Hello 
community,
For our first post in 2025, we have exciting news for TRANE TRACE users!
TRACE® 3D Plus is now one of the officially supported software solutions for exporting Pollination models. The possibility of exporting Pollination models to TRACE 3D Plus and TRACE 700 has been one of the most requested features, and I’m happy that we finally have a working solution.
As always, you can download the latest version of the Rhino and Revit plugins from Pollination.
Introducing TRACEXML
This integration differs from our common approach of developing a direct translation to other native file formats. After discussing the options with the TRACE team, we decided to rely on their existing gbXML importer and adjust/simplify the geometry during the translation process. These adjustments ensure the generated gbXML file is fully compatible with the TRACE importer. We call the new export option TRACEXML.
Here is the full list of adjustments that happen during the translation. Some of these adjustments might be removed in the future as the TRACE team improves their gbXML importer in the future.
- Pitched roofs are translated to horizontal roofs. We try to adjust the room’s volume to be the same as the volume of the room with the original pitched roof.
- Tilted walls are translated to vertical walls. We use the bottom of the wall as the reference for extruding the wall.
- Shades are removed from the model. TRACE gbXML importer currently does not support importing shades. We remove them from the model to avoid import warnings.
- Windows are translated to a simple single window by default. Even though the TRACE gbXML importer can import many individual window geometries, this can add a significant amount of time to the import process (>10 minutes for a typical commercial building). So all windows in TRACEXML are simplified to a single window in the center of each wall by default. This window’s area matches the overall area of windows in the wall of the Pollination model.
- Interiror windows are removed. It becomes very challenging to match all the interior windows after simplifying them. We decided to remove the interior windows during the translation for this release. We can improve this item based on your feedback.
- All windows are rectangular when not using the single-window option. TRACE’s importer only supports rectangular windows so, when not using the single-window option, non-rectangular windows are subdivided into rectangular elements. The “Merge Distance” can join windows together before subdivision in order to keep the total number of windows in the TRACE model low.
Exporting your first model
The export option is available in the latest version of the Revit plugin (v2.237.4) through the Model Editor as well as the latest version of the Rhino plugin (v1.54.16). The process is similar to exporting any other model from Pollination. The export currently has 3 options for controlling how the windows should be simplified during the export.
Make sure you solve the adjacencies between the rooms before exporting the model to TRACEXML.
Export Options
Here is the list of current options. These options might change based on your feedback but you can always find the latest list of the export options in the user manual.
Rectangular Subdivision Distance
A number for the resolution at which non-rectangular Apertures will be subdivided into smaller rectangular units. This is required as TRACE 3D Plus cannot model non-rectangular geometries.
Frame Merge Distance
A number for the maximum distance between non-rectangular Apertures at which point the Apertures will be merged into a single rectangular geometry. This is often helpful when several triangular Apertures together make a rectangle when they are merged across their frames.
Single Window Merge
Flag to note whether all windows within walls should be converted to a single window with an area that matches the original geometry. (Default: True).
Importing your first model
The process of importing the model to TRACE is similar to importing any other gbXML model. The only item to keep in mind is to change the TRACE 3D Plus units to SI before trying to import the gbXML file. You can change the units back to IP after the import is complete.
Known limitation
TRACE 3D Plus doesn’t have a concept of a hole in the floor plan. If you have a case like an atrium, you have to place a dummy room in your model, and then delete it after importing the model to TRACE. We plan to automate this process in the upcoming releases with the help of the TRACE team.
Support for TRACE 700
The first question that everyone asked us after saying that we’re supporting TRACE 3D Plus is whether we also support TRACE 700! As you all should know by now, TRANE no longer officially supports TRACE 700 and the goal is to transition TRACE 700 users to TRACE 3D Plus. As a result, we have not had access to TRACE 700 for testing; however, results from a couple of companies who have 700 and tested the TRACEXML files show that it also works well with TRACE 700. Feel free to give it a try yourself and let us know how it goes!
Credits
I would like to thank Jim Spielbauer and Victor Mirasola from the TRACE team, who supported us during the process of developing the integration. Special thanks to Brandon Cohen for making the introduction.
I also want to thank @heathbaxa and @santimt88 for testing the export option for their projects and providing feedback.
Next steps
Even though we have tested the plugin against several models, this is the first release and we expect to see some issues to be fixed. We look forward to hearing your feedback to plan the next steps in the development process.
Happy Pollinating!