RVT (Revit): how to open it and how to get a city base for BIM

Someone sent you a .rvt file and there's nothing to open it with — ordinary programs don't understand the format. Let's be honest about it: what RVT is, how to actually open it, and how to get a city base for a BIM project if you need not someone else's model but the surroundings for your own building.

What RVT is and why it's so hard to open

RVT is an Autodesk Revit project file: walls, floors, windows, engineering systems, views and schedules in a single parametric database. The format is closed, binary and not officially documented. So you can't open .rvt with "just anything" — you need software that understands the Autodesk schema.

Another catch: RVT is "forward-only" — a file saved in Revit 2024 won't open in Revit 2023. The version matters.

How to open RVT

Autodesk Revit — the only official editor. Paid subscription, no free full version (there's a student license via Autodesk Education).

Revit Viewer — a free viewer from Autodesk: opens .rvt read-only, shows views, sheets, 3D navigation. Ideal if you just need to look at the project. Download it from autodesk.com/viewers.

BIMcollab ZOOM — an independent viewer: the free tier opens both .rvt and .ifc and lets you mark issues.

A full technical breakdown of the format, the .rfa/.rte ecosystem and the pipeline is in the Revit RVT deep dive.

We don't make RVT — and that's honest

Let's say it plainly: we don't export .rvt. It's a closed Autodesk format that can't be assembled outside Revit. But you most likely need not someone else's project but a city base — the context of streets, blocks and buildings around your plot, so you can place your building in it. That's what we provide.

How to get a city base for BIM

Revit works well with real urban environments but doesn't load OSM data itself. The standard path is to bring the context in formats Revit links:

• IFC — the open BIM standard; Revit imports it via Open/Link IFC. The best choice if you want buildings as BIM objects;
• DWG — Revit attaches it via Insert → Link CAD as a 2D underlay beneath the project;
• DXF — the same, a text CAD exchange; from contour lines you can build terrain in Revit (Toposolid).

Outline the plot around your future object on the map (usually 200×200 m for a building, 500×500 m for a block), pick a format and download. In Revit attach the file as linked CAD/IFC — and you get a binding to the real surroundings: neighboring buildings, property lines, streets. The step-by-step in Revit is in the RVT deep dive, IFC for architecture is in IFC and BIM, and DWG for AutoCAD/Revit is in the export-to-DWG guide.

In short

• RVT is Autodesk Revit's closed format; it opens only in Revit, the free Revit Viewer (autodesk.com/viewers) or BIMcollab ZOOM.
• We don't make .rvt, but we give a city base for BIM: IFC, DWG or DXF — Revit links them.