8

Revit Elements in 3ds Max 455
properties and the graphic al representation of
system families; they include walls, dimensions,
ceilings,roofs,floors,andlevels.
Besides being a class of elements, families are
also a template that allows you to generate new
types of items that belong to this family.
•
Ty pe s —Types, a lso called a family types, are
a class of elements within a family that have
the exact same values for all type properties.
For example, all 32x78 six-panel doors belong
to one type, while a ll 24x80 six-panel doors
belong to another type. Like a family, a type
is also a template that generates new instances
of this type.
•
Instances—Instances are the actual items that
have specific locations in the building (model
instances) or on a draw ing sheet (annotation
instances).
3dsMaxorganizesandnamesfilelinkedobjectsto
reflect their st ructure in Revit, using a parent-child
hierarchy. The parent object is a Block/Style
Parent named
categor y <family : type> ,andthe
Block/Style Parent has one or more child objects
named
category <family : t ype> subcategory1,
categor y <family : type> subcategory2,
and so
forth.
For example, if a single-flush door object in Revit
is linked to 3ds Max, it will have a parent-child
hierarchy displayed as a p arent object,
Doors
<Single-Flush : 34” x 80”>
,withthreechildren, (2)
Doors < Single-Flush : 34” x 80”> Frame/Mullion
and a Doors <Single-Flush : 34” x 80”> Panel .
The objects will be lin ked together with all
the other components of the door , but you
could modify the material properties of the two
frame/mullion objects separately. If you changed
the material assignments in Revit so that the entire
frame/mullion component only had one material
assignment, then when you reloaded the drawing
in 3ds Max there would only be one frame/mullion
object present.
When working in Revit, you a lso have the ability
to link A utoCAD drawings or other Revit projects
to your current project. This is comparable to
using xrefs in AutoCAD. Objects that originate as
alinkeddrawinginRevitaregroupedtogether
as Linked Geometry that is named for the linked
draw ing. In this case, the parent object is named
Import Sy mbol <drawing.dwg> and its children
are named
Impor t Sy mbol <draw ing.dwg>
subcategory1, Import Symbol <drawing.dwg>
subcategory2
,etc.Thesubcategoriesarederived
from the layers that the objects reside on in the
drawing.
Thefollowingtablelistssomeexamplesofthe
naming conventions of Revit objects that are
imported or fi le linked in 3ds Max.
Impor ted/File L ink ed
Name
Remark s
Door <Single-Flush :
34” x 80 ”>
ABlock/StyleParentforan
object of catag ory=
Door ,
family=
Single-Flush and
type=
34” x 80” .Thisparent
object has one or more
components, that are child
objects displayed as Linked
Geometry.
Window <Casement
with Trim : 24” x 48”>
Frame/Mullion
A component to an object
named,
Window <Casement
with Trim : 24” x 48”>
.Thisisa
child object and is displayed as
Linked Geometry. In R evit, the
Frame/Mullion is a subcategor y
of Windows.