Long Preview Time

[dsw98]

So i've just imported my Revit model into 3d Max and was simply trying to do a preview and after 25 minutes I had to shut it down because it froze up. The Revit file was orginally created in RVT 2008 and upgraded to 2009. Is there truth to the rumor that 3d Max doesn't work well with projects that use to be 2008? or am I doing something wrong.

[aaronrumple]

How did you do your import? FBX? DWG? Solids? Polymesh?

Revit can generate a lot of planes in Max. You may need to refine your import to keep the number of faces lower. I find this the case on complex curved designs using FBX import. These files run 2x as big compared to other import methods.

[dsw98]

How did you do your import? FBX? DWG? Solids? Polymesh?

Revit can generate a lot of planes in Max. You may need to refine your import to keep the number of faces lower. I find this the case on complex curved designs using FBX import. These files run 2x as big compared to other import methods.

It's an FBX file

Also where can I find the RPC Plug in, None of my bushes and trees imported in.

[aaronrumple]

I'd compare the FBX with an imported AutoCAD file. How many faces does the file have? Is there topography? If so, the topo is probably the issue.
Export from Revit > AutoCAD as Solids > 3DS Max
See what that gives you in number of faces.

RPC plug-in is @ http://www.archvision.com/
They sell this to Adsk.

[dsw98]

I'd compare the FBX with an imported AutoCAD file. How many faces does the file have? Is there topography? If so, the topo is probably the issue.
Export from Revit > AutoCAD as Solids > 3DS Max
See what that gives you in number of faces.

RPC plug-in is @ http://www.archvision.com/
They sell this to Adsk.

I'm not sure what you mean by faces. Can you explain.
Yes there is topo in it. After doing the tutorials in 3d Max I was under the impression that you wanted your Revit file as complete as possible before importing it into Max. It also stated that it's better to import from revit not AutoCad. One of the tutorials even had me import a Revit model that had topo in it. Granted my model is much larger than the practice one.

Not sure how to Export from Revit > AutoCAD as Solids > 3DS Max

[aaronrumple]

3D studio renders only one shape. A triangle. Everything in 3DS is made of triangles. Nothing else. Most of these are hidden to make the program more usable. A box for instance is made of 12 triangles. You only see the 6 sides.

You topo is being triangulated. Lots of little triangles. The more detail here - the longer to render and the more memory.

Try deleting the topography and see how the file works. It will at least let you know if this is the problem.

Most of the time you don't need much topo around a building to get the rendering you want. You may be able to edit away a good portion of the topo to reduce the number of faces. We often don't have anything but a ground plane in the 3DS file and everything else is done with photoshop. You can edit in the surrounding site from photos.

When you exprt using FBX - everything is preset in terms of how Revit creates the faces from its shapes. If you export to AutoCAD first and then to 3DS, you have more control of how much detail is created. From a 3D view File > Export > CAD Formats > Options > Solids. In 3DS there is a surface deviation which controls how tight the mesh fits around curved objects.

3DS also has modifiers such as optimize which can reduce the number of faces of an object.

You can also split the 3DS model into a couple of files and xref them together.

[stusic]

Yes, the topo is the problem. I recently used a topo from another program (autocad) and it came in horrible hard to work with ("with horribly which to work?"). The front side of the building was two stories, while the back side was three stories, which necessitated I have a fairly accurate topo. With the non-3dsmax triangles, 3ds didn't seem to know how to do them easily, yet correctly. This has seemed to be one of the most annoying and yet common problems in Max that I've run across.

The way I worked around it was by using the autocad file to create a displacement map that gave me the contours by creating an even gradient (white to black) from top to bottom. Then, the only variant in accuracy is from the contour interval.

If this way will suit you, let me know and I can go further in depth.

[aaronrumple]

3DS can generate the topo from the same contour lines tha you probably used in Revit. However, if you generate them in 3DS, you'll have control over how dense the mesh is and can probably reduce the number of facets by ten fold.

[cliff collins]

Devin,

Upgrading Revit 2008 to 2009 can cause problems, because 2009 has major changes:

-Accurender render engine changed to Mental Ray
-Materials changed to ProMaterials for specific use with Mental Ray
-Planting families changed from Accurender hi-polygon type to Archvision RPC
-Lighting families changed to photometric lights, for use with Mental Ray and 3dsMax Design 2009 lighting analysis tools.

So--you are better off starting from scratch in Revit 2009. Because of the major changes
above, if you try to migrate from 2008 to 2009, you will have a lot of issues when rendering
in Revit or Max.

The changes are definately major improvements--you need to adjust /adapt your methods and workflow to Revit 2009>FBX>3dsMaxDesign 2009. We are using this very successfully.

Cheers.....