Transfer materials to max with FBX, material names problem

[cesarr]

Hello to everyone
I had this annoying situation with revit, i hope someone tell how to deal with that.
I have a project in Revit Architecture 2011, inside i have several metal materials of different colors, but all based in the same "render appearance". let me explained: i had various materials named "metal panel-color 01""metal panel-color 02" and so on, but all are based in the "render appearance"of "Flaked Satin - Black"
My problem is when i transfer the file to max 2011- with FBX and using the "file link manager". i choose the option of "group by material" (to select all more easy), and there is the problem, all the objects that contained the different metal colors in revit, came united, and under the name of "Flaked Satin - Black", i didn't know why! because in revit all are differents, why transfer like they were the same? also, with the "render appearance"name" and not with the specific names that i use in revit!
in the file link manager in max, i also try other options, for example "do not combine" and this time all the objects came independently, but all under the name of the "render appearance", so, all have the same name! so i have to pick every one and start to guess which material are in revit and assign it!
So, if someone can explain me some workaround or something i will really appreciated.

[ws]

Not much help but just to say that I have seen this mentioned in several forums as a problem with fbx transfer.

I gave up using 3ds Max Design 2011 as there were so many problems with fbx transfer from Revit 2011 but I keep meaning to have another look.

Even the latest hotfixes and fbx updates don't seem to fix the problem you describe.

Have a look in the rendering forum here or in the 3ds Max forums.

I'll also have a look later.

[David Conant]

This is due to the different way that Revit and FBX think of materials. In Revit, a material represents a physical substance with a range of properties including structural, non rendered graphics, and a render appearance. The render appearance uses the Protein appearance asset as its data format. The Revit material name refers to the whole set of properties. FBX understands a material as only a render appearance. The FBX data structure for appearance is also the Protein appearance asset. In FBX the material name is the name of a Protein asset.
When Revit converts a file to FBX the visual information is recorded in the Protein format. If several Revit materials use the same visual properties, they will point at the same Protein appearance name on the FBX side as FBX has no place for the additional Revit material information.
If you modify the appearance of one Revit material (without changing the name of the appearance it was based on) does FBX record it as the same material as one with an unmodified appearance?

[ws]

thanks David,

at least now we know why ;)

[cesarr]

Thanks for your replies.

Yes i search to several forums about this issue, but i think maybe someone knows some workflow to deal with this. In fact, about this issue, i started one thread in the "area" and one of the autodesk specialist, take note, and will reported as an fbx defect, but was weeks ago, and new hotfix appears for both programs and no one fix that problem, so not hold your breath.
I started again this topic, because i searched a lot, and i didn't saw to many people complaining about this, so i thought maybe i was missing something.

David, in the example i mentioned at the beginning, i had several materials based in the same render appearance, but all their render appearances are modified (in color and textures) but still, they transfer to max, like the same.

[Munkholm]

You probably thought of this allready, but you COULD just NOT use "Flaked Satin - Black" as the render material for all of those materials - There are plenty of similar materials,which can (easily) be adjusted to fake the "Flaked Satin - Black" material... yes i know, not perfect - but at least that would work for the time beeing.

[cesarr]

yes i know, and is what we are doing at this moment, but is a big project, and this color panels, are not the only ones, there is a lot of other materials, and metal materials, and we start to be limited of unused render appearances :((
another thing we are doing, is to export group of materials through different 3d views,to specific 3d max files, and them linking all throughout xref.
A lot and time consuming task, a really annoying issue that has to be resolve by autodesk i thing.
I'm wondering, what happen if we uninstall that protein library from the computer

[soriano_ricardo]

I usualy export from Revit to DWG instead of FBX, and import into max with file link manager. Then in the mterial library>Get materials> scene materials you can find materials as you named in revit. The only ones which change their name to "revit material definition(number)" are those like compound walls or slabs whith several materials on them, and became "multi-sub object materials" which contains your original Revit named materials.
Hope this help.