autocad to max scene optimization

[chow choppe]

hi everyone

 

i use autocad 2007 for modelling work and then import it to max for rendering purpose. No i faced this problem of making a scene heavy everytime i work on bigger projects. Basically i have a master plan in which there are 8 housing blocks . the design is same for every block and its 12 storey high. Now there are a number of balconies with railings and columns, cornices in the design. i copied the railing for one balcony to another and which has made scene heavy

 

I want to know whats the best way to handle this? i mean when u have numerous railings columns and other small details which are being copied several times. so that scene remains easier to manage

 

thanks

[Fairlane62]

Sometimes when my scenes start getting really slow, I might use x-reference. Another thing I do is to minimize the geometry on heavy polygon objects either by using the optimize modifer or multires. With the optimize modifer you could specify a very low polygons for display and high res for rendering.

You could also choose to display objects as bounding box under properties.

 

There are a number of other ways you could optimize your scene as well.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Joel

[Kyle]

I have heard that if you turn your objects to mesh you can then use vray proxy which will free up extra ram somewhat, worth investigating I think.

[chow choppe]

thanks

[Tommy Burns]

I bring my drawings in by layer and if you have layered properly in dwg

each layer comes in as one object and then I just apply the materials to each layer. Never have much of a problem with ram. Hope this helps

[RAYMOND]

also,

 

when you link are you just bring in a single dwg or multiple

 

ussually when I have something with a lot blocks i take care of this with multiple dwgs and xrefs...

 

also if you are dealing with deck railings etc you might just use an 3dface and apply an image to it.... works great if your shots are some distance

maybe not up close..

 

also, i block out stuff in dwg i don't need in max...

 

generally i find modeling dwg is much more faster and accurate.

plus the feature of breaking down the dwg more easier

r

[yushi]

I once had this kind of project and the same problem.

If you have blocks which are the same, you could simply make a MAX file for that block and do all the materials in that file. then make a max file for your site plan with the streets and stuff like that and 'xref scene' that block file into your site. then you can make as many as copies , move your blocks or turn them off if you want to work on the site. It helped me alot since my max file was around 180mb.