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Creating Better Shaded Views from Revit In this Click Saver I want to talk about how to get better images from Revit for marketing or proposals. Sometimes old habits are hard to kill because everyone thinks that you have to immediately go to a photo editing software to do this. Now I’m not saying that what I’m going to show you is a fix all for everything but at least you can get a better color base image from Revit then you maybe thought possible.
Below is what most people typically think of when getting a color image out from Revit. What we are looking for is additional color and shadows to help enhance the image before exporting it out or maybe even just throwing it on a sheet in Revit and printing it. So how am I getting this type of look in Revit?
First thing, for plan views I’m actually using the “Duplicate” tool using the default 3D view in Revit as my starting point. Then with the “View Cube” I’m picking on “Top” to get the top down view. You might have to use the arrows at the top right of the “View Cube” to get the plan view rotated correctly. Once that is done, down on the Viewbar I’m picking on the Visual Style button and using the “Graphic Display Options” tool for the next settings. Quite a few people do not realize how much control you have in the dialog box, plus you can use the Apply button to preview your changes to see how you are doing. For the plan view that I did above I changed these settings:. Set “Style” to “Realistic”, this helps get the rendering materials to show.
Turn on the “Show edges”. Changed the “Silhouettes” to “Wide Lines”, it helps take some of the lines and fatten them up instead of having all the lines have the same lineweight. For “Shadows” I like to turn on “Show Ambient Shadows”, this creates a soft shadow effect and this time did turn on “Cast Shadows”.
When turning on “Cast Shadows” they will come out very dark, to fix this in the “Lighting” option I like use the “Shadows” slider to lighten them up, in this case I set it to “12”. Since I’m using “Realistic” in the “Lighting” option and can take advantage of the “Scheme” settings. For this one I’m using “Interior: Sun and Artificial” with “Sun” at “21” and “Ambient Light” at “7”. You usually will need to change the “Sun Setting” so the shadows have a better angle. Pick on the “Sunlight from Top Right” and use the “Duplicate” button to make a new Preset.
Now change the “Azimuth” and “Altitude”, I switched mine to “175” and “15”. You might need to fix the “Ground Plane at Level” so the shadows come in correctly, mine needed to be set at “Level 1”.
The bottom half of the dialog box will give you some additional options to enhance the image. If you have the “Style” set to “Realistic” then you can change the settings for “Photographic Exposure”. If the view happens to be a “Camera” then work with the “Background” drop-down to either add “Sky” or “Gradient”, or better yet add a “Image” from the job site. The big bonus is saving all of these setting to a “View Template” so you can reuse the same exact settings in another view. On the Ribbon use the “View” tab then the “View Templates” drop-down to “Apply” it.
Hopefully with these tools in hand you can see how quickly you can enhance a black and white or color shaded view. If you don’t want to plot it but just need it as an image file then use the “Application Menu” (Purple R), select “Export”, then “Images and Animations”, and finally “Image”. Next month I want to show you the sneaky trick on how I got Door Swings and Room Tags to show on my top down “3D” plan view. The problem with regular plan views is they don’t display all of the “Graphic Display Options” correctly so there are some tricks on putting all of this together in one view. See you in class, Jarod.
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I'm probably getting a Macbook this week and I'm going to be going to school for architecture soon. I am already very familiar with Revit so I'd like to use that.
I know, as of now, Autodesk doesn't make a version of Mac compatible Revit but I know there are other ways of getting it to work on Mac. (A program called parallels or something?) Anyway, is this easy enough to set up and use? Or are there other programs similar to Revit that are comparable?
I'd rather just run Revit through whatever parallels program I'd need if that's easy enough. The biggest thing is which Macbook you get. Parallels can only run on a max of 4GB of memory, while Bootcamp, because you are booting into Windows doesn't have a limit.
Keep that in mind. (You'll need to buy a version of Windows either way. Make sure to get 7. Cough) I am a heavy Mac user, but I will admit Windows is a necessity. I use only 3 programs on Windows. Revit, 3DS Max and last but certainly not least, Rhino.
Now Rhino has a beta version for mac, which I have been, well using, for almost 2 years now. If you're going to use Rhino, use Windows based. But I digress.
I am very knowledgeable about this, scenario, I guess you can say. And I can go into much more depth if you'd like me to, but here's my 2 cents: Mac is a great platform for architectural students, IF you know what you're doing. Adobe programs work better on Mac, well because they were designed on it. But Autodesk programs, minus AutoCAD for Mac (which in my opinion is way better on Mac), are only supported on Windows. Programs like Sketchup, are available on both platforms. It really depends what you're planning on using your laptop for. Are you going to be using it for everything?
Just while you're in studio? Will you be using your school's computers? Its a very complex question, but it simply comes down to how invested are you willing to be on your Mac platform. If you want to be able to run any program with no issues, get a PC (Like a Lenovo Thinkpad, those things are beast). But, if you honestly prefer the Mac interface, and are willing to play around with some compatibility issues, go ahead and get yourself a Mac. Wow, I can give a whole lecture on this. But if you have any more questions, feel free to message me or comment.
Although I have not run Revit on my mac, I have run a number of other Windows only programs and I stick with Bootcamp. It's the only way to get reliable performance, especially for such intensive software. That said, there is an interesting program called (or ) that will convert just about any Windows program to a Mac program that you can run on your Mac side without any emulators. I have only tried it with one game, but it works quite well.
Apparently some people have been using it with Revit. You can read some comments about their experiments. I highly doubt that Autodesk would provide any support for Revit installed in this manner though. I use VMware to emulate windows so I can run Revit.
I am committed to using macs or anything except windows. Crux is you have to buy windows anyway to run on the virtual machine. It's endless frustration, but it works. Boot camp is also a good option, but I always want to swap what I'm doing/using so a VM is best for me. I need every bit of 12 gigs of ram to keep things smooth and they are for the most part. I wish auto desk would port their product, but it require.NET crap which foils all the people who do WINE and similar hacks.
For now we just have to live with it. I am considering changing my whole (one man) business over to sketch up though. It costs so much less and I am only designing homes, not hospitals and museums.
Revit is just too damn good to give up.