Archicad11 / 3dsmax File Link = Successful Workflow

[Brian Kitts]

For a few months now I have been fighting to develop an efficient linked work flow between Archicad11 and 3dsMax, preferably using the File Link Manager.

My previous route has been to split all the objects by layer and ignore the archicad materials. This worked well for SD, and DD phases, but as we progress, this layering format does not fit the company standards, it worked well for preliminary design with a small group, but can't be implimented through construction documents phase.

The greatest problem of interoperability between the two programs is that Archicad is currently incapable of exporting a DWG file that retains the materials as setup in Archicad. The DWG exporter is developed by a third party, not by Graphisoft and there have been requests on their forum to get this fixed for almost 3 years now.

Last night I came up with a decent workaround although it involves an intermediate step.

The Process I have right now is:

1. Export from Archicad11 as a .3ds file.
2. Import the .3ds file into Autocad2009 using the import option to split objects by material to layers.
3. Save Autocad2009 file in standard DWG format
4. File Link the newly created DWG in 3dsMax

You can then edit all of the materials in max as setup in Archicad. For me this involves converting them with Vray materials. Then max will retain you changes with the typical file link settings for holding scene materials upon reload.

I'm now working on cleaning up the materials and naming conventions so that it's a bit cleaner. But for now it's a workable solution. This seems to be the best path, it may be possible to use another intermediate step such as sketchup which has an Archicad plugin, but Autocad works really well for seperating the original 3ds by materials.

[shiman singh]

Does this mean if I update my model in Archicad I and go through this procedure I don't have to reapply materials in Max? Does this only work with Vray or Mental Ray as well? Can I get a tutorial somewhere on this. I have been searching for info. on finding a seamless relationship between Archicad and MAx for a long time now. How I wish someone created an awesome 3rd Party Plugin from Archicad 11/12 (soon) to Max Design...

[Brian Kitts]

Yes if you use that method you will not have to reassign your materials in max, regardless of render engine. But the problem I ran into is that it requires the extra conversion step with Autocad, which if you don't have it you are out of luck.....

So I abandoned that workflow last week. It worked well for the project I was testing it on through schematics, but as we crossed over into DD I had to figure out a better way to do it. In doing so I actually took Archicad out of the equation in the end, this works great for archicad, but I've also used to coming out of sketchup.

My current workflow is the following.....

1. Coming out of any application export a .3DS file creating your objects by material.

2. Create a separate layer for your import geometry in max. Import your .3DS file to max on your new layer (this is important because it will make it easier later to delete the imported model for updates)

3. Work as normal to assign all your materials in max. I specifically use real world mapping setting for all textures in my models, so I don't have to reset UV maps at every update.

4. The next time you need to update your model, save your max file then export your new .3DS from a the native application

5. Delete the contents of your import layer in max, and reimport the new model.

6. Then use the "Material Replacer" from ml_plugins (part of the old archicad import tool... but works for the materials part from any ap) to assign all the materials in max using the material library from the version of max that you last saved.
(Basically what you are doing here is just assigning all the incoming materials to the existing materials which the file link used to do automatically for you) Once you have that setup, save the material settings as a preset so you never have to do it again.
http://plugins.angstraum.at/archicad_wiz/

7. Hit apply and your done.

Once you go through the process once and have the preset assigned for the material replacer you can remove and update your geometry in max from any .3ds file in about 20 seconds. There's the extra step of assigning the material crossover manually the first time, but it beats the heck out of doing it manually every time, specially if you update alot.

If you want to take the process one step farther check out the following thread where I learned how to use maxscript to rename all the imported geometry after reassignment to be the name of the material applied to it. This gives you properly named objects instead of all the garbage number names a 3ds file gives you.
http://forums.cgarchitect.com/30119-...-material.html


I doubt there's a tutorial for either of these methods specifically the last one as I just worked it together over the last month. I will be writing a tut that will be used internally at our company, so I'll try to get it posted here as well once completed..... although now that I think about it, I pretty much just wrote it. I'll still have to write a noob version as well though.

[Luis Calatayud]

Hi Brian,
Thanks for the post, i am going to try your process.
i was swatching your webpage, nice work!
Best regards
Lucho

[Stefan Boeykens]

Nice explanation. Do you rely on the UV-mapping that is received from the ArchiCAD model? This is one the reasons why I keep using the 3ds-exporter from ArchiCAD. Having to reassign and especially remap all materials inside 3ds max can then be avoided.

[Brian Kitts]

No, I haven't given any attempt at getting our archicad users to even attempt UV mapping. It's hard enough getting them to assign their materials properly. Keep in mind I'm trying to set standards to be used by over 200+ archicad users in our company. At any given time there's a dozen or so people signed in to a project so it's nearly impossible for me to get into the the parts of the project I would need to assign the UV's properly myself. The attached images is the current archicad model that we are working on to see the size/detail I'm coordinating out of archicad into max.

[Stefan Boeykens]

Respect for the sheer scale of what you are transferring.

That said, to me the UV-mapping simply works for most of the ArchiCAD elements, especially those who are not oriented according to X or Y axis. The support for this mapping along with the export according to materials are two reasons to stick with 3ds files. Having to assign UVW-coordinates for all these entities is unfeasible, especially when all "concrete" walls will become a single object, yet different parts need different mapping.

But I'm only myself, although I teach students ArchiCAD.

[Ricardo Borges]

This script lets build a parallel workflow with Archicad, in the same way as Artlantis. You can import and update the AC model in 3dsMax while keeping materials, UVWmaps, and VrayDisplacementMaps.

http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/archicad-importer


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