ARCHICAD - Preferences

In the Preferences Dialog you can set important workflow and export parameters. You can get to this dialogue from the Maxwell menu > Preferences or from the gear icon in the Maxwell for Archicad palette.

Open

General tab

Export mode

From version 2.7.3 the plugin provides two export modes: "3D Window" and "Independent". Both of them have advantages and disadvantages, it depends on the project which one you have to use.

In 3D Window mode plugin exports the geometries exactly as those are in the ARCHICAD 3D window. Plugin reads out scene information from the 3D window which means this window has to be open before the export (in case it is not open the plugin opens it automatically).

Comparison:

Export speed: it depends on the scene. For example scenes with many solid operations are usually exported much faster in 3D Window mode, while simpler scenes can be exported faster in Independent mode.

3D cutting planes and Marque mode: Independent mode doesn't support 3D cutting planes or Marque mode. In case you need these features, please change to 3D Window export mode.

Use visibility filters

If it is ON the plugin exports only the items which are visible in the ARCHICAD 3D window.

Material

Copy textures to export directory

Normally plugin exports only the textures which are in a location not directly readable for the Maxwell Render program (for example images in a compressed ARCHICAD library). With this option you can force the plugin to export all the used textures (it can be useful to have all the scene files in one place).

Reference MXS

Export multi-references as instances

In case, if this flag is ON and you have many referenced MXS scenes with the same source file in your ARCHICAD project, the plugin exports only the first one as normal object and the others as instances. It can be very useful for example if you create a forest with similar mxs trees. The benefit is the much less memory consumption during render time. It is important to note here that if you have enough memory the render speed is usually better with normal objects. 

FIRE tab

You can set the main render parameters for the FIRE mode.

Time, Sampling Level and Num. Threads are similar parameters to what we have in normal render mode. With Quality, you can set the actual resolution at which the interactive engine renders (a higher value means better quality but a slower preview).

Material Preview tab

You can set the main render parameters for the Maxwell material preview. The preview will render until it reaches one of these limits

Time (s) - The time in seconds

and

Sampling Level - the higher, the better quality, but takes longer to finish.

Texture Folders tab

Open

Here you can add paths to help Maxwell find missing textures on your computer. The paths are passed to Maxwell and it will search for the missing textures in those folders and 3 folders deep. Here you have two groups:

Stored in project file

These paths go along with the scene file. They can be useful to make the plugin locate files that Archicad has not found when loading the scene or missing textures in referenced material.

Stored on local computer

These paths are stored on the local computer and are not saved in the scene file. They can be useful to make Archicad look for the files in network drives in your office where you are sharing textures, for instance. As these paths may be different from one computer to another it’s good to have this option.

Use custom folder for MXM Gallery downloads

If you check this box, you will be able to set a folder where all the materials downloaded from the MXM Gallery will be stored (each one in their own folder).