Updating your imported 3D models

Over the course of a project, it is very common to have certain 3D models updated, and we need to update those 3D models into our Lumion project. This can be a rather daunting task, taking into account that most of the time these updates in the 3D models happen after we have already assigned materials to the imported 3D model.

Getting ready

Before we update the 3D model into Lumion, it is vital that we save or export the 3D model with the same name that we used to import into Lumion. This means that we need to overwrite the old file (we can always create a backup) so that we can update the 3D model in Lumion successfully.

How to do it…

With the Import menu selected, perform the following steps:

1. Select the Edit materials menu.
2. Then click on the small white dot on the 3D model to select the model.
3. Click on the Reload model and re apply materials button, as you can see in the following screenshot:
   
4. Click on the OK button to accept the changes.

There's more…

As a safety practice, we might want to save our old files in case something goes wrong. Typically, I rename the file to something like House_OLD_01-13.dae (.dae is the extension for the COLLADA files and is just for reference purposes). The OLD tag is self-explanatory, showing that this is an old file and the 01-13 tag represents the month and the year it was created. If the project is complex and there are a few modifications, just create a text file where the 3D models are stored, and in this text file write something like the following:

• House_OLD_01-13.dae -> Fence replaced
• House_OLD_02-13.dae-> Window ground floor replaced

Why should we go this extra mile and do this? Well, the reason is that when we are working on large projects, they can take weeks and even months to be completed, and a complex project always goes forward and back with changes, which means that something you changed last month may be back after a few weeks because the client changed their mind. With this text file we don't need to open every single file to check where we did the change.