Can a rendering be interrupted?

[MikeJarosz]

I launched a high resolution print-quality rendering. The results so far are exactly what I hoped for. It's been running over 25 hours and is only at 78%.

I have no problem with the running time, given the spectacular results I see on my screen but........

It's December 23rd and if it doesn't finish before I leave tonight, I won't be back until Jan. 3rd.

Is there a way to interrupt a rendering and start it back up later?

[Revitaoist]

Is there a way to interrupt a rendering and start it back up later?

nope, you could send it to the cloud

[MikeJarosz]

I would do that, if I had 2012. But I don't. So I just let it run.

I turned off my(2) screens and left the office at 7pm Dec. 23. I took the chance that the housekeeper wouldn't try to dust my keyboard.

It's morning on Jan. 3rd, back in the office and I have a fantastic 600 dpi poster 36"x55". Some things you just have to wait for!!!!! It ran 41 hours on a 64 bit Dell T3500.

Some people might argue that this amount of precision is unneccessary, but my experience is that with presentation tools it is best not to have to explain to a client why an image is less than perfect. The client saw the latest Pixar masterpiece last night at the Octoplex, and is expecting the same from you.....

[jspartz]

The simple answer is no, but you can utilize an application to restrict the amount of cpu usage a program can take, then open another Revit session and keep working. It is pretty risky though. With another session of Revit open, you could freeze both sessions.

[MikeJarosz]

You answered an important aspect to my question even though I failed to make my point.

Running a render session locks up Revit. Closing the view/render window stops the rendering process, but letting it run means I can't work on anything else. Your suggestion allows the rendering to proceed, and I can work on something else in the meantime.

This time I was lucky. I had the holiday week to let the rendering run wild, and it still took 41 hours. But I remember rendering a raytrace (remember those?) 20 years ago that took 72 hours at a much lower resolution.

The subject is a residential kitchen design. GE provides well-modeled 3D dwg files of their appliances. I inserted a stainless steel gas range into the model. I used object styles to add finishes to dwg imports. The final jpg file is huge, so I have attached a small clip. Anyone who needs good appliance models should check out GE. You can cut them in section and there are wire racks inside!!!!

[damon.sidel]

If you are willing to wait that long, I think you should look into Maxwell ($95) for SketchUp ($495, the free version doesn't have the import settings you'd need). I think you'll get better results, faster renders, and you'll be able to continue working. Maxwell has a priority feature, so if you set it to low, all other operations will take precedence. It'll slow it down, but will speed back up over night, say. And because of the way it renders, you can get a really good idea of lighting and materials early on.

The biggest drawback would be the translation process between Revit and SketchUp. Revit models export to SketchUp very nicely, but you'd have to apply materials. Not a problem if you set up an export layers option correctly. Once you get the work-flow down, it would be quite efficient.

We use Rhino with VRay in our office and I've gotten excellent results with a Revit > Rhino > VRay workflow. It would be quite similar for Revit > SketchUp > Maxwell. I think you could increase your efficiency enough to justify the $600 expense.