Revit Exports to VIZ

[philipnoland]

So I am done with a day of chasing my tail around in circles and cannot seem to manage my VIZ file efficiently. My last post was DWG exports. I have file linked only 4-5 different models in Revit to the topo. I now want to export them as DWGs.

OK that worked fine and each there are approx. 60 dwg files now. Each one ranging from 100kb to 350kb.

I have used the File Link Manager in VIZ to import or link these dwg's into the workspace. That took about 20min. Then I saved it and the file is 95MB. Seems a little big.

I am leaving the office right now a little frustrated because of all the trial and errors that I have had today. We succesfully minimized the information in Revit, purging and deleted any backgrounds we may have used to creat each model.

I need to know if there is anthing on either end of VIZ or Revit that will help me run VIZ a little better. It slows up and takes for ever. I do understand that I need to hide objects when going through material assignments and annimation previews. And as I learn to manage the program that way I hope I will find succes and less frustration.

Are there any helpful tips for my situation because the file is only getting bigger as I continue. I cannot afford to crash anymore and I have only a few more days to complete this project.

PS what is a good editing software for the annimations that come out of VIZ. Of course it would need to be Windows compatible. Adobe Premire?


Thanks
Philip Noland

[Andre Baros]

I'm not exactly sure why your files are getting so big in Viz, but I have some ideas...
1. Are you using radiosity, if so then the radiosity solution gets saved with the file and can increase the file size as you discribe. Don't save the radiosity solution until you're sure it's right.
2. I've found that it really helps to link each DWG exported from Revit into it's own MAX file and then xref those back together in a seperate Max file. I do this so that I can quickly find the things I'm looking for for material assignements, UVW mapping, test renders etc. This sounds like a pain in the acad but it makes materials assignments much easier and test renders much faster. As long as you're using linked files you can't do this as easily in just one file.
3. For editing I much prefer After Effects to Premier. They're intended for two different things, but I just find After Effects easier to work with. Microsoft Movie comes with XP and I've heard it can handle basic editing, Quicktime is also good for simply compiling and compressing a series of tiffs or jpegs into movies. If you are going to be doing a lot of animation consider Autodesk Combustion. Finally, Sony Vegas is an option between Premier and After Effects. I don't know if they run on a PC but iMovie and Final Cut Pro (Apple) have the best power to easy learning ratio.
4. A great trick if you're running out of time is to create you're camera pans in post. Render a much larger image than your final animation frame and animate it in After Effects (or whatever you use, I can only comment on After Effects) by slowly moving it across the screen. Fade out and then switch to you're other footage. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Good luck and don't hate Revit because of Viz.

[knurrebusk]

Good luck and don't hate Revit because of Viz.


Agree!
Revit exports very clean models(3D-2D)

But the materials are not sorted well, like any window frame should be a unified single material.
Any sub part of that frame should be another unified etc!

Same with glass of different size/type/, what is the intelligence that I miss.
Glass is plain glass, if I want anything more complicated I´ll find it.
Revit is not Maxwell Render.

One more of my unbalanced comments of things that will have to change.
Roads, and everything connected to them, same with linked files.
VV-settings-needs to function on linked files 100%, and so on.

Not demanding this next weekend!
Just present something I as an Revit enthusiast can rely on.

And please! Autodesk bullshit is just gonna make me feel like an average MS sufferer, with Unix as the alternative.

Big rant, small talk.

Regards!
Atle

[philipnoland]

I appreciate the comments. I find it reasuring to hear all this. It certainly parallels the obvious. I am under the impression there are many was to manage links. As I am running out of time I had to figure something out.

I am using the Unhide and Select Objects technique. I find that is will just result in slower updates and saves but so far still about 20 min on load. (This works as long as you know the next ten steps in your process) It intresting how we are joining many software programs together.

Just the other day I saw this tax program that could export to Photoshop!! :)

Its getting late.
Thanks Again

Philip

[david.kingham]

For future endeavors I would recomend you model something like this in viz to start out with, would save you a lot of headaches

[Gene Herring]

Hey Phillip, just a note of interest. I use both Premiere and AE for post on video animations. They both have different strengths. Premiere is great for straight linear editing, real fast and I use Canopus FX transistions (the best). I use AE for the special stuff (masking, compositing, etc.) Both are great products and easy to use (for me). A word of advice for the Viz side of things. I have only used VIZ extensively for about three weeks now and probably will not go back to using Accurender except for quick stills. I find it effecient to do a bunch of short quick animations using Viz's Camera features which are levels above Accurender when it comes to animations. I then put the story line together in Premiere or AE. Also as mentioned in an earlier post, sweeping pans on a large still image can save your total production time quite a bit when done on the post side. Sort of think "Hollywood" , Take1, take 2, etc. It's fun. Also I use premiere to slow animations down and increase the duration, a la slow motion. The video software can interpolate frames and makes some nice smooth animations. Sorry I cannot help with the file size issue. Thats quite a monster you have going on there. Good luck!