Exporting large models

[Tim Nelson]

Are there any Revit experts out there? I am receiving a very large fbx file from a company, about 240mb, and I'm not feeling confident that I'll be able to work with it very well in Max. It has been importing for quite a few minutes now.

 

Are there any good tips or options I could tell them to use when exporting the files to try to keep the file size & poly count down? I think they are only giving me the shell too & no interiors.

 

I really don't want to have to rebuild the model, so any help I could get would be appreciated.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

Tim,

 

You might want to read this thread for tips.

http://www.chaosgroup.com/forums/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=42868&highlight=importing+revit+geometry

 

I am working with a FBX now. There are a few nice things about them, but they don't really appear to have solved the problem with heavy geometry and lagging viewports because of it.

[Tim Nelson]

Would you recommend that I request a dwg instead, exported as solids?

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

I don't have a solid answer for that. You may also want to try the free FBX converter from Autodesk. It will allow you to go to DXF but not DWG from FBX.

[Justin Hunt]

I have found dwg's cleaner than fbx.

 

Both have their issues eg dwg have 10000's of blockheaders and fbx meshes the geometry too much.

 

Sometimes I explode the dwg in acad until it gets down to meshes and then import that. Seems to help get rid of the blocks. and you have more options on importing and how the meshes are handled

 

Maybe ask them to break the model up into logical bits and send you those instead

 

Either way it could be an headache.

 

jhv

[Chad Warner]

If you don't plan on using the revit (mental ray) materials that may or may not be applied to the model, I'd go with DWG. I find it a lot easier to strip all the junk out in ACAD and then bring it into max.