max to building design suite

[WimOos]

so with individual licenses ended and suites ending in July - is it worth upgrading max to a building design suite? 2 things:

1) we often get revit files from clients that end up a pain in max. Mostly because we end up receiving the complete 400+mb revit file of the complete building, when we are only doing a perspective of the foyer. So all the toilets and detailed doorhandles etc. gets in and is a pain to get rid of in max. Then the materials - its fairly normal to end up in max with 150+ materials that you need to edit down to the 10 or so that you end up using. And then the client sends an updated Revit file....... plus some other changes they could not get done in revit. So my question is this : We don't have Revit, but is it not a good thing to have? Is it not easier and quicker to edit the revit file in revit (sort out materials, cut unneeded stuff out, do whatever changes the client requires) and then just import and render in max? Autodesk makes my clients belief it is as easy as opening the Revit file in Max and press render, while it certainly is not with the revit files I receive. Or are we just doing something wrong on our side. I am sure there must be a way to organise a revit file that makes working in max a lot easier. So would it make sense to upgrade a max license to a revit suite, so that one can have revit to edit files? I see that Vray for Revit can apply materials and I understand that when you import that into max, all materials are sorted out and good to go. Or will you still have headaches in any case in max, and the money to upgrade and renew the licenses to revit suites will be a waste?

2) I always saw the software as an asset to the company, something you can sell when things go bad. But with this leasing thing from Autodesk, is that an outmoded way of looking at software. Software is now stationary that gets used up and has no value in itself? So will our max licenses (or then the suites if we upgrade) end up as worthless things, like a pen when the ink is dry?

So, I suppose what I am asking, is it worthwhile having revit in a company doing only 3d rendering and animation work?

regards,
Wim

[glorybound]

You can open a Revit model in MAX, directly, I am pretty sure. Personally, I wouldn't waste my money.

[dean_dmoo]

A quick tip, for when you only need a small part of the model, get the guy modelling to do a "sectionbox" of the part you need and have them export to fbx. I think you'll lose the material links when updating a new model but atleast your model will be about what you are doing.

As for the licenses, depends how much more you are paying vs how much time you will save. Dont forget time to learn Revit. With revisions from the client you end up doing the cleaning again anyway. I would "invest" in specifing what you need and have the client supply a correct model. For example they could make a view in revit that always has all the toilets and doorhandles turned off and export only from that view for the 3d model for you. Takes them maybe 5min and saves you hours.

[gandhics]

Even before "rental" model, you can't sell 3ds Max.
Some small company allow transfer if lic with some fees.
But, most big company doesn't allow lic transfer.
You always "license to use". You never buy "sw".

[WimOos]

ok, thanks for your thoughts. Still a couple of days to decide....

[Nicinus]

I see that Vray for Revit can apply materials and I understand that when you import that into max, all materials are sorted out and good to go.

That was my assumption as well but it is unfortunately not the case. Apparently Revit (or Autodesk) doesn't allow any third party plugins to use their own material libraries, so Vray relinks and replaces them at the time of render. Assigning Vray materials in Revit and them have them set and good to go in Max is therefore not possible.

Since materials are such a monumental part of rendering it is frustrating that there isn't a more clever workflow than these endless scene converters. It would be unimaginably great if players like Autodesk, Chaos and perhaps the Corona people could agree on a material format (a guy can dream right?). Perhaps Autodesk is intentionally doing something like this with their physical materials by having them in all their products, forcing third party renderers to at least support them?

[crazy homeless guy]

And then the client sends an updated Revit file....... plus some other changes they could not get done in revit.

I am not going to get into the technical side of things. Maybe you can get it to work, but maybe not. I would only use a Revit file at the beginning of a project. After that point you can no longer except files in Revit format. It creates to much work for the production team. If client wants to send some geo in Rhino/Sketchup that is one thing but Revit is junk when it comes to high quality production. Just write it into you proposals.