#373461
Hi,

Since using Archicad 17, the Maxwell Pugin doesn't seen to export as it used to.
I used to apply random materials (colors) in Archicad, and then texturing in Studio. I simply selected a Material, right-click Select assigned Objects, and then assigned the desired Material to the objects.

But since Archicad 17, there are multimaterial Objects and triangle groups, and my workflow doesn't work anymore because i cannot simply assign a new Material to multiple triangle groups across my Model.

So I found kind of a workaround here:
http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/view ... gle+groups

Thanks JDHill !
Here's what I think you're looking for: select the material you wish to replace; right-click anywhere in the material editor's layers tree, and select Embed MXM. Browse for your MXM, then answer Yes, to overwrite the top-level attributes of the existing material (matte, shadow, etc), and then No, to get rid of the old material's layers. This basically rewrites the existing material using the chosen MXM, so it affects geometry, triangle groups, instances -- everything that uses the material. I'm not sure what happens with UVs, should you choose an MXM which has textures that use projectors higher than currently exist on your geometry; probably you run into the old 'not enough projectors' error, and have to create some new UV sets.

But I really hope that there would be an option in the Plugin so that I can have Objects created by Material.
Or did I miss something ?
#373591
Marton,

Yes you are right, usually I set materials with the right MXM file within AutoCAD.
But often in the design process before knowing for sure which materials to apply to various elements, i like to try around, and I really hate the way it has to be done in ArchiCad, I by far prefer to work inside Studio.

Some things I don't like in Archicad when it comes to Materials:
- You always have to open tons of windows and panels and they cannot be docked or kept open
- inside the material, you have to define some appearance for the internal engine (at least some color), and then you must define the Maxwell material
- The Material preview inside AC sometimes works, sometimes it just shows a black material... weird.
- when choosing an MXM File, this cannot be embedded in the File, so for each slight change made in the material editor you either overwrite the old MXM or you create a new MXM File each time...
- i don't understand how the material browser sorts files. it is neither alphabetical, nor are folders first... it is a mess and really annoying to find the right material in a collection of a few hundred
- In Studio I can drag and drop Materials from any file explorer and easily apply to selected Objects

Anyway, i am sure that working inside Archicad has its benefits, but I only do it once materials are definite.

So I am still hoping for some answer regarding object export from AC17 to Maxwell Studio. I'd really like it to behave like it used to (One Object = One Material).

Jonas
#373649
Hello Jonas,

There is an option in Studio preference:

File > Preference > Import options > "Create triangle groups for multimaterial objects"

set it on.

Next time you export your scene, Studio will automatically generate triangle groups for the objects, and you can drag and drop the materials onto the triangle group material.

Márton
#373726
Marton,

Yes I read about this, and the option is checked.
It allows me as you say to drag and drop a material to a triangle group, but when I select a lot of objects, then i cannot drag and drop a new material over all triangle groups... and that is the problem.

I think this is because of the new building materials introduced in Archicad 17. It makes sense to keep one wall as one object, but material assignment to multiple triangle groups in different objects is not as easy and practical than assigning materials to several objects (with no multimaterial).

Jonas
#373732
Hello Jonas,

I don't really know what to do from the plugin side. It could be an option to split the objects by materials, but on the long term I don't like this direction. ArchiCAD already produces many-many small objects, and I can see serious performance drop down (both export time and render preprocessing time) if we create many extra objects in the scene.

Márton
#373733
Marton,

I understand it might not be good in the long term, but this is how it used to work prior to Archicad 17.

Could the plugin maybe kind of merge objects, so that only visible faces are kept ?
Because with the Buidling Materials in Archicad, each wall has many materials (one for each layer!), and most of them are when rendrering a scene, invisible.
So maybe the plugin could only export the visible Faces of an object, disregarding invisible objects.

Or on the other hand, maybe it should be Maxwell Studio which should be enhanced in the way Materials can be applied to multiple triangle groups. In which Forum group should i post this issue ?

In the meantime, splitting objects by materials would be very handy ;)

Thanks for the discussion,
Jonas

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