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Using VIZ Render to Render Architectural Desktop Drawings

Autodesk® Architectural Desktop 2004 features dramatically enhanced tools for rendering images of your designs. When you combine those tools with those in the new Autodesk® VIZ Render application that ships with Architectural Desktop you can create the kind of images and animations you could previously create only with Autodesk® VIZ. In this tutorial you master the skills required to start rendering interiors using Autodesk Architectural Desktop and VIZ Render. You learn how to take models from one environment into another, create cameras, place lights, calculate radiosity, and assign materials. By the time you complete this tutorial you should feel comfortable rendering many of your own environments.

Before you begin this tutorial, you must save the adt-first.dwg file to a folder on your local hard drive. Just right-click the link, choose Save Target or Save Target As, browse to the folder where you want to save the file, and click Save. This drawing contains a hallway you will apply materials to, place lights in, and render.

adt-first (dwg - 151Kb)

Going from Drawing to Rendering

Your first task is to turn the drawing you downloaded into a renderable model.

1. Launch Architectural Desktop 2004.

2. Open the Autodesk Architectural Desktop-first.dwg file.

3. Click the Open Drawing icon in the lower-left corner of the Autodesk Architectural Desktop window, and then select Link to Autodesk VIZ Render from the menu that opens (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Click Link to Autodesk VIZ Render to render images of 3D drawings.

4. After VIZ Render launches, select the Weld check box. The WELD command tells VIZ Render to make closed shapes from lines and polylines sharing the same endpoint on the same layer. Use WELD when you want to turn closed 2D shapes into 3D objects.

5. Select the Auto-smooth check box.

6. Type 30 in the Curve Steps spinner (see Figure 2). This action adds more faces to the arched windows in the drawing, improving their appearance.

Figure 2: Modify File Link settings to determine how Autodesk Architectural Desktop geometry looks in VIZ Render.

7. Leave al the other settings at their default values, then click OK to complete the conversion of the drawing into a renderable model.

By default, changes you make in Autodesk Architectural Desktop are automatically applied to models rendered in VIZ Render. In fact, you can only change model geometry from within Architectural Desktop, which ensures that the rendered images and models are always in sync.

Adding Cameras and Lights

Now that you have a renderable model, you can specify the lights that illuminate it and the position from which you want to render images of it.

1. On the Main toolbar, click the Minimize Viewport icon, which opens four views of the geometry on your screen (see Figure 3).

2. On the Main toolbar, click the Zoom Extents All icon.

3. From the Main menu, select Create > Cameras > Free Camera (see Figure 3 again).

Figure 3: Place cameras in your scenes to determine what appears in rendered images.

4. Click at the top of the double doors displayed in the Left view to create a camera. You will see the camera appear in the other viewports as well (see Figure 4).

Figure 4: Having multiple views of your model makes placing cameras easier because you can adjust camera position in each viewport.

5. In the Top view, right-click the camera, and select Move from the shortcut menu that opens. An XYZ axis tripod appears on the camera. Click and drag on the tripod to move the camera.

6. In the Top view, click the X axis and drag the camera into the building (see Figure 5).

Figure 5: Make sure the camera is inside the building in the Top view.

7. Click in the Perspective view.

8. Press the C key to display a Camera view (see Figure 6).

Figure 6: Click in the Perspective view and type C to make that view a Camera view.

9. Click in the Top view.

10. On the Main toolbar, click the Maximize Viewport icon to make this view fill the screen (see Figure 7).

11. From the Main menu select Create > Photometric Lights > Free Point Light.

12. Click several times in the full-screen view to create a series of lights down the center of the corridor. Put a light in the hall and a light in each of the enclosed rooms (see Figure 7 again).

Figure 7: Clicking the Maximize Viewport icon makes one view fill the screen.

13. If you want to turn off the grid to get rid of the horizonal and vertical lines in the scene, press the G key.

14. Press the L key to display a Left view of the model.

15. From the Main toolbar, from the list of object types (the leftmost list box), choose Lights (see Figure 8). This choice permits you to select and move only the lights in your scene, so you don’t have to worry about accidentally moving the camera. (By default, lights are created at 0 elevation.)

Figure 8: By default, lights are created at 0 elevation.

16. Select two points to put a window around all the objects in the scene. (These points are tied to the lights in the scene because at this stage you can only manipulate the lights.)

17. Position the lights exactly at the height of the door header. Do not position them above this height or they will be outside the building and won’t have any effect on the interior (see Figure 9).

Figure 9: Move lights up to make sure they illuminate rooms.
18. Press the C key to redisplay a Camera view (see Figure 10).
Figure 10: Check light position in Camera views.

19. On the Main toolbar, from the list of object types, choose All. Now you can select and position all the objects in your scene (see Figure 11).

Figure 11: By resetting the object selection to All, you can select and move any object in a scene.

As you can see, it takes just seconds to create lights and cameras in your scene.

Assigning Materials to Objects
As you’re sure to have noticed by now, the floor of the building interior is green. At this point, the floor is just an extruded shape created in Autodesk Architectural Desktop. It’s green because it’s on a green layer in the drawing and because you have defined no other material properties for it.

The next set of steps shows you how to assign a material to this object and to other objects in the scene.

Tip: The Materials palette appears by default when you launch VIZ Render. As with palettes in Autodesk Architectural Desktop, moving your cursor over the edge of the palette expands the palette. To keep the palette expanded, click the Auto-hide icon at the bottom of the blue bar (see Figure 12).

Figure 12: Click Auto-hide to toggle the display of materials on and off.

1. Drag up the upper edge of the Materials palette to display all the material tabs.

2. Click the Flooring tab.

3. Select the gray material, which is marble.

4. Drag and drop that material onto the green floor of the Camera view. Note that the marble pattern is very dense (see Figure 13).

Figure 13: Drag and drop materials from the Materials palette onto objects.

5. Type H to display a list of all the objects in the scene (see Figure 14).

6. Double-click Layer:floor.01 to select the Floor object.

Figure 14: Type H to list all the objects in a scene by name.

7. On the Command panel, on the right side of the screen, click UVW Map. This modifier applies and scales the marble material you selected earlier to the floor (see Figure 15).

Figure 15: Apply the UVW Map modifier to objects when you want to orient or scale their materials.

8. From the Main menu, select Rendering > Material Editor, which opens the Material Editor.

9. Click the Architectural button, which opens the Material/Map Browser.

10. Select Scene on the Browse From pane, which opens a list of the materials in the scene.

11. Select Finishes.Flooring.Marble.White (see Figure 16).

Figure 16: You can display all the materials in the scene using the Material/Map browser.

12. Accept all the other settings in the Browser and click OK. The Instance or Copy dialog box opens (see Figure 17).

13. Select the Instance radio button and click OK. Selecting this option ensures that the material you selected in Step 11 comes into your rendering as an instance of the material in the scene. That way, any changes you make to the material are applied to the material on the floor.

Figure 17: Use the Instance option to make sure that changes you make in the Material Editor are reflected in materials used in the scene.

14. Under the Texture Scaling rollout, type 8’ in the Width and Height spinners to make the slabs of marble larger (see Figure 18).

Figure 18: Change the Texture-Scaling parameters to specify the actual size of materials in real-world units.

You can use the techniques just demonstrated to apply materials to almost any object and to adjust the scale of the materials as required.

Rendering Images
In the following series of steps you render images of your scene. The options you select determine the quality of the rendered images.

1. From the Main menu, select Rendering > Render, which opens the Render Scene dialog box at the Render tab.

2. On the Render Options pane, clear the Reflections/Refractions check box, which will make your image render more quickly.

3. Clear the Use Radiosity check box to make sure that VIZ Render doesn’t calculate how light bounces around your scene. This, too, will make your image render more quickly (see Figure 19).

Figure 19: Clearing some Render options can improve rendering time.

4. Click the Render button to render the scene (see Figure 20).

Figure 20: Note that no objects are reflected on the floor and that illumination is evenly distributed in this rendered image.

5. Close the Camera01 window that shows the rendered image.

6. In the Render Scene dialog box, click the Environment tab.

7. On the Background rollout, click the rectangle under the Background Color label. Clicking this rectangle, which is called the Background Color Swatch, opens the Color Selector dialog box.

8. Drag the Red, Green, and Blue sliders as required to create a light blue color for the background of the scene. You will see the Background Color Swatch update (see Figure 21).

Figure 21: Use the options on the Environment tab to change the background color.

9. Click Close to exit the Color Selector dialog box. You are returned to the Render Scene dialog box.

10. Click the Radiosity tab (see Figure 22).

Figure 22: Use the parameters on the Radiosity tab to establish how light is bounced from object to object in a scene.

11. Click the Start button to calculate how light bounces around your scene. You will see your Camera view update to reflect the radiosity calculations (see Figure 23).

Figure 23: You can usually see the effect of radiosity calculations in camera viewports.

12. In the Render Scene dialog box, click the Render tab.

13. This time select the Use Radiosity check box on the Render Options pane, so that previews and rendered images show the effects of light bouncing around the scene.

14. Click the Setup button on the Interactive Tools pane.

15. Click the Render Preview button on the Exposure Control rollout to see a preview of what the rendered image will look like (see Figure 24).

Figure 24: Render previews to quickly see the effect of changes you make to Radiosity parameters.

16. To try to balance the light and dark areas of the scene, select Automatic Exposure Control from the drop-down list box on the Exposure Control rollout. Notice that the rendered preview updates (see Figure 25).

Figure 25: Changing Exposure Control options changes how light is bounced from object to object.

17. Type 60 in the Brightness spinner on the Automatic Exposure Control Parameters rollout to make the rendered preview a little brighter (see Figure 26).

Figure 26: Use the Brightness parameter to lighten dark images.

18. Click the Render tab again.

19. This time select the Choose Reflections/Refractions check box to make materials with reflections and refractions render correctly.

20. Click the Render button to render the scene.

21. On the Camera01 window showing the rendered scene, click the Save Bitmap icon, if desired, to save a version of the rendered image to a file on your local hard drive (see Figure 27).

Conclusion
Take time now to experiment with this scene. Apply a new material to the ceiling or walls. Render the scene with Logarithmic Exposure Control instead of Automatic. Once you feel comfortable with this scene, from the VIZ Render Main menu, select File > Save. You can then close VIZ Render.

Tip: If you were to make changes to our drawing, you could then reopen VIZ Render and choose Reload to reload the modified geometry. VIZ Render makes it easy to render images of your environments at any stage of the design process.