People for Shaded Views

[cliff collins]

Does anyone have any ideas on how to place people in 3D Shaded Views?

We have tried:

1. RPCs which do not look good enough "unrendered"--gray blobs.

2. "3D" People from Revit city--which look like robots from 3dsMax Character Studio
before they get clothes on--still unacceptable.

We just need some sort of "cut-out" person, like Sketchup has, that can show up, face the camera, and look presentable in a 3D shaded view.

This may be even more important with Revit 2011 and "realistic views".

We can always save out an image, bring into PS and put some cut-out people
in, but we are trying to avoid those extra steps, since we have a lot of views like this for presentation.

cheers.......

[twiceroadsfool]

Getting a modeled solid black manequin set is probably ideal. ive got Detail component ones i use for elevations and sections, that were actually taken from Sketchup, exported to DWG, imported in a DC family, converted to a Revit set of lines in the sketch of a Filled region, etc.

They work fine for hidden and Shaded, but they dont case shadows, so at the end of the day you need a modeled person.

[wmullett]

You might try to just render the person (placed correctly) in a copied view with everything else off and place that view overtop your shaded view on a sheet.

[gwnelson]

Did you try using the SK people?

[cliff collins]

Thanks for the replies.

1. Aaron, you are right--a 3D person is best. Just having a bit of trouble making it work.

2. wmullet, rendering just the people the merging into the scene with a "view ontop of a view" is also a way, but a bit of a workaround and would take a lot of time with lots of views.

3. glenn, what are SK people?

cheers

[gwnelson]

Cliff - the people from Sketchup. I haven't tried people but I did find a horse once & used it.

[cliff collins]

Oh--you mean SU people.

I have not tried them, but I think they are "paper thin" cut-outs that somehow "know"
how to always face the camera in SU--don't know how those would react in Revit?

Maybe with some fancy exporting/converting to cad/importing.........

cheers

[gwnelson]

Oh--you mean SU people.

I have not tried them, but I think they are "paper thin" cut-outs that somehow "know"
how to always face the camera in SU--don't know how those would react in Revit?

Maybe with some fancy exporting/converting to cad/importing.........

cheers

Well, you've exposed me, Cliff. Not only don't I know much about using Sketchup, I don't even know what it's called.

[aaronrumple]

Yes the SU people when used in SkecthUp have the nice trick of rotaing automatically to face the camera. Kudos to them for this little trick. You can of course do the same thing in 3DS Max if you link the billboard to a camera and then animate the camera for different views.

Personally I think you're better off in Revit just compositing in the people in Photoshop. Then you can use a raster export of SketchUp people to get a look that is somewhat compatible with the look of a Revit shaded view.

[cliff collins]

Glenn,

No harm done--the less we Reviteers know about SU the better, in most cases!
It would be nice if Revit had some simple people which would face the camera like SU.

Aaron,

Yeah--PS cutouts is what we've been doing--it's just a laborious workflow for anything more than 2-3 views. We have 20 or more views for a big presentation. Looking for a more "Revit only" method. With 2011 and realistic views, it is even more important to have people show up with decent clothes, shadows cast from the daylight system, etc.

I hate it when SU has good tools and Revit still doesn't. But overall 2011 is really good.

Maybe for 2012................

cheers

[ron.sanpedro]

Yes the SU people when used in SkecthUp have the nice trick of rotaing automatically to face the camera. Kudos to them for this little trick. You can of course do the same thing in 3DS Max if you link the billboard to a camera and then animate the camera for different views.

Personally I think you're better off in Revit just compositing in the people in Photoshop. Then you can use a raster export of SketchUp people to get a look that is somewhat compatible with the look of a Revit shaded view.

I kinda wish we had some SketchUp silhouettes in Revit that didn't always "face the camera". I remember a multi-use art gallery space my old office did, and rendered in SketchUp. One shot had art on the walls, another had a band playing. Thanks to those "always face the camera" people, no one was looking at the art, and no one was watching the band! ;)

Gordon

[cliff collins]

Good point.

I just finished an experiment.

I opened SU. Clicked the "guy" who stands there by default. Saved him as a SU file.
Imported him into a Revit Generic Model. Loaded him into my project.

It actually works. He can be rotated around. With "consistent colors" setting on,
his colors from SU show up. In "realistic view", he turns dark grey--probably because
he has no materials mapped onto him.

In normal shaded w/ edges and shadows on, he's a grey silouhette.

He does not rotate with the camera, but can be rotated to face the camera for still shots.

Not perfect, but at least something.

See attached.

[LP Design]

I hate it when SU has good tools and Revit still doesn't.

As an experienced SU user I 100% agree. Honestly one of my #1 gripes about Revit has been the lack of intuitive 3D interface controls. I'm looking at you: Walk, Place camera, Field of view, etc. Not to mention the IMHO awful "steering wheel" that autodesk uses. Every time I zoom in 3D to a door and try to quick-orbit around it my model swings around the universe. Gives me nightmares.
[/rant]

Back to the issue at hand... I have seen some fairly decent massing images produced using VERY simple 2d silhouettes. I'm sure you're familiar with the old drafting standard of a person shown as a long triangle with a circle above?
My advice would be to re-assess the purpose of having people in each view. Your examples show the guy fairly far away from camera, which tells me he's really just there to give scale. In this case a simple silhouette does the job fine. You could even use one of the RPCs in "gray blob" mode.

Now if you have an interior high quality render for example, then the people might be intended to give a better sense of realism. In that case you would definitely have to go for Pshop or at least high quality 3D people.

All just my oppinion, but hope it helps anyway.
-LP

[eric.piotrowicz]

As an experienced SU user I 100% agree. Honestly one of my #1 gripes about Revit has been the lack of intuitive 3D interface controls. I'm looking at you: Walk, Place camera, Field of view, etc. Not to mention the IMHO awful "steering wheel" that autodesk uses. Every time I zoom in 3D to a door and try to quick-orbit around it my model swings around the universe. Gives me nightmares.
[/rant]

To orbit around an object you are zoomed in on, pick it (or anything near it) Revit will orbit around the center of the selected object instead of the default center of the entire project.

[LP Design]

Yes, but then you're clicking twice every time you orbit, plus then the object is select-highlighted rather than it's shaded colors, which can be annoying. :|

It also doesn't work as well for long objects since it chooses the center point, so for example you can't orbit around a the corner of a roof without going to the steering wheel, defining a pivot point, then using the "orbit" command within the wheel.

Certainly the 3D views can be manipulated, its just not as intuitive as I would like. :)

peace,
-LP

[BIM Cat]

Had the same problem myself. Turned out using a 3D people family is best. It will show the outline properly in all views!

Making one is easy: http://revitboost.com/revit-tutorials/create-truly-3d-revit-people/