9

456 Chapter 20: Managing Scenes and Projects
materials that were created in Revit could b e used
onnewgeometryyou’readdingwhileworkingon
the model in 3 ds Max. Reusing a material is often
easier than creating a brand new one.
For example, let’s say a wall element in the Revit
projecthasabrickmaterialthatyou’dliketouseon
an object you added to the model while working
in 3ds Max. If you simply apply the material to the
new objec t, you’ll find t hat the texture map do es
notshowasitdoesonthewallthatcamefrom
Revit. This is because UVW coordinates of the
newobjectarenotsetuptocoordinatewiththe
Tiling parameters of the Revit material.
WhenusingRevitmaterialswithobjectscreated
in 3ds Max, there are really two things to keep in
mind;
• All materials from Revit use real-world scaling.
• Real-world scaling must be active for objects
you ’ve created in 3ds Max.
Thereareafewwaytomakesureyour3dsMax
objectsareusingreal-worldscale.
• If you’re working with a primitive object, like
a box or cylinder, make sure Real-World Map
Size is active.
• For more complex objects, apply a UVW
Map modifier (page 1–922) and make sure
Real-World Map Size is active.
• Assign the object a MapScaler modifier (page
1–713).
Instanced Objects, Blocks,
and Styles
The primary str uc t ur al entities you will find in
amodelorprojectthatislinked/importedto
3ds Max from A utoCAD, Architectural Desktop or
Revit are style-based objects (page 3–461) (in ADT
models), family elements (in Revit projects) or
blocks (page 3–457) (in both ADT and AutoCAD
files). Each style-based object, family element, or
block will most likely have many instances (page
3–457) in the 3ds Max scene.
• Instances are multiple occurrences of objects
such as st yle-based objects or blocks that are
clone instances. When you link a model or
drawing that contains instanced objects to
3dsMax,thoseobjectsremaininstancesofone
another.
• Family Elements in a Revit projec t represent
different items of a building and are separated
into two general categories; Model and
Annotation. The Model category includes
such elements as walls, doors, windows and
stairs while the Annotation category includes
dimensions, text notes and section tags. When
a DWG is exported f rom Revit and linked to
3dsMax,elementsappearintheModifierpanel
as Block/Style Parents (page 3–918),meaning
you’ve selected the element at its topmost level,
or as Linked Geometry (page 3–962), meaning
one of the element’s subcomponents.
• Blocks are reusable objects made in AutoCAD
or Architectural Desktop. Blocks are made
of one or more objects that can be inserted
into a scene at different locations, scales and
orient ations. Blocks can also be an amalgam
of other blocks. A block that is made of
otherblocksisreferredtoasanested block.
Once linked to 3ds Max, blocks appear in the
Modifier panel as VIZBlocks, meaning you’ve
selected the block at its topmost level, or as
Linked Geometry, meaning one of the block’s
subcomponents.
Note: Ifyouuseoneofthe“nodehierarchy”
Derive By settings, you will see Block/Style
Parent objects in the Modifier panel and not
VIZBlocks.