bbraho Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 short version: The TriBall and Position and Anchor properties sheets don't seem to work lights. Is this correct? Thanks. long version: I've been using realistic rendering to make pictures of facilities (where lights are on the ceiling) and been struggling to get adequate lighting w/ realistic shadows, but now I've discovered that the default lights are in bad positions for this type of rendering. The help file says: "The available options for positioning spotlights, point lights, and area lights are the same as those for positioning IntelliShapes: You can reposition spotlights, point lights, and area lights by dragging them with the mouse. You can use the TriBall to move or rotate spotlights, point lights, and area lights, as desired. Select the light and then select the TriBall tool. You can reposition spotlights, point lights, and area lights by editing the options on their Position and Anchor properties sheets, which are accessed by right-clicking on the light and then selecting Light Properties from the resulting pop-up menu." The TriBall and Position and Anchor properties sheets don't seem to work lights. Is this correct or am I missing something? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tlehnhaeuser Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 Hi Brian, Yes the same positioning tools you use for intellishapes are available on every light EXCEPT Directional Lights. If you SHOW lights to you cna select them in the scene, the directional lights can be dragged around the scene dynamically. That being said, if your trying to render a facility, it will require some trial and error and you may need to use a combination of: 1.) a nice neutral 3D Background (HDRI) 2.) a comination of area lights, point lights, and spotlights. 3.) in some cases you may need to have 'light" parts that have an emission setting, but this will dramatically increase the time to render. I am trying to create a Rendering Tutorial, but havven;t had the time, hopefully I can get to is sooner than later. Hope this helps. Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronKevin Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 Seems to work here, see attached video. SpotLightPosition.7z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbraho Posted July 2, 2014 Author Share Posted July 2, 2014 Tom has me guessed correctly, I'm just using the default directional lights. I think the directional lights are correct for this application. The real locations have many light fixtures on a high "ceiling" in a 40' x 120' bay. An example of the rendering is shown below. I'm not after magazine quality, just clarity for people who don't read drawings. Can this be filed as a bug fix or ER? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tlehnhaeuser Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 very nice Brian, Just one thing you may want to try is change the light shadows to "Soft Raytraced" these may help in smoother shadows :-) tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cary OConnor Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 As Tom mentioned, you may try a 3D Environment like the Overhead Lights and use the Full Illumination to get the lighting from the environment (to test, turn off all the lights in the scene). Cary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbraho Posted July 2, 2014 Author Share Posted July 2, 2014 Just tried changing to a 3D Environment/Overhead Lights and rendering time went up 20x. Changed from done in 20 minutes to 4% in 30 minutes. That's not going to be realistic option, these are complex models. The settings I've been using (after lots of testing): Lights - 4, Shadows Soft raytraced, 12 radius, 16 samples Advanded Rendering: Image - 75% size, Spiral fill, Ray depth 4, Mask out background SuperSampling - Medium quality, no jitter, Bicubic filtering Global Illum - Type Colored, Quality low, Atmosphere white Power 1, No irradadiance cache After rendering - Gamma Correction of 1.5-2 The quality is reasonably good, but I've not been quite happy with the lighting (although the shadows are much improved/softer than when I started doing this). I think I need to improve the position of the lights. Coming back to the point... Being an engineer, I would like to set the lights at repeatable positions. I can't be repeatable by dragging the light on-screen. Is there a repeatable (numbers) way to set the angle of directional lights? Or, is there a way to get 'broad, soft, overhead lighting' without the 3D Environment? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dleczynski Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 (edited) Use my settings, you have to load the project to the Scene_wiz Scena_WIZ.ics set.zip Edited July 2, 2014 by dleczynski Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbraho Posted July 2, 2014 Author Share Posted July 2, 2014 Nice. I recognize the wire straightener part. Is the part on the right for forming and cutting springs/coils? or something else? Notice that the shadows are strong and sharp, like illumination by spotlights. Pretty, but not realistic for where this machine is used - and sometimes a troublesome effect. Like if there were 3 machines in a row, the middle machine might be difficult to see because of horizontal lighting blocked by surrounding equipment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tlehnhaeuser Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 Coming back to the point... Being an engineer, I would like to set the lights at repeatable positions. I can't be repeatable by dragging the light on-screen. Is there a repeatable (numbers) way to set the angle of directional lights? Or, is there a way to get 'broad, soft, overhead lighting' without the 3D Environment? 38259[/snapback] Brian, Basically setup your lighting until you like the results and then save the Scene as a Template file. This way all your lighting is saved. then i would open the template file and delete all the parts/assemblys etc... whatever is not needed so you just have the environment and lighting in the template file. Make Sense? As for the machine, that was something I design about 15 years ago, it takes metal wire ( any size) and turns into rings, then welds the rings closed. YOu can make any diameter ring within a specific range. You can download the file from my grabcad page :-) cheers Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dleczynski Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 (edited) if the colors are better for you? Edited July 2, 2014 by dleczynski Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbraho Posted July 2, 2014 Author Share Posted July 2, 2014 dleczynski - what did you change? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dleczynski Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 (edited) dleczynski - what did you change? 38264[/snapback] just added HDR environment to the part then sends the source. add_hdr.zip Po__322_ysk.zip Edited July 2, 2014 by dleczynski Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Andersson Posted July 3, 2014 Share Posted July 3, 2014 You can also use 2 rendering scenes and link in the same assembly file (containing the machinery) in to each. Then each render scene can have its settings including positions of lights. ... Coming back to the point... Being an engineer, I would like to set the lights at repeatable positions. I can't be repeatable by dragging the light on-screen. Is there a repeatable (numbers) way to set the angle of directional lights? Or, is there a way to get 'broad, soft, overhead lighting' without the 3D Environment? 38259[/snapback] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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