Thank you for this wonderful series. I'm just about to start my 2nd year at architecture school, and am looking to optimise my workflow. So far, I've had to spend more time on drafting separately in 2d and then modelling than on actual design - and am looking to change that. However, for my student projects, I need to do lots of specially designed doors, windows, louvres, parametric shapes etc, and that looks extremely difficult to model in Revit! ArchiCad has been suggested as an alternative, but I already use 3dsMax with Corona, so learning Revit would be the logical choice. But time is short and the learning curve is steep, and I don't want to compromise either design quality or good graphic output (school insists on both, obviously). Ideally, I want to increase the time I spend at either end - design stage and 'pretty graphics stage' and reduce the time and hassle of the drafting/modelling stage. This is quite the worry heading into Year 2 for me - any advice you can give? Thank you!

@VanVoorhisArchitects

3 жыл бұрын

Awesome, 2nd year is a fun one. Yeah I think you’re on the right track with your thinking, you’ll definitely speed up your workflow if you can simultaneously get 2d as you develop your 3d. In the real world outside of school, Revit and ArchiCAD are the big BIM programs that let you accomplish this. Funny you mentioned ArchiCAD, I’ve been living in that program for the past 6 months getting trained up as a BIM manager which is sort of rare, at least here in the US. So speaking from experience, I do think it’s easier to model complex shapes in ArchiCAD compared to Revit. You can also export an .FBX file from ArchiCAD and import into 3ds Max so the rendering workflow can be virtually identical. That said, both programs are very deep and require a lot of upfront work to get things to running efficiently and actually look presentable. Have you considered Rhino? For school projects, where professors are just trying to push you thinking creatively, it might be a great balance that doesn’t involve as much setup to get things looking good and is much more flexible when a professor comes and blows up your designs. It can import into Max easily as well. It’s not a BIM program but the 3d modeling tools are like SketchUP on steroids and it has some good commands to quickly get good 2d linework that you can bring into illustrator to touch up for quick design presentations. Plus you can play with grasshopper and that’s just straight fun. Just another thought! Honestly, I’d say try to play with them all and see what feels best. Hopefully that’s helpful, let me know if you have any other questions.

Nice! Hope more videos on the future.

@VanVoorhisArchitects

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks! Definitely have more planned

Hi Jeff. Really looking forward to this series. I'm working at an architectural firm that has been using revit for 8 years now. Although we draw everything in 3d, all of our finished products (with the exeption of a single small 3d view here and there) are the common 2D drawings (plans, sections, elevations and building details). It's such a missed opportunity as clients tend to have a hard time understanding their project with just these 2d drawings. From the start of this year we have 3ds max in our software package and therefore i want to try and use it. Really like your calm and basic approach to not get overwhelmed by all possibilities the program has.

@VanVoorhisArchitects

4 жыл бұрын

Hi Tom, appreciate the feedback. Definitely agree, if you're already building good Revit models, you should be able to leverage them to make some great images. Max has a healthy learning curve but so does any new rendering software and with Max you've got the benefit that it is the main workhorse in most high-end archviz firms. There's a lot of tricks, plugins, and people developing for it to make that can make it super efficient if you're setup for it. The videos I've put out so far explain how to build your own foundation to use the programs together. Give it a shot, get comfortable experimenting, and don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions!

@tomverbong795

4 жыл бұрын

@@VanVoorhisArchitects I've been experimenting for quite some hours now and starting to understand some of the most basic things. Setting up a fbx file with only the elements i want in 3ds max, adding the hdri bitmap, applying corona materials (with some basic adjustments if needed) and adding some objects (trees, hedges, cars, people etc). Adding things to the file is something that annoys me though. It's very time consuming to search the internet for free stuff (as i don't want to convince my boss to spend hundreds on extra's at this stage) that suits the project and also looks good. I know i shouldn't expect too much already but i'm not sure on how to improve some of the most simple things i've done. Colors just don't look natural. Any chance you want to take a look on what i've done up till now and give some simple feedback?

@VanVoorhisArchitects

4 жыл бұрын

Awesome to hear you're getting the basics. The materials, plants, and entourage are definitely what start to breathe life into the image and, as you're finding, the tools Max gives for that are a bit lacking. I'm still working on the videos that breakdown my own preferences on material and entourage setup but hopefully they'll give you some easier direction. I like to keep things simple and you'll probably find tons of tutorials that make things a bit over complicated... I also feel you not wanting to drop tons of money before you know if this is viable for your workflow. Unfortunately the free materials and models floating are probably going to leave you feeling lacking. You'll put a ton of time into looking for them and they just won't look right. Quixel Megascans offers a $20/month subscription you can use to get ~40 materials/~20 models a month. Hopefully not too bad for a little R&D, more time playing in Max and less time searching for assets. Also, I use a free program called Connecter (kzread.info/dash/bejne/g45qq8Nyd9KZh9Y.html) to manage my 3d library which makes it much easier to organize and pull your models into Max. No problem giving some feedback, feel free to email something over.

Thanks!

great!

you are the best

Your videos so far are awesome and exactly what I was looking to try and do myself. I am similar to a previous poster. We converted from cad to revit about 5 years ago and from pencil to cad about 25 years ago and the company start about 50 years ago. We have evolved with the times, lol. I have a few questions and I would hate to flood videos with questions but I am very intrigued with your method and can't avoid asking a few. What plug ins do you recommend? I notice this "corona renderer" plug in. Is it necessary to have that for me to proceed far in to your videos? Are there any other basic videos you recommend to help better familiarize myself with 3ds max? I am already "self taught" revit and your sky background file went over my head a little. You mentioned getting the sky image offline, does it work for any day time image or do I need to be looking for a particular file type. I was having an issue with interoperability for a bit but your fbx format of importing seemed to take care of that issue. I have scanned through a dozen videos today and spent by far more time with yours as it seems to be the best fit for me. I could just really use a slight nudge with guidance to get me rolling. I feel like if I was able to figure out revit with a little help, I should be able to figure out 3ds max as well. Your expertise is much appreciated :)

@VanVoorhisArchitects

3 жыл бұрын

No worries, I love questions! Regarding plug-ins, I made another video that covers my top plug-ins I use. Definitely take a look at that. Regarding other videos, there are TONS of videos on Max but I’ve never found a consistent set of videos that only cover what you need for Architectural renderings. Max can be used for animation, simulations, video game modeling, etc. and it’s easy to get lost in the weeds. I tried to make my videos cover only what you need to get started rendering in Max for architects. You don’t need Corona, you could try another rendering engine like Vray but I’ve found Corona is pretty simple and works without having to fuss with a lot of settings which means more time focusing on the actual imagery. The “HDRI” sky is essentially a hi-res static image someone took of the sky at a particular time of day. You can take the image and drop into your scene and it will provide light as if your building was under the same sky. You would develop your own little library of skies as each file is just one time of day. I have skies for cloudy conditions, sunsets, rain, etc. Yeah Max isn’t too difficult if can stay focused and only work with the tools needed for rendering. I think that’s where a lot of people get frustrated is that there are so many ways it can be used and not a lot of streamlined tutorial series just for architects. Hopefully that helps!

Well done. This is just the workflow I am interested in. I feel like you were speaking to someone like me in this series. How different is the workflow when you use Vray? I have been using V-Ray directly in Revit, but I struggled using it in various platforms (Revit, Rhino, 3DS Max). Should I switch to Corona (never used this program). I'm just trying to find a straightforward workflow I can use in a professional setting. This is the first real professional workflow demonstration I've seen that seems realistic.

@VanVoorhisArchitects

Жыл бұрын

Glad it resonated! The workflow wouldn’t be too much different. You’d just need to work the specifics of setting up lights, materials, and some of the unique render settings in Vray (related to corona). Otherwise the overall structure of the workflow would be the same as Max would maintain the same material assignments and such when you relink your Revit model back in Max. It’s definitely a realistic workflow in a professional setting but it is a little bit more involved than using a more “packaged” product like lumion. The upside of course is that once you get the hang of it you have a much more flexibility in crafting renderings suited to your tastes. Good luck and let me know if any other questions come up!

Dear sir, i have a problem when i reload revit file into 3dsmax. Although already stick in keep material assigment in reload, my file still lost material assigment. Please help me solve this problerm, Thank you!

I've noticed you've stopped making videos , do you have any courses where you share you knowledge step by step? Thank you!

@VanVoorhisArchitects

3 жыл бұрын

I don’t have any formal courses right now but it’s something I’ve considered putting together down the road. I just had a baby girl and that put video production on pause for a while. I am hoping to ramp back up again soon. Appreciate your interest!

@levlad12

3 жыл бұрын

@@VanVoorhisArchitects Congratulation on your baby girl! We'll be seeing you in a near future hopefully, all the best!

hello sir, Im civil Engineering student Im confused on which software I should learn for designing Revit , 3ds max or Sketchup ?

@VanVoorhisArchitects

3 жыл бұрын

Hey man! If you're in civil engineering, of those options, I'd probably go revit since it has the most options for technical site work. Depending on the type of design work you want to do Autodesk might have programs for civil design that can integrate into Revit

Hi, I’m interested in your workflow. I’m developing my design process to this method. It will be great if you create a community in the context.

@VanVoorhisArchitects

3 жыл бұрын

Awesome, glad you're giving it a shot. It's pretty powerful and efficient once you get it down.