Vray Archvision Style crashes Revit 2018

[dphorvath]

Archvision is telling me that Vray is the reason why Revit crashes when using the Archvision Styles plugin.
is this true and if so, does anyone know the status of this fix?
using latest vray latest revit and latest archvision
dave

[Ana Lyubenova]

Hi dphorvath,

Can you send us a screenshot of the error popup?
As well as your exact V-Ray for Revit version

Best,
Ana

[dphorvath]

Hi Ana,
I tried turning off all ArchVision items in the scene to be rendered.
This is a rendered scene that worked out beautifully before the recent Vray update I installed. Now I cant get passed this stage of a rendered scene, see attached screen snapshot. It seems to crash at "Building BVH tree" stage, whatever that is.
I'm thinking that there are some settings in the Vray settings area that need to be adjusted properly perhaps. Not sure why Vray doesn't offer a simple setup for users. Seems like so much energy and time is lost experimenting.
Also seems odd that Vray does not have any instruction information for the new update interface, sort of leaves us hanging...
Thanks for your help.
Dave

[dphorvath]

As a follow up, I have tried setting materials to all Global Materials because I have a hunch that my problem may be material mapping issues after installing the new Vray update. If this is the case, I'm in for a long session of material editing. Something about the update doesn't seem right to me. It shouldn't cause this much effort to get up and running.
I now get 'not enough memory' message (as I type this reply I was rendering nicely in Global material mode, but it then crashed.), I have a new Boxx pc, so I have to make some memory adjustments I suppose..... This also shouldn't be such an effort.
Anyway, let me know your thoughts.
Thanks again,
DpH

[Ana Lyubenova]

Hi DpH,

Thank you for the detailed feedback!
Yesterday we released a hotfix which can be downloaded from our website (https://download.chaosgroup.com/?product=47&platform=55). Note that you will need to login with your credentials first. Can you please install the hotfix (3.60.02) and let us know if the problem still persists?
Would be great if you share some info about your exact computer configuration (CPU, GPU, RAM amount etc.).
Were you running an interactive rendering or a production one before the crash occurs? Did you performed it on CPU or on GPU?
Did you use any custom made materials that you created on your own with the previous 3.5 version?

Regarding the settings, I encourage you to subscribe for the V-Ray for Revit webinar next week. (The link is available on the top banner of our official page https://www.chaosgroup.com/) It is free and we will look in detail at the new features.

Regards,
Ana

[dphorvath]

Ana,
I've updated to 3.60.03, after trying 3.60.02 and still have the same problem.
ArchVision is aware of the problem and tells me that Chaos is working on fixing the issue.
I installed Revit 2019 and the problem doesn't happen with ArchVision, because Vray isn't plugged into Revit 2019.
Hopefully the next Vray for Revit 2019 version has this issue fixed.
My PC is a Boxx S3 workstation. 32gb Ram, Windows 10 Pro, Intel 3.7ghz i7 processor, powerful Nvidia GPU. It's a very new computer from Boxx.
The key now is to hope this is fixed for the next version of Vray for Revit.
Thanks,
Dave

[Ana Lyubenova]

Hi Dave,
Can you make it crash once again and send us the latest Revit journal from: C:\Users\<your username>\AppData\Local\Autodesk\Revit\Autodesk Revit 2018

Thanks,
Ana

[dphorvath]

Sorry for the late reply Ana, below is a snapshot of the crash which is easy to recreate.
Revit 2018; when Vray is active and ArchVision is active, when I click on Styles tab, the error happens. This does not happen with Revit 2019 and ArchVision, probably because Vray is not active in 2019 yet.

[dphorvath]

As a quick follow up, let me explain what I'm attempting to do. Perhaps I wont have to worry about the Styles setting in ArchVision if Vray can do what I'd like to do.
I'm trying to make my ArchVision RPCs a bit transparent, maybe 30% or so. I was going to create this as a Style in ArchVision. However perhaps I can make all of my ArchVision elements semitransparent with Vray material or other settings? I don't want to do this item by item, but by category because I may have hundreds of rpc's in a view (ie; landscape, cars, people, etc...).
If you have any suggestions here, I'd love to not worry about the Styles tab in Archivision.
If no suggestions to achieve my goal, then I hope Vray can correct this issue in the next version of Vray for Revit, as ArchVision mentions that this is a Vray issue.
Thanks again.
Dave

[Ana Lyubenova]

Hi Dave,

In the V-Ray Asset Browser, there is an option which overrides all RPCs in the project either with a color or a V-Ray material. Navigate to the Global Materials tab and enable the RPC material override. Use the transparency slider to make the RPCs transparent. That's it.

Best,
Ana

[dphorvath]

Update: I've updated to Revit 2019, downloaded the Archvision for Revit 2019 plugin, and also the latest Vray for Revit update today. So far the Archvision Styles button does not crash while Revit and Vray License are both active. I'll explore and see if I can create a Archvision Style that has some transparency in the RPCs, and then see if those RPCs also render with the transparency with Vray for Revit.
I did not get the RPCs to have transparency as you suggested prior Ana. The only way to even assign a transparency with Vray was to use a color instead of using the true RPC image, and when I tried a color with transparent assigned, the rendered image still had not transparency.. I'm going to be optimistic and see if I can get it to work now that all three softwares are updated and appear to work at the same time.
DpH

[Ana Lyubenova]

Hi Dave,

Can you please send me some screenshots with your V-Ray Global overrides settings and the image output (with transparent RPCs).
Please, send them at support@chaosgroup.com and write my name under subject.

Thanks,
Ana

[Ana Lyubenova]

Another question: do you want to set different colors for the different RPC types? I.e. one color for trees, another one for people etc.?
Why don't you try replacing some of the RPCs with V-Ray proxies?