Advanced 3D Visualization

[kwilktrihydro]

This may go on the other board, so feel free to move it. Does anyone have a good link to tutorials, forums, or anything for customizing Infraworks models in 3DS max for more advanced 3D visualization (materials, AR, VR, etc.)? 

I really want to continue to use Autodesk however, there are some tools missing specific to visualization in Infraworks that is making it hard. Sometimes it feels like Infraworks is stuck in a weird middle ground of visualization and design, however, it's missing the critical tools that would make it the best tool for both. 

[Todd_Rogers]

I export out my Infraworks model to fbx, then use Twinmotion to make it more realistic. There is also a Beyond CAD Vision, developed by Sam Lytle and was released last year. It's good stuff. Sam is a Civil PE and it's focused on visualization for Civil. Check it out...

https://beyondcad.com/

[Todd_Rogers]

I have a couple of tutorials for animating objects and cars in 3ds Max for Infraworks...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vbMIR3OELE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lrk-afSFZ_E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YFuqPrIXxg

[andrewofabley]

@kwilktrihydro 

I recommend Twinmotion as the first point of contact for rapid, high fidelity visuals. This includes a nice VR template.

Here's an Infraworks model I made (from many design sources), and pushed to Twinmotion, just to add polish. Only a few hours to get it prepped, then pass it to your video editing software.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cKtee29UZ44&feature=emb_title#menu

It depends on exactly what you are after, but if you are wanting VR, then high quality real-time rendering is pretty important.

Twinmotion also has a pipeline to Unreal 4, which will give you all the customisation you can handle.

The key things I've found that matter are geometry and texture optimization, and then grouping and naming of your assets for coordination.

If you want to go the MAX route, check out the civilview plugin and its various tutorials.

AR is a different beast. I recommend vGIS, however knowing how to package large models for AR is an art in itself.

Sadly there's not a heap of tutorials on this stuff in general, however Unreal is very well documented and has a huge online community - so it's hard not to recommend them.

[kwilktrihydro]

Thanks @Todd_Rogers these are exactly what I was looking for. I'm looking forward to testing them out on a couple of projects. I really would like to be able to stay in Autodesk products, but the alternatives seem to be winning with that next step of visualization.

As a side note, I have LOVED Sam and BeyondCAD, he has been amazing to work with. Additionally, I have really enjoyed TwinMotion, and I've used Unity a little for developing VR apps for the Oculus Quest.

Thank you again for your response! I'm looking forward to diving into 3DS a little.

[kwilktrihydro]

As always, thank you for the amazing response @andrewofabley. I am working on developing a visualization and 3D analysis team in my company, and I feel like you've helped to create half the team hahaha. But really, thank you for the time you put into your responses.

I've really enjoyed TwinMotion ever since you last told me about it. I'll have to dive into the VR side of it a little more.

With Max, I did see all of the tutorials that Autodesk has for CivilView online. My only concern with Max is that it's going to be much more time-consuming than I'm hoping to provide for the "fine detail" of my models. I'll get the CivilView plugin downloaded. Maybe it'll address my efficiency concerns as well.

Lastly, I have used vGIS a little, they were perfect for us. However, a lot of our visualization team is still in its infancy, so initially, it was hard to justify the cost.

I'll check out the migration from TwinMotion to Unreal, that may be exactly what I'm looking for. Although it's their rival, I used Unity to develop an AR app for our client. That makes me hopeful that the TwinMotion to Unreal pipeline is a rabbit hole worth diving down.

Thank you again for all of your help. As you said, there isn't a blueprint to a lot of this, so this community has been a lifesaver.