sharing 3d models with clients

[Anonymous]

I am trying to find an easy to use format with which to share the archicad model with my clients or with others involved in the project. So far, i haven't found any good solution. So far I've tried:

Sketchup - I've imported .3ds but the surfaces have lines all over them. Using the google earth connector, I have exported models to 3d warehouse, but run up against the 10mb limit (is there a way to just save the model to the hard drive without uploading? I didn't see one) The models are Ok but the textures look far worse in sketchup than AC and they have no edges which looks a little odd and I can't use the sketchup sketchy styles.

PDF - I've been working with creating 3d pdfs from .u3d and .3ds files. Both work just ok - if I keep the file size small, there are obvious errors in the model and no textures. If I allow a higher quality and higher file size, then the model is so slow to navigate that it's useless.

I could try and have them download demo versions of AC but realistically, that will be too complicated for most. PDF is ideal since it's so common, but the quality v. useability is killing me.

Has anyone found an effective way to do this? I tried searching but found only threads on 3d models and rendering. thanks.

[Anonymous]

You can try IFC.

There are some pretty good free IFC viewers around (PC only AFAIK ). ArchiCAD does a pretty good job on the output and can handle large models (I haven't run into a limit yet). The drawback is the file sizes can get large. It's too bad ArchiCAD doesn't support ACIS or DWF (3D).

[Erika Epstein]

Another option would be saving a 3D DWG. There are free viewers for that too. The model file size is much smaller as it loses all its smart bimness.

[Anonymous]

Erika wrote:
Another option would be saving a 3D DWG. There are free viewers for that too. The model file size is much smaller as it loses all its smart bimness.

The trouble is AC's 3D DWG is not so great. All triangulated and stuff. Some renderers won't show this but they generally look pretty bad.

[Anonymous]

thanks for the input - I tried the IFC format and found that the model was imperfectly created. Also, since that format could only be saved from the plan view, I can't use the marquee to select what I want to see in the model.

I also tried the DWG format with Autodesk's TrueView viewer. In 'realistic' mode, everything was triangulated. In 'conceptual' mode, that went away but the model shading didn't look very good.

I guess the seach goes on. It's really dissapointing that the pdf view can;t handle the larger files better - it's the simplest I've seen for clients to deal with.

[Gerald Hoffman]

Chris wrote:

Sketchup - I've imported .3ds but the surfaces have lines all over them. Using the google earth connector, I have exported models to 3d warehouse, but run up against the 10mb limit (is there a way to just save the model to the hard drive without uploading? I didn't see one) The models are Ok but the textures look far worse in sketchup than AC and they have no edges which looks a little odd and I can't use the sketchup sketchy styles.

Chris, I use Sketchup all the time and I was wondering if you set the option in the import menu to 'Merge coplanar faces'. This seems to take most of the lines out for me. I still go in and explode the model and then apply some textures and explode some walls if I want to clean them up some more. eg. there still seem to be line generated at the top of windows.

I then same some preset views for the client if they are not very computer literate. As far as project size goes I have found that SketchUp files compress pretty good but if your file is pretty complex the model can get too large to navigate around with (>30mb or so) and you may have to chop the model into pieces or take out some of the complex elements. I use an FTP to upload files to if they are larger than 10mb compressed.

Cheers,

[Anonymous]

I'm suprised no has mentioned Giovanni's 'Vitruvian Studio' viewer that uses the VRML format.

See here for further info and link to site -

http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=105969

And then there was Zermatt, which also had a lot of potential in terms of realistic lighting and shadows, but has now been cancelled.

[Anonymous]

Gerald wrote:

Chris wrote:

Sketchup - I've imported .3ds but the surfaces have lines all over them. Using the google earth connector, I have exported models to 3d warehouse, but run up against the 10mb limit (is there a way to just save the model to the hard drive without uploading? I didn't see one) The models are Ok but the textures look far worse in sketchup than AC and they have no edges which looks a little odd and I can't use the sketchup sketchy styles.

Chris, I use Sketchup all the time and I was wondering if you set the option in the import menu to 'Merge coplanar faces'. This seems to take most of the lines out for me. I still go in and explode the model and then apply some textures and explode some walls if I want to clean them up some more. eg. there still seem to be line generated at the top of windows.

I then same some preset views for the client if they are not very computer literate. As far as project size goes I have found that SketchUp files compress pretty good but if your file is pretty complex the model can get too large to navigate around with (>30mb or so) and you may have to chop the model into pieces or take out some of the complex elements. I use an FTP to upload files to if they are larger than 10mb compressed.

Cheers,

THANK YOU! The merge coplaner surfaces did it. MUCH better. File size is a little big - this a smallish house and it's 8.6mb - but will be manageble. Sketchup may still be too complicated (hard to imagine, but true) for less technical clients, but it will work for some and will certainly work for other professionals involved in a project.

Still wishing the pdf option worked better for some purposes, but at least I use have the sketchup option now.

[Anonymous]

I save my Archicad files as a .3ds and open it up into Adobe Acrobat 3D Version 8. This saves the model as a PDF file that can be viewed by anyone with Adobe Reader 8.1 or later. The file sizes are usually around 1 MB for my residential projects and easily eamiled.

[Anonymous]

what is wrong with making an interactive quicktime .mov. we do it ALL the time. Clients love it. they can twirl it around and everything. usually al we have to do is post the .mov on our website and they just click it and quicktime opens up and away they go!