Revit to Vantage Live Link.

[minicoop]

Greets,

When initiating a live link between Revit and Vantage, the Revit model comes into the Vantage session completely un-editable (further, many tool vanish). I've tried un-checking merge materials, etc., in Vantage prefs, and nothing. As an Enscape user, I am mystified; w/Enscape, turn on the link and get to work, with Vantage, nothing, just, frustration... To compound matters, the actual documentation on import settings for things like material hierarchies, etc., seems to be non-existent (at least I cannot find anything to troubleshoot my issue). I wish Chaos would address documentation for new users, as in my case, the bar to entry becomes so high, I'm thinking about abandoning Vantage altogether for D5 or TW.

Please help, I want to learn Vantage as a bridge to access Vray level still shots (set up in Vantage, but on my own, I'm almost ready to throw in the towel).

Thank you.

Moni

[Alexander.Atanasov]

Hi Moni,

The Live Link to Chaos Vantage is actually quite similar to the workflow with Enscape. When in Live Link consider Vantage as a high quality viewport.
The following actions can be done Inside Chaos Vantage during Live Link :

• create cameras;
• create camera animation in the animation editor;
• edit environment and fog
• add post effect (LUT, Bloom, Highlight burn)
• Render:
  • snapshots;
  • HQ still image
  • HQ sequence
• save .vantage file with the changes from above.

However the following actions cannot be done inside Chaos Vantage during Live Link:

• transform objects;
• hide/unhide objects;
• reassign materials;
• edit lights;
• import external(including cosmos assets) files;
• animation playback

The UI changes with all tools that are unusable while in Live link are hidden as you already noticed.

This is the same as in Enscape - you edit the scene(modify & assign materials, geometry, lights) in Revit. With the exception that you can add objects inside Enscape, which is currently not possible in Vantage.

In order to:

• edit materials and add V-Ray geometry(Displacement, Fur, Proxy mesh, Proxy scene, Scatter, Decal(not supported yet)) you do it through the Asset editor(https://docs.chaos.com/display/VREVIT/Asset+Editor)
• to control the geometry appearance & overrides you use the Appearance manager(https://docs.chaos.com/display/VREVI...arance+Manager).

Apart from Live link, you could export your revit scene as a .vrscene using V-Ray(https://docs.chaos.com/display/VREVI...ypesandOptions) and load it inside Vantage. Then you can access all available of the available tools that get hidden while in Live Link:

• Select, Move, Rotate, Scale, Transform Pivot and Snap tool
• Chaos Cosmos browser, Create Lights, Create Fur, Create Scatter, Create scene state
• Lights Lister, Material lister, Scene object lister & hierarchy

You can check, if you haven't already, the QuickStart Guides page for Revit here: https://docs.chaos.com/display/VREVIT/QuickStart+Guides and the Getting Stared Page for Vantage https://docs.chaos.com/display/LAV/Getting+Started and specially https://docs.chaos.com/display/LAV/Live+Link+from+Revit.

Best regards,
Alexander

[minicoop]

Thank you,

This helped much (esp., your explanations). Is it possible to work on the scene, after leaving the live link, to populate with Cosmos assets, then at a future time, in the event there are any changes to the original Revit geometry, resynch the Revit model only without hurting the edits done in Vantage, outside of the live link? Also, can simple materials applied in Revit, so long as they are converted to Vray materials(?), be fine tuned in Vantage (color changes to a plaster wall, for instance?).

Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to assist a newbie.

Best,

M.

[Alexander.Atanasov]

Hi Moni,

Is it possible to work on the scene, after leaving the live link, to populate with Cosmos assets, then at a future time, in the event there are any changes to the original Revit geometry, resynch the Revit model only without hurting the edits done in Vantage, outside of the live link?

I would suggest when you are finished with the live link you save (if you have any changes, created cameras, created camera animations etc) a .vantage file and export a .vrscene. Then load that .vrscene in Vantage, load the saved .vantage file using File>Open Scene As Config Only... A tip here is if you name the .vrscene and .vantage file with the same name then when loading the vrscene Vantage will automatically load the .vantage file and you will not need to go through File>Open Scene As Config Only.
When you have your scene loaded you can add cosmos assets, fur, scene states, reassign materials, etc in standalone Vantage. Don't forget to save your changes in the .vantage file. If you need to update the revit model - make your changes and just re-export and override the .vrscene file. Then when you open it in Vantage the changes you made previously should be applied to the newly export scene.

Also, can simple materials applied in Revit, so long as they are converted to Vray materials(?), be fine tuned in Vantage (color changes to a plaster wall, for instance?).

Material editing is currently not possible in Vantage but it is in the future TO DO list.

Hope this helps you in your workflow.

Best regards,
Alexander

[minicoop]

Alexander.Atanasov

Thank you so much for everything. This really put things into perspective, and I hope you guys implement the ability to edit materials soon. You nailed it with the last release, with displacement, etc. Material editing on the fly, with an interested party sitting by our sides would be a killer feature.
(I mean, that is the essential benefit of real time workflow, making changes visible in live sessions, with clients, learners, etc.).

All the best,

Moni