Revit proxies [vray max models?]

Reminder: If you encounter any issues with Enscape or your subscription please reach out to our dedicated support team through the Help Center or by using the Feedback button as detailed here.
  • It would be incredibly powerful if we could use the 3ds max / vray libraries that we've built over the years in Enscape. It would solve the whole issue of entourage without Enscape having to resort to building a massive library like Lumion and Twinmotion.


    Perhaps Enscape could use the recently released directcontext 3d api for Revit. It looks like you can display massive files in Revit without affecting the performance at all. That way we could actually see the objects in Revit, which would help out with exact placement. Placing could be very similar to placing sound objects in Enscape (using a generic placeholder family that links to a max file).

  • Sketchup proxies in Revit would also be nice. That must be doable as enscape has that on their development agenda for the sketchup version.


    The goal here is to have a way of adding entourage to our revit models (books on the shelves, phones on the desks etc etc) without adding unnecessary geometry to our model that will make it slower.

  • It's unrealistic because with Vray you are only calculating what is under the render bucket at render time. Enscape is loading and calculating the entire scene at the same time. This makes it very prohibitive to high polycounts, whether proxies or not. Even on the Sketchup end with proxies, it will kill performance if you use a super high poly asset. Twinmotion and Lumion are the same. You can import a high poly Evermotion tree into Lumion, but if you get more than a handful of them, your FPS will drop to unusable levels. The plant libraries that they use are all Speedtree, which creates Levels of Detail based on distance to the camera which is much more efficient. Even their other models are very low poly if you really look at them. Like Bart said, you'd be better off using assets made for a game engine.

    For background trees, I'd recommend Archmodels 113. They are built as low poly assets and work amazing with Enscape as is.

  • Also, perhaps Enscape could bring out a plugin/exporter (for 3ds max for example) so that we can export our models to the Enscape format, that would be another way for us to get our legacy libraries into Enscape.


    I would understand that the exporter would have a max. polylimit for example.

  • I would agree, if the enscape team can come up with someway to get proxy elements into revit, by maybe changing out a place holder inside enscape like they are doing with the entourage that would be an awesome add to revit. considering at this time there is no way to have decent models in revit at render time. Also if the placeholder was a family type we could simply hide that category in the normal views.


    So far with all my testing the one lack the revit version has over the sketchup version is the content. Furniture, vegetation, stuff!!! If we could use max or sketchup models as proxies objects in revit.......well lets just say enscape would be the new king of the hill! IMHO

  • EarthMover,

    you mention import Archmodel in Enscape :

    Quote


    For background trees, I'd recommend Archmodels 113. They are built as low poly assets and work amazing with Enscape as is.

    It looks like a great way to add entourage in Enscape.

    I wonder what is the workflow you use to do that, or if there is some instruction or tutorial about it.

  • Thank you for your feedback to this topic. It's already on our agenda, we will check the feasibility.

  • That's great news. Honestly, we've been a bit jealous with the quality of the work produced in Sketchup+Enscape (we're using Revit), and we feel that the biggest hurdle to get to the same quality in Revit is the lack of props, vegetation, etc. In theory we could model all these things in Revit but it would take forever and make the model super slow. Using existing models as proxies would be enormously powerful.

  • That's great news. Honestly, we've been a bit jealous with the quality of the work produced in Sketchup+Enscape (we're using Revit), and we feel that the biggest hurdle to get to the same quality in Revit is the lack of props, vegetation, etc. In theory we could model all these things in Revit but it would take forever and make the model super slow. Using existing models as proxies would be enormously powerful.

    I could not agree more.......thats what revit needs!!!! Even if we have to make these proxies in sketchup using enscape.

  • That's great news. Honestly, we've been a bit jealous with the quality of the work produced in Sketchup+Enscape (we're using Revit), and we feel that the biggest hurdle to get to the same quality in Revit is the lack of props, vegetation, etc. In theory we could model all these things in Revit but it would take forever and make the model super slow. Using existing models as proxies would be enormously powerful.

    I have been using a linked Revit model that hosts all my entourage which is unloaded until I want to run Enscape. This way I can dump any downloaded content or even non-native formats and decals and not worry about upsetting live design models. We are also making small incremental updates to our standard family library to make them a bit better in VR. Small things like adding door and cupboard handles, small gaps between drawer and cupboard fronts and material parameters for everything. Generally they still look the same in 2D but the difference in 3D is very noticeable.

  • Good point Chris. All of this can definitely help, but at the end of the day, there's a lot of props/vegetation/entourage that I would like to use that don't exist in .rfa format. Importing meshes into revit loses the mapping information, and even if you can work around that is very time consuming.


    Having a way to link .fbx would really help our workflow.


    There's an API in revit (since 2018) that allows you to draw geometry on screen without affecting model performance (I think it uses the naviswork engine). If Enscape could use this API to draw our proxies on the canvas in Revit (so we have an easy time placing them), but within the Enscape window it could read the geometry directly from the .fbx (or .obj) file. I realize it's a big request, but it would finally fix the whole issue of props/vegetation/entourage and Revit.


    We would also be able to tab existing libraries (3dsky, evermotion, ...) instead of the expensive and very limited archvision.

  • Take this picture that was posted on the Enscape Twitter account for example. Now imagine it without all the props...


    I realize these props can be put in as rpc's, but that library is expensive and limited. We have giant libraries that we've taken a decade to build. We don't want to start over but rather reuse the props that we already have (and that our principals love).

  • I agree completely. Seems we are stuck in a middle world. The sketchup version of enscape has all the goodies and extra items that can be brought into the model but a horrible material system (not enscape's fault) The revit version has a awesome material setup but no content. Needs to be someway to marry the two together. Other render engines have been able to do this in the revit environment. Take maxwell for an example, they made it work to a point.


    The revit version needs content and the sketchup version needs materials

  • Any news on proxies for Revit?


    I believe it would enable a similar jump in quality as the material editor for Sketchup.


    Sketchup has a giant library for props but a very limited material editor. Enscape found a way to fix that.

    Revit has a good material editor but almost no props. I hope Enscape will offer a way to work around that as well :)

    • Official Post

    No news yet regarding this topic I'm afraid, but the feature request has not been forgotten of course.

  • Once custom assets are released, I would consider my original post as implemented, it doesn't necessarily have to read the vray format. GLTF or another open format is fine.