Revit to 3ds Design Max: Daylight Analysis

[krisweeks881870]

This request is for anyone who has used a Revit to 3ds Max for daylight analysis, especially for LEED certification.

I created a building in Revit. I linked to it in 3ds Max Design with the intent of doing daylight analysis. In 3ds Max, I can't really get at floor plans of my Revit building. It only recognizes 3d views and cameras. So my question is, how do you use 3ds Max to create light meter grids in each room, on each floor, of a multi-floor building?

I can do it very roughly, very approximately, by eye-balling it when I draw the light meter grid. I need to set my building to wireframe view so I can see the walls. I can approximately set the height off the floor of the grid by eye-balling it in a side view.

There's got to be an easier way to isolate a floor plan, add the light meter grids precisely to each room, and then precisely set them 30" off the floor (typical worksurface height). Anyone have a good workflow for this?

[jwalker345399]

I just want to echo krisweeks: This is a very important feature for LEED compliance and general daylighting design. I would like to see better daylighting analysis built in to Revit or 3ds Max. AGi32 does well, but it is not streamlined to import a Revit model cleanly.

[rbcameron1]

Absolutely there is a good way to do this. I don't have 3dsMax open in front of me, but if you used a "section" tool (they don't call it section and without Max open in front of me its hard to remember what its called) you can cut down to the floor you want. A quick google search may help. Similar to revit, you can turn off and on certain walls, windows, floors, ceilings, etc... in the objects list. If you want a cheap and dirty way, just use a crossing window on the objects you want, hold/click right mouse and there SHOULD be a choice to "isolate selection". on top of that you can save these isolated category views.
As for the 30"....could you create a 30" x 30" x 30" box in your revit model and import that in precisely on each level? then you just copy it wherever you need it to go and delete them if they aren't needed. I have a feeling these are just a few questions you have.

[rosskirby]

Create a new 3D view in Revit, right-click on the view-cube in the top-right corner, and choose Align to View (or something along those lines). Then choose the floor plan view of whatever floor you want to do the daylight analysis for. It should automatically create a section box that crops out any modeled elements above the cut plane of that floor plan view. You can then select that view in Max.

Disclaimer: It's been a long time since I've done this, so I could just be making things up, but there is a way (as outlined above, or very similar) to get what you want.