Justin Hunt

The decision has been made and now we are switching to Revit as out BIM solution. Anyone got any good tips for optimizing the models and workflow for rendering in Max9. At the moment we are exporting a ACAD2007 dwg and file linking it into Max.

My issue is in how max deals with the model,
why all the blocks?
why the 1000000000000000000's of objects? and any way of optimizing the object count?
Is there a way to link via Layer?

We are well experienced in bringing in ADT and ACAD models and have ironed out the File Link issues, now we need to get Revit under control

any help and suggestions welcome

JHV

Jorbu

We're dealing with the same issues and haven't found an easy solution. I too would like to know if anyone has some experience in dealing with this.

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arnold@asylumstudio.co.za

..this is not a solution but might help you along as we deal with a lot of those issues as most of our clients are on revit. When they export for us a dwg file we will open that in autocad and export each layer out in 3ds format. then we bring that into max and that tends to make it tidier and in layers. Not the fastest process but atleast it is workable as you do not get millions of layers and it is much easier to navigate in max. One more advise... Redraw the glass as revit draws each panel seperately and tends to create millions of polygons. We usually get rid of all the panels and redraw and that tends to help. This is not a solution by any means but does help to manage it better...

gfa2

Yeah, this all seems pretty ridiculous. I've been fighting this for awhile and I was hoping that by the time I got to the bottom of this post someone would have laid out the perfect conditions for this work flow. Guess not.

I'm sure Arnold's method works, sounds like it would, but I might as well get out my stone tablet and chisel....you've got to be kidding me!!!!

Part of me is surprised that these 2 Autodesk products don't work better together (because this is not a new problem), but the other part knows better than to hope they ever will.

Vince Paske

I'm dealing with the same issue, and I must say it's quite a mess. I wish Autodesk would've thought this one through a little bit more. Not only do you get the endless list of layers, but if you edit one of the solids exported from Revit in Autocad, it doesn't translate into 3dsMax very well. For instance, I wanted to add a soldier course of brick into a wall without going back into Revit so I just sliced the wall and named the piece 3d-Brick Soldier (this is real early in the design process and solid modeling for me is just faster than dealing with Revit's wall types, for now at least). Re-loading the modeling, the part I sliced out was still associated with the original wall and I couldn't assign it a different material. Strange and very frustrating.

Justin Hunt

I was going through the Revit and Max help files yesterday, it seems that it is working by design, pitty the design is flawed.

One thing I did try way exploding all the blocks in ACAD and then linking into max. This enabled some of the objects to come in as one, especially the glass. Wall were still individual, which is OK.

There was some mention of if the same material is assigned to say window frames and the mullions it should come through as one object. I cant seem to get this to work though.

It is ironic that since Max's conception it has been drummed into the user to control the object count and now that Revit has come along that mantra has been thrown out the window.

JHV

NOsher

I always export as "ACIS solids" and explode any blocks like Justin had mentioned. Not sure if this has any effect yet, but I've stopped linking the DWG into MAX/VIZ and just used the Import option. Typically by the time I'm rendering the project is nearly finished. Any last minute items that need to go into the rendering I export as individual DWGs by copy/paste into a blank project.

Other things to consider:

Turn off worksets (if worksets are enabled) that contain objects that will never be seen before exporting. [i.e.-electrical, plumbing, etc.]

I would be curious to see if there is any difference (polys) in topo generation between Revit & MAX/VIZ. Anyone done this?

Razorback

In the early days of max the link by layer will tidy up the process and attach objects by layer but this doesn't seems to work now the objects were still come in as individual objects.

Is this a bug?

mindway69

I have been trying to research the best workflow for Revit to Max and still be able to keep Revit material modifications made in max. This thread is a little old, so hopefully a new inquiry in it will spark some new developments.

Here is what I tried:
1. export .dwg out of revit as ACIS solids.
2. link .dwg to max with FLM, using revit presets. It still creates tons of objects with the same name, which can be problematic, but it sounds like there are workarounds that can be utilized if I explode the blocks in CAD).
3. selected a material created out of revit (kept the name it came in with), applied a decent bitmap and did a few tweaks to make it looks right, selected all objects with that material on it and applied a UVW map.
4. went back to revit, created a new wall in the same style and with the same material as the one I modified from revit, and re-exported the file as the same .dwg name.
5. went back to max, updated the link to see if the new wall would come in but with the modifications to the material already in effect.

What ended up happening was that the wall came in (woo hoo!) but the material that I had modified in the scene got screwy EVERYWHERE. Not just on the new wall.....al the objects that had it applied to it changed and looked like they had 2 materials on it....is it possible that it updated with another material name and that it conflicted with the modified one? The name of the material on the new wall I created was not the same as the previous one, which makes me think that the import/link process automatically generates a name with random numbers in it each time.

A co-worker of mine also suggested I look into FBX imports, but I haven't found much useful info about that yet. Any suggestions, experience or advice is greatly appreciated.

Vince Paske

Well, to be honest, I've found re-drawing the model using acad-solids, with my layer names (which are according to material, which is quite often more "complete" and thought through than Revit's) is more expedient than dealing with the mess of a Revit model. I find it's still faster than creating a model from 2d drawings and the amount of mistakes is less.

It's still a bummer that it doesn't work better, it seems like we are working backwards re-modeling, but then the Revit models aren't that great anyway. Doors, windows and some of the other finer details which make a good model aren't "there" yet in Revit models, so I'd have to re-do them anyway.

I think it's going to be a while before Autodesk resolves the FLM in Max to work well with Autocad and Revit. It seems buggy now with just regular dwg's with no Reveit imports. It still drops material assignments randomly on change geometry in the dwg file.