are set in the Blender panel. After changing the geometry (edit mode, modifiers, geometry nodes), press Sync again: modifiers are sent as they are, no need to apply them. The preview stays in Revit even after Blender is closed: remove it with Clear Preview, in the Blender panel or in the Revit ribbon.

  

• Selection pull, Revit -> Blender. Select elements in Revit and press Send Selection to Blender: they arrive in the FromRevit collection, with openings in the right place. Sending again updates them in place. Select a Revit link and the whole linked model comes along, in FromRevit/LinkModel - <link name>, replaced on every send (heavy on big models).

  

• Snappable proxies. Select edges of a Blender mesh in edit mode, go back to object mode and press Create Proxy: Revit gets real model lines (straight or arcs) that you can snap to and use as references. Remove them all with Remove Proxy Lines in the Revit ribbon.

  

• Bake. When a shape is final, bake it into the Revit model as a DirectShape or as a loadable family (BL_<name>), with the Revit category of your choice. With Bake together checked, all the selected objects go into one family (useful, for example, to create different LODs of a family), named after the active object. Baking again replaces the previous version; Remove Bake deletes what Bilocus created. A DirectShape can also arrive as a smooth mesh instead of a solid: see Smooth meshes or true solids. A family also carries BL_ type parameters (length, width, height, area, volume, and thickness when set): rough values from the object's extent, each one but the volume can be set from an edge or face selection in the panel. They are informative, not linked to the geometry, and rewritten at every bake.

  

Reference measurement: 385 objects and 1,042,674 triangles synced in 2.5 s on an ASUS ROG Strix G16 (RTX 5080).

Smooth meshes or true solids

A DirectShape bake can bring a shape into Revit in two ways, chosen per object with the Smooth mesh (no volume) checkbox:

	True solid (default)	Smooth mesh
Look in 3D	every face edge drawn: a subdivided surface shows its triangles	smooth, no face edges
Cut and filled in section	yes	yes, if the mesh is closed
Dimensions	yes	no
Volume, joins, voids	yes	no
Bake as a family	yes	no, a family needs a solid

Use the solid when the shape has to be dimensioned or for accurate volume extraction, the smooth mesh when it has to be seen: presentation views, renders, context.

Below, a Voronoi shell built with Sverchok and baked twice side by side, then cut and dimensioned in section.

What you can build

Bilocus is a bridge: if Blender can show it as a mesh, Revit can receive it, as a live preview while you work, as proxies to snap to, as a DirectShape or a family when it is final.

That opens Revit to everything Blender can model:

• Geometry nodes. Parametric shells, facade patterns, lattices, scattered elements: change a parameter in Blender and see the result in the Revit model.
• Sculpting. Terrain, organic forms, free surfaces that no Revit tool can draw.
• Modifiers. Arrays, bevels, booleans, subdivision, curves along paths. Bilocus sends the evaluated shape: nothing needs to be applied first.
• Other add-ons. Anything that produces a mesh in Blender can end up in Revit the same way, for example: Tissue for tessellations and lattices, Sverchok for node-based parametric design, building and landscape generators, scanned or photogrammetry models, even geometry built with Bonsai can be brought in.

Why Bilocus?

As an architect, I've always found myself caught between two worlds: Revit and Blender. On one side there's Blender, an extremely versatile and malleable tool where you can create whatever comes to mind using geometry nodes, sculpting, and precise editing tools. On the other side there's Revit: parametric, strict, and precise, but inherently limited when it comes to "freeform" exploration.

I've been creating in Blender since version 2.46, long before becoming an architect. Over the years, it became my creative canvas and primary playground. Revit came later, in 2017, as I was finishing university, and ever since, my dream has been to connect the two and get the best of both worlds.

For years, my workflow meant constantly jumping back and forth: DXF exports from Blender, FBX imports into Revit, and sometimes a detour through Rhino, Grasshopper and Rhino.Inside, one more program just to connect the other two. But this workflow was slow and clunky. Half the time I would wait for a re-import just to check a detail, only to discover missing faces, flipped normals, or import errors.

I needed something lightweight, fast, and reliable: a tool to preview geometry from Blender inside Revit in real time, and easily extract Revit geometry for faster prototyping and rendering.

Bilocus was built to solve this exact pain point.

Thanks to Claude Code, I finally had the opportunity to build this workflow by designing, prototyping, and testing an open-source live channel to bridge the gap between Blender and Revit.

Requirements

• Autodesk Revit 2024, 2025, 2026 or 2027
• Blender 4.2 LTS, 4.5 LTS, 5.1 or 5.2
• For Bake Family only: the English (Metric Generic Model.rft) or English-Imperial (Generic Model.rft) Revit family template library.
• Windows. Both programs run on the same computer and talk over a local connection (localhost, port 9877): nothing leaves your machine, everything stays local.

Installation

Download the zip files from the latest Release.

Use the Release zips, not the green Code → Download ZIP button. That button downloads the source code, which Blender and Revit cannot install: Blender accepts it without errors, but no add-on appears.

Revit add-in

1. Close Revit.
2. Unzip the Bilocus-Revit<version>.zip that matches your Revit (for example Bilocus-Revit2026.zip) into %AppData%\Autodesk\Revit\Addins\<version> (for example \2026). You should get the file Bilocus.addin and the folder Bilocus side by side. If you get error 0x80131515 once installed, you have to unlock the zip file before unzipping or just select "Bilocus.Revit.dll" and unlock inside the Addins folder based on your Revit version.
3. Start Revit and accept the add-in when Revit asks. A Bilocus tab appears in the ribbon.

If Revit reports that it cannot load the add-in, right-click the downloaded zip, open Properties, tick Unblock, then unzip it again.

Blender add-on (Blender 4.2 or later: older versions are not supported)

1. In Blender open Edit > Preferences > Add-ons.
2. From the menu at the top right choose Install from Disk and pick Bilocus-Blender.zip (do not unzip it).
3. Enable Bilocus. The panel is in the 3D Viewport sidebar (N), tab Bilocus.

Quick start

1. Open a project in Revit and a 3D view.
2. In Blender, create some mesh objects, select them and press Add Selection: they go into the ToRevit collection.
3. Press Connect, then Sync. The geometry appears in the Revit 3D view. Move an object in Blender and watch it move in Revit.
4. Changed the shape? Press Sync again. Transforms are live, geometry is sent only when you ask: that is what keeps big models fast.

The connection is always manual: Bilocus never reconnects on its own. If the connection drops, the panel says so.

Known limits

• The preview is DirectContext3D graphics: it cannot be selected, snapped to, scheduled, printed or exported, and it does not cast shadows. When you need any of that, use Create Proxy or Bake.
• The preview shows only in 3D views. For plan or elevation, use a 3D view with an orthographic top or front orientation. (A proper preview in plan and section views is being studied.)
• Blender and Revit share Revit's internal origin. Project Base Point and Survey Point are not used: keep the model near the origin.
• Keep the Blender scene Unit Scale at 1.0 (Scene Properties > Units): Bilocus reads one Blender unit as one meter. The length unit shown in Blender (m, cm, mm) does not matter.
• One Blender at a time. A second Blender that connects while the first is still connected gets no answer from Revit (its panel never shows handshake ok) and can freeze on Sync: press Disconnect in the first one before connecting another.
• Sync refuses to run while an object is in Edit Mode: press Tab first.
• In Arcs and lines mode a helix becomes a series of flat arcs: a beam picked on them has a small step in rotation at every joint (about 10 degrees with a 1 mm deviation, 5 with 0.1 mm). For helical elements such as stair stringers, model them in Blender and use Bake.
• In Blender, Shift+D also copies the Bilocus identifier of an object. Bilocus detects the duplicate at the next Sync and gives it a new one. Keep an eye on the ToRevit collection because that's what will be synced.
• With Bake together, the objects other than the active one live inside the active object's family. Remove Bake or a bake of one of them on its own does not take it out of that family: bake the active object again without it, or use Remove Bake on the active object.

Building from source

tools\deploy-revit.ps1 -RevitVersion 2025   # builds and installs the add-in; refuses to run with Revit open
tools\deploy-blender.ps1 -BlenderVersion 5.2  # installs the Blender add-on

Requires the .NET SDK. The Revit project is multi-target (net48 for Revit 2024, net8.0-windows for Revit 2025). Tests: dotnet test Bilocus.sln and python -m pytest in tests/python.

Restart Blender after deploying the add-on. Disabling and re-enabling it does not reload the modules already imported.

Architecture and wire protocol are described in DESIGN.md.

src/Bilocus.Protocol/   message framing and codec
src/Bilocus.Geometry/   mesh payload and chunking
src/Bilocus.Revit/      Revit add-in: server, preview, proxy, pull, bake
src/blender_addon/      Blender add-on
tests/                  xUnit (.NET) and pytest (Python)
tools/                  deploy scripts

Support

I know how hard it is, especially as a student or a junior architect just starting with Revit, to find a free add-on that does what you need: I have been there myself. That is why Bilocus is free for everyone, and it will stay free forever.

If you use it professionally, it saves you time and you'd like to support the project, you can buy me a coffee! It is entirely voluntary and gives nothing extra in return.

Credits

I designed Bilocus and followed every step of its development, building it together with Claude Code. Architecture, design decisions, testing and review were human-driven; the code was written by Claude Code and verified together.

Found a bug or want a feature? Open an issue!

Terms of use

By installing or using the Bilocus add-in for Revit you agree to the Terms of Use, which include the Autodesk Acceptable Use Policy. Bilocus does not collect or transmit any data: everything stays on your computer.

License

• Blender add-on: GPL-3.0-or-later
• Revit add-in and everything else: MIT

Details in LICENSE.txt; third-party components in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.txt.

Autodesk and Revit are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. Blender is a registered trademark of the Blender Foundation.

Copyright (c) 2026 Roberto Dolfini.