Add life to your Revit or Inventor Models with 3ds Max 2014

by David Gate

Have you got a model that you wanted to present or render and it has felt lifeless? Would adding people give your models a much better sense of scale?

In the past you could have added static representations of people into your models. Sometimes these don’t look that good depending on their source (sometimes at a cost as well).

If you had a 3DS Max expert they could animate in moving humans but this would be hugely time consuming and costly.

Now with 3DS Max Design 2014 anyone (I mean anyone as I managed it) can easily add animated people into scenes and create rendered videos simply, you don’t even need to be a 3DS Max expert to get really good results.

3DS Max Design comes in the premium suites, wether that’s product, factory, building, infrastructure… and with it you can import in models in a huge number of file formats.

You can import in your Inventor models, factory layouts, Revit buildings, Navisworks files, showcase files, FBX etc…. or all of these in together if you want. They will also bring through materials etc so no setup is required.

Inventor and Revit also have workflows to make your transition/import into 3DS Max easier.

You should then find the new populate tools on the ribbon.

You can use these tools to draw out a Flow (path way or route, so the animated people will walk up and down it) or draw Idle Areas (where your animated people will stand and chat etc.)

Each of these options have controls on the density, male to female ratio, groupings and more so you can individualise each scene.

Once you have drawn your Flow or Idle area hit the simulate button and the routes or areas will get populated with people. 

Then render out a video or still image to show your scene with life.

Below is a simple image rendered using the standard sample Revit 2014 model and a few idle areas. Watch out for a video coming soon.