AndyThomas

If I produce a revit model and then export it as a dwg to 3VIz will it then be able to receive all textures etc the same as a model made in 3dViz itself?

The reason I ask is that I am intending to buy 3dViz to start some decent renderings from revit models and would appreciate any knowledge of difficulties encountered with this.

I am just learning to render and cannot get any decent results using the accurender given with Revit.

All advice greatly appreciated.

Andy

arnold@asylumstudio.co.za

...revit is actually a cause of many frustrations for us.. Yes you are able to import revit files into viz or max as a .dwg or 3ds file however it poses all sorts of problems and issues as during the process every single facia of an object gets split and comes as thousands of layers which becomes a mission to texture, not to mention the model is very heavy and extremely heavy to manouvre. Most of the time we just land redrawing it all together to make our lifes easier. There is a rumour going around that the revit which is coming out beginning of the year i believe, will have this sorted out and the importing and exporting should be resolved. We will see it, than we will believe it....

Hope that helps..

bigcahunak

Exporting a DWG from Revit to be used in VIZ is one of the better options accept for VIZ modeling. The REVIT>DWG>VIZ has so much control ovr the process which you wont find anywhere. You CAN'T just export to DWG and expect it work for you.
In Revit there is an EXPORT setting dialogue box that lets you pick and choose a color ID for each and every part of an object, so for example a door would have different IDs for its frame, swing, glass, hardware... for ease of matterial applying in VIZ through multi/sub-object mat type. Same goes with every objectlike stairs, railings, windows... You can save and load different DWG exporting standarts depending on which program you intend to export to and the way it handles.
Revit exporting is VIEW SPECIFIC, so you have to be in a 3D view when you actually export.
Inside VIZ, use file link, and you have to make sure "Unify Normals" Option is uncheck.
As with every program, some things would be smarter to model directly in VIZ for better UVW. Same goes with for furnitures, trees and other small stuff that are better to be inserted in VIZ from a library.

CRD

I am currently working on my first rendering that is based on a Revit model. I have not found a good way to export the model and get it into Viz where the mesh comes in cleanly. My problem is that every piece of mullion or whatever is a seperate object. And each object has a blank Block object associated with it which doubles my object count.

So my model on has 150,000 faces, which I consider very manageable, but the 20,000 objects are ridiculous. The display drags, regens take forever, rendering is slower, just about everything is slower. My current solution is to manually collapse all objects that share a material, and then delete the empty Block objects. This totally destroys the benefit of file linking, but it's the only way I can make this building responsive to work with.

The best benefit to rendering a Revit model in Viz, is that I'm not having to build the geometry. So now I can concentrate on materials, lighting, and all the extras.

If anyone has a better workflow for large projects, I would love to hear it.

Colin

Scott Davis

In Revit, there is an option upon exporting to export 3D faces, or ACIS solids. Sounds like you exported faces instead of solids.

CRD

It's not a problem of if the exported object has faces or is a solid, it's a problem with how Viz/Max imports the block/group/parent/whatever relationship that is causing me heartburn.

Does anyone else have this importing problem?

czoog

I've never really noticed it as a problem, but then again, I've never modeled anything in viz from scratch, so i guess my expectations are not high. The scenes can get heavy, but I've never had one that is unworkable. We always link, because there are always changes

We use vray, so that helps as well. Vray doesn't seem to care as much about large scenes, heavy geometry, etc. I've thrown some gigantic scenes at vray and it always renders them.

czoog

CRD, you might want to check your import settings. I just checked our largest job which is just a hair under 2 million faces (detailed model of three midrise buildings on 12 city blocks). The object count was 17,000 total for all linked dwgs.


hth,

-Z