Reducing or increasing the level of detail in Showcase

[MarionLandry]

Are you dealing with large size models in Showcase? Learn how you can increase/decrease the polygon count (Level of Detail) of an imported model. This will help your user experience in Showcase with:
-overall navigation
-import translation time
-viewport visual quality and rendering quality

Look at this video posted on youtube:http://youtu.be/ea-nGZDP4Cs

[Anonymous]

Thanks - I was unaware of that ability. And WOW - What a great job on that video. I do architecture, so that should be especially useful.

Geof Narlee

[Anonymous]

Well. That setting does not appear for Revit models, which in my case, are in the 500,000 +- polycount range.

[MarionLandry]

Hi,
thanks! I am glad you are liking this video. BTW, this feature exist for EVERY IMPORTED MODEL. In fact, this video was recorded with a Revit FBX model.. The only reason why this feature would not be available is that if you use the AutoGroup plug in on your model. That will brake the FBX import link to Revit and therefore prevent you from changing the level of detail of your model.
Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Ha - thank you! I was back on this forum today to tell you that it seemed that AutoGroup plug in was working, although it didn't register in the polygon count (at least as reported). But, I found, under the View tab, "Group and Combine by Category, Family, Type, Material." So I tried that and within a few seconds, depending on the size of the project, it worked fantastically. I just noticed that you have more on this under the other related thread in this Forum, so I'm going to see what you've got there, but THANKS. Also, I see you've got something on the RCP question. So I should mention, and I will over there too, that I imported trees etc. out of Revit (basically dwg blocks that someone made into rfa files) and although the polygon count skyrocketed, it didn't seem to slow down the nav after the "Group and Combine" routine mentioned above. I'm trying to stay with Revit objects to keep the design pipeline simple and clean, but will check out your other great suggestions in that thread.

Best,
Geof

[MarionLandry]

HI,
First I have to said that I am really impressed with your persistency and interest with Showcase. It is great to see that you are liking the Software and want to investigate more with it.
You are correct by saying that after running the plug in, the polygon count will stay the same. That is because, the plug in doesn't re-tesselate the object but combines them. So the polygon count stays the same but the number of objects (geometry) is reduced substentially. That is the reason why it will run more smoothly. I will publish a tips and tricks shortly about this topic.

Let me know if I can help on other challenges your are facing with Showcase.
Marion