Derek Entesano

Anyone got a good workflow for controlling which people you see in your scene dependent on which camera you are using? Whenever you reimport it always dumps the characters into the active folder so moving them to camera specific folders is a waste of time. Do you have to control it from the Anima end with the .avi's? Seems a bit painful. Thanks in advance Derek

Simon, this is concerning as it is a vital part of our workflow. What to use when it no longer works with new versions?...

I'm surprised that many don't use the din3d plugin. It works great with Archicad - Max because it gives great optimization options, and also allows you to update your Max model easily while keeping material changes etc.

OK, so I am pretty blown away by the lack of quality workflow between Revit and 3ds Max. I use archicad and have a fantastic plugin available for importing and updating models in Max. Made by the same 3rd party guy that did it for Cinema 4D which I used for 11 years prior to switching to Max. Cmon Autodesk! I am just a bit dumbfounded. To be able to export with objects by material must be achievable? I tried to work with models being exported by a large local firm and they just can't get it across in a simple useable format. When asked how they have done it for other illustrators they said that they always have problems too. Shocked. I won't show you a screenshot of the plugin interface and options I get from my .din3d translation format or you will all get jealous!

Interesting. There are four of us in my unit doing the vis work and we were the only area that didnt get a cut when things went pear shaped two years ago. We are seen as vital in helping to punt and secure new work as well as offer extra services to the client. You are right about diversification as well. Lift your skills high enough and be useful in as many ways as you can and you shouldnt need to worry about being on the chopping block. Speed is definitely a key as is integrating into the workflow as seamlessly as possible. Even though the architects could produce an image out of their CAD package, it will take them longer and will not look as good as yours! If it does then maybe it is time for reassessing...

I've been doing arch vis in an Architecture firm for going on 9 years and I am getting busier. I have 3 other arch vis guys and a graphic designer. There is always the steady image requirements for council applications, we have been pushing doing as much of the marketing material as possible in house, and with the difficulties in getting architectural jobs we have been doing a helluva lot of hard and fast punt jobs with a hero shot or too, these can actually be quite fun. We have been Archicad based for 10 years. When a 'good' rendering engine was incorporated into Archicad a while back a few thought they would be able to do what the pres. unit guys can do. I think it was soon realised its not just applying materials and hitting render. I also took it as a motivator to further distiguish our quality and output from the render button crowd. As mentioned above, get artistic and use different styles. For me it is great as more of our office can model well (I get to help steer them for my benefit;) materials breakup etc.), this has freed me to concentrate on the image. As mentioned above as well, expand your services with VR, animations, interactive media etc. It all helps! And yes, the reality is that financial returns just arent as good as they were...

Thanks Damian. We do have a pretty good server room with lots of free rack storage so I was heading along those lines just for the advantages of have a dust free and cool area for the computers. I am in an architectural firm of about 70 staff with four of us doing arch vis full time. We would want to start the farm with the equivalent of 4 of our machines (dual quadcore xeons) that we could farm our images out to. 4 workstations would start to get a bit bulky and if we want to add another 10 or so then it would become unworkable. You are right though there seems to be quite a price difference. Why is it so? The other issue is if others see full computers just sitting around that are more powerful than theirs they might try and comandeer them!

Calling all Australians, where do you get your render machines spec'd up and built? This is fairly urgent as there is a board meeting tonight and I want to get something in front of them to consider. I am thinking more along the lines of a render blade server. Suggestions?

I can recommend a free plugin made by a 3rd party guy that improves the exchange. Such as saving out multiple cameras, UVW coordinates etc. I save out by material so you dont need to sort through massive lists in Cinema4D. http://dinnye.neobase.hu/ And if you are familiar with Vray then why not get the Vray plugin for C4D too? It works great and is always getting updated

Brian, the elliptical cone is easy enough in GDL which will make it efficient and you can control the resolution of it so that it doesnt bog down the processing. By GDLing this element you can then control and modify the object's properties as the project proceeds. I would then use solid elements to cut the window holes and place windows as objects. A bit laborious but I would imagine all your windows will be a similar shape (I couldnt imagine doing the window schedule if they werent!) Archicads main downfall is this lack of NURB modelling that is should be able to do as you can create all these objects in GDL but they havent adapted it for the wall, roof, slab tools etc. I attached a snippet of a project I did ages ago for a punt job which exported out to Maxonform (which is now defunct as it is a free plugin for C4D now) and back into Archicad. By following that process you could try and deform an eliptical tower with windows placed into a eliptical cone but it would make it into objects. Good Luck!...

You nailed it. Thanks for that, straight to my textures library too!

After clicking your starting point press the 'r' button which then lets you input the length you want the wall/slab edge/beam/roof etc to be. R is inputing length, A for angle, X & Y if you are using a co-ordinates system. All the input boxes for these should be in a pallete somewhere on your screen but it is much quicker to use the shortcuts. Holding down Shift will constrain the mouse to 90 degrees and other angles in between that can be set by you in - Options > Work Environment > Mouse Constraints and Methods I use Archicad for everything from kitchen cabinets to 70 storey highrises! Good Luck!

Tim its a pretty old question so alot has changed since then. Such as the new Graphisoft Virtual Building Explorer for Archicad

Tom, Possibly look at Cinema4D with the Vray plugin. The translation between the Archicad model and Cinema is updatible so you will retain materials and mapping when you update changes and it is fast. We bought a Maxwell licence but at the time it took too loing to get an image without heaps of noise.