[Josephus Holt]

I've been using Rhino v5 (which I like a lot but can still be a little buggie (crashing) occasionally with my large model...one reason the file is quite large is that I had not used blocks/instances which I'm now starting to do (one of those things "you learn as you go"). In my case I've got a very detailed large (about 17,500 square feet under roof), I have a separate file for the roof tile which I modeled as objects (not smart but works), and then a separate file where I have the site and will have another file with all the 3d landscaping....still to come. In thinking of the best way to put that all together I'm (again) concerned that Rhino may not be the best "studio" app for that as it really bogs down and seems more and more inclined to crash the bigger the overall file gets. What concerns me is what's going to happen in Rhino once I start adding 3d trees with sss/thinleaves.
So my options are as follows:
1. Export all Rhino-created models/geometry into C4D (which I also have) and export to Maxwell from there. I know some who do this all the time very successfully...and in the earlier days of Rhino was probably the best way to go for sure. I would have the option to texture either in Rhino (and export to C4D fully textured), or texture in C4D which has better texturing tools as well as Bodypaint (which I have not learned yet, but I know it's there). I actually started the workflow (so am somewhat familiar with c4d) this way but was trying to simplify it by keeping all in Rhino since v5 64 bit which then eliminated the 4gb ram max for the app.
2. Export all Rhino-created models/geometry with materials pre-assigned by the plugin as separated mxs files into Maxwell Studio (which I have hitherto not used) and composite all in Studio. I've not tested how easily this works.

Any thoughts or experience along this line would be much appreciated. Joe Here is the model so far....

[kami]

what I quite often do, when rhino gets uncomfortable to handle:
create meshes of every complicated object and/or join as much meshes as possible. you cannot merge (join) polysrf, but you can always mesh them and then join the meshes (if their mapping and material is the same)
with these steps, I could still work with a lot of models that would otherwise be unusable. it's due to the fact that rhino (and maxwell) can handle few objects better than many, while the polygon count will stay the same.

[brodie_geers]

Well if you think you have problems with high poly models, I'm a SketchUp user. I have Rhino but haven't figured most of it out yet. Us SketchUp users have become unsung masters or solving the sorts of problems you're facing.

Unfortunately, I don't have any experience with C4D so I can't help you much there with the particulars but my philosophy is that any time you add another program to the mix you're asking for trouble. I'd suggest your idea on exporting each of your Rhino files (site, vegitation, building, etc.) to an .mxs file and then importing those all into one unified file. Your world coordinates should be maintained so there shouldn't really be any work to do in studio in terms of positioning. If you have your environment set up in Rhino you might use the mxs file with that environment in it as a base to import your other models into. That will save you some work. You could also set up your camera parameters in Rhino as well. The only work you should have to do it studio is possibly repositioning your camera to account for trees and views and such, which isn't too bad.

-Brodie

[Josephus Holt]

@ kami, thx for that suggestion....would not have thought of that....will test some of that out and see how it works. I would probably wait with creating these meshes until I'm sure the model is set as the meshes would be a nightmare to edit. I also need to start using more instances which in my case would help tremendously.

@brodie, I agree completely about brining another app into the workflow...I actually started out with c4d as my "studio" app between Rhino and Maxwell (I have used c4d longer than Rhino), and have been wanting to simplify it...from Rhino straight to Maxwell (which I have been doing...the Rhino plugin works great for me). Your idea would work very well for me because of having these different files already....so will test this out and see how it works. Looks like I will have to composite the various scene files in Studio...which I've not used before. So it looks like your answer to my query would be to use Studio to composite.

thx much, Joe

[kami]

@ kami, thx for that suggestion....would not have thought of that....will test some of that out and see how it works. I would probably wait with creating these meshes until I'm sure the model is set as the meshes would be a nightmare to edit. I also need to start using more instances which in my case would help tremendously.

I always have to keep the original geometry (sometimes in the same file, sometimes in a copy). But it doesn't make sense to use this technique before you're quite sure that the model won't change too often.

[brodie_geers]

That's a good point. It can get sort of tricky exporting parts of the model, deleting them in Studio, reimporting them in Studio, etc. I work on ArchViz and changes are inevitable. Many times I've made changes to, say the brick and stucco of a building and had to go through that process. For you Rhino users that might be a bit easier, though, since you're export is quite fast whereas SketchUp takes awhile for large models. You could simply group each of your exports and if/when there are changes delete the whole export (the building, for example) and re-export your whole building to be imported back into the fold.

The trick there is that if you've made any material changes in studio it can get a little hairy making sure your old materials aren't overwritten and that they end up where they're supposed to.

Studio can be rather clunky and it has it's quarks but most of them involve moving objects around and cloning, instancing etc. which you thankfully shouldn't need to worry about.

-Brodie

[polynurb]

i can very much recommend working with the 64bit version of rhino 5.

that is what i am doing (on xp64) since it's earliest betas (& maxwell 1.7).. because i had the exact same problem.. i could not export the entire model at once in 32bit.

the only thing you might miss are some of the 32 bit rhino plugIns (edgesmoothing, displacement,..) which are not available on the x64 build yet... but you can always have a 32 bit rhino open in parallel and edit geometry there and extract the meshes and bring them back into 64bit.

I honetsly haven't yet managed to crash rhino 64 bit on a ram issue.. and i exported .mxs files that had +1GB!

right know i have to use studio (x64) because of the current limitation in rhino to handle ies alignment.. gladly i realized that studio V2 it is pretty stable with big files too.. and saving / opening has decent speeds.

it is quite a nice workflow to use the maxwell plugin for creating ".mxs blocks" > selecting the desired objects and export them to .mxs without rendering, and reassemble/replace stuff in studio, as the layers remain pretty much identical in studio as it in rhino.

[Josephus Holt]

i can very much recommend working with the 64bit version of rhino 5.

that is what i am doing (on xp64) since it's earliest betas (& maxwell 1.7).. because i had the exact same problem.. i could not export the entire model at once in 32bit.

the only thing you might miss are some of the 32 bit rhino plugIns (edgesmoothing, displacement,..) which are not available on the x64 build yet... but you can always have a 32 bit rhino open in parallel and edit geometry there and extract the meshes and bring them back into 64bit.

I honetsly haven't yet managed to crash rhino 64 bit on a ram issue.. and i exported .mxs files that had +1GB!

right know i have to use studio (x64) because of the current limitation in rhino to handle ies alignment.. gladly i realized that studio V2 it is pretty stable with big files too.. and saving / opening has decent speeds.

it is quite a nice workflow to use the maxwell plugin for creating ".mxs blocks" > selecting the desired objects and export them to .mxs without rendering, and reassemble/replace stuff in studio, as the layers remain pretty much identical in studio as it in rhino.

I was just able to import my scene by parts successfully into Studio, and as it keeps my Rhino cameras, it makes the scene setup VERY easy. I'll have to see as I continue how well it updates revised parts, but so far this looks like it's going to be the best scenario when the scene file size gets unmanageable in Rhino.