Rendered Models in ACA - No Max

[jay.80870]

Attached is a 3D model (exterior and interior view) that has been rendered inside ACA. The model was created with AutoCAD Architecture 2010 + VisionREZ V7. We are experimenting with some new techniques that allow you to get a high-quality visual model from within the ACA platform without having rendering experience or knowledge and without having to export to full seats of Max or other rendering solutions.

Depending on quality and resolution it seems to take about 2-10 minutes to render.

Thanks
Jay

[Andy.88917]

Jay,

I am with you. I am using ACA and VREZ and am narrowing down the details, setup and settings for producing good renderings in ACA only with very short render times. Mine are taking about 30 minutes now but that's just because my computer is ANCIENT!

Follow this thread to see some of the issues I am working on. I posted my render/lighting settings, would love to know what settings you are doing different. Hopefully we can help eachother!

http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=106772

Andy Bayley

[dzatto]

How the heck do you get such detailed renderings with such minimal times?? I can do a quick rendering, but it plots fuzzy. So when I up the size to an 8.5X11 sheet at 300 dpi (my usual settings) I'm rendering at 2550x3300. It takes about 45 minutes to render. I'd love to have a 5 minute render! Maybe its a vrez thing?

[jay.80870]

dzatto, you can get this same type of quality straight out of ACA without the VisionREZ enhancement. However, VisionREZ will speed up the time it takes to create the render by decreasing the amount of work one would have to do when assigning materials, lighting, etc.

We are working on a path that would allow a BIM drafter/modeler to simply hit the render function and with little to no material or lighting adjustments they would receive the results you see in these attachments.

I have attached another interior job our graphic artist produced today. We are going to create a WhitePaper on it and I will post it here once it is available.

Thanks
Jay

[jay.80870]

Andy,

The rendering speed obviously depends on the horsepower of the machine you are using. The settings prior to that will govern the speed that you can create the model with materials that is ready to be rendered. I'll share the whitepaper on the settings we use as soon as it is available.

In regard to machines, Robert uses two machines. The first is where he does his primary work and the second is what he uses for high-end rendering jobs that really need the horsepower to power through big jobs. Following is his input:

"My primary production system is a Quad core processer and 4 GB of RAM. Pretty basic for doing any rendering. I think most CAD people in a production environment would have just a dual core machine. If an exterior takes 10 minutes on a Quad core then typically double that for a Dual core system 20 minutes. When doing any kind of rendering a Quad core system would be beneficial not to mention more RAM. One can render with a Dual core system but would prefer a Quad core.

The big machine for the photo-realistic jobs and / or animations would be:
1) Windows Vista 64 bit
2) 8 GB of RAM
3) Single or Dual Quad core processors
4) 8 GB min RAM 5) 2 TB hard drives Raid setup.
6) 2 Nvidia video cards SLI setup – each 1 GB cards of memory."

Thanks
Jay

[Andy.88917]

WOW JAY, that's a heavy duty machine. I could see that for animation but for single frame renders from ACA, I dunno.

Wanna hear something sad? I am working on a 1.8Ghz Centreno with 1GB RAM and a 128MB ATI Mobility Radeon video card. Ya, I know, sad, I just don't have the extra money to put down on a good system right now!

For the system I have and the modeling/rendering I do I am pretty happy but I am sure I could increase productivity by 200%+ with a new system. I have been looking at a 2.0Ghz Quad Core with 4GB RAM and a 1GB Quadro video card. Let's pray for that one BIG JOB to come through!

I would love to see a "white paper" on your render settings!

[jay.80870]

:) Yeah that is one mean machine. But remember, that is coming from our architectural services team. They run huge production numbers so the faster we belt them out the better our economics. And we do create animations so that machine works that end as well as the heavy production jobs.

Robert is working up a white paper on his process (in his free time) so as soon as we have something available I will defenitly get it posted up here for all to read.

Thanks
Jay

[dzatto]

:) Yeah that is one mean machine. But remember, that is coming from our architectural services team. They run huge production numbers so the faster we belt them out the better our economics. And we do create animations so that machine works that end as well as the heavy production jobs.

Robert is working up a white paper on his process (in his free time) so as soon as we have something available I will defenitly get it posted up here for all to read.

Thanks
Jay
Tell Robert to hurry it up!! We are all waiting...............:mrgreen:

[Andy.88917]

I am still playing a lot with this and really curious to compare my settings with Robert. Are you getting any closer on that white paper or even a partial?

[jay.80870]

Andy,

I just posted a new rendering we produced with this method that now includes landscape, trees, etc. Unfortunately, we have not yet finished the white paper. Our graphics team keeps getting covered up with production work so we have to keep that $$$ flow going and the white paper keeps getting knocked around.

I'll ping them again and see how far along we are and what we can do to try and get it out sooner. I'll defenitly post here as soon as it is available. My apologies for the delay.

Thanks
Jay

[dzatto]

Andy,

I just posted a new rendering we produced with this method that now includes landscape, trees, etc. Unfortunately, we have not yet finished the white paper. Our graphics team keeps getting covered up with production work so we have to keep that $$$ flow going and the white paper keeps getting knocked around.

I'll ping them again and see how far along we are and what we can do to try and get it out sooner. I'll defenitly post here as soon as it is available. My apologies for the delay.

Thanks
Jay
Jay,
Can you get us any of the settings in the mean time? I just rendered a scene using GI default settings, and changed FG from auto to on. It took 2.35 hours!!! It's only a lube center. Of course, the size was 3300X2550, which is 300 dpi for an 8.5X11 paper. Any info on how to make it render quicker would be greatly appreciated.

I tried it with FG on auto, and it was way faster but the lighting was very dark. It looked realy bad.

[jay.80870]

Obviously, the rendering time is going to increase with the level of quality you are looking to achieve and so much weighs on your machine. The fastest times come from our quad-core machine but the duo-core machines are pretty efficient as well.

If you are rendering for a hi-res print then you are going to want to stay with those settings. However, if you are just wanting something to post to the web you can probably move down to around 1,500 pixels and that should drop down your rendering time.

Give that a whirl and let us know if reducing your pixels helps. Also, no matter what you do you will likely not hit the times we are putting out. Much of our speed on these particular renderings (again not taking them to max) is because we customize ACA and process and templates we create give us advantages that are not available to straight ACA users.

Thanks
Jay

[dzatto]

Obviously, the rendering time is going to increase with the level of quality you are looking to achieve and so much weighs on your machine. The fastest times come from our quad-core machine but the duo-core machines are pretty efficient as well.

If you are rendering for a hi-res print then you are going to want to stay with those settings. However, if you are just wanting something to post to the web you can probably move down to around 1,500 pixels and that should drop down your rendering time.

Give that a whirl and let us know if reducing your pixels helps. Also, no matter what you do you will likely not hit the times we are putting out. Much of our speed on these particular renderings (again not taking them to max) is because we customize ACA and process and templates we create give us advantages that are not available to straight ACA users.

Thanks
Jay
Well post the templates for us, man!!! :lol:

Yes, lowering the pixel rate definatley speed up the rendering time. It's not clear enough for a print, though. I usually do all my pre render checking at 1080X1260 or something like that. Whatever the default presentation setting is. It renders in about 5-10 minutes.

[jay.80870]

Yeah if you want a print you'll have to crank those pixels up and just expect at longer time to render it all out. Fewer pixels is faster but wouldn't recommend them from print but usually good enough for web viewing.

The template is sweet but the key to it's speed and quality of material is that is pulls from the content and materials we have enhanced beyond vanilla ACA. So unfortunately, it is not a template that can be installed on a standard ACA seat and work properly. :(

That is the pro and con of ACA. The pro is that it is quite customization friendly. The con is that you need to customize it for niche industry needs.

Thanks
Jay