Revit and Vray

[voltron7]

I'm sorry if this is the wrong section, but,
I need to advise a client how to best send me a revit model that
will work with vray.
It's got all it's materials setup, etc.

They sent me a dxf of the revit model, and said all the materials should be in it this way, but after a few test imports, there are no materials assigned to anything. Otherwise, the geometry seemed to come in fairly clean....Any advise from experienced Revit model importers?

I'm importing it with max9

Thank you,
JR

[ingo]

Best is if they sent you as DWG in ASCI solids NOT as Polymesh!!! If you have max2008 all finishes will come into max (wall layers e.g.)
If you are not sure if there will be any chn ages to the model "File link it..." until everything is final. Then when relinking the model all the materials will stay.


Hope that helps.

Ingo

[voltron7]

Thanks ingo, very helpful

[glorybound]

Revit

What do you mean all finishes? I am not sure I would use the finishes provided to my via the Revit model. What I do utilize is the layers. Usually, in our case, all the elements have patterns with some pretty week textures, which are not used. Are you using max 2008 and Revit?

[voltron7]

Sorry, I meant each object already has it's finish assigned, and I don't plan to use the actual materials, just to save me from picking each object and figuring out what it's supposed to get for a material.
I'm using Max9, the client is using Revit. Thanks

[voltron7]

Best is if they sent you as DWG in ASCI solids NOT as Polymesh!!! If you have max2008 all finishes will come into max (wall layers e.g.)
If you are not sure if there will be any chn ages to the model "File link it..." until everything is final. Then when relinking the model all the materials will stay.


Hope that helps.

Ingo

If you don't mind, Ingo, could you please elaborate on how they could choose DWG in ASCI?

[PixelJockey]

When exporting from Revit as a DWG, click on the Options button. That will pop-up another dialog box where you will find a drop-down list under Solids which as two options to choose from - polymesh or solids.

I agree with the other comments about using solids. It is definitely the way to go. Polymesh results in weird fragments bits of geometry.

[rmejia]

The geometry does come in nicely with the ACIS solids but the materials don't. Probably depends on how the materials where applied, I use the paint tool to apply materials to the object faces. With polymesh export they all come in with the materials well applied, easily substituted in Max. With ACIS the materials come in messed up, as multi sub object materials making it hard to substitute materials.

ACIS = good geometry, bad materials
Poly = good materials, bad geometry

I always use polymesh because of the material issue.

[beestee]

The geometry does come in nicely with the ACIS solids but the materials don't. Probably depends on how the materials where applied, I use the paint tool to apply materials to the object faces. With polymesh export they all come in with the materials well applied, easily substituted in Max. With ACIS the materials come in messed up, as multi sub object materials making it hard to substitute materials.

ACIS = good geometry, bad materials
Poly = good materials, bad geometry

I always use polymesh because of the material issue.

Funny, becuase I see the same debate in just about every visualization forum that deals with Revit and Max interoperability...after working quite extensively with this interoperability, I came to the same conclusion as rmejia.

Anytime I get a revit file I now request it in Polymesh export exclusively, with the "Create one scene object for each AutoCAD Architecture one" option turned on in my revit file link preset. It is a lose lose situation because either way you are probably going to have problems, but you just have to determine which problems you are more efficient at dealing with

[glorybound]

Revit

I just found this:

http://area.autodesk.com/index.php/t...chup_into_max/

[gilpo]

The problem is that using the paintbucket tool to texture in Revit is not the proper way to texture. It's simply a hack to get around certain problems when rendering inside of Revit with Accurender. If you assign the material to the objects in the object properties boxes, they will come in just fine in Max. Once you spend a little time setting up your types and families with proper materials, you'll never need to export as polymesh again.

However, given this case, where the file is coming from another company, I'd ask for both files, solids and polymesh. Keep 2 instances of max open and use the solids version for working and rendering, and use the polymesh as reference to material locations. Every time we've used a polymesh model for rendering we've been sorry. Just my 2 cents.

Good luck!

[glorybound]

Revit

I have been using Revit for several years now and I am split on if it is making my workflow smoother. Revit makes it so easy to get a decent model, but it isn't perfect and I can model much better in max, but it is slower. I guess I would take a decent Revit model (which almost anyone can create now) then a poorly done max model. I can assure you we all have to start getting used to the B.I.M. model because it isn't going away. I have read peoples web pages that state "we do not give discounts if you supply us with your own model".... I think this behavior will change.

[Giovanni]

Revit to MAX seems to me a well established and trouble free workflow.
I am not sure I understand the troubles posted earlier in the thread.

So far, I have never needed to export ACIS form Revit. The default polymesh just works.
Moreover, any material assignment in Revit (even with paint bucket), works just fine once you link the DWG into MAX.

Rarely you will need to do some mapping in MAX, anymore.

All you need is swapping the architectural materials preassigned in the original DWG with vray materials (same name). Once you built the vray library, you can keep modeling in Revit, re-export, re-load into MAX and hit "render".

Finally, yes, the DXF format does not hold material information form Revit.
Oh, BTW, the fact that Revit attempts to save mapping information into the DWG is pretty irrelevant, since professional renderers will always use vray materials. What is important is the assignment of specific materials to set of faces. After that, all you need is the name of the material, it really does not matter its color, maps, etc., all stuff coming from Revit.

regards

gio

[ingo]

Giovanni...make a little test....
Take your revit model export it as polymesh and then export it as ACSI solids and name it a fifferent name. Then compare file sizes. The polymesh is almost twice as big than the ACSI solids. And when you are using the file link manager in max all changes that you have to make on your revit model will be updated in max but the materials stay.


Ingo

[glorybound]

Revit

I just got a Revit model and I have decided to model it over in MAX. I think the Revit model will save me time because things have been figured out and the drawing coordination is perfect, but the model was done poorly and I can anticipate issues down stream with it.

I exported the elevations, which flattens them perfectly, and I am bringing the flatten elevation into MAX. I have had some good models and some bad models.... it is very job specific.