Maxwell Render

Hi all,
Are there any settings that I need to modify out of formz when I export so smooth geometry comes into Maxwell?
Thanks
Lance.

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Lance McGregor

Have you tried creating the .mxs file with the Form-Z/ Maxwell plug-in and opening the mxs file in MXST?

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Form-Z, Blender, VUE 9.5 and Maxwell Render
http://www.aaronsmithey.com

Hi Aaron,
I'm not sure how to export that particular file type, is that the one created when the file opens in the maxwell rendering engine?. I want to take my model into Maxwell studio so I can use the materials in Studio and the scene that I have already,
Is this possible without exporting an OBJ or STL file?
Cheers for responding,
Lance.

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Lance McGregor

Aaron,
That is AWESOME! so simple, thanks a million mate.
Thanks
Lance.

_________________
Lance McGregor

maxwell does only understand geometry which is consisting of triangles. my tip is to do this triangulation process manually withing FZ using the appropriate tools (especially using the convert object, triangulate and object doctor tools). this gives you the best control over the process.

for testing purposes, the automatic conversion by plugin is OK, but to get the most out of your model, manual tesselation is always better and can cut rendertime down. remember, the less geometry, the faster! this is especially valid when speaking about glass surfaces.

before exporting as MXM, it is also important to check FZ geometry with the object doctor - maxwell can be quite picky with bad geometry, especially if using SSS for example. apart a few exceptions, where single sided polys are useful (like emitters, billboards...), try to use well formed solids as much as possible. double sided planes can easily give troubles and coincident planes are definitly a no go. in complex scenes, the project doctor tool will find geometry doubles for you.

cheers

markus

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3 d w o r k s   v i s u a l    c o m p u t i n g
macpro, 2x6cores@2.66 ghz, 48gbyte ram, ati 5870, osx 10.8.2
using and testing maxwell with form-z, lightwave and modo.

Markus,
Thanks for your info, I did have some bad geometry come in. I'll try your recommendations, I really appreciate the input. When you triangulate what are the best settings to use? And do you use the convert from smooth to faceted option for this?
Cheers
Lance.

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Lance McGregor

the best triangulation settings depend very much on the model. in any case i'd set 'strict planarity test' always to on, the plugin will then triangle the rest for you at export time. as for the method, it depends on the single geometry. the deafult method is OK in most cases, but there are others, especially when dealing with landcape models, where the last one (triangulation around central point) may resolve some issues. note that this last one does generate more triangles then the default method.

i always use the 'convert object' tool to convert from smooth to faceted, usually checking the 'additional facetting' checkbox.

for most architectural projects, i'm anyway modeling with all tools set to 'faceted' to avoid an additional conversion step later. it has a big advantage that you can model thinking in terms of geometry 'economy'. usually, i'm keeping the strictly necessary few smooth meshes in a scene as backup in a separate layer, so that a modification is still possible in smooth mode with the original control geometry.

when modeling faceted curved design elements i'm trying to keep the max normal deviation in resolution settings at 2 or 5 degrees. this results in a smooth surface when exporting geometry into the 3d render engines i'm using (mostly lightwave and maxwell) later. an angle greater than 5 degrees in my experience later needs a special smoothing setup in the render application. on the other side, a deviation angle smaller than 2 degrees can be necessary when the shape is very long, like for example when building a slightly curved perimeter wall.

hope this helps

markus

ps. there are also great tips on the official autodessys forums, and don't miss to look for the 'gold nuggets' thread...
http://www.formz.com/forum2/messages/142/8834.html

_________________
3 d w o r k s   v i s u a l    c o m p u t i n g
macpro, 2x6cores@2.66 ghz, 48gbyte ram, ati 5870, osx 10.8.2
using and testing maxwell with form-z, lightwave and modo.

Markus,
thanks for the tips, I'm getting there. I'll try and post some images soon,
Many thanks
Lance.

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Lance McGregor