Alpha Channel and Transparency

[Emre Senoglu]

While I know that BIMx supports alpha channel, I have been getting frustrated with the limited capability of the function in BIMx. The problem is particularly evident when dealing with foliage - most trees use alpha channel to create leaves, and doing so makes BIMx interpret the leaves as transparent objects. This causes 2 main issues: leaves don't cast shadows and they can't be seen behind a glass (transparency layering problem), and not to mention some forms of vegetation resulting in looking unrealistic (for example hedges and ivy). I'm hoping that the attached image will help explain the problem that's been existent since VBE.

Any word on if a fix for this is in works? Or if it's too difficult a problem to fix with current generation BIMx?

[Gyuri Nyitrai]

Hi Emre,

This unfortunate transparency issue is a side effect of the fundamental software architecture of BIMx Desktop Viewer and cannot be "fixed" easily. The goon news is that currently we are working on the BIMx Lab app (full functional big models with drawings on mobile) and the next release of the BIMx Web Viewer (full functional big models with drawings on the web) and later these technologies will be used to renew the BIMx Desktop Viewer too.
If you get BIMx Lab from Apple App Store you can see that this problem doesn't exist anymore in the new software architecture.

Regards,
Gyuri

[Emre Senoglu]

Hey Gyuri
Appreciate the answer. Just tried out the lab app and indeed the issue I mention is solved. Looking forward to having it implemented in the desktop app as well. As far I can see the sun shadows is still missing from the iOS version compared to the deskop viewer. Is this on the pipeline for the new version as well?