Workflow: Revit2010 2 Max Design2010 Vray

[u4ia]

Hi Guys and Girls,

I'm sitting and waiting for the materials to propagate and I'm thinking:

What is your process to get from Revit 2010 to Max Design 2010 Vray materials?

We are trying FBX on a 103MB Revit model. Translation takes a while (+- 1 hour on a Quad-Core 2.4 /4GB RAM pc) FBX file is around 250MB
FBX creates MultiSub Materials. Less objects but more time to apply repair materials.

We've also tried going dwg. With changes in settings you can let is split the walls into polygons according to material. It makes it a little easier to apply mats

Any ideas on how you guys do it?

[beestee]

The only time I have successfully worked with an iteratively updated Revit file was using DWGs exported as polymesh. Split polygons were used for same surface material differentiation like you mentioned.

Since we needed to be able to continuously iterate updates from the Revit model we attempted to use file linking and found some holes in the way it is supposed to work. We did end up using the file linking, but our final workflow was to attach the newly updated dwg with the previous linked model still attached to the scene in order to preserve material assignments, then detach the old dwg.

You have to be very careful with the materials. Naming and organizing them appropriately in Revit saves many headaches in the iterative updating process. And most importantly, avoid changing the names of the materials once you have the file in Max and you won't have to rely as heavily on the shoddy file link features.

If you have the list of materials and their names available from Revit, you can create your custom material library in Max before the model is complete. Apply each material to a box somewhere in the max file in which you will be doing the file link, then as long as the material names are 100 percent consistent, everything should import using your custom materials when using the file link option to maintain scene material definitions and assignments. Not sure if these will propegate through multi-sub definitions or not in the case of the FBX file, or if perhaps there is a tool or utility that might be able to handle that?

I also don't remember the size of the Revit files we were working with, so the other dwg and file link methods may break when the scene becomes too heavy. Anyways, I hope some of this might help you.

[DanielBrew]

Apply each material to a box somewhere in the max file in which you will be doing the file link, then as long as the material names are 100 percent consistent, everything should import using your custom materials when using the file link option to maintain scene material definitions and assignments. Not sure if these will propegate through multi-sub definitions or not in the case of the FBX file, or if perhaps there is a tool or utility that might be able to handle that?

There is an easier way . If you save all your identically named VRay 'Revit' materials to a library, you can use the 'update scene materials from library' button in Max.

Dan

[rmejia]

I export to dwg and replace all materials in Max. A very important thing to do, as has been mentioned, is to use the same identical name for materials in Revit and in Max, well at least if you end up using file linking and updating the model.

[beestee]

There is an easier way . If you save all your identically named VRay 'Revit' materials to a library, you can use the 'update scene materials from library' button in Max.

Dan

Definitely easier! Thank you.

[pixelplume]

hidden gem in the fbx help file

this is unrelated to materials, but i found it after digging through the help files and it turned out to be a big help when importing revit models.

a script for - Removing visible edges from imported FBX models

Use this script to hide any unwanted edges from imported models, typically Revit models loaded in 3ds Max using FBX.
To use the script, select any objects in the scene you want to hide edges and drag and drop the following script in the 3ds Max viewport.
NoteThis script filters out any non-editable meshes so it does not work for Epoly Patches or other entities.

function setVisibilityEdges obj = ( subobjectLevel = 2 edgeSelSet=#() -- Init. an Array for face = 1 to obj.numfaces do -- Go through all faces for edge = 1 to 3 do -- And for every of the 3 edges append edgeSelSet (((face-1)*3)+edge) --collect the edge meshop.autoedge obj edgeSelSet 5 type:#setclear -- Select all visible edges --update obj)for obj in Selection do try ( if (classof obj == Editable_Mesh) do setVisibilityEdges obj )catch ( enablesceneredraw() redrawviews() )enablesceneredraw()redrawviews()


hope this of some use and if not, perhaps someone digging through these forums will put it to good use.

Sean

[flino2004]

http://www.npowersoftware.com/transl...x_Overview.htm

I haven't tried this tool yet, any feedback?

[Neilg]

I've not tried it, but I have tried their rhino -> max and various other tools.
Every one of them has been rock solid and pretty much the best option for the job, so it's worth looking into. npower are pretty good at this sort of thing.