Inventor with Max.

[warrentdo]

Hello All,

I have search everywhere and cannot find a solution.

We are working with inventor files.

We need to use max to render and animate these files.

The inventor files are forever getting modified.

How do we create a link so that we do not keep having to start at the beginning in max every time the inventor models get updated?

I really need to post in both inventor and max forums.

Regards

Warren.

AIP 2013

[dgorsman]

There isn't a direct link.  Still, I think this would be better served with proper work procedures ie. waiting for the design work to be finished before the primary visualization work is started.  Otherwise you've got high-quality visuals of something that isn't accurate.  Not to say that you can't do a little prelimiary study work to simplify things down the road.

[warrentdo]

Thank you for the reply,

I don't think that waiting for the design to be finalised is classed as a proper works procedure. I wouldn't need the animation if the design work was finished.

We are using the animation to show the client how the job works so they can give comment and input. We can then change the design to suit. It would be really useful if we could change the design In inventor then feed it back into Max for re-rendering. Can this be done or can you not update anything in Max from inventor. The animations last approx 3 mins. Do we have to start from scratch every time we change a part?

Regards

Warren.

[dgorsman]

Wouldn't need... but any animation you produce would be invalid.  I'm having trouble getting my head wrapped around that one, investing that kind of quality into a throw-away.  The best I can think of is using Navisworks.  Quality isn't quite as good as 3DS MAX and the animation tools are primitve by comparison but it does allow for on the fly updates without losing anything.  Hell, you can build an NWD and they can wander around in the free Freedom viewer without being limited to a static animation.

[warrentdo]

Hello dgorsman,

Thanks for your help,

The animations are throw-away but the are paid for by the client, but we need to be efficient and supply a quality animation.

It would be ideal if we could just change a part of an assembly in inventor then just update that part in max while keeping the moves/fades etc.

Of course I will have to re render but we would be using backburner to spread the load out a little.

I think that navis works is worth a look though.

The animations are very basic. Single line moves, rotating a key, fading parts in and out, more single path moves, approx 3 mins worth.

We currently us studio but the render time is killing us and the quality is a little poor due to trying to reduce the render time.

Warren.

[gsmith9810]

Have you looked at Showcase? Showcase is a much better option that Inv Studio.

It takes a while to import but once there, Showcase does a pretty good job.

FYI - I have had to move files through NavisWorks to get them into Showcase (some/not all).

[dgorsman]

I think you can get most of that out of Navisworks.  As I mentioned, you don't necessarily need to render out an animation - with an NWD file, the client can navigate around as they want.  Animations are embedded into the NWD file, so they can play that "real-time" as well, stopping/starting the animation or navigating as they want.  The only downside is the real-time quality is nowhere near the photorealistic quality you get from a full-on render in MAX.  After everthing is sorted (ie. last minute model changes they want to see incorporated), you push that for a high-quality Navisworks render (or push out the Inventor content to 3DS MAX).

Based on experience, in most cases you'll need to allocate at least30 seconds per rendered frame for high quality work.  For a 3-minute presentation, you'll need around 24 fps * 60s/minute * 3 minutes * 30 seconds/frame, or about 36 "linear" hours.  Spread that around (I've utilized Navisworks on multiple computers since it doesn't do distributed rendering), it will be about 4 hours of rendering time minimum.  With Backburner you should be looking at similar numbers.

Edit: almost forgot another important point.  Navisworks is by far easier to set up for animation and rendering than 3DS MAX.

[warrentdo]

Hello Gary.

I've had a look at showcase but that was a few years ago when it came out. I was told that I couldnt use inventor constraints in showcase. I can't remember if you can link the inventor files to showcase so that when you modify the inventor files showcase updates. the trouble with all the different programs i'm not sure on the differences between any of them and which is the best solution.

Thank you for your help.

Warren

[warrentdo]

So the question is can you update the inventor models and will navisworks keep the animations but update the inventor models? if so i will have to have a play with navisworks as well. thanks again for your help. it is strange the autodesk have so many solutions but no comparison between any of them. the only trouble is i have to play with all! Our last 3 minutes render took approximately 3 minutes per frame and in total 2 weeks to render with stops and starts. i think it's time for new computers.

Warren

[warrentdo]

right, i have an idea. I can't tell you what the animation is but i can change all the objects.i need to animate A car that is picked up by an overhead crane then moved along 2 paths inside a factory then placed down. if you can imagine the door opening and the ignition key turned.then the bonnet fading away. move the engine out of the car then the bonet fading back in. The Overhead gantry hoist picking the car up then moving on to another path.

[dgorsman]

Thats one of the nice features of Navisworks.  Its designed to bring together objects from disparate programs without having to rebuild everything each time something changes.  As an example, in some projects we've got piping from 3 different piping programs, grade from Civil3D, detailed equipment models from CATIA, and point clouds from our laser scanning guy.  If somebody changes some of the piping, or the grade, or whatever, we just do a refresh and the changes are there.  I build the animation using search sets, collecting items by properties instead of specific objects, so changes won't matter.

3 minutes per frame is a little excessive, even for a high-end program.  I'm not certain new hardware will make a difference, at that point work process and model configuration are the culprits.  An example of the former would be the example I provided earlier for timing; using 720p resolution resulted in half the time-per-frame of 1080p with the executives hard-pressed to see any differences.  I also broke this 5 minute animation down into around 12 scenes which allowed me to split up the rendering between computers.  Breaking it down into scenes allowed for some model optimization as well ie. external shots allowed for internal lighting to be turned off and some parts to be unloaded.  Less shadows to compute, faster renders.