2d floorplan to 3d

[deejay]

Hi!

Im a newbie at 3d studio max. I've been through some tutorials, so I know a little bit about the program.

Anyway, I was hoping for some tips in how to make 3d models from 2d floorplan(the best and fastest way) They do not need to be 100 % compared to the 2d models in measurement.

A realestate agency want me to try make some models, and if they are happy with the result, I will have alot of work ahead of me:)

Here is how I want the model to be:

[jophus14]

Import the DWG file into MAX through File>Import. It good to have an elevation near-by for reference to window openings and such. I usually begin at one corner of the drawing and work around it. I create a box, and align it with the drawing using the snaps tool in the toolbar and then apply an Edit Mesh modifier to the box. I then begin to extrude walls and surface where I need then. There are easier ways of creating walls and maybe somebody will post their technique, but this is how I do it.

[stormchaser]

i usually draw a line on the plan and extrude it and covert it to poly. then i connect edges, extrude faces etc. works for me and keep the geometry clean and low.

[deejay]

ok... I will try:)

 

Anyway, what about lightning and rendering.. Any tips on what to do with light so it will be as bright and clear as the image i posted above?

[deejay]

Ok, here is what i did:

created the shape of the room using a spline, line tool. Then outlined the spline to the thickness I wanted and then used the Extrude modifier to create the walls.

Now I need to know the best way to make doors and windows. And also, what is best to use for floor? A rectangle under the walls?

Here is my walls:)

[batteryoperatedlettuce]

If you're OK with CAD do the following.

 

1) This is a must. Delete everything from the dwg, which isn't going to be a physical object in your scene, there's nothing worse than having your cursor snap to some garbage every two seconds while you're trying to trace something, and some dwgs are pretty heavy and suck at your graphics card.

 

2) If you can be bothered, make a new layer in CAD and name it !my_stuff etc. I use the exclamation mark because most cad users here prefix their layers with "A" to bump their layers to the top of the list. I use the exclamation mark to bump my layer above theirs.

 

retrace the things you are going to simply extrude in 3Ds max on your new CAD layer using closed poly lines. These can be directly extruded in max. The other plus side of this is that things like trimming and spline editing are much easier in CAD because you don't have to keep switching sub-object levels.

 

3)If you are using max 7.0 or up, there are layer options when you import - select your !my_stuff layers from the list and disgard the rest.

 

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Regarding your model, try to keep from overlapping faces. Are those walls overlapping each other? If they are bring them to the inside of the outer wall. This is good practice at all times, especally if your going to have an open ceiling like that. Many rendering engines will render artifacts if they encounter coplanar faces.

 

There's lot's of ways to cut doors and windows. Carefully go through the tutorials regarding editible mesh and poly. Understand everything there is to know about the mesh and poly sub-levels and you will easily think of ways to model simple openings.

[deejay]

Thanks!

 

I've been making models in sketchup, but the agency wants me to look into 3d studio... so I have 2-3 months to come up with a model like the one in the first post.