Revit and Vray

[greg04]

for some strange and unexplained reasoning my company wants to substitute Viz2007 with Revit whatever version and my question regarding that swap.
Will Revit be able to work with Vray? or should i persuade IT and directors to stick with Viz/max?
thank for the answers

Greg

[DanielBrew]

Hi Greg,

There isn't a version of VRay for Revit yet and I don't know if there is one in the pipeline, only Chaos can answer that. I don't even know if you can use 3rd party renderers with Revit at all.

You can however use Max's file link to XREF revit drawings directly into Max (not sure about Viz). I've used the file link to ADT which is similar and it works pretty well once you've set it up. You can even set your materials in ADT and them get substituted for VRay mats once the model is imported. There are pros and cons but once you're up to speed drawing buildings is much quicker in a dedicated building package than in Max or Viz. You've got a steep learning curve before you get to that level though.

Dan

[robban]

hello Daniel

would you mind sharing your experiences about ADT- Max file linking?
Architectural business in sweden is rapidly switching to ADT and we arte standig in face of learnig ADT or at least this smart linking thing.

Robert

[DanielBrew]

Hi Robban,

Yes, of course. Mostly positive experiences so far. The only negative is the amount of work you have to do setting up the libraries of styles for walls, doors and windows etc. But if you are getting complete ADT buildings to visualise then that might not be a problem.

The problem you will have then is the quality of the models you are given by architects. The models you get probably won't be built with VRay visualisation in mind. All the models I get here are generated in-house and I had a big part in designing the work flow here. So I usually only need to tidy the ADT files before file linking to Max.

When it is set up correctly the advantages are huge but it takes investment both in time and finacially. We (team of 8 ) all had a week of training at a reseller which can't have been cheap. Then it took a few months to switch over from regular Autocad.

Dan

[calvino56]

I think your company needs to look more carefully at this move. Revit is not a visualization program. Yes it can do renderings and simple animations, but its real strength is the creation of construction documents based on the BIM paradigm. Revit is not a "replacement" for Viz, they are two very very different tools for a different purposes.
Also, unless I'm missing something new, you cannot file-link Revit models directly into Viz or Max, you have to export them to .dwg format first. This results in a model that is full of faces you dont need in visualization and plenty of other "gotcha's" (like when a designer puts 3d models of toilets in his revit model!).
The company I work for is making the switch to Revit and its a smart move considering the momentum in the idustry towards BIM. However, I the models I get from the designers aren't suitable for vis. purposes and I re-model everything, cleaner, lighter and with more detail orientated for the purposes of a rendering.

[Giovanni]

Well, actually Revit does integrate with MAX, using the file link manager.
Now, revit 9 and MAX 8 do interact much better than simply exporting / Importing DWG...

Once you have done with your Revit model, you export as DWG, and there is an option to preserve the material information.

In MAX, you link the model in, then assign your materials over the Revit materials. Next time you update the model, you re-write the DWG file, and Reload in MAX, again setting an option which preserves the materials assignements in your scene.

I am just playing with the two, these days, but it looks promising so far.

The Revit model in MAX renders very well, and althought it may be a bit on the heavy side, and it may take a bit longer to render than if it was remodeled in MAX, I would never do that today.

I basically use Revit for designing and modeling, and max for rendering and animation...


regards

gio

[robban]

thanks Daniel

it looks like im in exactly same situation here. 100 architects doing things in ADT and 4 of us trying to help with visualisations....Im just starting at this place and they are just switching to ADT so it will not be easy. If i can have some influence on the workflow here, from first drowing to final presentation whats would you say is the most important thing having in mind max + vray as the endstation?

robert

[DanielBrew]

Hi Robert,

I think you should concentrate on putting together a library of styles for doors, windows and walls etc. that you can substitute for those used by the architects. Obviously you are much more concerned with what the model looks like than whether you can extract an accurate bill of materials. So your walls could include things like skirting detail, head trim detail. Below are a few examples of our wall styles.

Door styles can include the correct door handles and materials for example.


Hope some of that helps,

Dan[/img]

[robban]

thanks, i will look into it.

[visualride]

If your talking about work flow from design to final image, I would like to suggest using Sketchup. It is extremely smart and fast for massing out a structure. Last week I created (or compiled from existing projects) my own extensive door and window library that I can drop into a model like ADT. I can create a single family home in an hour or so in Sketchup with the client looking over my shoulder, where as I wouldn't try this in Max, or ADT.

[instinct]

where as I wouldn't try this in Max, or ADT.

Then go practice max!

sorry for off-topic....couldnt resist :P And am of course kidding....wouldnt dare either lol

Thorsten

[greg04]

thanks to all for all the answers.
i have already expalained the situation to my IT gurus, but they are just hardware people. now the big topic in the IT section is ARTVPS which i need to explain to them as well. instead of helping me they are just messing things up - is it the case in every bigger company?

my projects are modeled 70% in sketchup and 30% in Viz as needed.

i would love to model everything in Viz, but as visualride wrote, SU is fast and simple.
and as i do a lot of presentation sketches Su is the tool to kick start the project and Viz/Vray to photoreal finish it

thanks again

[beestee]

...instead of helping me they are just messing things up - is it the case in every bigger company?

We have ~300 employees here, and the IT guy that we have to use is hard to deal with. We explain to him what we need, why we need it, and how we need it configured...when we get it, it isn't anything like what we asked for and it has to be reconfigured to even get it to work with our applications.

For instance, every machine he builds uses intel processors, not that intel processors are bad in and of themselves, but they are expensive. When he configures them, they have hyper-threading enabled, effectively giving us use of only half of the processor when working in VIZ. The machines are already dual processor, so there is no need for HT. He uses high end gaming video cards, spending enough on them to justify the purchase of a mid range quadro/firegl that is tailored specifically for what we do. It doesn't seem to matter when we prove to him why we need what we need, because it is always disregarded

But we are 3D arch vis specialists, what do we know? :P

[sbravo]

I split my time about 50-50 between architectural construction documents & project management and 3D arch visualization. At home I run Max 7, Vray and Revit - I build my own dual processor PCs usually using the fastest current processor for the $- leading edge but not bleading edge. The last Video card I bought (3+ years ago) is a Nvidia Quadro 750xgl and almost due for replacment. I even have a hyper threaded laptop that I'll network render with. I understand what hardware to have to get the most out of (within a budget) At the office I work at we use macs. We use Archicad because it's about the best choice for the mac. Coming from Revit and having done quite a few sets of architetural working drawings I understand the advantages of a BIM- whatever program.
I cannot convince our boss and the other mac lemmings that we need better than the basic video card, especially as our bim models grow in complexity, which you cannot upgrade with the iMac - but we buy them cause they look nice and oh look how simple... and yes they do and are but they are for production not looks. My point is this obliviance to the real world comes in many forms.
I would make sure your IT guy is familiar with publications like 3D World - and request from his boss is he they put in some time to understand the need of the programs you use - take this to the top - If you simply put it as "look we are wasiting $ not to do it right" and show the #'s (remember time = $) either from a review by a website or a publication - you will be more likely get the support you need. I once showed our VP (at another company) that we were taking 10-30 sec longer to open and save files due to not enough ram - mutiplied it by an average of files we open on any given day and by how many employees were doing this (about 12) and it ended up translating into somthing like $1200 of wasted time per week - not to mention the opportunity to say oh I'm saving, guess I'll go see whats in the kitchen while I wait - 10 min later... The $1200 was as much as the total $ we needed to upgrade 1/2 our machines - I had my purchase order within days. As all else you do with rendering sometimes you have to think outside the box and be the squeeky wheel - just make sure your get oiled not canned.

Good luck