Exporting to ACAD then MAX

[chris.senior1]

I have used max when rendering images previously, however, as there is no converter for Revit to Max I have a few problems.

1. When I export, All my walls are on one layer, so dividing them up means that I have to select each piece individually and put it on a seperate layer? Is there a short cut for this?

2. My windows, doors etc all come in as blocks. The frames and glazing are both on the same layer. Very frustrating to seperate.

I'm sure i'm doing this the hard way? there must be an easier way to do these things!

Any advice would be grately appreciated.

Many thanks


Chris.

[Chirag Mistry]

Chris, please read the attached document from Autodesk. It is meant for VIZ, but you can use it for MAX as well

[mlgatzke]

Also, if you're going to AU this year there's an entire class on this very topic. If you're not planning on attending, this might be the beginning of a VERY good reason to go. AU is awesome and you learn a lot. Your head feels like Jello by the last day - and it's not from the drinking - it's from the learning.

[chris.senior1]

Thanks guys

I am guessing that AU is a exhibition in the USA somewhere? I live in the UK so it might be a little harder for me to attend.

From reading the attached pdf file on Viz, am I right in saying that exporting color ID's is the way forward and then using Multi sub-objects in Viz/Max to apply materials to the different types of walls which are all on the same layer? If so, I still dont fully understand how that is going to work if the layers export only has one catagory for wall styles?

Regards

Chris

[Andre Baros]

I started out on the material ID route but have found that if your materials are assigned in Revit, than they show up assigned in Max. From the Max materials editor dialog, you can pull in a material already assigned as an instance, then simply update the material definition. I've found that I never have all of the materials clearly assigned in Revit so I end up having to do some cleanup in Max but for the most part this works. Also, by selecting a material and then selecting elements by material, you can update the UVW mapping per material, which for some materials such as brick is better than doing it per element.

BTW, if it required a class as AU dedicated on how to do it, than it just proves that the export options for exporting need to be fixed. Revit rendering needs to grow up.

[chris.senior1.90277]

Thank you,

That makes a lot of sense. I will have a go and see how I get on.

Kind regards

Chris

[Matt Brennan]

The new Max 8 should have these tedious steps fixed. The method with be the same but there should be less clean up. As soon as I load my Revit model(s) in to max/viz, I would open up my material editor and start to eye drop the existing material in to it. After doing this, you can quickly adjust the maps and their scales. All the objects with that material will atomically update. Like Andrebaros said, “by selecting a material and then selecting elements by material, you can update the UVW mapping per material, which for some materials such as brick is better than doing it per element. it is better to do this instead of each element”

I attached a rendering that I started in Revit and finished in Max.

Enjoy…

[john.adams]

Hi Chris,

The material ID's of Revit objects are attached when exporting to DWG.

Using the File Link methodology in Viz 2006 or Max 7.5 brings in both the geometry and materials.

If you have created your Revit materials using bitmaps/jpgs that are also used by Max/Viz then you can save even more time and effort.

If your design changes in Revit, simply re-export it and update the linked file in Max/Viz.

Cheers

John

[Andre Baros]

"simply re-export it" haa haa hee hee hee. WHoa that's good.

I've had very mixed results with this. Some projects re-export just fine, some come through with a random set of coordinates (not project, not shared) so that after re-import, elements from updated files are flying all over space (not even all related to eachother). It's always all or nothing, either the link works and everything is correct, or it doesn't work and nothing is in the right place. With one workset of one project, reloading it caused max to hang every time. Its a beautiful thing when it works but a major pain when it doesn't. Still, I've had more success than failure with it and have the Max end worked out well enough that starting over with a new link is still much better than building the model in any program other than Revit.