BIM Family Toolkit at Autodesk Labs

Autodesk Labs just released something called BIM Family Toolkit. It's meant to provide a way to get from Inventor product data to a Revit Family. This bit is from the Labs site.

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Overview
The BIM Family Toolkit Technology Preview allows building product manufactures the ability to easily export Inventor configuration data from iParts and iAssemblies (parameters, file properties & component visibility) directly to Revit families. Once the family data has been imported into Revit, users can create a simplified version and leverage the imported parameters and properties directly in Revit reducing the amount of time it takes to create BIM Ready Models.
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I don't know how many firms using Revit also have Inventor so I'm not sure how well it will do at Labs. I suspect that manufacturers using Inventor will benefit and Revit users may benefit downstream as opposed to undertaking the workflow themselves. Labs has posted a video to CREATE and another to REFRESH at You Tube.

Shrinkwrap for Inventor - Implications for Revit?

Shrinkwrap for Inventor was recently announced as "In the Labs" at Autodesk Labs. The text from their site says:

Shrinkwrap Add-in for Inventor is an Inventor Add-in to create envelope parts from Inventor assemblies.

Shrinkwrap Add-in for Inventor enables you to:

* Create substitutes for use with alternative representations in Autodesk Inventor
* Reduce detail of production data to protect intellectual property
* Create simplified data for complex purchased assemblies

Shrinkwrap Add-in for Inventor takes advantage of Inventor’s derived part workflows to create a standalone, single part solid version of a model assembly. Once the user is identifies penetrations in components to be filled with solid material, Shrinkwrap Add-in for Inventor fills any internal voids that remain in the assembly.

What does this mean for Revit? Well it might mean that Inventor parts can be reduced to nice simpler representation that can in turn be used effectively in Revit families to convey design intent and lead directly back to a manufactured part or assembly/product. We get enough information to design around the part and be tied more closely to a real product.

Of course this assumes that manufacturers will use it to make our lives "easier"? Hopefully they will if it makes it "easier" for them to do so?