Church Renovation

[brianhoatson]

JOB OUTLINE

I am working on a church renovation to an approx. 150 year old church, it has a thick masonry shell, 50' span wood trusses, + - 80' tall from grade to ridge, + - 20' below garade (adding new stage, new stepped balcony, new ceiling under balcony, newfinishes and new hv/ac to be installed in top third of trusses) to an old church- currently cathedral ceilings.

1. How do I model in existing stained glass windows into my arched masonry openings.

2. How do I modify a truss I imported. I can modify the chord thickness but not much else. How Can I modify the chord pattern/ design.

3.My last question I think is easier...I printed the sanctuary plan "shaded with edges" my boss wants to see the walls shaded darker than the floor. walls and floor are existing on this plan, but he wants walls darker regardless.....I have viewport set up as "show complete" tried other setting unsuccessfully.

thanks in advance Bri

[SkiSouth]

JOB OUTLINE

..I printed the sanctuary plan "shaded with edges" my boss wants to see the walls shaded darker than the floor. walls and floor are existing on this plan, but he wants walls darker regardless.....I have viewport set up as "show complete" tried other setting unsuccessfully.

thanks in advance Bri

On you wall type definition, you will need to change the default fill color for shading. Go to the properties window for your wall definition, and select edit. Then select edit structure. Depending on your wall type definition, you can have many materials to deal with or only one. I am assuming you have one material here. Select the material defining the wall structure (the middle column) - It will open the material properties window where you assign materials and hatch. Note in the upper right quadrant there is a Shading definition, along with a RGB value. You can change this value by selecting it, then on the color bar give it greater or lesser intensity of color. You can also decide to create a "presentation" material here to reuse later.

If this is as clear as mud, let me know and I will post a Word Document to help.

[sbrown]

1. How do I model in existing stained glass windows into my arched masonry openings.

You create a window family in the shape you need. Then insert it into the wall. A stained glass window is no diff. than a reg window. I would make the arched openings part of the window family not the wall. I assume there are multiple windows, so you make everything once in the family editor, then load it in. You don't need to make it parametric, since its a remodel, just build it exactly as you want it.

2. How do I modify a truss I imported. I can modify the chord thickness but not much else. How Can I modify the chord pattern/ design.

You may need to create a new truss from scratch, but again, just open the family editor and build what you need. You don't have to make it parametric since you allready know the size, so its just one big extrusion.

3.My last question I think is easier...I printed the sanctuary plan "shaded with edges" my boss wants to see the walls shaded darker than the floor. walls and floor are existing on this plan, but he wants walls darker regardless.....I have viewport set up as "show complete" tried other setting unsuccessfully.

Don't print shaded with edges, print hidden line/ course detail level and set all your walls to have a solid fill(course scale fill) in a dark grey color.(this is in the wall property, not the structure). Then give your floors a finish material that has a solid surf pattern in the color you want.

[PeterJ]

If you need the stained glass to work in renderings then use a decal. Take a photo as square to the glass as you are able, regularise it in photoshop or gimp or paintshop, it will be a rectilinear form. I imagine a tall narrower rectangle.

Add a subcategory say rendering glass and model in place a sheet of glass about the right size and shape to fill the window aperture. Apply the decal to this surface and when you render only the section actually touching the underlying model geometry will show up.

You wall need to play around with lighting settings as I don't know how a decal works over glass, i.e. whether or not it inherits transparency.

[SkiSouth]

PeterJ is correct. You probably want to use a decal. The reason you want to use a decal is that as a material, Accurender will not allow you to hold the material to a particular place on a family (one of its weaknesses). A decal holds its place, but you must use it in the project as an in place family.See the attached two jpegs. The arched windows use a stain glass "material". The larger rectangular windows are decals. The smaller rectangular windows are windows defined with openings. Note the one smaller window where the decal is larger than the window itself - It shows above the window where the opening cut does not occur. The arch windows perform correctly, but the stain glass image "moves" in the family. The larger rectangular windows hold the location of the decal properly. This is more clear on the elevation image than the perspective.

Now the trick is that a decal is cut by the opening used in windows, so you will have to use a void. - WRONG. The decal is cut by both a void AND opening. The key is the origin placement of the decal. To keep a decal in the window, put the lower left corner in the plane you want the decal to reside. Once placed, reselect the decal and move and size it as you want.....

[SkiSouth]

You wall need to play around with lighting settings as I don't know how a decal works over glass, i.e. whether or not it inherits transparency.

Peter, you can set the transparency, etc when you create the decal and modify these settings under the Accurender category of the decal. These decals shown are set on about 50 percent transparency.

[PeterJ]

Thanks. Good to know.

[SCShell]

Hi there,

In addition, you can set a "glow" to your decals to give your windows a nice back lighting effect. This is how I do signs on my elevations and renderings.

One question however, when scanning in an image to create a decal, do you have to use a photo editing program to trim around the object so as to eliminate the "background" of the jpg image. In particular, the shape of the arch. My use of decals is limited to simple rectangles and squares so I don't need to edit them.

Thanks in advance!
Steve Shell

[PeterJ]

One question however, when scanning in an image to create a decal, do you have to use a photo editing program to trim around the object so as to eliminate the "background" of the jpg image. In particular, the shape of the arch. My use of decals is limited to simple rectangles and squares so I don't need to edit them.
No.

I have a photograph of the back elevation of a T shaped building (i.e. the foot of the leg and the underside of the wings). In photoshop I squared it up using the free transform tools. Then I just stick it onto the surfaces that it represents and only the parts actually sitting on the model surface show when rendered. This way the same decal can be applied in the three visible planes of my building and it will show each of them pretty much correctly.

[SkiSouth]

when scanning in an image to create a decal, do you have to use a photo editing program to trim around the object so as to eliminate the "background" of the jpg image.

From the help file:

In the document window, place the pointer on a flat surface face, such as a wall face or roof face, and click to place the decal. You can also place a decal on a cylindrical surface. The decal appears in all views, except the rendered view, as a clear box with two lines through it:

This will be the "plane" of the decal. In the attached jpg the first and third decal are placed with the origin over the wall surface. The void cuts the decal as it does the wall (same as an opening - so the note about having to use a void is incorrect) - The second and fourth
decals on the top were placed with the decal origin on the glass itself. The fourth decal was resized, and the wall cropped the image.