Revit - Version history

Version 4.2.5 - 05 Jun 2019

Changes:

• Added support for Revit 2020.
• Removed support for Revit 2014.
• Changed log window so it doesn't open automatically after it has received new messages.
• Improved log Ribbon button so it now shows the number of current log messages.
• Improved the icon of the Log Ribbon button; it now becomes red when the log message buffer is not empty.

Additions:

• Added item parameter: "Recalculate Normals".

Fixes:

• Starting render export when a non-graphical view is active could cause problems.
• Bug with crop view - wrong camera export.
• Revit Ribbon buttons list boxes could not contain '%' characters, which is a problem for example when a Revit view name contains '%' char(s). Now The plugin replaces this char to '_' char for the ribbon texts.

Version 4.2.2 - 22 May 2018

Additions:

• Support for Revit 2019

Changes:

• "Check for Update" opens now the NextLimit portal page.

Version 4.2.1 - 21 Feb 2018

Changes:

• Update to Maxwell 4.2.0.3.

Version 4.2.0 - 09 Feb 2018

Changes:

• Improved. FIRE voxelisation time can be much shorter now, which improves the FIRE workflow.
• Added (but Disabled) new plugin Preferences tab "GPUs" - Here user can control which GPUs are used by the Maxwell Render engine. It will be enabled when the feature becomes available in Maxwell.
• Added Triangle ID channel formats to the Output Channels.
• Added Object ID color export for items.
• Added Object ID color picker in Maxwell Item Parameters.
• Added Material ID color export for materials.
• Added Material ID color picker in Material parameters editor.

Fixes:

• In case user changes the cities.txt file of the plugin and the id of the city stored in the Revit file is outside of the range after the change, the Maxwell Render Parameters dialogue doesn't open.

Version 4.1.4 - 20 Sep 2017

Additions:

• Added Extra Sampling options to the Render Parameters
• Added new Custom Alphas Editor
• Added quick custom alpha creation buttons for items and materials
• Added Custom Alphas channel formats to the Output Channels
• Added new Item Parameter Custom Export Name - user can add name to geometry objects, to make it easier to identify an object by name (also useful for Studio export)
• Added UV and Deep channel formats to the Output Channels
• Added Pack and Go export function
• Added Overlay Text controls to the Render Parameters (Post-Processing)

Changes:

• Channel Depth has been renamed to Z-buffer
• The UI of output Channels Format/Depth has been changed, now it is more similar to the Studio channels UI
• Denoiser Tab is closed by default

Fixes:

• Revit can crash if plugin opens its log windows immediately after the export process

Version 4.1.3 - 27 Jul 2017

General:

• Built With Maxwell SDK 4.1.1.1.

Changes:

• Maxwell Light Dialog - control precision was changed to 4 digits (to provide fine control over small values).
• Default Grass Type was changed to "Flat".

Fixes:

• Wrong label text for Direct/indirect Render Layers.

Version 4.1.2 - 20 Jun 2017

Fixes:

• Automatic material conversion can be wrong in many cases (BSDF roughness value is 0 instead of 100)

Version 4.1.1 - 19 Jun 2017

Changes:

• Built with Maxwell SDK 4.1.0.4.

Version 4.1.0 - 08 Jun 2017

Changes:

• Built with Maxwell SDK 4.1.0.3.
• Added Support for Revit 2018
• Plugin now uses central Maxwell installation.
• Added new Ribbon Button "Lights" (it is enabled only in ortho Views and from Revit 2018 in Perspective views too - but not from Floor views)
• Added new "Maxwell Lights" Dialog (accessible by the Lights button), which provides quick controls to scene lights (currently: Environment Lights and material emitter lights).
• Added new Material export parameter "Emission Multiplier" - during export the exporter multiplies the emission value of the converted (or loaded mxm) material with this value (the material emitter controls of the new Light dialog change this value).
• Render Setting feature groups are now collapsible.
• Render Settings dialog was changed (to match it better with Maxwell Studio controls)

  • "Layers/Channels" tab has been removed

  • New tab was added "Globals" (Here are the controls responsible for the Global effects - displacement/dispersion, the old Layer settings, and scene conversion parameters)

  • New tab was added "Post-Process" (Here are the controls which add extra effect to the final image: Tone Mapping, Simulens)

  • "Layers" group has been renamed to "Illumination / Caustics"

  • The "Output" tab contains controls related to file output (mxs, mxi and image outputs, channels)

  • "General" tab was simplified, and the new Denoiser controls were added here.

• (Revit 2018 only) some plugin features (scene export, Material editor, Maxwell parameter change undo/redo) which were disabled in Perspective views, are now accessible from Perspective views too.
• Added new Denoiser controls (to Maxwell Render Parameters dialog -> General).
• Render parameter "Quality" has been renamed to "Engine", engine parameter names are: "CPU Production", "CPU Draft", "GPU".
• Changed error message at Revit start in the case the plugin can not run.
• CPU Threads can have minus value (minus value means the maximum number of CPUs minus this number).
• Info text "All" or "All-..." after the CPU Threads control (to show the actual behavior).

Fixes:

• Turning off Sun disables the Location/Time settings (location and time have effect on the atmosphere look, even if the sun is disabled).

Version 4.0.3 - 29 Dec 2016

• Built With Maxwell SDK 4.0.0.12

Version 4.0.2 - 28 Nov 2016

• Built: With Maxwell SDK 4.0.0.11

• Added: New Plugin Preferences > Fire Settings flag "Show Status Info": Turn ON/OFF the progress text at the bottom of the FIRE window.

• Added: New Plugin Preferences > Fire Settings flag "Show Log Info": Turn ON/OFF the warning/error messages at the bottom of the FIRE window.

• Fixed: Maxwell Material Editor - Material Paint doesn't work.

• Fixed: Maxwell Render Settings Environment panel - Plugin doesn't create the location list for city coordinates.

• Fixed: Plugin doesn't open material editor from the Maxwell Grass window.

Version 4.0.1 - 02 Nov 2016

Changes/improvements:

• IMPROVED In case Read back Multilight flag is ON, plugin saves MXI automatically, so it is not important to specify it manually

• CHANGED FIRE window Reload button is not visible in Perspective views.

• ADDED Plugin shows Warning message (only once per session) after the user switches to Perspective view mode, and at least one plugin Window is open where user can change Maxwell related parameters. 

• ADDED Material Window shows a Warning message in Perspective or 2D view modes.

• IMPROVED Maxwell Material Editor window reacts for selection changes even in case the current view is a Perspective or 2D view - although in Perspective or 2D view it is not always possible to find all the materials assigned to a geometry item. 

• IMPROVED Maxwell Item Parameters window reacts for selection changes even in case the current view is a Perspective view

• IMPROVED In Maxwell plugin Material dialog, when the list is by the selected item, the first available material is automatically selected in case there was no material selection by the user before. 

• IMPROVED Better support for non-English characters - for example Project name, Material, Camera and Object names are exported correctly even in case these item names contain Chinese characters 

• ADDED New plugin Preferences tab "General"

• ADDED Plugin auto update controls (Auto update ON/OFF and last skipped version) to Preferences > General

• ADDED Check for Update button was added to Preferences > General

• CHANGED In case the ies file (provided by the Revit API) can not be found, exporter skips this file from the export.

• CHANGED Added logo image to About box (+ some smaller changes there)

Fixes:

• FIXED Some objects are not exported and Maxwell Log shows error message: "Int32 get_NumberOfConnectedProperties()[]"

• FIXED Can not open the plugin Log window if it was opened and closed by FIRE earlier.

• FIXED Can not open the plugin Preferences window if it was opened and closed by FIRE earlier.

Version 3.2.0 - 5th October 2015

• Fixed: "Screen Mapped" parameter worked in inverse mode
• Added: Reflectance channel option
• Removed: BMP file format option from channel format types (bmp for channels is not supported by Maxwell)
• Changed: default channel format has been changed to exr32
• Added: opens Maxwell Fundamentals Video page before exporting to Maxwell Render
• Added: Can save render output image in PSD format (8,16 and 32 bit)
• Improved: "Maxwell Render Parameters > Render Channels > Render Type" has new options: "All, Diffuse, Reflection, Refraction, Diffuse + Reflection, Diffuse + Refraction"
• Improved: Grass can be added to Mass items too.
• Improved: Grass dialog add button width changed (to show the text better)

Version 3.0.21 - 14th October 2014

• fixed: crash when opening the material list if the MXM file names were too long
• fixed: error "Byte_get_blue" when trying to translate some native Revit materials

• Fixed: the 2015 plug-in could not be installed if Revit 2014 was not present

• added multiple selection and edit to the material editor
• materials can now be sorted by clicking any of the columns
• fixed plugin sometimes exported misplaced family instances

• fixed crash in Revit 2014 when opening the material editor in scenes with linked files

• fixed crash that could sometimes appear when closing Revit
• fixed the assigned to column in the material editor wasn't accurate sometimes

• fixed crash when trying to set materials in scenes with linked files
• fixed crash when rendering scenes that contain some materials that can't be translated

• fixed crash in Revit 2015 when opening material editor with an object selected
• fixed wrong object flags for elements with emitter only materials
• fixed the Revit 2015 plugin was installed instead of the Revit 2014 one

Version 3.0.13 - 29th April 2014

Changes

• added support for Revit 2015
• workaround for Revit bug which produced misplaced faces in family instances which contained imported symbols
• implemented Pack'n'Go

Fixes

• Maxwell button became unusable after opening the family editor
• the family editor exporter wasn't using the updated exporter code in Revit 2014
• the export button didn't work if an image output path wasn't set in Revit 2014
• the installer didn't find the Revit install path if a localized or bundled version of Revit was used
• the addin didn't load in some cases
• exported camera framing was different from the Revit viewport
• crash when setting the current month to January
• crash in scenes that contained stills
• railings and balusters didn't get exported correctly
• the topology mesh material didn't get exported in Revit 2014
• wrong baluster positioning in some cases

Version 2.7.22 - July 16th, 2013

Fixes

• crashes when the shared parameters file did not exist or could not be created

Version 2.7.20 - July 08th, 2013

Fixes

• hang when the project contained multiple objects that have only numeric characters in their name
• crash when translating materials with procedural textures assigned

Version 2.7.19 - June 25th, 2013

Changes

• added support for Revit 2014
• textures assigned to native Revit materials are recognized in 2014, including the placement options such as tiling, rotation etc.
• added object render flags (hide to camera, hide to GI etc.)
• when the currently selected view is unavailable, the plug-in renders the first camera view it finds
• added support for exporting and overriding materials found in linked files

Fixes

• the sun direction didn't match between Maxwell and mental ray in some cases
• possible corruption of the scene information when changing Maxwell render settings
• crash when trying to render several different documents successively
• crash when editing Maxwell settings or objects after the document from which they originated was closed
• the export could fail if certain paths had Unicode characters in them
• crash when reading back emitter temperature from multilight when the target light didn't have a temperature parameter

Version 2.7.16 - April 25th, 2013

Changes

• added an about dialog to make it easier to determine the version of the plug-in
• only the width or height of the output image can be specified directly; the other one is computed automatically to match the aspect of the view
• point light sources are no longer hidden from camera
• faster export in scenes with many lights

Fixes

• wrong position for the emitter meshes generated by the plug-in
• incorrect export of split faces
• scenes with grass created by an older version of the plug-in would crash in newer versions
• an MXI file was still written even if the MXI output checkbox was turned off
• incorrect export for some objects with multiple materials
• emitter material generated for exported lights was black when encased in glass
• incorrect placement for some light sources
• the plastic, wood and wallpaint materials were exported incorrectly
• wrong camera framing for rendered views