Workflow Question: AutoCAD Architecture to 3D Max

[williamday]

Hello

 

First post on this forum so hello from me. Some of the work is awe inspiring on this website, so I'm looking forward to be involved with this community.

 

In summary I am by no means a novice of 3d max, modelling or texturing and I have been involved with architectural visualisation before with my company to support various bids. However, recently it has taken a more serious turn whereby I will be collaborating with an architect to produce photorealistic visualisations of a building being designed to support a bid the company I work for is developing.

 

I began researching appropriate workflows of getting the AutoCAD Architecture models into 3d and I am getting somewhat lost. Some sources suggest through dog files I will be able to import the file and it maintains all the 3d information and quite possibly material information so I can focus on rendering and lighting in mental ray. Other tutorials and sources suggest that I will be importing dwg files which will only contain spline and line information which I will use to extrude and remodel the building. For obvious reasons the first workflow will be the proffered, rather than spending my time recreating in 3d max what the architect has already done. As I don't know or use AutoCAD and I can't get some sample files to play around with I was hoping this community could help me out.

 

Either telling what to expect or do, or pointing me at a useful tutorial would be great. I am also wanting to get some quality literature to read over but as amazon is saturated with lots of 3d max, architectural visualisation book for many abilities I am unsure which would be the best. So far 3d dats 3d 2010 architectural visualisation books look good but I am happy to hear people's opinion.

 

I should probably mention, architectural visualisation is not my core ability, I am more involved with real time based simulation and training systems, but this is an opportunity for me develop my viz skills beyond an amateur level

 

Regards

 

Will

[Andres del Castillo]

Hi William,

As an Autocad Architecture (AA) and 3ds max user since year 2002 i will try to give you my opinion.

-If you receive AA models, you better import it in max, as you said, because you won't need to re-model geometry. Also if you need to make changes in AA before, you can use File link manager in order to reload changes en max and preserve materials, lights, etc.

-If you are going to create models in order to import them in 3ds max, you better model in 3ds max. There are 3 reason why: you don't need to import, you don't need to learn 2 softwares, and you won't loose information in an importing process.

-However, the most important, software is a tool, use the one taht you feel confortable, useful, powerful, standard, etc.

If you need AA models in order to play around, check autodesk samples and tutorials: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=12748327&linkID=9240655

Good luck

[williamday]

So if I import a DWG file that was created in AutoCAD 2012 as a 3d object it will actually import as 3d geometry and not 2d line drawings of the file? So far my experience of importing DWG files is that it fills 3D max with lots of layers of 2d splines and no 3d geometry.

 

I won't be involved with the building creation in AA, the architect will be doing that, I will just be importing the building design into 3d max for final material selection, rendering and animation

 

Thanks for the help

 

Regards

 

Will

[xEndlessxUrbiax]

Some firms still draw in AutoCAD in 2D. You should find out exactly how the AutoCAD modeling will be before you decide what your workflow will be like. They will most likely be in 3D, in which case you might need them to rotate the model in 3D before the save (I've seen this work with various exports, dont know if it applies to 3dsMax). I agree with Andres regarding the benefits to modeling it yourself; you will most likely encounter a less-than-perfect model that will need pieces re-imported which can be a nightmare if not organized well. I personally prefer importing the 2D AutoCAD drawings into Sketchup where I can model everything quickly and importing the Sketchup model into 3dsMax. The faces and polygons import very well in this manner and if the model was created well in Sketchup, it makes re-imports quite easy.

[williamday]

Yes I remember reading something about even if the autocad file is 3d, if yiu are in a 2d view during the expiry, it will save the file out in 2d and not 3d but thanks for clarifying it.

 

I hear what your saying about remodeling target than importing, but I am going to have 37.5 hours to do this project so remodeling an entire building, making materials, lighting, rendering etc will be a challenge :-)

 

when I sat down with the architect infront of autocad, it certainly looked like he was manipulating a 3d view, but it was all wireframe, not solid geometry, but this coups have been because he was using an old laptop

 

Cheers for the help fellas

 

Regards

 

Will

[Andres del Castillo]

Hi again. Autocad Architecture is not the same as Autocad. AA=BIM, and autocad is not bim. Of couse you can use AA as autocad, without "smart" objects, you have to ask about wich metod is used, in this case. Smart objects in AA are called "AEC objects". You can save it as dwg in all views, an it contains all the 3d AEC objects. It has (as a bim model) 2d and 3d information, but if you import it in max, you will have only 3d information.

Don't be worried about layers, you can choose the way you import models, by material, by layer, by object. I agree with daniel, to have an organized file, is better, but with AEC objects, it will be always automatically organized. It is true that you better place the model in 0,0,0 before import. You don't need to rotate models. You will get the model with materials, but as you know, you better change them.

On the other hand If they are using 3d standard objects (like autocad), not AEC (smart or bim) objects, is not the same, but pretty similar.-