topic Re: How do you get a continuous tube of light? in Visualization

How do you get a continuous tube of light?

Anonymous — Thu, 11 May 2023 12:39:57 GMT

Hello Gentleman and ladies
I have a problem that i'm sure you might roll your eyes at. Sorry I don't have Dwights book (a bit hard to convince bosses to part with cash).

What I'm trying to achieve is to have continuous tube lighting around the top of my room. None of the lighting library parts will do as they tend to have rays/globs of lights not the smooth look that i'm after. Our supplier of Archicad here in New Zealand didn't know how to achieve this without more investigation.
Does anyone out there know how to achieve this?
Regards Gareth

Re: How do you get a continuous tube of light?

Anonymous — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 00:45:08 GMT

Gareth,

One solution is to have multiple light cones, close enough so you don't get a scalloped shape pattern on your walls, but far enough apart to still render in a reasonable time. With high falloff and "light stops" setting above floor level (so the light doesn't reach the floor) and no casting shadows (?) this can be made to look like a continuous band of light.

Try this link... http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=37851&highlight=pelmet#37851

HTH

Re: How do you get a continuous tube of light?

Anonymous — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 01:09:49 GMT

Thanks very much Stuart that will be very helpful. You seem to be way more helpful than that Dwight guy who only seems to want to sell his book on here.

Re: How do you get a continuous tube of light?

Anonymous — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 01:38:29 GMT

He put a lot of effort into that book. And quite a decent percentage of it has appeared here in the Forum too. You know what those "Americans" are like though, always in your face.

Re: How do you get a continuous tube of light?

Aussie John — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 09:07:35 GMT

Gareth wrote:
Thanks very much Stuart that will be very helpful. You seem to be way more helpful than that Dwight guy who only seems to want to sell his book on here.

I think that isnt particularly fair. Dwight is very helpful. And he is Canadian not American. He bows to the Queen just like us

Re: How do you get a continuous tube of light?

andrewzarb — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 10:41:50 GMT

s2art wrote:
You know what those "Americans" are like

My step sister is one of those, born in Toronto

Re: How do you get a continuous tube of light?

Dwight — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 14:17:25 GMT

Gareth wrote:
Thanks very much Stuart that will be very helpful. You seem to be way more helpful than that Dwight guy who only seems to want to sell his book on here.

I didn't answer Gareth's post yesterday because Stuart got here first. Of course, Stuart GOT that answer from page 136 of my book since I solved his optometrist shop lighting problem last year. ALong with dozens of other problems including the now-eradicated "Black soffit" and "Spotty stucco" diseases.

It has been nice to see how my book has improved lighting solutions since it arrived last fall. Readers and students of mine are now sharing those solutions as they make their way into Archicad illustrator minds.

So now we seem to have a Forum member expecting that I should jump right on it every time someone asks a question that draws on my private research and experimentation - to solve problems that Graphisoft hasn't, and write personal essays about it to them in private messages. And if I don't, I receive a dig, here.

In short, I'm supposed to give away what I know with illustrations for free and am resented when I suggest privately that a Forum member should buy my book - After he writes privately with the sucker's "just a short question" message. Of course, I remember how I felt when I wrote to our local totem pole expert with a question and she suggested thet I buy HER book: cheap and embarassed.

Shame on Forum members who are too cheap to buy this full color detailed book that answers most Archicad illustration dilemmas in ArchiCAD AND comes with a FREE supplement to ArchiCAD 10. I have written and published this project ENTIRELY at my own risk. So go figure.

Re: How do you get a continuous tube of light?

Anonymous — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 15:29:08 GMT

Gareth Hammond wrote:

Sorry I don't have Dwights book (a bit hard to convince bosses to part with cash).

I had that problem too. It took me a while but here's how I solved it:

1) I asked Dwight for a few example pages of his book
2) I showed these too my boss
3) I showed him alot of the images from this forum
4) I compared the cost of the book to the cost of buying Artlantis R, also pointing out that the book has many generic tips in it that can be used with any rendering package.

He finally bought it, and life was good again.

Re: How do you get a continuous tube of light?

TomWaltz — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 15:41:59 GMT

There's always the possibility of buying it for yourself and using it to improve your marketability. Yes, it's pricey for casual reading, but I believe in people investing in themselves.

Yes, I own a copy of my own copy in addition to the copies some of my clientele and employers have bought. It also looks impressive to have things like Graphic Standards, Building Construction Illustrated, and a few other weighty books on the shelf. People assume you've read them and know something about it 😉

Re: How do you get a continuous tube of light?

Anonymous — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 15:48:36 GMT

TomWaltz wrote:
There's always the possibility of buying it for yourself and using it to improve your marketability.

I agree, I should have just bought the book myself instead of waiting around for my boss. When I leave this office I'll be buying my own copy.

Re: How do you get a continuous tube of light?

Dwight — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 16:30:52 GMT

TomWaltz wrote:
it's pricey for casual reading

Lately, it has been suggested that mine is a "pricey" book.

That is a correct observation. My book is pricey for casual readers but an incredible brgain for anyone making money from Archicad images.

I have studio bookshelves filled with fifty and sixty dollar books written for bozos that look great but never progress to real world solutions. [For example: the sophisticated (but primarily monochrome) "Digital Lighting and Rendering"] Sort of like the Archicad demonstration where the guy builds a little house and it all renders fast and you think it will be great. Then you try to assemble a 600 unit apartment complex with all the furniture and refractive glass.
So when it came time to write my own book [not a book purchased/subsidized for you by Graphisoft like last time where they made the illustrations too small as an economy move and ruined it] it was going to have something suitable for working Archicad users to apply in solving real problems with real complexities and address user confusions. I wanted it to be like the cigarette receptacle at the ChristChurch Train Station: No Rubbish!

That was a challenge because like for all of you, LightWorks arrived on MY desk without much warning or documentation. Even Graphisoft's own illustrations displayed incompetence (black soffits).
The solutions in the book are all from my second album - the one written quickly while on tour rather than my FIRST album, the one with the songs I wrote since I was a teenager and finally got the recording contract. That was pressure.

The other thing I wanted to avoid was waste. It costs $30. to send a book from Canada to New Zealand. But that book can weigh a kilo. SO, I wanted to make a book heavy enough to justify that usurious shipping cost. That meant correctly sized illustrations and

CONTENT.

And I needed to make some money since it meant stopping everything else for six months to figure out LightWorks and write about it. And funding the printing.
CONTENT.

The other pricing factor is the market. Any publisher looks at a project promising sales of less than 10,000 books and laughs because they can't earn costs. My first more-or-less-given-away-by-Graphisoft book has yet to sell 3000 copies, so anyone who writes for Archicad has a small market indeed. The price reflects this small market.

My decision was to deliver a comprehensive, no-nonsense book with real solutions for real illustrators. something with answers to questions like continuous directional lighting that Gareth Organ Maker needs to know. Too bad his boss is so cheap because with the cost of hardly one hour of billable time, this book pays back quickly. Makes you wonder if Gareth's boss is an idiot: he DOES do the hiring.

The other decision was that I would look after my audience - the Archicad 10 supplement being a prime example.

So that ends up being a full book for $90. not half or 1/4 of a book for sixty dollars with no ongoing support. Or a pamphlet that is full of superficiality and error. Or a wildly overpriced DVD, say.

I get fan letters about this book.
Plain cover = Fantastic content.

Even if you use only OpenGL, there's two tricks in the book for you - one for translucent glazing that you should try.

Re: How do you get a continuous tube of light?

TomWaltz — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 16:39:36 GMT

I've said it before, it's the content you pay for.

Just like Architectural Graphic Standards ($250) or the US Steel Construction Manual ($350), any professional reference books cost a lot more than your average computer manual.

Re: How do you get a continuous tube of light?

Dwight — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 16:46:10 GMT

But, Tom, those are grand tomes an architect cannot live without. Without them, you could have a building collapse or collide with a urinal.

Whereas, LightWorks is about getting better Archicad art.

Art is sissy.

When taste collapses, does anyone hear? Black soffit disease doesn't matter. Black could be the soffit paint color, after all.

However, thanks for your support. We sure did have a good time doing the seminar at your office last winter.

Re: How do you get a continuous tube of light?

TomWaltz — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 17:09:32 GMT

Dwight wrote:
But, Tom, those are grand tomes an architect cannot live without..

I would say the same thing about your book.

Re: How do you get a continuous tube of light?

Anonymous — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 18:10:02 GMT

I agree! I started using Archicad in October of last year. Bought Dwights book, took 2 days of archicad training, and improved my designs by 400%.

All I have to say is "Thanks Dwight for staying up really late for a year and producing this book".

cheers

Justin

Re: How do you get a continuous tube of light?

Anonymous — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 22:40:49 GMT

I also faced a dilemma with one of the "bosses" here (me) about Dwight's book.

The justification was simple. I had expended so much aggravation and many wasted hours of billable time for each project floundering around trying to achieve even a half decent lighting solution that in the end the book and Dwight's course was cheaper.

Our office appreciates the effort and so do our clients.

If you want to render in Lightworks, in my opinion you need this book.

Re: How do you get a continuous tube of light?

Dwight — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 02:25:52 GMT

Hello, Maurice.

I'm glad things have improved with your work.

And didn't we have a good time in Sydney? Certainly one of the best venues - a writer's retreat - and they didn't call the police when I shouted "THERE"S NO SUCH THING AS WHITE!" like they did in Washington, DC at the AIA (interpreting it as racist, or something.)

Thanks again to David Blackwell for organizing the event.

Re: How do you get a continuous tube of light?

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 02:54:36 GMT

Hi all again. I'm not doughting that Dwights book wouldn't be very useful. Its just that when the bosses are Architects who don't know how to use a computer then they don't see value in something like that. But in saying that ill keep trying to twist there arms to get them to cough up.
Oh and thanks for Stuarts help. KIWIS ROCK

Re: How do you get a continuous tube of light?

__archiben — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 02:55:52 GMT

more christchurch 'receptical' signage . . .

Re: How do you get a continuous tube of light?

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 04:51:13 GMT

Dwight wrote:
Hello, Maurice.

I'm glad things have improved with your work.

And didn't we have a good time in Sydney? Certainly one of the best venues - a writer's retreat - and they didn't call the police when I shouted "THERE"S NO SUCH THING AS WHITE!" like they did in Washington, DC at the AIA (interpreting it as racist, or something.)

Thanks again to David Blackwell for organizing the event.

I just talked to David half an hour ago. We were discussing the possibility of a comparison session (without the company hype) between Archicad and Revit. However, because of v10s new interface we thought we should wait a while until we can be a bit more confident about the basic stuff.

Yes the Sydney event was great too at a pleasant venue.