Autodesk 3ds Max and Revit Interoperability: Webcast followup

Thanks to those of you who attended my webcast on Dec 5, about linking a Revit model into a 3ds Max scene and then reloading it such that the modifications done in Revit are loaded in the 3ds Max model. We have posted the recording on the ASCENT YouTube channel for you to review the information. For those of you who wanted to know about the linking process but were unable to attend the webcast, I hope that you will find the recording useful. Please click on the following link for the webcast recording: https://youtu.be/zrpFrpxSnuc

To add to the webcast, here is some additional information about linking in 3ds max:

Points to remember:

• Linked geometry maintains a connection with the source file and therefore any changes made to the source file can be updated to display in the linked file.
• Linked geometry can be edited but not directly deleted from a scene file. In such situation, the layer on which the objects are placed might be ignored during a reload or set to Hide in the Layer Explorer.
• Links to drawing files are not bi-directional, so that changes you make to the data in the Autodesk 3ds Max software do not update the source .DWG, .FBX, .DXF, or .RVT file.
• In linked files that are bound, the geometry stays in the scene file as-is, but the connection to the source file is dropped.

Additional Information:

In the webcast, you learnt about the File Link Settings for Revit (rvt) files. The following is a brief explanation of some of the commonly used options in the File Link Settings for AutoCAD dwg files.

File Link Settings: DWG Files

• Derive AutoCAD Primitives by: This allows you to control how the AutoCAD objects are combined when the drawing file is linked.

• Create helper at drawing origin: Selecting this option adds a helper object at the origin of the linked file that can be used to apply transforms to the linked geometry together.

• Select Layers to include: Enables you to select only specific layers in the DWG file into the scene, thus allowing you to not link the unwanted objects.

Thanks again for attending the Webcast. I tried to give a quick overview of the Linking feature in 3ds max in my webcast session, however, due to time restrictions I certainly could not go into the details. As mentioned, all of the information was pulled from our Autodesk 3ds Max 2019: Fundamentals Learning Guide which is available for you on Amazon as well as on our ASCENT eStore.

About the Author

Learning Content Developer<br><br>Renu has worked with Autodesk products for the past 20 years with a main focus on design visualization software. Renu holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering and started her career as an Instructional Designer/Author where she co-authored a number of Autodesk 3ds Max and AutoCAD books, some of which were translated into other languages for a wide audience reach. In her next role as a Technical Specialist at a 3D visualization company, Renu used 3ds Max in real-world scenarios on a daily basis. There, she developed customized 3D web planner solutions to create specialized 3D models with photorealistic texturing and lighting to produce high quality renderings.

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