[Radiance-general] import to Radiance

[Jia Hu]

Hello all:



Thanks to many suggestions and help from this group, I tried some approaches of
importing files to Radiance. I hope to share my experiences and also want to
know if anyone knows how to solve the questions bellow.  First of all, sorry
for such a long email.



To import models to Radiance, there are three basic ways (obj, dxf and
ecotect) (There are others, but I just know the following three):



*(1) **The following uses obj2rad:*

       (a) Convert to *.obj* file by other tools,

   (b) Then use *obj2rad* to convert the *obj* file to .*rad* file;

   (c) Define materials in another .mat file (material names could be found
in the objfile.data by using command: obj2rad -n objfile > objfile.data)



*(**2**)** The following uses dxf2ad*

    (a) In revit, export .dxf file (save as *autocad 2000* rather than
current version),

(b) Then use *dxf2rad* to convert the .dxf file to .rad

But I found all the geometries get the same materials.

So, does anyone know how to handle this problem?



*(3)  The following uses Ecotect *

(a) Export .dxf file from Revit (I can not import dwg by Ecotect, is that
normal?)

(b) In the diag, define different zones *by item name;*

(c) Export the model into .rad file directly, including .mat file

The problem is that .mat file seems not correct. One material is assigned to
one zone. For example, in the Door object, there are two types of materials,
but they are combined into one material after importing to Ecotect.

So does anyone know how to deal with the materials problems?



For the above methods (1) and (2),  the key is to get .obj and .dxf file. To
get .obj file, there are 4 ways;

*(1) In revit, use FBX converter to get obj file*

(a) In revit, export fbx file;

(b) Download FBX converter at URL:
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/item?siteID=123112&id=10775855

(c) Convert fbx to .obj

The problem is that I always get some zero value of  “vn” in obj file. Even
if I use “–f” option or delete “vt” “vn”, it still does not work because the
“face” in obj file uses “v/vt/vn” format.  If I delete them, errors appear
because obj2rad can not find “vt” and “vn”. Could anyone know how to solve
this problem?



*(2) Use 3D max to get obj file*

   (a) In revit, export fbx file;

   (b) Import fbx file to 3ds max

   (c) Make some changes in 3ds max to get export obj file.

I have not tried this way, but I think this way is better because I can
re-assign or change materials in 3ds max easily and can get the correct
material names. Is this right?



*(3) Using 3ds max to get obj file*

   (a) In revit, export dwg file;

   (b)  Import dwg file to 3ds max;

   (c) Assign materials in 3ds max

  You can see it at  http://www.becausewecan.org/node/190    Should I assign
materials again in 3ds max?   I have not tried this way, but it seems good
as (2).



*(4) using sketchup pro to get obj file. *

**

As always, thank you all.

Jia
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