I need to create a texture that mimics this glazed cmu tile.  My thoughts are that I want to create the texture and color pattern in photoshop create a bump map, and then save to a size that I can apply as 1 tile per pace.  What I mean by that is if you take the back wall where the tile is not repeating, it would be nice to create that material at full size, or 1:1 and just apply it to the face in max.  Obviously, I cannot create a high rez texture that is 25 ft x 10 ft high so how does one accomplish this?  I have heard of trying to calculate pixels per foot but I do not understand how that works or is that the right way.  I have heard of rendering out to texture.  My thought was that this may be the way.  Render out a front elevation and than use that as a guide in PS.  Anyway, time is o the essence so I am hoping someone can point me to the best process for this.

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You could us Tiles map for the grout lines, then a Gradient Ramp (with Solid color interpolation) to create and adjust the location of the tile colors.

Or, create the Tiles map for the grout, apply it to your object and get the sizing right.  Render an elevation of that piece at a decent resolution and bring it into Photoshop.  Do your coloring in there then apply it as a Bitmap in the diffuse.  Using Real World Scale for the map will help keep it to the correct size when mapped to different objects.

3DS Max Design 2011 64-bit - Advantage Pack
Dell Precision T5500, Dual Six Core Xeon X5650 @ 2.67GHz, nVidia Quadro 5000, 24 GB RAM, Win 7 Enterprise 64-bit
Minneapolis, MN, USA

I understand some of the thinking you describe.  What I am struggling with understanding as an option is the pixels per foot thing I keep hearing about.  For instance, on the element I reference above, it is the back “hidden” ticket wall I wish to deal with.  Let us say this is 25 ft long x 10 feet high in the real world.  If my final overall rendered image (not just this wall texture) is suppose to be 5000 pixels long by 3000 pixels high, how would I calculate the texture map size creation for that wall to be used in photoshop? 

I am thinking I would need to figure out roughly the length (in feet?) of the overall area shown at 5000 pixels and use that to divide into the 5000 pixels?  Let’s say the ticket wall is 25 feet long but the over all length of the area shown in the rendering is 100 feet.  5000 pixels/ 100 feet = 50 pixels per foot.  50 pixels x 25 feet equals 1250 pixels.  From this, the width of the photoshop file should be 1250 pixels wide at what dpi?  When I create this texture and save it out as a texture image, we should have a perfectly fitting texture, correct?  It would seem like another way to do this is to export the line drawing from autocad out into photoshop and create the texture that way.

I suggest unwrapping your model and using tileable textures to achieve this, here is an example. You can use a 2048x2048 or higher if required and/or use multiple maps and assign them to different channels etc.

website: http://www.all3dmax.com

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And don’t forget the option of actually modelling the different colored areas as different faces, and then using a MSO material.  I often end up doing tile patterns that way.  The only tricky part is getting the grout lines of the tile material to exactly match the face edges.

--3ds Max Design 2009 64bit, Direct3D 9, Win Vista Premium 64, 3ghz quadcore Xeon, Quadro FX1700--