3ds Max / Vray Book of learing

[pettermathisen]

can any one recommend a good book for 3ds max?

i want to learn to model architecture stuff in 3ds max. and render with vray.

 

i usually use archicad at work, but want to be able to import this to 3ds max. and use max to render scenes. both exterior and interior

 

cheers Petter

[Nicolai Bongard]

Im not up to date on the best books, but i can give you some helpers with the workflow; The geometry that comes from Archicad is usually pretty horrible, but if you are in a 3d view of your model with all the layers that you want to export visible, you just press file -> save as ->filename.3ds , and in the popup box you should set your units to 1000mm and use the export mode that makes the most sense to you. I usually use the one that exports objects by materials, so i do not have to deal with the horrible autogenerated multisubobject materials you get from the other export modes. Then you import the .3ds to 3d studio max and start cleaning up the geometry. There is no difference between interior and exterior in this regard. Allthough you should make all the furniture in 3ds max as Archicad objects are usually pretty horrible and will be a pain to work with after the export.