Setup Alternate Paint and Finish Schemes

[lee.imbimbo86EM4]

I'm trying to setup my model to show the client some alternate finish schemes for a project.  In this case the fundamentals don't really change, really it's just the finishes.  In particular, for this project it is just the paint colors changing, while harder finishes such as tile and flooring type are not.  Although if you follow my logic I would think those wouldn't be a hard thing to change either.

I'm somewhat convinced that the right tool to attempt this with is the Design Options tool and just paint the different finishes in the design options.  Although I don't know that the right approach isn't just to replace the whole modeled object (which seems much more time intensive).  It should be stated that I have very limited experience with the Design Options tool, having only really seen a couple seminars on it, and not truly actively used in on a project yet.  But I'm posting here to see if others have a different approach, or some advice on how best to pursue this presentation development.

Like I said, for the project I'm working on the client just wants to see some color scheme (paint) color options, and I'm looking for advice on how best to do this.  We are specifically not changing core fundamentals of construction.  For example, the exterior is still stucco and the interior is still painted gypsum board.  We just want to show how one color scheme looks compared to another on the walls kind of thing.

Thank you in advance for the help.

[SteveKStafford]

You don't mention how much of the model you want to do this for, one interior elevation or the whole model so any view can be altered. I'd be inclined to do Save As and paint on the alternate materials. Repeat for however many color combinations you intend to do. This way the primary model is unchanged and you can keep a record (each SaveAs) of each color combination. Whichever colors win can be applied in the primary model as you head into construction.

Design Options require copies of elements to be added to each option which means you'll be replicating however much of the model you're going to experiment with color for. You could model the structure separately from the finish layer and then put the finishes in Design Options but that brings a different set of issues like getting walls to look "right" in plan views etc.

You could also export views and do the coloring in Photoshop or similar graphics application. Interior designers generally put together presentation boards combining all the material samples with color chips etc. Perhaps you start there before getting deep into a model approach?

[yes_and_no]

I posted the same Q here before.

I think so far my best experience with this is SaveAs method by Steve, given you color the model somewhere at SD and the final ends at CD.

By such period both clients and city will have some inputs and settled with their choices, as well as yours. The only disadvantage is you probably have to color it again at CD, because of design changes, etc. But with paint tool that won't cost much more than 20minutes for medium size project.

I tried the "transfer std" method by Toan, but it takes more time to prep and execute than I thought, and my poor pc crashed sometimes...

I do setup color pallette project files, like Warm, Cool, Modern,... with prefix name so when I bring it into single SaveAs files the colors wont get lost and easier to pick by paint tool.

As always, someone here may have better ideas.

[ToanDN]

- Create an empty project

- Transfer Project Standards > Materials from your project, save as Scheme 1

- Make a copy of this project, save as Scheme 2

- Edit the materials of Scheme 2 (but DO NOT change any materials names), to reflect your alternate scheme, save

- Use Transfer Project Standards > Materials > Override Duplicates from Scheme 1 or Scheme 2 to show different schemes.

[lee.imbimbo86EM4]

I think I like @ToanDN's idea for this if I understand it correctly.  In effect, rather than define a Material as PT1 - Blue SW#0001, call it something like PT - Interior Kitchen Cabinets Color.  Then just setup the views to be exported, and in effect setup a file with one color scheme, then just change the Appearance tab, in another saved file.

I've also toyed around with the idea of just painting them wild colors (think movie Green Screen Style), that would allow me to go into Photo Shop, and pen select just that color and drop in the color that I actually want.  I'll tinker around with both.

I wish there was a simpler way to do this, because there are just little things like this in Revit that I wish was less convoluted.