By Dennis Collin
One of the many benefits of using Revit is the ability to present the model in a 3D context and quickly view the design intent within a near photo realistic context. The standard content is supplied with many standard materials and finishes to assist the user to provide output very quickly.
There is also much content provided by manufacturers, such as furniture, panels and surface finishes, but as this content is bespoke, Revit doesn’t always find all the material resources such as textures automatically. As a result, when looking at a model in realistic mode, the 3D view tends to display the custom elements in dull neutral colours or if rendering is attempted, messages will display warning the user of missing files.
It may be the case that files are missing, but manufacturers generally provide their content as a ‘zipped’ bundle. The Zipped file will contain not just the family, but also accompanying PDF documentation on their product ranges, the required materials and textures and possibly even shared parameter files so that elements can be tagged and scheduled properly. However, errors messages can still result even if the files exist and have been unzipped, because Revit will by default only use materials from specified locations. If custom content is used, then Revit must be told where the custom content resource files, such as textures are located. The same principle applies to other visualisation software including AutoCAD and 3ds Max.
This is an easy problem to overcome, simply visit the Revit Options menu and add the material location(s) to the Rendering section. This will resolve not just the ‘missing files’ error message, but will also ensure model finishes show correctly with the realistic mode in 3D views.
The custom path locations are set in the Revit.ini file and will persist for multiple projects. In larger organisations it is recommended that this content is held on a central location that is accessible for all users.