Network rendering?

[barrie.sharp]

I appreciate this is likely to be a pipe dream but rendering takes soooo long at times and our clients love it, we win much more work! Can I recruit other machines in Revit to share the load and speed it along?

Actually, the question is: What's the most cost effective way to get high quality renderings?

[Elmo]

Go 3D Max Design. You can also get a Visualisation suite from Autodesk now that has Autocad Revit Max Design and Navisworks. With Max Design your rendering times are a lot faster already and what's more you can set up a rendering farm with backburner quite easily.

[Mike Hardy-Brown]

Barrie,

Go to my BLOG and have a look at this...

Also (not sure if I'll get this post bumped) but take a look at this POST
I was impressed by a competitive product when it came to rendering.

Hey Elmo...........
Cheers
Mike

[Elmo]

Hi Mike.

[barrie.sharp]

Thanks for the replies. I like the RevUp render idea but I don't like the idea of having to get an extra licence. If I have to get extra software then I would prefer 3DS for it's extra capabilities and environment mapping. Would RevUp be cost effective with subscription + Revit purchase with subscription?

Mike: I do subscribe to your blog and saw the artlantis post. I was considering it but if the model changes, do you have to re apply materials? This is why I avoided using sketchup and indigo. I would like to just render faster

Elmo: Does backburner leverage the one copy of 3DS max and use any networked machine to render. We have alot of office workers whose machines aren't working hard. Can it just nick a bit of everyones resources?

[Elmo]

Backburner can be installed on a few machines. I am not too sure how many machines it can be installed on or is allowed to be installed. I know that it is better if you leave the machines over night to render instead of letting them render while someone is working on them but I am sure you can do that aswell.

[barrie.sharp]

Cool. What sort of rendering times are we talking about? I have to work out cost savings for budget approval. Facts and figures could help me justify expense. Also, if the results are quick enough we could invite clients to experiment with finishes.

[Elmo]

We are talking of about half the time that Revit would take for the same rendering at least.

[barrie.sharp]

That would be a result. Just to be clear, if I send a Revit model to max I can pretty much just hit render? Doesn't require too much extra time?

Ideally, I was hoping that an Revit could work on a farm. I know an API was created to use journals to batch render. I don't suppose that could be enhanced with a farm option? It would still be worth paying for but just a simple add on would be great.

[Elmo]

Not sure if it can do a render farm from revit at all. Still as to your first question. Only the default materials from Revit come through to MAX. Lighting and setting your view might be your only stuff to set up inside of MAX.