architecture in Maya

[Mazer]

Well I use maya for architecture, you can see some simple stuff on my site. However my opinion is: if you JUST want to do architecture the simplest way to go is Autocad ....> Viz ,but if you are especting to do other stuff (from flying logos, sfx, or Character work) you'l need Maya or some of the others.
As for the performance of maya in Architecture, since Maya 5 things are way better,Mental ray its one of the best renderers and its quite fast, and dwg are now suported. In the past we had to use Gijoe or some other tricks and importing was sometimes a big pain in the **:) .
Now with maya 5 its very easy to work the only shortcoming I can see is that the workflow in Lightwave for instance might be a bit faster for those quind of works but it all deppends on your experience

[Byla]

I have been doing a lot of visualisations for architetcs, and I have to say that Maya, specialy without MR, is quite useless, specialy compared to 3dsMax and Cinema... Lack of inport files, difficult UI and slow learning process + bad and slow render engine makes Maya unapropriate...

For Autocad blueprints, choose VIZ or 3dmax
for Archicad use Art*Lantis or Cinema
for AllPlan, use Cinema

[zendari]

I do have cinima 4d 8 but I wasnt sure that it was powerfull enough to do complex enviroments. I do have maya 5.0 which comes with MR I got them both for free so it isnt to big of a loss I was just excited to use maya :applause: but I want to use whats going to work the best. I have power cadd but not autocadd (dont use windows) I have virtual pc but I think the program would run to slow. I want to find a good 3d app and just focus since I am already into so many others better to master one first.

[Byla]

Well, for visualisation, I say, go Cinema. Why? Fast and very very high quality render engine (one of the best on the market right now), much easyer to use than MR, nice and clean UI, almost no bugs and crashing (it crashed twice on my computer so far, been using it for 3 years) and much much easier to learn. Plus, it supports a lot of import files and can export them aswell. Plus, perfect integration with After Effects. Check this guy out - >>> link (http://www.3dluvr.com/carles/images.htm) and his demo reel >>> (http://www.3dluvr.com/carles/images/Carles_Reel.mpg) . All Cinema stuff.

Go Maya if you gonna do character animations, extreme complex animations, complex dynamics, Motion Capture and if you are gonna be in a complex production pipeline.


I dont want to go in to Maya VS others fight, but for visualisation I honestly think Maya (unless you are already familiar with it) is not as suitable as Cinema.

[greek_fire]

probably any of the major 3d apps would work fine for architectural design. base your choice on which features you need. c4d is perfectly capable of handling complex environments, just ask someone on cgarchitect. it has a great renderer too, but then i think all the apps have great rendering engines even maya's default (people always dis it, but i've seen it produce works of jaw-dropping beauty). the reason MR might seem diffcult is cuz it has much greater depth & complexity, which you may or may not need (a much more complex shading system, though it will of course render maya shaders)
so base it on how much $ you have to invest in a program & which you feel comfortable with. it's a tough decision i know cuz all the major apps are really nice.

[zendari]

Thanks alot everyone I appreciate the input:beer: and Byla that link was very impressive, yeh I dont want it to be one of those Maya vs other app just want to narrow it down as far as visualization I worked in the past with markers and photoshop and still use photoshop and painter but the growing requests of 3d illustration cant be ignored, and was blessed to get LW 7.5, C4DXL, and Maya and figured I better learn one first really well and Maya has soooo much appeal. The one thing I love about Maya is its UI and that you can work in a non linear format I will start playing around with cinema but one thing with Maya 5.0 you have the ability to inport and export files but the renderer is kinda of slow. I do love Bodypaint 2... Alot! downloaded the demo very sweet. so many apps so little time. lol:thumbsup:

[Stealth_Soul]

Hi There,
I just started working on Maya 4.5, and let me tell you there is a major difference when I was using 3d studio max waste of time.

I need help in presenting architectural projects in Maya; I use to do it in 3ds by exporting the file from AutoCAD as a DWG and importing it in max as the same file. Then I can work on it materials, lights what so ever...printing it as a BMP...etc...

Another thing, as for 2d from AutoCAD I export the file as EPS then import it in Photoshop and Corel draw..

Maya supports the EPS, how can I open a file in Maya coming from AutoCAD in a DWG format?

What is the best way on how to deal with architecture work base on realistic?

And here are the file formats that AutoCAD exports:
WMF, ACIS, SAT, STL, EPS, DXX, BMP, 3DS.

Any help on this section and help in Maya?

Keep up the good work guys…


Mason
Stealth_soul@Lycos.com



:wavey:

[cgartists]

maya is very user friendly app. I suggest it for all ambicious ppl and even for those not too ambicious:) Stealth_Soul u can import DWG file from AutoCAD by using DWG_translation plugin which u can find in Bonus tools for Maya 5. I hope that it will be proper for your needs.

bye:beer:

[graphiouz]

architectural stuff works pretty good in maya,
the shelf comes handy, make alot of different walls put them on the shelf, it can be time-consuming to model walls from lets say a polybox.

[shade_E]

I use Maya for architectural and mechanical visuals. I’ve been using Maya for 5 years now and find that Polytrans http://www.okino.com/conv/conv.htm handles all my import/export problems.

Maya’s default render engine works great for faking Global illumination with multiple Directional lights, to get you started quicker download this-- http://marc.dubrois.free.fr/down/gi_v1.1.zip on http://www.titane.fr.st/ web site.
One Button Faked GI with great UI. This GI renders extremely quick with no raytracing, you can fake raytracing with stylized shaders using Sampler info node and environmental shaders.
And most important, Have fun! I know I do!

[DeathBrain]

Maya & Archi ?
Same question with this thread (http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=86011) :beer:

[Stealth_Soul]

Lemoor
Thanx for the good advice, I will give a try.

Graphioz
Yes Sir, shelfs are handy and saves time, and for me that's the most important thing, because in college Dr.'s gives us a project in a short limited time.

Shad E
got the downlaod and checked the web site, great help thanx alot
fun is coming around...

Death Brain
my teacher....I'm still working
wish me luck

thanx everyone

[Stealth_Soul]

Hi everybody,

Couple of questions:
- what is the best way to start
from step by step to present an architecture project. What should I start first with..
-how do I control the scale if
the drawing file is a fixed scale? (DWG)file

*is there any plug-ins that may help me in my need?
*since this an architectural project
any materials and texture like concrete, wood glass etc…

:beer:

[DeathBrain]

Hi again Stealth_Soul..
The most important tools for architecture with Maya is goomoo script, you can download it here (http://www.highend3d.com/maya/mel/?section=modeling) (highend3d.com)

Preparation :
- Concept (final touch illustration, ie camera perspective final position)
- Material/textures (try google)
- 5 sided Blueprints/perspective
- and of course...a glass of coffee

Dont waste your time searching/create materials while you're on you project, so you should prepare those material before you start the project.

Maya Architecture Settings :
Open you maya preferences and set your working unit to meter (the default is centimeter), note : if your DWG file was created with inch unit, then set Maya working unit to inch

Structure Plan :
Create 2D plan from top view, you can create within illustrator or corel (based or your blueprints or based on your dwg cad file), this 2D guide top view is important, it helps you to adjust objects distance & positioning, import it to you Maya then you'll have your base object positioning to start, maya has measure tools, its really helpfull tools to adjust objects distance

Errrh....wait...btw what kind of construction are you trying to present ? :hmm:

[wgreenlee1]

I dont know what these guys are talking about "Maya cant do this and Maya cant do that"...:shrug:

[DeathBrain]

But for me...maya can do everything :beer:
Some of constructional designers, they uses C4D, i know its more faster on rendering times, but errh...i am not really sure about C4D realistic final touch :)

[ragecgi]

On a side note, you might wanna rethink your disposition toward pc's because, in my experience at least, in a typical production environment, the employers I've worked for expected at least some higher-level of experience with the top 3 os's and platforms. (Win/Mac/Unix-Linux). Just fyi:)

[Stealth_Soul]

Well hello there,
Your always there, you’re the best…

Thanx for the valuable advice.
The concept will be done before coming to Maya, so what will happen here is the materials and lights or your great idea of night view building I like it by the way.

The course is about (Housing) you can find info about it here: http://www.arriyadh.com/eskan/English_web/gen_Info/EObjective.asp
its a poor web site i know

Beside that all the effort is for me not for college.

* I am working on Maya in win XP and the shelves are not coming up I mean the stander ones, and when installing the same V. on win 2000 they came up front any reason for this?


:beer:

[DeathBrain]

I get the points about the housing course , btw have you done with your skecth, illustration or DWG cad file ? may we see if you dont mind ? :)

About your Maya in win XP, go to menu display > ui elements > shelves :)

[link84]

im running maya 5.0 on windows 2003 server it seems a tad slower then xp pro was but i have to run server so others at home cant use p2p netowrks

[DeathBrain]

I think windows 2003 server designed/built for server purposes (background multi services thread), i am not sure about the rendering times, or maybe you should check performance options and set optimize performance for application (control panel) :)

[Stealth_Soul]

About the project, it’s a group work and we are know working on the analysis and the site we still didn’t get into the design but I got couple of ideas little of this and that…

What I hate really is one thing of the requirements is about the cost 250000SR on a 320 square meter, that will bring down the options much more any way you don’t need to know this but you will see them as soon as they are ready… I would like to work with you step by step(Death Brain) and any body Interested when coming to Maya and I do have some side work on this project 2D work in CAD. more to come...

Does Maya Perform better in Win 2000? Cuz if it does I will shift to it.

thanx for the help, talk to ya later

:beer:

[DeathBrain]

Ahh..ic...just let me know, if you're ready :)

About Win 2K, i think you should check this thread (http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=89494)
But for me, yeah...Win2K is more stable, especially while dealing with a large scene :)

[link84]

Originally posted by Stealth_Soul
About the project, it’s a group work and we are know working on the analysis and the site we still didn’t get into the design but I got couple of ideas little of this and that…

What I hate really is one thing of the requirements is about the cost 250000SR on a 320 square meter, that will bring down the options much more any way you don’t need to know this but you will see them as soon as they are ready… I would like to work with you step by step(Death Brain) and any body Interested when coming to Maya and I do have some side work on this project 2D work in CAD. more to come...

Does Maya Perform better in Win 2000? Cuz if it does I will shift to it.

thanx for the help, talk to ya later

:beer:

yea and no somewhat i had a problem where 2000 would crash once in a while xp never crashes ever but xp has a bunch of garbage on it taht makes it slower but you can turn it off so yea...

[Stealth_Soul]

New to Maya,
My college work have to wait
any way DeathBrain I;ll post my final project soon...


:thumbsup:

[Stealth_Soul]

the texture still needs more work,
it's a mental ray but with a big eye in front

[Pixero]

A great addition for architectual rendering in Maya would be a MR Photometric light shader which support IES and Eulumdat lightprofiles.
Ive been searching all over for someone who could program it.
Mental ray already has support for it. All we need is just that shader.

See this thread:
http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=88247

[Stealth_Soul]

Thanx and MR is really something, i'm trying to get Maya 5 so i'll be working on MR 3.1 soon

i'm working my way through Maya still learning about this and that
soooo
See ya and thanx again

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