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Use "BIM 360 (Preview)"-Desktop app to share Custom Textures for Revit Materials

13 REPLIES 13
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Message 1 of 14
xavier.loayza
1707 Views, 13 Replies

Use "BIM 360 (Preview)"-Desktop app to share Custom Textures for Revit Materials

Hi forum!

I need to find a more efficient way to share the custom textures (jpg, png) we use for our Revit materials. We currently have a link to the latest version of textures in the cloud that several organizations have to download to update their texture content in their local networks. Revit maps out that local network location using the rendering path option to render materials correctly.renderpathmat.PNG

 

 

The solution could be Onedrive/Sharepoint, but that is not a possibility for now. I am left with the BIM 360 because that is common ground for all the organizations. The idea is to create a BIM 360 Docs project invite everyone, and to place in a folder all the custom textures to later map out that rendering path. Once the path set, they will always have updated content.renderpathnew.PNG

 

 Notice I am using this desktop app BIM 360 (Preview):bimapp.PNG

 

 

I already tried using the other app, BIM 360 Team, in the past and it just gave me problems. Revit crashed when opening the Material Editor or did not show the texture. However, the new desktop app connected to Docs seems to work better. 

 

QUESTION: IS THIS A GOOD PRACTICE? from the software architecture point of view. I am afraid those "transfering files" windows are going to make Revit crash. We use enscape as a rendering tool. Any thoughts or comments?

 

Thanks,

 

Xavier

13 REPLIES 13
Message 2 of 14
yurikim
in reply to: xavier.loayza

Thank you for your posting @xavier.loayza.

 

Please refer to this: https://projectdelivery.autodesk.com/blog/desktop-connector/

 

Keynotes, uniformat files or materials will be available through desktop connector. Advantage putting them in Docs and using desktop connector will be that they are available across organisations. 

 

Hope this helps.

Yuri Kim
Product Support Specialist, AEC
Message 3 of 14
xavier.loayza
in reply to: yurikim

So, when is this going to work? Because I did further testing, and it is not currently working on the "BIM 360 (Preview)" app that communicates to Docs. 

 

Message 4 of 14
xavier.loayza
in reply to: yurikim

Hi! @yurikim

I am not sure, but I think, in order for Revit to read Custom Textures located in a BIM 360 Docs Project, the app should allow texture files to sync locally to your PC. Currently, the files we see on the desktop app are just a placeholder of what it is stored under Project Files. Am I correct? Because it is not currently working. My materials do not load the custom textures when assigning a Rendering Path (Revit) mapping out the folder in BIM 360 (Preview). 

Am I going to be able to use the Desktop app the way I am describing it?

Thanks,

Xavier

Message 5 of 14

Hello @xavier.loayza,

 

Desktop Connector for BIM 360 is a connector that establishes BIM 360 Docs as a recognized data source, making it available in your desktop folder and file structure for easy file management.

This means your BIM 360 Docs files are replicated in a connected drive. You can manage files in BIM 360 Docs through the connected drive, just as you would any other folder on your machine. Changes made on the desktop are automatically uploaded to BIM 360 Docs. 

 

Your team may benefit from using the Autodesk Desktop Connector.  If your team needs to update to the latest version you may do so at:  Unified Desktop Connector Install.  The Desktop connector will allow local custom texture files to automatically upload to your BIM 360 Docs share folder.

Please let me know if you find this helpful.   Thank you



James L Bryant

Autodesk Support Team

Contact Autodesk |
Message 6 of 14

Hi @xavier.loayza,

 

I reached out to my colleagues who corrected me the Desktop Connector does not support cloud references for material paths; they will be considered local paths and will fail to load.  However, it may be possible to share the material libraries.  When we create a material (in Revit)  it will refer to the local user directory only, each work station which renders in Revit would need the appropriate material libraries on their local user directory.  

 

Let me know if you find this helpful.   Thank you



James L Bryant

Autodesk Support Team

Contact Autodesk |
Message 7 of 14

@james.l.bryant thanks for the reply. It seems that your last reply reflects more the kind of issues I faced by testing this workflow out. So, correct me if I am wrong, but I think is fair to say that:

- The connected drive does not behave like any other folder on your machine. Files are not local or cached, right?

- As you said, it is possible to share my custom textures, but I will have to download them and place them in my local directory (it will become a manual process to update the library).

 

Is is possible to do it using External Resources with the Revit API? or the material path must be local all the time?

Like this: https://youtu.be/pK0OdAe4fWM

 

If this is not possible, I am left with a dropbox/onedrive as my source of truth for material textures. However, I am trying to avoid those services.

 

Thanks,

Xavier

 

 

Message 8 of 14

Hello @xavier.loayza,

 

Thank you for update this is  a great workflow question.  What I would like to do is escalate our concern to a specialist who can provide insight to our issue.   I will be escalating case to a specialist for assistance.  On resolution I will update our Forum post to share with community.  Thank you



James L Bryant

Autodesk Support Team

Contact Autodesk |
Message 9 of 14

@xavier.loayza

 

For Revit API related workflow questions, I would suggest reaching out to our Autodesk Developer Network. This forum is specifically for BIM 360. Via the link, select "Contact Us". 

 

To answer part of the above question, when you place files into the Desktop Connector folder, they are synchronized to the cloud repository - either BIM 360 Team or BIM 360 Docs depending on what folder was selected. The cache for Desktop Connector is stored in your Webservices folder via your localappdata folder. Example: 

 

C:\Users\YOURSUSERNAME\AppData\Local\Autodesk\Web Services\DesktopConnector

 

The files reside in YOURCOMPUTER\BIM 360 Team or YOURCOMPUTER\BIM 360 (Preview)

 

The folder is local, the files are dropped in, cached, and then sync'ed to the cloud. 

 

-Scott 



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Message 10 of 14
mmangione
in reply to: scott.a.green

We have used this, and it works, but only for one person.

When we add a new person to the team the materials need to be re-linked. 

Is there a way to point the default path to the BIM360 folder?

Thank you.

Message 11 of 14

Hi,

 

Was there ever a resolution to this problem? We are currently using SharePoint with Enscape and are running into a lot of crashes and latency 

Message 12 of 14

Hi,

 

Our model is saved to BIM360. We are using Revit 2020.2.3 and Enscape 2.9.1

 

Our materials are saved to SharePoint. We have multiple users in the model. Each user has the local sharepoint synced folder saved to their additional render appearance path in Revit. 

 

We are experiencing latency and consistent crashes in this model. Any suggestions? 

Message 13 of 14

Does this work though when working collaboratively with Enscape? For example all the materials and textures are saved to this cloud platform which syncs locally to the computer. The local path is added to additional rendering appearance paths in Revit. But will that cause issues with the other users? 

Message 14 of 14

Hi Novak,

 

We are currently testing a solution via Revit API, hosting custom textures in the cloud and synchronizing them to user’s computers. Check the following video and see if this is what you are looking for.

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eKNc9qJ1dtGyoOrOpwQCnv_KySYJ4vWp/view?usp=drivesdk

 

Xavier

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