PLUG IN FOR MAXWELL

[Tom Klaber]

VectorWorks needs to establish a relationship or whatever it will take to get a plug in for Maxwell renderer. I absolutely love most of the rendering options VectorWorks provides - they span a great divide of styles and settings - but RenderWorks falls short in the photo real. I am a student - and I can not get anybody to try to use vectorworks because it is the only program they can directly render with Maxwell.

[RubenH]

Is a wish of mine, too!

But, I think you have to ask next limit, they produce the plug ins.

Of course, it's not a bad idea NNA get close to Next Limit, like the others do.

Currently I'm using VW-->C4d-->Maxwell workflow. It's ok, since the

link between VW and C4d it's good, but it's an aditional step that must of the time is not necessary

[AndiACD]

Forgive me if i'm wrong here, but i think you'll find the reason for this lack of "Plugs" for other renderers is because NNA also owns Maxon and feels it would be "cutting off it's nose to spite it's face" if C4D was just another one of many 3D/Model/Annimation packages VW supports.

[G_Hannigan]

NNA & Maxon are subsidiaries of Nemetschek AG (German company). Maxwell is a rendering engine only, no modeling or animation features. There currently is a plug for VW-C4D and a plug to go from C4D to Maxwell, Tom was asking about a plug to go from VW to Maxwell directly. There are some plugs available that are supported by Next Limit (C4D) as well as some third party plugs that are supported by the plug's developer.

[RubenH]

Archicad has a direct plug in to Maxwell (supported y NL), also does Allplan (this is supported by NNAG).

Sketchup has a PLUG... Microstation does.

I think NNA should focus on support better comunication with C4d (owned by NNAG)... and other supperior renderer (vray or maxwell, or both). It's an option for the people that want supperior render capabilities.

Edited April 17, 2009 by Mr. Gog

[grant_PD]

I agree with making the translation from VW to C4D easier. Right now it's good, but could get better:

-Let textures retain their mapping.

-Let textures be shared across programs (right now I have two libraries going, one for VW and one for C4D).

-When a VW file imports, one sees the VW view (say...top) as a camera. Not a big deal but I'd like to get rid of it.

-I've not checked, but am not sure if there is a scale entities issue like there is in .dwg translation. If there was an option:

"retain scale in C4D? Scale is:...." and let the user describe what 1 unit is in C4D.

Oh, and if VW was 64bit I would have to go to C4D less. Just a thought.

[AndiACD]

i'm not knocking it. i think there should be more access to 3rd party options on all fronts, the more the merrier.

Sorry if i messed up on the geneology though, for me they're all heads of the same creature, i just got the pecking order wrong. Wooops!

[G_Hannigan]

i'm not knocking it. i think there should be more access to 3rd party options on all fronts, the more the merrier.

Sorry if i messed up on the geneology though, for me they're all heads of the same creature, i just got the pecking order wrong. Wooops!

Sibling rivalry might be more accurate. It's unlikely that a plug in would come from NNA since that would only hurt RW sales. It makes sense for NL to provide them since Maxwell can only render someone else's model. Maxon now has an Architecture version with plug ins for Allplan, ArchiCAD and VW. The Maxon website mentions all three, but emphasises Allplan & ArchiCAD in promotional videos.

I suspect that these decisions are based on marketing rather than technical issues.

[RubenH]

Maybe, RW isn't a real option. RW shouldn't be an aditional module, it lacks the velocity and quality needed. The first time the model it's ported to cinema, rendered with only the sky object, and the AR, you'll never again think about RW.

I think NNA should think abou this.

1. Offering a real solution in RW

or

2. Putting all the pieces together with MAXON. Better handling when Translating and working with model across VW and C4d. Plus a real $offer$ to VW users.

Edited April 21, 2009 by Mr. Gog

[AndiACD]

i'm all for that Rub?n. C4D is "in House" software. It's not as if the have to go and strike up a deal with Maxon, they both play in the same back yard.

Making VW work seamlessly with C4D would be a serious step in the right direction(import export issues that still exist) . . . . .

[Jershaun]

I agree with you Mr. Gog, I'll never use renderworks for rendering for clients. However, I don't think C4D technology will ever be implemented, although it makes 100% sense. Nemetschek NA is adament to continue using Lightworks although it's painfully extremely slow.

Also besides Lightworks, I think the whole rendering system in VW needs to be overhauled, including hidden line, openGL & shaded polygons. We did a model in PDMS (Plant Design Management System) and it was imported into AutoCAD and the hidden line was much quicker and OpenGL rendering was extremely fast compared to VW. Whereas VW was busy calculating the geometry for OpenGL, AutoCAD openGL was instantaneous.

Also the same model was taken into C4D and C4D didn't have to calculate geometry etc., it was instantaneous so it's only logical to use C4D technology at least in VW but Nemetschek don't have any Vulcans working for them so it won't happen.

Shame.

That's my 2c.

[Tom Klaber]

Hidden line is much improved. Still a long way to go to even come close to matching what I can do with sketch up and the free maxwell plugin.