How do YOU model your buildings?

[Anonymous]

Have you ever asked yourself if there is a better or faster way to model complex 3D building geometries than the way you use to model them. There are so many possibilities to start a modelling process for architecture and you have to decide which one works best to save time and money.

Some of you may model your exteriors or interiors directly in construction software tools like Autocad , Archicad or other tools that offer architectural features. Others start with simple 2D construction lines and try to build the model from there. How is YOUR work flow for efficient building modelling?

To make the best decision it is necessary to know all the work flows that are used in praxis to reach the approach. For this I would like to start a little discussion and try to answer some of the following questions:

+ How do you usually start to model your buildings?
+ Do you have different work flows for different approaches?
+ Do you use spline/loft techniques, polygonal box modelling?
+ Has someone ever used nurbs to model building and what where the experiences from that?
+ Which work flow appears the efficientest in practice?
+ Which tutorials on this topic do you advise?

Could be an interesting discussion for all of us – so I hope for a large participation on this topic.

Cheers,
Christian

[Anonymous]

I work in a reseller environment, so typically I get buildings that are either drawn by clients or tech's, in Revit or ADT then I dress them up.

Modeling in 3ds with out dwg imported data I typically use box modeling techniques. For the walls windows and such, I use the pro-boolean tools. For detailed windows or doors I will use spline and lofting techniques to get more detail. I like spending my time dialing lighting solutions and cant wait to start playing with the new photo exposure in 08.

My workflow is pretty common, modeling first, textures second, lighting and rendering. I am not very savvy in doing any compositing as of yet, and the machines that I have dont have the hardware to do very complex animations.

There is a good tutorial at www.scottonstott.com/vodcast for creating nurbs walls, very efficient and you can also bypass some of the boolean work too.

Phil

[Anonymous]

I started my business using 3DStudio DOS and loved making buildings in it with help of the Vibrant Liquid Speed drivers. This joy disappeared with the introduction of MAX. Since then I use FormZ and there is no limits in what it can do. For everything else but architectural modeling, Max is still one of the best....if you don't care about speed...

[Tim_Wilbers]

What method you use depends upon what you are trying to achieve.

Concrete steps: Spline for the profile + Extrude.
Interior standard: AEC Walls.
Moldings: Spline + Sweep.
Building with no interior details: Box -> Editable Poly to start.

It really depends upon the requirements of the scene, and your personal preference.

[Steve_Curley]

Also depends on how you intend to texture them. If it's a simple texture across the whole wall, then it really makes little difference, but if the wall was to have multiple textures then anything which produces long/thin polys is "bad news". On the other hand, poly count might be more important.
The quickest (time taken to create the model) is almost certainly Line + Extrude, results are not particularly clean, med/high poly count.
(Pro)Booleans are reasonably quick to use, results in lowest poly count, but again the mesh isn't very "nice".
Poly (Box with face extrusions) is probably the slowest and produces the highest poly count (but not much higher than the Line/Extrude method) but the resulting mesh is far and away the cleanest.
AEC walls I rarely look at - I find them fussy, non-intuitive. Tricky to modify after being created - I'm always wishing they were Editable Polys.
In the end, as Tim said, it boils down to personal preference. Images are Boolean, Line/Extrude and Poly Model in that order.

[Anonymous]

Which ever method I am using, I always need to edit the triangulation or the mesh itself, creating and deleting faces at some stage of the workflow. There is not an ideal method. Boolean is handy but often create double vertices causing artifacts, so checking for that is very important. It is just a personal choice I think, but the workflow must be as simple as possible.

ivan

[Anonymous]

for most viz purposes i start with splines + outline and then break up individual sections of the walls.
also i am currently working on a single button switch for swapping between generic units and real world units. i'd love it if some one could point me to tutorials on UI customization.

check this book out. it's focused is 3ds max and mental ray for arch viz.
Realistic Architectural Visualization with 3ds Max and mental ray

[Anonymous]

In terms of workflow, we used to use ADT for modeling because of the Styles. It was easy to change one window, door, wall, or anything and any item of the same style also changed. I know you can do this in Max with instancing, but it is a little different in ADT and very helpful when it came to walls with striping and inserting windows. The down side was the same as with any workflow between two programs. Everything didn't work every time which caused some problems. Also Link ADT files caused Max files to be extraordinarily large. About 60%-70% of a file was useless trash for Max, needed in ADT, but not in Max.

Ultimately, we started modeling everything in Max. Preferred modeling method - box modeling. It creates a clean mesh which makes it easy to adjust if the client asks for changes. The polygon count may not be as low as other methods, but if there are changes two years from now, I or anyone else can easily open the file and continue modeling the project.

If you are using a GI Renderer, a clean closed mesh will also help eliminate artifacts in the renders. I frequently use the STL Check modifier to make sure I have a good mesh. My thinking is if the model has problems, the render will have problems whether it is still, animated, scanline, or GI.

[ekahennequet]

Here's a 3D Architectural Modeling Process posted by Jon Seagull in the old 3dsmax Webboard when someone posted a similar question. I'm sure he won't mind me posting it again since he posted it to the forum himself. 🙂

Edit: Hm, it won't let me attach the whole image. I chopped it up into two parts.

[Anonymous]

I'm glad someone posted this question as I was going to ask the same. I have been working in the commercial architectural field for 12 years and have been using ADT and VIZRender until recently. Ever since Autocad dumped it I am trying to catch up and use Max/Viz to complete renderings in house to go after work.

My challenge as it is for everyone I'm sure I really coming up with a process that can speed up both the modeling and render time. I'm always having to compete with the sketchup users and only a few can really understand how the two are VERY different and produce completely different results.

I would love to start a dialog with anyone interested in working out the best way to manage/create drawings using adt 07 or ACA 08( or whatever the acronym is now) to Viz/Max.

Feel free to email me directly at.. rkremer(at)sth-architects.com
or at rickkremer(at)mindspring.com

Rick Kremer
West Palm Beach, Florida

[Anonymous]

Here's a 3D Architectural Modeling Process posted by Jon Seagull in the old 3dsmax Webboard when someone posted a similar question.

Just to be clear, I didn't generate that, so I can't take credit. I reposted it from someone else on the old forum. Also, it's not generally my workflow , although I do show that "can we make the site flat anyway?" bit to just about everyone I teach archviz.

[Anonymous]

This is really great question for the management to completed a project.

Normally, I will get the 2D layout first and then extruce from CAD, usually I will extruce the main object such as wall. After that, I will doing into more detail.

When I have completed extruce from CAD, I will import into 3D max for lighting and materials and then render it.

I found this way is more simple and not confused myself.

However, I need to find out how to minimum the file from 3D max. When I import the file from CAD to 3D max, the max file is very big, which is 88.4 MB. It also took long time for me to render it.

[Anonymous]

STLIM: when your import your DWG (CAD file) to MAX, there is a parameter window popping up,

mayby ur parameters are to heavy?

My CAD scenes (a whole house with street) are about 9MB?..

Don't know how u manage to obtain 88Mb files though..

mayby there's something wrong with the scale?

i've been told there're 3 main parameters, the incoming scale units (cm) and the system units (cm), the automatic-smoothing (smooth angle), and the maximum surface deviation (the smaller the smoother)

greets

[Anonymous]

Hi Boomerang,

Thanks from your info. I think is the size of the file, which is I drawn from CAD and import into max. So I did adjustment for the scale but just make sure that what should I change to.

So in the final scale I change is meter. Am I did the right thing?

Very an appreciated from your help.

Many Thanks

[Anonymous]

depends if meter is the right scale or not, you've gotta watch out for three
measure parameters in total,
the one you're using in autocad, the one when importing in 3DSM and the units in 3DSM.

i've added screen where you can find those parameters and adjust them:

the goal is to have these units the same. if you work in cm in CAD, use cm in 3DSM because when u use other units your file may become very big.

AUTOCAD screen_1: format > units... > input your scale

AUTOCAD screen_2: tools > options... > user preferences > input your scale

3DSM screen_3: file > import... > AutoCAD Drawing (NOT LEGACY AUTOCAD) > input your scale

3DSM screen_4: Customize > units setup... > Metric + System units setup > input your scale

KNOW: screen 2: chose "autocad DRAWING, not "legacy autocad" this will not give you the window where you can adjust your scale and such. I never use Legacy.

hope it helps,
Boomerang


ZIP Contains: 4 jpg's

1754_huYBhvKPFA1J8F0QZGyl.zip

[Anonymous]

Boomerang,

I am doing a new project and will follow what you have provided the info to me.

I am really an appreciated from you.

MUAK

MANY THANKS

[Anonymous]

Hi 3dsim.

U said Cad file size is big, I think it is bcoz of pelnty of vertices in the Cad file. Try to reduce them and then again Import it to Max. Surely, File size is less than the previous. Also make sure that Cad & Max Units tends to be same in order to avoid problems in Max.

Amit

[Anonymous]

If u r planning to make an interior with Seperate Planes then problems will arise while assigning materials. Leakge of lighting can happen I m trying to learn Interior modeling with linework in Cad & later import it to Max.

But I want to learn Interior modeling in Max from scratch but cant find enough tutorials to model from Scratch in Max. Also I m ignorant in creating Lighting (that which type of lights suit with Mental Ray & quick too) and creating material so Interior that it look professional.

[Anonymous]

Do you have any example of your work? Do you mind to post out to show me. I would like to learn from you. If you don't mind.

Thanks

[Anonymous]

Hi, Im responding to your comments posted about finding a max to adt process, Ive been looking into that recently, know a tiny bit about adt, Im getting some assistance from some colleagues, but, im think im may be on to a system that may work in theory, there may be some kinks with file size, not looked to much into that, but, essentially, (this is an evolution of how we have worked before adt, breaking a autocad 3d model down by layers, each layer would be a different material, say, aluminum layer, or brick layer, in max that allowed us to quickly isolate which objects needed what material. In adt though, for example you can have a wall with two sides on the same layer, making the layer material assigning system kind of funny, you cant have a clear way to put materials on by material, but, I was thinking about how you can set object styles in adt and order them by color, in max there is a script, or simply just by sorting by color, you can quickly isolate what object and assign it a material. That’s the idea, ive been having trouble creating the display object style in adt there, not sure if that’s how you create it, truthfully it is under wall style or object style display style, ive talk with others at work and they say it can be done, ill be trying it later this week. Any input would be appreciated, specially on the adt side, I'm trying to avoid converting the adt model to solids, also which I didn’t say, im primarly using only a handfully of layers from the adt, only those which are essential for the rendering, so the file doesn’t become bloated and crash.

Tomas Ramirez
Project Designer
3D Graphics
The Estopinal Group
903 Spring Street
Jeffersonville, Indiana 47130
812.282.3700 ext 361
Fax: 812.283.4383


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