Limitations of Revit

[vangutendog]

Hi all

 

As my previous post explained I'm very new and teaching myself the ins and outs of 3d rendering for architects and engineers.

 

I've been busy at work with 3ds max, rendering in iray and starting to learn vray. Modeling is coming easy but lighting and materials is a bit more of a battle. Up till now I've been taking other artists renderings and trying to recreate them as accurately as possible. Already, though, arch friends of mine have shown interest saying that the quality is better than most Arch firms are putting out here in SA.

 

My question is regarding the other rendering products on the market: mainly Revit. I see most people are using 3ds max but a common question is, "why not use Revit?"

 

What are the limitations of Revit? or, In what scenarios should I be looking to utilize it? Also what other programs would Arch firms question as being easier to use than using a cg artist?

 

I know this might seem like "noob" questions but they will go a long way in regards to future sale and work proposals.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Philip Nel]

Hi there

 

I'm modelling in Revit - linking to max, using vray to render. For me the limitations are:

* Curved objects like columns, railings etc are faceted when linked into max - this results in weird looking geometry as well as slow viewport performance

* Scaling issue with UVW coordinates when linking Revit files - feet instead of mm - have to apply some sort of modifier (ie mapscaler) to correct this problem

*Working with huge files and time constraints it's quicker to do some modelling and material changes in max - to go back into Revit, do minor changes and linking again is a laborious process.

 

That's just my 2 cents!

[M V]

I have worked in offices that use Revit since 2004. I have never seen a decent marketing worthy render come out of Revit. Even is you Google search "revit rendering" they all have this stone cold look to them. I think Autodesk wants it that way too. They dont ever want to have a single application that does one thing from soup to nuts. That's bad for business for them I think.

 

Most folks here use V-Ray and from my understanding, V-Ray is not available in Revit (yet). I also think the material and model collections out there are not Revit friendly, so getting furniture and entourage that looks good into Revit is a challenge. Also, it's slow as a dog unless you use the new cloud rendering (another Autodesk way to get from money from you) and Mental Ray (Revit's rendering engine) is just not great IMO.

[Scott Schroeder]

Also what other programs would Arch firms question as being easier to use than using a cg artist?

 

You'll never get a piece of software to replace a well trained artist. And by trained, I don't only mean digital art but the knowledge of traditional art as well. You can't go, "Okay SketchUp. Make me a pretty picture. Go!"

 

Revit's limitation is that it was never designed to be a rendering platform and nor should it be. That isn't the primary function of Revit. Revit is there to give you CD's and rudimentary 3D views to help see your design. Even Revit's version of Mental Ray is a completely stripped down version as compared to what you can get for other software packages. The rendering engine has always been bolted onto Revit rather than Revit built around the engine.

 

I'd question Vlado's sanity if they made a version of Vray for Revit. At least it won't happen until Revit moves away from the awful Autodesk Pro materials. If Revit used the Arch and Design materials, Vray for it might be a possibility as those function within Vray.

[vangutendog]

Thanks guys! I appreciate the feedback. Its a big help

 

I've been Google searching Revit renderings and, yeah, I could't find any that had the quality that you find on this website and can see what you mean by "stone cold".

 

Scott: I've mainly been taking the "photographer" attitude on this. As in: just because anyone can pick up a camera, that doesn't mean you won't hire a wedding photographer.

[Justin Hunt]

there is a Maxwell plugin for revit, although todate I am yet to see anything done with it.

 

The material setup in Revit make it a nightmare to work with. I did some experiments with the 360 cloud rendering which uses a "version" of iray (although they say it isn't iray) and it was quick, quality was OK but you were restricted to the image size.

 

I still prefer exporting out DWG's over FBX's, mainly due to the crazy meshes.

 

I have gotten some pretty decent Revit models and many more crappy ones. The good ones are a pleasure to work with and we all know how bad the crappy ones can be. Same can be said for Sketchup models.

 

jhv