Autodesk 12812-051462-9011 User Guide 3 - Page 1786

Materials and Linked Revit Objects When you export a DWG or DXF from Revit projects, materials are translated into a format that 3ds Max can understand. Revit creates materials in the same format as used by AutoCAD Architecture, VIZ Render and 3ds Max. There are two kinds of materials associated with the Revit project; AccuRender materials and Revit materials. When a Revit material references an AccuRender material, the AccuRender material's parameters are used; otherwise, the Revit material parameters are used. There is an important caveat to this. AccuRender materials that reference a bitmap file are translated in 3ds Max without any problems, while AccuRender materials that are considered "procedural" are only translated at the most basic level. Therefore, an AccuRender material that uses a bitmap image in the base texture definition will provide a more accurate translation to 3ds Max. NOTE There are some limitations on what is translated between Revit/AccuRender materials and 3ds Max materials because there is not a one-to-one correlation between the two material definitions. Material Assignments The Revit DWG Exporter puts embedded information on each object it exports. Amongst this information are identifiers specifying material assignments. Revit creates the same kind of material definitions used by AutoCAD Architecture, VIZ Render and 3ds Max. When imported or linked, 3ds Max uses this information to translate and maintain the material assignment to the resulting scene object. Because the material identifier is embedded, if you opened the DWG in AutoCAD, you would not see the applied materials. Revit offers many options for specifying a material to an object or class of objects. Likewise, there are many ways where material assignments can be overridden. The results you see in the 3ds Max scene, in terms of how the materials are applied, match what you see in the Revit model. The exception to the rule would be if many of the materials are AccuRender procedural materials. In these cases, you will see only the diffuse color. File Link | 7041