Clean up and prep a building model supplied by a client for UE4. Workflow advice.

[rogerrobinson]

I have a games and photography background and Im looking to get into arch viz.

 

To this end I have been given an Archicad file from a potential client to do some experimentation and learning on with a view to doing some work for them in the future.

 

What is the best way to get a model from Archicad (.pln) to UE4?

 

I have found exporting to .fbx and then importing to Maya allows me to retain the materials from Archicad.

 

However the big problem that I have is the state of the mesh. The topology is so messy that it is unusable as it is. There is geometry stacked on top of other geometry (causing z-fighting) unconnected faces and loads of hidden geometry in the walls (insulation I think!).

 

Ive started cleaning it up but honestly I think it is going to be quicker if I just rebuild it myself. If I do that Ill use a combination of the quad draw tools (in Maya or possibly 3D coat) and manually rebuilding and then snapping the verts to the supplied model.

 

Can anyone suggest a better workflow?

 

Is it common for Architects to supply models with bad geometry? -if not what can I do to encourage my (potential) client to clean up their models?

 

Any advice or tips gratefully received!

[John Dollus]

 

Is it common for Architects to supply models with bad geometry? -if not what can I do to encourage my (potential) client to clean up their models?

 

 

Yes, it's quite common to have flipped normals, intersecting/coplanar geometry, missing references, boxes that should be cylinders etc.

 

One thing you can do to try and minimize the pain is to develop modeling guidelines for them and providing those guidelines with your project bid/estimate. There's no guarantee they will actually follow the guidelines but if you don't ask, you don't get.

 

You can try assigning some punitive financial consequences like an hourly charge to fix their models outside of the base bid but that's almost certainly a way to guarantee you never get any work.

[Lewis Garrison]

At my office we just rebuild everything. Most interior projects only take my team a couple hours everything needed. We just got tired of trusting the clients work. Most models you get are built for construction drawings so there will always be clean up and UV work to do.

[Francisco Penaloza]

I have a games and photography background and Im looking to get into arch viz.

 

To this end I have been given an Archicad file from a potential client to do some experimentation and learning on with a view to doing some work for them in the future.

 

What is the best way to get a model from Archicad (.pln) to UE4?

 

I have found exporting to .fbx and then importing to Maya allows me to retain the materials from Archicad.

 

However the big problem that I have is the state of the mesh. The topology is so messy that it is unusable as it is. There is geometry stacked on top of other geometry (causing z-fighting) unconnected faces and loads of hidden geometry in the walls (insulation I think!).

 

Ive started cleaning it up but honestly I think it is going to be quicker if I just rebuild it myself. If I do that Ill use a combination of the quad draw tools (in Maya or possibly 3D coat) and manually rebuilding and then snapping the verts to the supplied model.

 

Can anyone suggest a better workflow?

 

Is it common for Architects to supply models with bad geometry? -if not what can I do to encourage my (potential) client to clean up their models?

 

Any advice or tips gratefully received!

 

Welcome to ArchViz world!

Yes, you will always receive messy files because doing CAD work is a totally different beast compared to game design.

Most of us that are in this industry for years, always hear the Utopian time when you can model in CAD and render easily. that never happens.

It is kind of getting closer but stills have a long run, mostly if you are planning to use a game engine such Unreal.

 

Traditional Raytracer engines are more forgivable with bad modeling but even with that cleanup works is always need it.

There are many tools in the market, depending on what software you use to render. Having said that Maya is not a common tool to do archviz, usually 3D Max, Cinema 4D are more related to CAD software.

Actually, Cinema 4D is more compatible with ArchiCAD compared to 3D Max.

 

FBX is a good standard file format to move files around but it has some limitations, like everything else.

 

As others mentioned already, rebuilding the model is a common option for us, but this depends mostly (for me at least) on how much time you have for the project and the budget.

 

Telling the Architect that his model sucks is like slapping them in the face with a silk glove, they will listen, but still model the same way, if you are a freelancer they will take their business someplace else. because they have a lot to choose from and many people just bend backward to get some jobs. Needless to say, they will model the scene from scratch and don't say anything to the architect LOL.

 

I work in an Architectural Firm and I always encourage them to do their models better and always get the same answer 'for their type or work it doesn't matter' why they will spend more time in the model when in their blueprints or final BIM model it looks OK.

ArchiCAD and REVIT also have LOD, and that helps them to have more complex geometry that will display correctly depending on their purpose, that's one of the reasons you'll see coplanar faces in ArchiCAD, in that software that doesn't show, if you export then it does.

 

 

Best luck.!

[Scott Schroeder]

If you can, you may want to try to use DWG to export from ArchiCAD. In the Revit to Max world, FBX is great for a lot of geometry, except curved surfaces. DWG's come in so much cleaner for curved surfaces. I'm wondering if that would be the same for ArchiCAD.

 

To echo everyone else. Putting a direct CAD model into Unreal is not the best path.

 

You may want to look into the Datasmith route and using Optim as a middle software to do a lot of the heavy lifting for cleanup for you.

https://theia.io/optim/

[Ernest Burden III]

DWG won't carry materials, but a client's mat are usually just colors or stock "concrete" or "Wood -3", pretty useless. If the structure is good (object separation and proper joining) and surfaces aren't either over-divided (Rhino, you know you have some explaining to do) of curves mutilated, then go with it. OBJ is still a viable format, though world 'up' can vary.

 

Usually client files are a mess. I will be asked for a discount if they provide a model. I respond that it will make more time open for the detail work at the end that makes the work great. That sometimes works. Occasionally, a client model is good, easy to work with and actually saves time. Don't count on it. So it's best to use them as a guide and re-model to your needs.

 

The mantra is "I am responsible for my own models".

[Adrian Denne]

yeah cleaning up clients models is a rabbit hole you dont want to go down, I use them as a way to guide to remodel, so i dont have to keep looking at the plans etc. Just try and get your workflow as efficient as possible, get some kitset pieces ready to reuse if thats possible.