OTOY Forums

Have you any news for the plug-in Revit.
I'm going crazy with the FBX export and mental-ray ...

I've been moving my model from SketchUp to Revit: now I have no way to render (except with the Revit 50 minute renderer ). I've tried FBX to 3dsMax, but the model crashes Max .

So it would be so nice to have a Revit plugin sometime soon: any possibility of an ETA or early draft?

Thanks,
tim

radiance wrote:yeah we agree with you.
we're already looking into it.

Radiance

I'm becoming a bit desperate for this plugin . I'm working on a big project in Revit, and I haven't found any workable way to get it out and into Octane. It crashes the FBX importer, so I can't go via 3dsMax, and modo seems to lose the materials.

I know it's been in the pipeline since the above comment in July, but I haven't heard anything (and I know you're not lazy: just prioritizing).

So two questions:

• Any ETA or indication of progress from the Octane team?
• Does anyone have a working workflow from Revit to Octane that I can use in the meantime?

I've tried MeshLab and various other indirect paths without success. The problem is that while I can get the mesh out (e.g. as a dwg or dxf), it's just not feasible to recreate all the materials from the raw mesh. Even if the material properties are lost, I need to be able to identify objects by material so I can adjust them in Octane.

Sorry to harp on this: I know you're busy, but the Revit / Octane workflow will be the real payoff for Octane for me, and I'm already wasting a lot of time with lesser renderers...

Thanks for listening,

tim

Have you tried the Autodesk FBX converter?
See this page http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/item?siteID=123112&id=10775855
According to the notes found on this page http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=14376160 FBX to 3ds seems to support materials.
I am not sure about materials when it converts to .obj though.
Have to check it out yourself

I have been using the Autodesk FBX tool, but unfortunately it crashes with my model. I've tried updating it to the latest versions, and I've tried the 32 bit and 64 bit versions. No luck yet. As the bug has been reported I guess I can hope it will eventually be fixed. I would expect them to take a bug that's entirely within an Autodesk tool chain somewhat seriously .

But having used both Revit and ArchiCAD, I am convinced of two things:

• That architects should move to one of these tools ASAP, for reasons of productivity, collaboration, and correctness
• That Revit is currently the better tool: it's constraints, family editor, range of available components, and massing / geometry-based tools are well ahead of those from ArchiCAD currently.

So I would really encourage Refractive to get the Revit plugin done ASAP (for their benefit and mine!).

tim

I realise there will potentially be many people interested in using Octane with Revit but I dont see Refractive doing a plug-in any time soon because of other priorities.
How about using Rhino to import FBX and export 3ds or .obj?
http://www.rhino3d.com/features.htm
Not sure how it handles materials and mesh names though..
Says it exports .rib which could be useful for Octane in the near future.
The Demo I think is fully functional and allows 25 saves.

Actually Rhino might be the short term answer. I have been able to get the model into Rhino 5 beta, but I can't get the plugin to work (I've been working with Sam to try to figure it out). I don't know Rhino well: most of my modeling has been with SketchUp and modo.

But I still think that Revit will be important to Refractive when they can get to it.

tim

I think Rhino has a fairly good reputation for file translation as well as modelling.
I havent used it much either so I dont know if its suitable for your mission or not but I thought of it as a possibility to check out.
Perhaps the v5beta version doesnt have full plug-in support yet since it is in development.
The Demo is v4.0 and ought to be stable.
HTH