Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 17

Thread: Assign rendering materials to revit materials?

  1. #1
    100 Club dtownsend's Avatar
    Join Date
    2006-06
    Location
    Atlanta, GA
    Posts
    163
    Login to Give a bone
    0

    Default Assign rendering materials to revit materials?

    I wanted to ask you guy if there is a better/faster way to assign rendering materials to revit materials?

    We got a model from an Architect and it doesn't have any rendering materials assigned, so when we render it everything is grey. The model is very detailed and has (what appears to be) hundreds of materials with no rendering materials assigned.

    The problem is when we assign a rendering material to a revit material it takes about 5-20 mins to for Revit to stop thinking.

    Basically just looking to see if you guys have any best practices or know something that I don't!

    Thanks

  2. #2
    Active Member
    Join Date
    2015-10
    Posts
    72
    Login to Give a bone
    0

    Default Re: Assign rendering materials to revit materials?

    Is it a Revit file too? if it is, then maybe the problem is that the file is not finding the material library, you could ask the architect to give you his library, then just make sure the path on your Revit is directed to the right library.

  3. #3
    All AUGI, all the time Elmo's Avatar
    Join Date
    2005-04
    Location
    South Africa
    Posts
    959
    Login to Give a bone
    0

    Default Re: Assign rendering materials to revit materials?

    What might be the problem is that the architect has his own custom rendering materials that will not come across to your machine because you do not have them. What you need to do is ask him to copy his rendering folder under C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Autodesk\Revit Building 9.1\Rendering. Zip it and e-mail it to you. Or cut it on a CD and send it to you. This should fix the problem. Unless he put "materials" as in he didn't put rendering materials then what you are doing is the only process that you can use.

  4. #4
    AUGI Addict ws's Avatar
    Join Date
    2004-09
    Location
    Ambleside, Lake District, UK
    Posts
    1,222
    Login to Give a bone
    0

    Default Re: Assign rendering materials to revit materials?

    So Revit projects do not save the Accurender materials within them ?

    They seem to be so integrated when setting up Materials that I also assumed they would be saved within the project.

  5. #5
    All AUGI, all the time robert.manna's Avatar
    Join Date
    2005-05
    Location
    Boston
    Posts
    777
    Login to Give a bone
    0

    Default Re: Assign rendering materials to revit materials?

    Quote Originally Posted by ws
    So Revit projects do not save the Accurender materials within them ?

    They seem to be so integrated when setting up Materials that I also assumed they would be saved within the project.
    Correct. Accurender basically exists as a seperate program from Revit (even though it is integrated). Therefor Accu materials exist in their own library(s), and the user has to create associations between "Revit" materials and "Accu" materials. Rvt materials are much more informationally rich and have a simple color shade, while Accu materials give you a pretty picture. We create custom libraries for each project number while we keep the default library read only. We also generally reccomend that users do not assign/create custom materials when building families (instead create material parameters and use subcategories to assign materials).

    If a Rvt project is large then re-assigning materials could take some time. I would follow everyone else's advice and ask the architect for a copy of the librarys used with the project.

    HTH
    -R

  6. #6
    I could stop if I wanted to kpaxton's Avatar
    Join Date
    2004-12
    Location
    Sarasota, FL
    Posts
    493
    Login to Give a bone
    0

    Default Re: Assign rendering materials to revit materials?

    WS,
    Let me try to clairfy this for you- The 'definitions' of the materials you are using in a particular project are saved in two different areas. Remember, with any Revit material definition, there are four different aspects : Shading (or base color), Surface pattern, Cut pattern and the Accurender material. The first three are contained within the Revit model's database. Accurender's rendering definition is the only one that is contained in a separate library file.

    When you go to edit an AR Material, you have the option of selecting from an existing Library or creating a new one under the Library tab. You can have as many separate Libraries as you want to keep track of - and as long as these are in the rendering pathways, then you can see them in the directory tree. Each will show as their own heading. Many people create their own called "User.mlib" The difficulty can lie in if someone in a project is pulling definitions from many different custom created .mlib files...

    When you transfer a Revit file to someone else and you don't include these .mlib files, Revit and Accurender don't have a clue what to use - so it uses the 'Default' material, which is a lovely shade of gray. I believe this is what is happening to dtownsend's file. Herein lies the rub - even if you get the mlib file, you're perhaps not getting any special maps that are being used in the material definitions. For example, you will now have color, but not that really cool terra cotta tile. As long as your map is in your rendering pathway, accurender will find it (ie - it doesn't need to be in the same folder structure as the original guy's). IF you don't have access to the maps used - then yes, you will have to go through the tedious process of re-mapping these materials.

    Part of the problem that dtownsend is having is that when he's remapping these files, Revit is trying to update every definition of that material in the model. While it's doing this, it's going through and trying to look for that missing .mlib file, which it can't find. Get the .mlib file - and if you can... the maps!

    Hope this helps,
    Kyle

  7. #7
    100 Club dtownsend's Avatar
    Join Date
    2006-06
    Location
    Atlanta, GA
    Posts
    163
    Login to Give a bone
    0

    Default Re: Assign rendering materials to revit materials?

    Thanks that helps.

    I didn't realize that AccuRender stored the materials in a separate file.

    I don't know if we will be able to get that file from them, but I do know now that we need to request it on all future revit files that are shared with us.

    Thanks again

  8. #8
    AUGI Addict ws's Avatar
    Join Date
    2004-09
    Location
    Ambleside, Lake District, UK
    Posts
    1,222
    Login to Give a bone
    0

    Default Re: Assign rendering materials to revit materials?

    Many thanks Kyle and Robert, I think I've got it now.

    Are all the accurender materials (including those in the 'user' folder) stored in the \Rendering folder?

    I just wondered as there is a Materials folder also in the folder Program Files\Revit Architecture 2008\Data\ also (just wondering what to back up).

  9. #9
    All AUGI, all the time robert.manna's Avatar
    Join Date
    2005-05
    Location
    Boston
    Posts
    777
    Login to Give a bone
    0

    Default Re: Assign rendering materials to revit materials?

    I think by default they are. However you can add search paths to Acurender under "Settings-->Options" (in Revit). Our project libraries are stored in the project paths, and we just add a search path for the project location, which auto populates the Accurender "library" with the additional library file. Users in Accurender can create new library files and store them anywhere they like. Furthermore when setting up Revit for deployment in your network environment you could easily manipulate the default locations of files. On top of that all the pathing is in the INI file so that is easy to manipulate manually or automatically.


    HTH,
    -R

  10. #10
    AUGI Addict ws's Avatar
    Join Date
    2004-09
    Location
    Ambleside, Lake District, UK
    Posts
    1,222
    Login to Give a bone
    0

    Default Re: Assign rendering materials to revit materials?

    So, when you assign one of your own bitmaps within Revit Materials via the Accurender Material Library and put it into the \user folder.. does it actually get copied somewhere or is Accurender just linking to it?

    thanks.

Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast

Similar Threads

  1. 2014: Assign different materials to different elements in a single layer DWG?
    By ctc in forum Revit Architecture - General
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 2014-03-13, 04:59 PM
  2. Replies: 1
    Last Post: 2013-01-18, 01:53 PM
  3. 2011: Import Acad Hatch Patterns and assign to materials
    By myoula882294 in forum Inventor - General
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 2011-03-14, 05:14 PM
  4. Revit materials replaced by Max materials, upon import
    By narlee in forum Revit - Rendering
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 2010-07-09, 01:59 PM
  5. Assign rendering materials to revit materials?
    By dtownsend in forum Revit Architecture - General
    Replies: 15
    Last Post: 2007-05-03, 09:20 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •