⚡️ Free n8n Workflow for CAD-BIM

AUTOMATED ELEMENT CLASSIFICATION WITH LLM & RAG (works with Revit/IFC/DWG/DGN)

Today, BIM and CAD specialists still spend significant time manually classifying elements, checking attributes, and aligning models with internal standards. This process is becoming more and more like what we did in the past:

▪️ photos were sorted into albums by hand
▪️ forum posts required careful selection of the “right category”
▪️ finding a video meant endless navigation through folders

ML and AI have already freed us from that routine — and the same shift is now happening with CAD-BIM projects. LLMs and RAG will gradually take over the tasks of classification and data validation, while specialists evolve from “operators” to process architects.

When trained with RAG on your BIM Execution Plan (BEP) or internal classification rules in XLSX or PDF format, the workflow acts as an intelligent auditor that can:

▪️ detect classification errors
▪️ highlight deviations from corporate naming standards
▪️ suggest corrections based on accumulated knowledge

How the n8n workflow works

1️⃣ Conversion — Revit / IFC / DWG / DGN → Open Database
2️⃣ Extraction — clean headers & select grouping parameter
3️⃣ Grouping — count elements & volumes
4️⃣ LLM + RAG — automatic classification by codes & standards
5️⃣ Reporting — Excel & HTML with summaries and charts

Processing 1,000 elements with GPT-4.1-mini costs only a few cents. For maximum accuracy, I recommend the most effective models - Opus 4, Grok 4, Gemini 2.5 and ChatGPT5.

Paradigm shift

We’re moving from manual quality control to probability management. BIM professionals will increasingly act as conductors: defining rules, training models on corporate data, and making decisions in edge cases.
This isn’t about replacing expertise - it’s about amplifying it: less routine, more analysis and decision-making.

Explore the workflow:

🔗 GitHub: https://github.com/datadrivenconstruction/cad2data-Revit-IFC-DWG-DGN-pipeline-with-conversion-validation-qto
📄 File: n8n_5_CAD_BIM_Automatic_Classification_with_LLM_and_RAG.json

Examples of project classifications according to different classifiers will be posted later in our telegram group (https://t.me/datadrivenconstruction).

Distributed small solutions, simple n8n workflow create "antifragility" for business - which is of course extremely boring in calm times, but extremely vital during crises.

Those who cannot be antifragile during periods of turbulence - leave the market.

 

👉 If you need help testing n8n solutions with RAG and LLM on your data or adapting the workflow to real project tasks, contact us.

♻️ Share this with colleagues who still believe that manual checking and classification is “normal work.” In reality, these tasks can already be automated with LLMs and n8n workflows.