Looking for Rendering Advice

[JPR4400]

I'm new to rendering. Can anyone recommend any good sites for tutorials?
(Any other info would be usefull too.)
I'm using vanillia ACAD 2002, on XP-PRO, P-4 @ 3.0 Ghz., 2 GB ram, 80 G HD

TIA

Jan

[Mike.Perry]

Hi

Give the following a try -

AutoCAD 3D Modeling: Rendering Types

AutoCAD 3D Modeling: Render Window

Plotting Shaded & Rendered Models!

AutoCAD: Get Presentation-Quality Displays from 3D Drawings

AutoCAD: Introduction to 3D Visualization

Have a good one, Mike

[JPR4400]

Thank you for the help Mike.

Sorry it took me unitil now to answer, I've just had a ton of work come in.

Jan

[andrewp]

Question:

Why does everything have to be 3D…Aren’t there any quality programs to render in 2D…

I don’t get a chance to do presentations very often, so when I do, it’s like I’m learning how to do it all over again. I have been exporting ACAD drawings out trying to render them in Photoshop, then importing them back to ACAD as a jpeg backdrop. This is very time consuming and frustrating when changes are made. I also can’t tell what true color the images will be until it’s plotted. There's got to be a better way.

Any suggestions… I’ve heard about M-color, but I would like to have the capability to be a little “artistic” with the image. Does it have effects like Photoshop?

thanks...

Drew

[Wanderer]

Question:

Why does everything have to be 3D…Aren’t there any quality programs to render in 2D…

I don’t get a chance to do presentations very often, so when I do, it’s like I’m learning how to do it all over again. I have been exporting ACAD drawings out trying to render them in Photoshop, then importing them back to ACAD as a jpeg backdrop. This is very time consuming and frustrating when changes are made. I also can’t tell what true color the images will be until it’s plotted. There's got to be a better way.

Any suggestions… I’ve heard about M-color, but I would like to have the capability to be a little “artistic” with the image. Does it have effects like Photoshop?

thanks...

Drew

autocad 2005 has gradient hatching and true color now, which allows more creativity.

[aaronrumple]

Not really a good dynamic 2D rendering solution on the market. Hence the reason photoshop is so popular. Unfortunately photoshop "drawings" are dead end document that are slow to update and change as the design evolves. Not to mention the file size needed for large format printing. Numerous firms also use Corel which is vector based but also supports raster. It is my preference, but not without its issues. Again the end product isn't dynamically linked to the design. Piranesi is another hybrid 2D/3D system. I've tinkered with it, but just my initial reaction was that I'd also still need photoshop and updating designs wouldn't be any faster than in photoshop. The fills and materials and image support has improved in AutoCAD. But not enough. AutoCAD still doesn't understand white and black. White is white and black is black. Seems small, but is a huge issue. ADDT does a nice shaded view, but is too slow and difficult to use at the design level. I need a rendered plan and I need it yesterday.

There is a market for a good easy to use architectural illustration package which can:
1. Place shadows and materials on an elevation or plan view.
2. Supports transparent <alpha channel> images in several formats - TIFF, TGA, PSD
3. Is mainly vector based for crisp printing and smaller file sizes.
4. Has filters for different effects that can be applied to linework.
5. Has blend and eraser and pain bucket tools.
6. Has material libraries.

I hope Revit eventually becomes this platform. They are close. They needs just a few more features and they'll be there.

[slayer913]

Hello -

Rendering takes a lot of time and playing around to really get comfortable with. Here are some things that I utilize when rendering:

1) Perspective. Using DVIEW to establish a perspective view can really turn a scene around.
2) Materials. Create your own, modify in PS, scale, shift, etc.
3) Raytrace. Don't forget about this for final scenes, and render with "render" setting for preliminary stuff.
4) Shadows via Light Placement. Get those light placements right, and understand the difference between omni, spot, and distance lights. Understand the affects of adjusting the position / distance of the light in relation to the objects.
5) Fog. Nothing like a good damp fog rolling over a workbench to really bring out the details in a bench vise design
6) If you have access to 3D Viz / Max, learn it and use it. Max / Viz can work miracles on a scene in ways that the charcoal graphing guys can't even fathom!
7) Another neat little program is SketchUP - allows a user to sketch a layout in 2D, dynamically "stretch" depth into each object to create a 3D drawing, and then add elements that make the scene appear very real. Example: You can sketch a box, then stretch it to a height of 50' or so, add windows, doors, design accents, sidewalks, cars, people, trees, and lighting within about 20 minutes. Then you can change the appearance of the drawing itself to resemble hand sketching, transparency to see inside, shadows, etc. Lastly, you can arrange multiple saved scenes to develop a neat slide show. I use this, believe it or not, for brainstorming with clients for mechanical designs. Rock on!

If you already have a little bit of an artistic edge, practice is the only other tool you'll need.

Hope this helps,
Albert

[jaberwok]

Andrew.
Check out Penguin for AutoCAD. It's a McNeel product.

John B