neilmcbean Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 Anyone know of a way to convert Revit to a generic format for rendering? I've been looking and everything depends on Revit to export. Is there a 3rd party IO that would translate to DCC? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Hunt Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 a bit of a vague question as it depends on what DCC you are going to and what they accept. I'd say FBX is the most generic you will get out of Revit, followed by DWG. From there you could look at packages like ploytrans that can export out many different formats. Although each will have its own issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilmcbean Posted February 7, 2019 Author Share Posted February 7, 2019 File transfer between DCC apps is pretty standard - FBX, Alembic, OBJ....every DCC accepts every workflow file format (versioning considered). I use Maya, Cinema 4D, and Blender (and Unity, and Fusion). They all share files pretty easily short of rigged characters. That said, for clarification, I'm not looking for export out of Revit. I'm on a Mac, so I can't use it to generate export. I'm wondering if there is a standalone IO that can translate Revit files. I don't want to rely on Revit for export. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Hunt Posted February 7, 2019 Share Posted February 7, 2019 AFAIK Max is the only one to be able to import native Revit files, basically it does and FBX export behind the scenes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Hunt Posted February 7, 2019 Share Posted February 7, 2019 (edited) https://www.okino.com/solutions/c4d.htm they mention rvt files but then they talk about DWF files generated from Revit, so its a little confusing Edited February 7, 2019 by Justin Hunt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Hunt Posted February 7, 2019 Share Posted February 7, 2019 https://www.maxon.net/en/news/maxon-news/article/easy-file-transfer-between-autodeskc-revitc-and-cinema-4d/ not sure if it is compatible with newer versions than Revit2016 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted February 7, 2019 Share Posted February 7, 2019 (edited) ...easy-file-transfer-between-autodeskc-revitc-and-cinema-4d... That's interesting. I'll have to check that out, thanks! Without checking again, PolyTrans used to only translate .max files if you have a valid Max installed. Could be the same with Revit. I do not use Revit or Max, so when a client has files in Revit I have to ask them to output FBX or similar. If they had a LOT of files, and it was a big project for me, I would put in the demo to translate myself or just have to buy Revit. There is a point that asking a client to do all that work becomes not a good idea. So if on Mac and can't use Revit, your best bet may be asking someone who does to translate the file out for you. You could probably hire someone off one of those 'short task' websites (though not if you're under NDA on the work). EDIT-I'll have to try the demo of that plugin. It looks like there is a simple version to read Revit files into C4D (which has a Mac version) Euros 97 The issue is Autodesk does not publish their current filespecs for .dwg, .max or .rvt, so importers may not be able to read the most current versions, so you'd be back to asking the client to save out an older version--back where you started. We'll see how this plug does. Edited February 7, 2019 by Ernest Burden Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilmcbean Posted February 7, 2019 Author Share Posted February 7, 2019 That is interesting. They don't seem explicit about support on the site, so my guess is that they are Windows only - that's all they mention AFAICT. I've used ViaCAD on mac as a translator for products. Clients supply STEP files which we import and clean up. Groups, surfaces and normals are maintained. ViaCAD to Maya and ViaCAD to C4D both work very well. My primary experience is from SolidWorks, but I'm assuming that Revit can export STEP? That might be the best solution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted February 8, 2019 Share Posted February 8, 2019 ...I've used ViaCAD on mac as a translator for products. Clients supply STEP files which we import and clean up. Groups, surfaces and normals are maintained. ViaCAD to Maya and ViaCAD to C4D both work very well... The current version of Cinema4D imports STEP files directly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Hunt Posted February 8, 2019 Share Posted February 8, 2019 At a glance, no Revit cant export STEP files, it can export IFC which is intended for importing into Navisworks There is possibly a plug-in for revit to export STEP files but that may not be of use for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Schroeder Posted February 8, 2019 Share Posted February 8, 2019 Step 1. Don't use a Mac. Step 2. Success! Your best bet is to work with the person giving your the revit file and have them export what you need. Going from Max to Revit or SketchUp, I've been finding good success with the DAE format. Maybe it is the same in reverse? Not 100% sure if Revit can export DAE though, I know it can import. There is some discussion about work arounds here: https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-architecture-forum/is-there-a-collada-dae-export/td-p/3306713 In Max, the standard DAE from Autodesk is awful, but the Open Collada one is excellent. http://www.opencollada.org/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilmcbean Posted February 9, 2019 Author Share Posted February 9, 2019 VirtualBox FTW I guess....thanks for the help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Moir Posted February 12, 2019 Share Posted February 12, 2019 In Max, the standard DAE from Autodesk is awful, but the Open Collada one is excellent. http://www.opencollada.org/ Nice, thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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