Revit and Viz - 'live linking'

[nat]

Help...

I am hoping to draw together a number of fragmented contributors from previous threads regarding the inter-operability of Revit and Viz, in order to clarify a system by which one may introduce a Revit model to a viz scene, and thereafter efficiently update that scene from the contiunously evolving Revit base model.

i.e. The architect is designing away, adding and removing things, and every second day wants a fancy viz render of their wildly altered revit model. How do I do this most efficiently?

THE BIG, TIME-HUNGRY PROBLEM (for us) IS EFFICIENTLY GETTING THE APPROPRIATE VIZ MATERIALS ONTO ANY NEW OBJECTS WHENEVER THE REVIT MODEL IS CHANGED AND RELINKED INTO THE SCENE.

There appears to be a couple of manual solutions to this problem, the most promising of which is based on the 'select by material' function of the Material Editor in Viz. This allows one to - upon each relink - select all instances of a particular (revit/accurender) material with a click of a button, and apply the appropriate viz material to these instead.

So the process becomes:

1. Export as polymesh to AutoCAD .dwg from a 3D view in Revit
2. Link said .dwg into the Viz scene via the file link manager, using a revit preset
3. Import all the (now retarded, non-bitmapped) accurender materials from the scene into the material editor (one by one, what a pain)
4. Create the Viz materials one plans to use
5. Using the 'select by material' button in the material editor, select all instances of a particular material and apply the new Viz material to them

Every time the Revit file is updated (say another window has been added to a house):

6. Re-export the model from Revit, over-writing the same .dwg as previously used
7. Re-link the file into Viz via the file link manager, checking the 'Use scene materials on reload' option
8. Go through step 5 all over again

This is retarded. Does anyone have a more efficient process than this? Or even a slight tweak to add? I would l o v e to hear a faster/simpler alternative...

My apologies for the long winded post, but this is driving us nuts and eating soooo much time.

Many thanks in advance,
Nathaniel Cheshire

[Arnel Aguel]

Hi Nat,
Your process is really a pain in the butt....I would not care about your materials from accurender since you are going to change it in viz anyway..just create your materials in viz as for me im using vray so I'll just create vray materials then take advantage of the Propagate Materials to Instances command in the option drop down menu of the material editor then just drop it to any one object that you want it applied then it will also be applied to all instances in your model. If you have some cases where you want to have different material on the same instance then pick that object and uncheck propagate materials to instances then that material will only be applied to the object you selected.

And lastly don't forget to check the option in file link manager Use scene materials on reload this will insure that all materials already applied in the scene will not be gone upon updating the link dwg file.

Hope this helps.

[rmejia]

Only the materials changed in the Revit file have to go through step 5 again. If you have a cube with 4 blue walls, and in Revit change 1 of the walls to 12" rather than 6" (for example); when the model is reimported to viz, only the one wall that was changed looses it's properties. The others should maintain the materials applied in Viz if like Arnel said:
"And lastly don't forget to check the option in file link manager Use scene materials on reload this will insure that all materials already applied in the scene will not be gone upon updating the link dwg file."

[Andre Baros]

Just like Robert said, don't forget to check the box "Use scene materials on reload" option. Together with this, it is better to edit the Revit Materials than to replace them so that if the Architectural model has "painted gyp walls" which come through as "Revit Material 88564" (or something like that) then when a hundred gyp walls are added to the model, they show up in Viz/Max with the correct material properties. This is different from my own earlier comments about selecting by material and assigning a new Max material.

Also, always export from Revit using the "Shared" Coordinate system. This ensures that you always have true north in the exported file and as long as you always use it it means that the model will always come it at the same place.

[nat]

Thank you all for your guidance; I have amended the post to include checking the 'use scene materials on reload' option, and am testing a revised process(see below).

Arnel: I like the sound of this system, however our office is producing some complex multi-storey, multi-use buildings that might stretch it. Is there some way to deal with variable materials to large numbers of a single object type? i.e. What do you do if you have a single curtain-wall system for the whole building, say, but 150 of the glass panels are hot pink, 130 are black, 100 are clear and so on? Does that take the propagate material to instances (and individually adjust exceptions) method out of play? Further, could new objects be snagged by the propogate to instances rule without over-writing those exceptions you've already separatly applied materials to?

rmejia: This had worked fine for us too, until we started hitting such large and complex buildings. It would now take us a significant time to hunt through each camera view and manually dig up all the new objects each time the designer heads off on a new tangent -even though those objects do tend to come in bright pink!

Andre: You are suggesting I edit within Viz those materials that came through with the Revit model, e.g. importing a Viz concrete material into the Viz material editor slot currently occupied by Revit's concrete? And thereafter, when the model is updated, the new objects' materials will be the Viz replacements of those original Revit ones. Why haven't I tried this already? I like the sound of it; I'll try it out and I'll let you all know how that goes

Thanks again you three for all your help, and any further advice much appreciated - we'd be lost without you

Cheers

[Arnel Aguel]

Arnel: I like the sound of this system, however our office is producing some complex multi-storey, multi-use buildings that might stretch it. Is there some way to deal with variable materials to large numbers of a single object type? i.e. What do you do if you have a single curtain-wall system for the whole building, say, but 150 of the glass panels are hot pink, 130 are black, 100 are clear and so on? Does that take the propagate material to instances (and individually adjust exceptions) method out of play? Further, could new objects be snagged by the propogate to instances rule without over-writing those exceptions you've already separatly applied materials to?

Propagate materials will always apply the material to all instances of the same object type. In your example if you have 3 types of materials on the same object type (glass panel) then you have two options either you make a new type for each glass panel with different colored material in Revit or just do it in Viz and create a named selection for each group of panels with different material. Either way you will manually select those group of panels that has different materials but only once.

I would prefer the first method as you can easily schedule the glass panel with different type of finish.

Hope this helps.

[nat]

I agree Arnel, your first suggestion seems the strongest solution to me, as I guess selection sets will be obsoleted by an expanding model anyway. I'll give Andre's suggestion a shot tomorrow and let you know how that goes too.

Many thanks for your help

[rmejia]

rmejia: This had worked fine for us too, until we started hitting such large and complex buildings. It would now take us a significant time to hunt through each camera view and manually dig up all the new objects each time the designer heads off on a new tangent -even though those objects do tend to come in bright pink!

The materials only come out in bright pink or other bright colors when there is no material assigned to it in Revit. On that note I apply my materials in Revit using the "Paint" tool (well walls mostly, the families have their material selected in the properties area). I create different materials in Revit and then apply them over the surfaces with the paint tool and then in Viz select by material. So any material that is to be a different material in Viz gets a different material in Revit. All families, doors, windows, walls, etc... the components have specific materials assigned to them in Revit. In your case with the 3 types of glass with different properties I would create 3 different glass materials in Revit.