Rendering with mental ray and 3ds Max, 2nd Edition

7.4 Large scenes

Two important factors for productivity when working with 3ds Max are the total number of polygons in your scene and, perhaps more important, the total number of objects in the scene. Each individual object contains information called node space that tells 3ds Max what the object is at its base level. This information takes up computer memory without really adding anything to productivity, and the more objects you have, the less memory you have for important functions like reflections, refractions, or shadow casting that are really the key features to a good visualization presentation.

Revit, or any of the other Autodesk software packages, is not particularly concerned with either of these factors and has a tendency to create ...