Raster Image as ground?

[twiceroadsfool]

On the first floor plan, i inserted a large raster image (map of the site) hoping to get it to show up in the quick renderings im doing, simply for local context. It obviously isnt showing up though, and i made sure the rasters are turned on in the vg-annot. tab.

I did a search here, and discovered i have to input the img as a decal, because otherwise it wont show up. Heres the thing though:

What are the rules for decals? Because it wont let me insert it on the ground, or on the site. Only on walls or roofs...

[twiceroadsfool]

Okay, after searching again i got in inserted, by making a huuuuuge ground floor, and inserting it, lol. But i cant see anything on it to love it around, right? Because it only shows up post render? I think im abandoning this cause, to see if i can import it in to another program and do it.

I did it in photoshop, but thats annoying, using Google Earth to get the map in perspective, its not terribly close. I guess i can try it in VIZ or 3dsmax, but then wont i lose all the material settings off the Revit model?

[cosmickingpin]

Yeah you are going to need to model a floor, now I believe the only rule is that decals can not be bitmaps (but materials can be). Is that right, I am always mixing that up. Floors have a max size limit (or they used to) of 3000' so your decal should be scaled to that and therefore your decal can't be above 3000' in any direction. Work great when I do it. just turn off site and topo and it will show. Rasters will not render, decals are the way to go. You could print a PDF of the screen with the raster on and layer that with the rendered floor plan. That should work fine but, I usually use the decals in 3d situations not floor plans. you can slap them on anything flat like the side of a component ot mass object as well.


On the first floor plan, i inserted a large raster image (map of the site) hoping to get it to show up in the quick renderings im doing, simply for local context. It obviously isnt showing up though, and i made sure the rasters are turned on in the vg-annot. tab.

I did a search here, and discovered i have to input the img as a decal, because otherwise it wont show up. Heres the thing though:

What are the rules for decals? Because it wont let me insert it on the ground, or on the site. Only on walls or roofs...

[twiceroadsfool]

Got ya... How do you see it to place it in the right location? Render it, nudge it a bit, render it, nudge it a bit? lol... Its just showing up in plan as a black box with an X in it...

[twiceroadsfool]

Okay, this is probably a silly way to do this, but heres what i came up with. I only post this, becuase if you have a faster or better method, im all ears...

I imported the Raster on the ground plane, even tho it doesnt show up. Then i made a floor on the ground plane, underneath my site. I then placed a decal, and just sized and located it based on the raster, because i could see the raster without rendering. After that, it only took two small adjustments to have it in the right place.

Its a PITA, but in the end its better, because if i want 5 perspectives, it sure beats stretch/distort/skew in photoshop, 5 times, lol....

[cosmickingpin]

Yeah that's exactly how I do it. Probably the best way.


I imported the Raster on the ground plane, even tho it doesnt show up. Then i made a floor on the ground plane, underneath my site. I then placed a decal, and just sized and located it based on the raster, because i could see the raster without rendering. After that, it only took two small adjustments to have it in the right place.

[twiceroadsfool]

Thanks for the help man. I appreciate it. Im getting used to all this with Revit, to evaluate our options in terms of the benefits and efficiency of bothering with Studio Max and VIZ.

These are really quickies, i was just playing with the ground stuff, so dont mind the cheap rendering quality/matierals, LOL...

Much more efficient than photoshop...

[twiceroadsfool]

LOL, after printing those out i realized now i need to find a way to get my maps out of google earth in a higher resolution...

[cosmickingpin]

Look good, I would turn off the road names in google earth. I good source for free aerial images is http://terraserver.microsoft.com/ in addition to google earth. if you want to take you exiting building up to the next level, take head on shots on each elevation, then in photo shop distort the perspective out so you have a true head on shot, then decal those elevation images onto the face of the exising mass and you can get a very realisitc setting for almost no work.
well you do need to consider how often you will be doing renderings vs. animations, I would say if you do atleast one animation a month then viz is a good investment. for still images accurender is pretty good and the extra time to export into viz maybe unnecessary depending on your workload. i would say that is probably the bigest factor for me right now.


Thanks for the help man. I appreciate it. Im getting used to all this with Revit, to evaluate our options in terms of the benefits and efficiency of bothering with Studio Max and VIZ.

These are really quickies, i was just playing with the ground stuff, so dont mind the cheap rendering quality/matierals, LOL...

Much more efficient than photoshop...

[twiceroadsfool]

Exactly. Thats what im factoring in. A year ago i was in a firm using ADT for strictly 2d CD sets, so on the rare occasion that they wanted a rendering for a client, i was doing a save as, pline extrude, shove it in to VIZ and crank out materials, lol. I dont think the animations will be happening a lot, but when i need them i dont mind Smax or VIZ one bit, im just (as you said) trying to gauge the efficiency or accurender vs. importing and rerendering. Considering the amt of time it takes to set up good materials in VIZ, for the little return (in terms of difference in quality... its there, but its not huge, imho) im better off advising that we just keep it all in Revit.

While were talking about Smax and VIZ, how the hell do you import a revit model in? Can you? And wont it lose all of its material properties? Ive never worked with Revit till last week, and as i said, it was all ADT importing for me beforehand...

EDIT: Nevermind, i should search a little harder, i got it through the DWG conversion...