I normally don’t work with models that were created with all surfaces in autocad, but this time I am and it has been such a nightmare because of the fact that Vray will not force 2 sided materials like Standard, Brazil, or FinalRender. What is the big deal!? I eventually had to give up trying to fix the normals and switch to standard materials which I hate doing because they don’t render the same.
There’s gotta be an easy fix for this. Right? :?
Tim, could you post an example of whats not working?
We use autocad solids everyday and have no issues.
Yes, you are right. I always use solids too and they work perfectly since you don’t have to worry about normals with them.
But this time I am doing a job for another company where they sent me the model, made entirely of surfaces and thats when you start having problems. In order for the surface normal to be facing the right way you have to create the surface in a counterclockwise order. And whoever made the model obviously didn’t need to worry about that because they use Brazil where you can use 2 sided materials. But for us Vray’ers it is a huge problem.
!!! i totally agree !!! cost me more than just a few hours of my life flipping faces because vray can´t deal with it !!! especially when you want to use reflection. fR and brazil have no problem with…it´s really shame vray has…
Can you not unify the normals as you import the model into max ?
No, that usually makes them even worse! Sometimes the normal modifier will work, but not all the time.
Hi Timmatron, i import 90% (more) from autocad.
I totally agree with natty about that function, better to disable the “Unify normals”… it makes nonsense results sometimes.
I don’t have problems with solids, since i disabled and is better for me to use the new import function not “autocad legacy.. bla bla”. We don’t use “force 2 sided” AT ALL!!!
What AutoCAD version are u using?.. we’re “still” 2004
Bye,
Marco
Thanks Marco. But like I said the problem is not with solids, but surfaces only. I am using 2004 as well.
Tim,
There are other applications that have a Face Normals problem too. I believe there is a solution planned for this is in the works by Vlado and Peter.
Corey
Man, I sure hope so. I just wish it had been addressed already since in another 3 weeks I probably won’t have to deal with this again for a long time.
Hey, congrats to ASGVIS on all your great work. I know a lot of people will be very grateful!
I hear you Tim. Did you use the vraymtl wrapper on the standard material? Render times speed up a little and you could still get some nice material effects if that’s what your missing.
Thanks for the kind words. We’ll see you at SIGGRAPH. You still have my cell right? If not PM me.
Regards,
Corey
No, haven’t tried the wrapper on it yet, but I will.
Yep, got your cell. See ya there!
ops.. sorry i didn’t read well…
Marco
I feel your pain!!! I do alot of product design stuff where the designers give me files from Pro E or Solid works. Some of these files have THOUSANDS of surfaces. To sit and flip is just F---ing stupid. I have to use maya/metal ray. Never get the same beautiful results as vray. Breathlessly waiting for maya and vray, and also praying that the normals problem will be fixed there, if not, I’m off to Rhino/Brazil. With the product stuff atleast…
Why not turn on force 2-sided in the common render rollout?
Woah…Why didn’t I see this before!? It works! The only problem is that you still see missing faces in your viewport, but it renders just fine. Thanks! You’ve saved me a lot of trouble. But it would still be nice to see this option in the Vray materials in the near future.
man I almost suggested this but thought it was too obvious…doh
shame you cant just slap the client across the head and tell them to model better
or… remodel everything. 
The number of times I have gotten a model from a client that was easier and faster to use than to remodel, I can count on no hands.
(Other than CG subcontract jobs - usually )
You can also turn on force two sided in the viewport configuration.
-Shane