Plant 3D to Showcase

[dataone]

I would like to find a workflow that would bring a Plant 3D model into Showcase. I have tried exporting Plant 3D model to plain autocad and then opening in Showcase. None of the piping comes through. I can also open the Plant 3D model in Navisworks which lets you roam through the model in real time. This action can be recorded and converted to an AVI file but the time required and quality are long and poor. Is there a way to transfer a Navisworks file to Showcase?
Why Showcase? It has the easiest shot & storyboard generation and very fast output rendering.

[MarionLandry]

Plant 3D save as DWG >> Import DWG to 3ds MAX Design, Export into and FBX >>import FBX To Showcase. I think that might work but I have never tested it myself. If you can share your plant 3D file, I can run some test on my side. Let me know if you get any result with this workflow
Marion

[MarionLandry]

HI,
I have pasted a copy of the rest of the conversation that was exchanged on my YouTube Channel as I think it is important to other users:


hummingbirdRPV:
Thanks Marion. For an information lead you might be able to contact members of the "crusty crew". They tested Plant 3D and called their work "Project X" and made a PR movie for Autodesk university a few years back. This should be the link
http://youtu.be/zO0fPtgEdWk


Marion's reply:
For your information, in the video you sent me, the animation was created in 3ds Max Design, not Showcase. The only workaround I would like to suggest is: Plant 3D DWG >> 3ds MAX Design >>FBX>> To Showcase. I think that might work but I have never tested it myself. If you can share your plant 3D file, I can run some test on my side. I won't answer your post on the area since I have answered it here. thanks

hummingbirdRPV:
Hi Marion
Slowly managed to get a Plant 3D model into Showcase.
see this video.
http://youtu.be/uKt0uUXex4U
My workflow is Plant 3D > AutoCAD, bind all xrefs > export FBX > Import to Showcase. When I send AutoCAD > Max I loose all the piping elbows and tees. Still working on tuning the transfer. Pipes are not very smooth. Also don't understand why some parts flicker in the video (it does the same in showcase) I checked the normals and these parts have a mix of blue / yellow on the same surface. It might be because ALL of the flickering parts are very thin.
Did buy a NVidia K5000 to make everything move faster on the screen.
(the file in the video is the Plant 3D sample file)

Marion's Reply:
Hi,
I believe the flickering is due to camera clipping being to small. GO under the scene settings and change the camera clipping to at least 50 or even 100. That should solve the problem. I have recorded a tips and tricks on that: Showcase Tips & Tricks: Adjusting camera clipping planes. Try that first.. then you might want to force the yellow face to always be oriented towards the camera. That might solved the problem of the yellow and blue faces. Select the yellow objects or all objects in your scene and go under the Edit menu>Always face surface Normals to camera.
http://youtu.be/PBMMg8PEPzU

hummingbirdRPV:
Adjusting the camera clipping did the trick. Thanks again Marion


I hope we get to see the final animation!
Hope this can help others dealing with Plant 3D models..
Marion

[a.a.adryan]

Hello Dataone
My name is Adam and I'm the Sr QA analyst here at Autodesk. Marion and I spoke about this issue that you are having and I think I found a very simple workaround.

The issue here is that Showcase does not support this type of data from AutoCAD Plant 3D.

The best way to import this type of geometry is to open it in AutoCAD Plant 3d and explode it. This will convert all the geometry into 3d Solids. After I exploded the geometry in I did a file save as and imported that file into Showcase

Some issue that I observed with this workflow are the following:
1) Structural plates do not import. This mean that the metal structural grating in Plant 3D files need to be recreated.
I got around this by simply drawing a PLine around the perimeter and converting it into a surface

2) If you have blocks make sure that you go into the block and explode the geometry to turn it into a 3d Solid.

[MarionLandry]

I also wanted to add that it is not recommended to use FBX out of Showcase as this perticular FBX is not supported in Showcase. You should always import DWG directly into SHowcase or 3ds Max Design since this native format is supported in both software.

Hope all of this is helpful for all the 3D plant users out there!
Marion

[MarionLandry]

More on this conversation:

hummingbirdRPV:
I prefer my workflow, don't have to explode anything and even the structural plates come through. From Plant 3D save as straight AutoCAD then bind all xrefs and export as FBX. Load FBX in Showcase. (no MAX required)

If you go direct from AutoCAD to Showcase you loose the 3D Plant items ie pipes, vessels and steelwork. If you go to Max you loose piping elbows and everything is black. I've had no issues using FBX other than it does not transfer xrefed items thus you must bind them first.

and.. a while after...
hummingbirdRPV:
Finished a workflow movie and new plant fly through. Have a look. (Note if you import AutoCAD Plant 3D drawing directly into Showcase all the special Plant 3D parts are lost, ie steelwork, equipment and piping)
http://youtu.be/G4gwOEiGBDQ

Transfering Plant 3D Data to Showcase
Steps to transfer an AutoCAD Plant 3D model into Showcase (2013 versions).
I used the Plant 3D sample project which contains 10,669 Showcase objects!. Best to move the model by individual files as it is much easier to select objects and apply mate...

Thanks for Sharing all this information with us!
Marion

[Anonymous]

Hi Marion and HummingbirdRPV,

I have been following this thread and I have found the information very helpful.  I appreciate the time you have taken to post it.

Currently I am working on a very simple vessel rendering from plant3D.  I would like the image to look as realistic as possible and it's close but I have some floating nozzels that are quite noticeable (See Picture).  Any ideas how I might get them to attach to my vessels correctly?

HummingbirdRPV I watched your video rendering and I noticed that your vessels changed noticeably as your rendering progressed (See Photo Clips).  Is this simply an anti-aliasing feature, or did you change some settings within Plant3D/Showcase?

    

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Alex

[MarionLandry]

Dear aedwards83

Here are few suggestions.

-for the floating nozzels you can either select them all and move them slightly on the z axis or scale them up a bit so they touch the main model. 

-Instead of a white background, choose an environment background with colours. If you don't want a landscape, you can choose an abstract background. Having colour or images in the background greatly increase the look of materials and reflections. See image example bellow

-if you are using autodesk metal materials, they will look a lot more realistic and accurate if you are using Ray Tracing(see image comparison bellow)

If you are not familiar with Ray tracing, there are multiple post on the subject

-Perhaps moving the camera or the sun/shadow position will help. You want your object to be nicely lit by the sun, have nice hightlight and contractic shadow areas. Right now, you are looking at the shadowed side of your object which flattens it. 

-Choosing a more dramatic camera angle will also help bring interest to the model. You might also whant to try Dept of Field to  bring focus where you need it. 

Hope this helps. 

Marion

[Anonymous]

Hi Marion,

Thanks for the suggestions.  The tanks in the image were created with the Plant3D equipment creator tool, therefore they were blocks.  I had not thought about exploding the tanks and manually altering the nozzels.  I will have to try that before exporting out of Plant3D. 

As for the realism of the tanks, the image is going to be placed in a word document and the white background was a specific request.  I tried a ray trace rendering and it didn't have the look I was going for (See attached photo).  It produced a sharp contrast around the edges.  If you have any suggestions to improve the look I am all ears. 

Also, I recently watched your video covering depth of field.  I didn't know Showcase had this capability so I will try it out and see how it can improve my image. 

I greatly appreciate your help!

Alex

[MarionLandry]

Hi,

for the environment background, you have multiple options:

-You can choose any background you want and render the images as a PSD (photoshop) file. THis will separate the model, the background and the shadow for you. You can then replace the background to a plain white in Photoshop:

-If you don't have photoshop, You can choose any background you want, then in the environment background properties, you can change the image backgroun(not the lighting image) to be white. The result will be that, visually your background will be white, but in the render, it will reflect the image you have in the lighhing- this only works for hardware rendering not ray tracing:

-You also have the option to output your image as a .Tiff or PNG wich will create an alpha channel for the background and you can replace it in any photo editing software for a plain white background. https://pixlr.com/editor/

Good luck

Marion