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ArchiCAD to 3ds Max to UE4

Hi Adam,

I'm Vivek, an architect from Kerala, India, and I'm a student of the Unreal Engine Project based VR course that you host on Udemy. It's a fantastic way to learn the 3ds Max - UE4 workflow, and you make it really easy to understand, even some of the more complicated aspects of the software. Very very appreciated!

I have a few questions though. I'd actually asked this on the Udemy forum, so I'm copying it here in case you haven't seen it. Could I have a bit of your time please?

I use ArchiCAD for all 2D/3D related project work. Its pretty convenient and, well, gets the job done for most of my office's projects. The problem starts when I try to export from ArchiCAD to 3ds Max (there's a predefined workflow for this published by Graphisoft, I'll link it below).

ArchiCAD can export 3D files in a variety of formats, though the 3ds Max export option is limited to a .3ds file (which I'm led to understand is limiting in many ways)*.

I can also export in .obj and .fbx (although the .fbx is a proprietary version meant for Twinmotion). These imports however don't seem to really work well, in that the model either comes in to 3ds Max as separate entities (including materials), or as a single, solid block (I haven't tried this yet though). I've included images of my ArchiCAD export - 3ds Max import dialogs to further explain the problem, if they help.

ArchiCAD .3ds export

ArchiCAD .obj export

I put all 3D surfaces such as walls, slabs, beams etc. in their own distinct layers (not by material type), which explains the huge list of materials per layer. This was done since we wanted to have control over material variations in Lumion (which is what the 3D visualizer in office uses for smaller projects). Do you think that I should reduce the number of materials used before exporting to 3ds Max as a .obj file, or should I leave it as is, seeing as I can change them in 3ds Max and, by extension, in UE4?

.obj import

And .3ds import

I apologize for overwhelming you with this info, but I'm not sure where to go with this. Any help you have to offer will be greatly appreciated.

Also,

* - https://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=55959* - https://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=55959

3 comments

3 Comments

Adam Z

Nov 09, 2018

I can't speak to this very much, because I haven't tried the archicad workflow. I have worked on a few projects that came from there, and I had to import them as 3ds files. If I remember correctly the problem with that was the materials that didn't come across properly. These kind of things are to be expected when trying to transfer from one format to another.

What I would do is try each format and weigh the pros and cons. Even with the best option, you might still need to adjust things in 3ds Max, most likely the materials. From there, have you tried importing any of these models via datasmith into UE4? That would be the next step. I assume the geometry will work just fine, but again, you might need to reapply materials in 3ds Max first, or you could just make all your materials in UE4, depending on what you are used to.

Also, I wouldn't be surprised if Unreal Engine is working on datasmith exporting for archicad. That would solve your problems I think. Have you looked into it, or contacted them?

vivekkrishnan0530

Nov 09, 2018

Replying to

Thank you for your reply Adam. I did try importing the model into UE4 through datasmith. The geometry, and some of the materials surprisingly, came out intact. The problems arose with mapping and generating collisions, because for whatever reason, the archicad to 3ds max import does something strange to the meshes, in that they don't come in as mesh groups (defined slabs, walls, and so on), rather as individual entities. I can prevent that by exporting the model from archicad in the .obj format, but then everything comes in as groups, as I linked in the images above. But I suppose working with two or more formats means a lot of cleaning up is needed regardless.

On that note, if I were to export the model from archicad to 3ds max in groups (walls, slabs, roofing, furniture etc.) separately, do you think I could sort of, for lack of a better word, assemble it all in UE4 and start the viz process?

I haven't asked them about datasmith for archicad, but if they do release it, it would make the workflow so much easier. I'm actually trying to get the office to incorporate UE4 and VR as our main archviz workflow, and there are so many hurdles haha!

Thank you for your assistance Adam. Greatly appreciate it.

Adam Z

Nov 09, 2018

Replying to

@vivekkrishnan0530 Exporting them as groups might be one option. You could definitely do that and import each one into datasmith, and that would be fine in UE4. Everything should be placed correctly and all of that. It definitely sounds like there are some workflow issues that need to be dealt with. You're going to have to tinker and find a lot of workarounds, I suspect.