Best series on the topic I could on TH-cam. Well done mate. I've noticed that loading large external libraries (over 100mb) always bogs down the materials editor. Almost to the point of making it unusable (just remembered this when you were having a similar issue in Part 1). Also, how to edit materials added to a custom library "after the fact" was committed from this tute. Part 4 of the series may be the application of decals and how those images are managed and mapped to project geometry. I often download families from Bimobject that have a range of images attached that never seem to load properly in the project and just cause warnings to appear when rendering.
Thanks David, glad you liked! Yeah I thought of tackling a part 4 in future that deals with image map alignment as this is how most people apply images with UV control to objects. It's really only practically possible by using surface patterns to line up a tile or an image (e.g. a PC keyboard). Usually if maps fail to load, but you have them available you can add their path to your render appearances under your option settings.
Hi ABG, I love your videos!!! I have learnt so much from you that i could not find anywhere else.. I wonder if you are monitoring this while on your break… I am stuck with building my own materials library.. if I place image files in separate category/class folders ( as demonstrated in this video - i think) Revit will not find the files.. How did you get it to work here? Also how did you go about renaming all the image files , what was your process. I am finding it hard to choose when to keep the original source file name and when to rename it with the category names you suggest. I am on Revit 2023, a drafting student learning everyday - but really struggling to understand the interaction between the material libraries and the ‘asset’ maps… If this is too tricky to answer here. I wonder if you can suggest a tutor service that I can call to talk it through. from Melbourne Australia.
Generally to get images to load in as pathed files you will need them to sit in the referenced folder unfortunately, so sub-folders generally don't work beyond the root directory path you add. I suggest to work around this you develop a naming system where the material class you would sort by in your shared library is also the first word of the image paths. My general convention is XX_MAT_YYY_Z-Z-Z_M, where: XX is an optional company prefix MAT is fixed words implying it's a material YYY is the material class/folder, e.g. Concrete ZZZ is descriptors (any number, seperated by dashes, kebab case) M is the map name (images only, e.g. Bump. Don't append for diffuse maps) If character limit is an issue for windows, you can also begin image names from YYY onwards, and having MAT is totally up to you. I use it mainly to tell when it's one of my materials vs a rogue someone tried to make. Try not to design the system with Revit solely in mind, as you may eventually want to use these in other programs as well such as Twinmotion. A generic, standardized approach is always best.
Hello Gavin, Thanks for this great tutorial. I am wondering If I have a custom material library and if I have used some of the materials in the project. What will happen when I share the files with other teams. If someone is trying to do an enscape rendering will they be able to see the custom materials which I have used? Or do I need to share the adsklib file with them along with the images folder?
You're welcome! If you use custom imagery in materials then users will need to have access to the folder that contains them for them to load and then add that folder as per this process: www.autodesk.com/support/technical/article/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/After-adding-a-new-render-appearance-path-for-custom-materials-textures-are-not-overwritten-in-Revit.html
Hi Aussie, Is there any way to keep the surface/cut patterns from one project to another using the library?. I've tried as you said and even having the right pattern inside the project, when I load the library, that material doesn't show the pattern associated. It seems is a common problem in Forums but I was wondering if you found out a way to make it work. Many thanks for all your videos. I am learning a lot with you
Glad to hear the videos are helping! Surface patterns and cut patterns typically need to be in the project the material was made in originally, and the same pattern must be present in the project it is edited in every time. As well as that the pattern must be present when it is loaded in from the library - the names of the patterns must match perfectly; usually this is why they fail to load typically. I find usually the patterns wont show from library preview, and only appear once the material is added to the project itself.
@@AussieBIMGuru Thanks for your quick answer. Still doesn't work. I've just created a material,assigned a surface pattern and save it in the library. After that I created a new project, with "Transfer Project Standards" I took the fill patterns from the project where the material was created, and I checked they were there before getting into the material browser. I open the library where the material is located, inserted that material in the new project and still the pattern is not showed. I am using the latest Revit Version (2020.2.1) Don't know what I am doing wrong but still not working😅 Anyway. Thank you very much. I sent to you an email in case you are interested. Regards,
@@javierperezmarin4121 actually it looks like you're right - I swear I've had this work before, but it appears to not load in on new projects for me either - also using 2020.2.1. Chuck it on the list of bugs I guess. I know a workaround is to manage a 'materials model' where the materials can be transferred, but it defeats the purpose of what should be a useful feature!
@@AussieBIMGuru Yes. That's exactly what I was going to do. But imagine having a library of 400 elements and having to transfer all of them instead of choosing the ones you need. There is a pluggin which cost 10USD that allows you to transfer materials one by one but it is problem that something so obvious hasn't been fixed.
@@javierperezmarin4121 I agree, one workflow that could be used is Dynamo - it can delete all but a select list of materials, which could then be transferred across.
Thanks Tomasz, thanks for watching! Great question, I get most of my free textures from these websites; www.sketchuptextureclub.com/ www.vray-materials.de/ These have a lot of great hi-res maps that can be used in revit. Vray website has more and usually they are seamless, sketchup website varies. Hope that helps!
This would require you to typically invest in a server infrastructure (physical or virtual). From here you could place this file on the server and have all users path to a server location, and from there generate computer images in future with this path already set up. There's a good article on the process you'd need to go through here; www.techradar.com/news/computing/servers/how-to-set-up-your-first-server-1166915
Thank you Mate for the topic and its very usefully.
You're welcome!
Best series on the topic I could on TH-cam. Well done mate. I've noticed that loading large external libraries (over 100mb) always bogs down the materials editor. Almost to the point of making it unusable (just remembered this when you were having a similar issue in Part 1). Also, how to edit materials added to a custom library "after the fact" was committed from this tute.
Part 4 of the series may be the application of decals and how those images are managed and mapped to project geometry. I often download families from Bimobject that have a range of images attached that never seem to load properly in the project and just cause warnings to appear when rendering.
Thanks David, glad you liked! Yeah I thought of tackling a part 4 in future that deals with image map alignment as this is how most people apply images with UV control to objects. It's really only practically possible by using surface patterns to line up a tile or an image (e.g. a PC keyboard).
Usually if maps fail to load, but you have them available you can add their path to your render appearances under your option settings.
Thank you Mate for the topic.
You're welcome!
Hi ABG, I love your videos!!! I have learnt so much from you that i could not find anywhere else.. I wonder if you are monitoring this while on your break… I am stuck with building my own materials library.. if I place image files in separate category/class folders ( as demonstrated in this video - i think) Revit will not find the files.. How did you get it to work here? Also how did you go about renaming all the image files , what was your process. I am finding it hard to choose when to keep the original source file name and when to rename it with the category names you suggest. I am on Revit 2023, a drafting student learning everyday - but really struggling to understand the interaction between the material libraries and the ‘asset’ maps… If this is too tricky to answer here. I wonder if you can suggest a tutor service that I can call to talk it through. from Melbourne Australia.
Generally to get images to load in as pathed files you will need them to sit in the referenced folder unfortunately, so sub-folders generally don't work beyond the root directory path you add. I suggest to work around this you develop a naming system where the material class you would sort by in your shared library is also the first word of the image paths.
My general convention is XX_MAT_YYY_Z-Z-Z_M, where:
XX is an optional company prefix
MAT is fixed words implying it's a material
YYY is the material class/folder, e.g. Concrete
ZZZ is descriptors (any number, seperated by dashes, kebab case)
M is the map name (images only, e.g. Bump. Don't append for diffuse maps)
If character limit is an issue for windows, you can also begin image names from YYY onwards, and having MAT is totally up to you. I use it mainly to tell when it's one of my materials vs a rogue someone tried to make.
Try not to design the system with Revit solely in mind, as you may eventually want to use these in other programs as well such as Twinmotion. A generic, standardized approach is always best.
Hello Gavin, Thanks for this great tutorial.
I am wondering If I have a custom material library and if I have used some of the materials in the project. What will happen when I share the files with other teams. If someone is trying to do an enscape rendering will they be able to see the custom materials which I have used?
Or do I need to share the adsklib file with them along with the images folder?
You're welcome!
If you use custom imagery in materials then users will need to have access to the folder that contains them for them to load and then add that folder as per this process:
www.autodesk.com/support/technical/article/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/After-adding-a-new-render-appearance-path-for-custom-materials-textures-are-not-overwritten-in-Revit.html
Hi Aussie,
Is there any way to keep the surface/cut patterns from one project to another using the library?. I've tried as you said and even having the right pattern inside the project, when I load the library, that material doesn't show the pattern associated. It seems is a common problem in Forums but I was wondering if you found out a way to make it work.
Many thanks for all your videos. I am learning a lot with you
Glad to hear the videos are helping! Surface patterns and cut patterns typically need to be in the project the material was made in originally, and the same pattern must be present in the project it is edited in every time. As well as that the pattern must be present when it is loaded in from the library - the names of the patterns must match perfectly; usually this is why they fail to load typically.
I find usually the patterns wont show from library preview, and only appear once the material is added to the project itself.
@@AussieBIMGuru Thanks for your quick answer.
Still doesn't work. I've just created a material,assigned a surface pattern and save it in the library.
After that I created a new project, with "Transfer Project Standards" I took the fill patterns from the project where the material was created, and I checked they were there before getting into the material browser. I open the library where the material is located, inserted that material in the new project and still the pattern is not showed. I am using the latest Revit Version (2020.2.1)
Don't know what I am doing wrong but still not working😅
Anyway. Thank you very much.
I sent to you an email in case you are interested.
Regards,
@@javierperezmarin4121 actually it looks like you're right - I swear I've had this work before, but it appears to not load in on new projects for me either - also using 2020.2.1.
Chuck it on the list of bugs I guess. I know a workaround is to manage a 'materials model' where the materials can be transferred, but it defeats the purpose of what should be a useful feature!
@@AussieBIMGuru Yes. That's exactly what I was going to do. But imagine having a library of 400 elements and having to transfer all of them instead of choosing the ones you need.
There is a pluggin which cost 10USD that allows you to transfer materials one by one but it is problem that something so obvious hasn't been fixed.
@@javierperezmarin4121 I agree, one workflow that could be used is Dynamo - it can delete all but a select list of materials, which could then be transferred across.
Hello Aussie, thank you for another great tutorial set about materials, could you suggest good source for materials textures ?
Thanks Tomasz, thanks for watching!
Great question, I get most of my free textures from these websites;
www.sketchuptextureclub.com/
www.vray-materials.de/
These have a lot of great hi-res maps that can be used in revit. Vray website has more and usually they are seamless, sketchup website varies.
Hope that helps!
LOVE IT ~!!
Thanks Chris, hope it helps you make a shared material library for your projects!
Hi, does this sharing works over microsoft sharepoint?
Haven't tried it, but I believe it would if you can get it into a folder explorer environment that Revit can path to directly.
How do i create a server to share the library? Or any other way
This would require you to typically invest in a server infrastructure (physical or virtual). From here you could place this file on the server and have all users path to a server location, and from there generate computer images in future with this path already set up.
There's a good article on the process you'd need to go through here;
www.techradar.com/news/computing/servers/how-to-set-up-your-first-server-1166915