OctaneRender 3 for Revit [OBSOLETE] Tweet

[Seekerfinder]

Thanks Paul! Particularly for the scene load time feature.

And merry Christmas!

Best,
Seeker

[face_off]

I have refreshed the installers at the top of this thread with:

2.16.0.23
- Fixed issues related to importing ORBX or LiveDb proxy materials

Paul

[thefishnut]

I will explore the drop box option, as this would be an effective solution in the mean time.

If you do this - store your texturemaps in Dropbox\OctaneTexturemaps, then junction link that folder to c:\OctaneTexturemaps using http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16226/complete-guide-to-symbolic-links-symlinks-on-windows-or-linux/. You can also share you plugin defaults by copying C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\OctaneRender for Revit\Defaults into your Dropbox folder, and junction link to C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\OctaneRender for Revit\Defaults. Then each new default added in the plugin will by synced to Dropbox, and then shared to anyone else using that Dropbox account (they will need to setup the junction link to c:\OctaneTexturemaps and C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\OctaneRender for Revit\Defaults. Once setup, this is a very reliable, robust solution, and you can replicate it to new PC's with just 2 junction links.

Paul

Hi Paul,
This process had been working for me quite well, and I am well under way setting up a comprehensive custom default material template that is linked over drop box in the way you described. However after just checking my materials that have textures within them, I am finding that even if I link a texture to a C drive location (that is actually a junction link to the drop box folder) the .xml default file when opening in notepad still shows the drop box path, not the c drive path.

Am I doing it wrong?

[face_off]

This process had been working for me quite well, and I am well under way setting up a comprehensive custom default material template that is linked over drop box in the way you described. However after just checking my materials that have textures within them, I am finding that even if I link a texture to a C drive location (that is actually a junction link to the drop box folder) the .xml default file when opening in notepad still shows the drop box path, not the c drive path.

just checked this - I selected the Air material in the Materials panel of the plugin, then change Diffuse to an RGB Image and select a jpg from my C:\OctaneTextures folder (which is a junction link to my Dropbox folder). So it is working OK for me. When I rightclick C:\OctaneTextures and go to Properties->Link Properties, it shows it as a Type = Junction link.

In looking at this issue across all my plugins, one potential solution is to store the "Defaults" in ORBX format (so the texturemaps are contained inside the ORBX file). The initial implementation of have for this is that it first checks if there is a C:\Users\Paul\AppData\Local\OctaneRender for Revit\Defaults\Air.ORBX file (and uses that file if it exists), and if not, tries to load the C:\Users\Paul\AppData\Local\OctaneRender for Revit\Defaults\Air.xml. So there is backward compatibility with your current default files.

Paul

[thefishnut]

just checked this - I selected the Air material in the Materials panel of the plugin, then change Diffuse to an RGB Image and select a jpg from my C:\OctaneTextures folder (which is a junction link to my Dropbox folder). So it is working OK for me. When I rightclick C:\OctaneTextures and go to Properties->Link Properties, it shows it as a Type = Junction link.

This process works for me. But then when opening the xml file in notepad to double check the paths of the texture files, they are linked to the dropbox folder location, not the C drive symbolic link location.

In looking at this issue across all my plugins, one potential solution is to store the "Defaults" in ORBX format (so the texturemaps are contained inside the ORBX file). The initial implementation of have for this is that it first checks if there is a C:\Users\Paul\AppData\Local\OctaneRender for Revit\Defaults\Air.ORBX file (and uses that file if it exists), and if not, tries to load the C:\Users\Paul\AppData\Local\OctaneRender for Revit\Defaults\Air.xml. So there is backward compatibility with your current default files.

Is this implemented? or is this planned? Would you recommend that I begin saving my material defaults as orbx?

Many Thanks,
Chris.

[face_off]

This process works for me. But then when opening the xml file in notepad to double check the paths of the texture files, they are linked to the dropbox folder location, not the C drive symbolic link location.

Interesting - my XML default is correctly pointing to the "fake" folder, not the Dropbox folder.

Is this implemented? or is this planned? Would you recommend that I begin saving my material defaults as orbx?

It is planned, not implemented. At the moment you can import/export to the LocalDb via ORBX, so it would only be a small step to implement ORBX for Defaults.

Paul

[thefishnut]

Interesting - my XML default is correctly pointing to the "fake" folder, not the Dropbox folder.

Ok well for now, maybe it is not such a massive issue, if this orbx feature is not to far away, as you mentioned previously:

Also, keep in mind that if the plugin cannot find a texturemap, it will ask the user for a folder to search for the texturemap - and this path is "remembered" for other missing texturemaps when loading the scene into Octane. So if all non-Revit library texturemaps are on c:\myfolder, and another user opens the scene and the texturemaps are in c:\yourfolder, they just need to point the plugin to that folder when the "Cannot find texturemap" dialog pops, and they will all be relinked.

It is planned, not implemented. At the moment you can import/export to the LocalDb via ORBX, so it would only be a small step to implement ORBX for Defaults.

I look forward to this. For now I will continue to save as default while also saving files as orbx for this future change. Will it be necessary when this is implemented to relink all the created materials to their respective orbx files?

[face_off]

I look forward to this. For now I will continue to save as default while also saving files as orbx for this future change. Will it be necessary when this is implemented to relink all the created materials to their respective orbx files?

In theory - all you need to do is copy Air.orbx into the Defaults folder, and it will then be used as the default for the Air material. But I still need to implement this - so there may be complexities I have not thought of.

Paul

[thefishnut]

Great Paul, thank you for the help.
One small issue when doing this I have come across is that when saving a material to orbx local database and then reimporting it to test it. The scale get blown out of whack. This seems to occur for any materials with textures.

[face_off]

One small issue when doing this I have come across is that when saving a material to orbx local database and then reimporting it to test it. The scale get blown out of whack. This seems to occur for any materials with textures.

Ah yes - the import process is applying the LiveDb Texture Scaling amount in the Configuration. I will remove this in the next release.

Paul