Documentation
About Archicad's documenting tools, views, model filtering, layouts, publishing, etc.

Save changes : Surface > Exposure to Light

akkaokki
Participant

Hi.

How can I save changes made in Exposure to Light (Emission specifically)? Each time I close the file and open it again, the changes revert back to the original settings.

9 REPLIES 9
Barry Kelly
Moderator

Where are you changing the 'Exposure to light' setting?

 

Barry.

One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
Dell XPS- i7-6700 @ 3.4Ghz, 16GB ram, GeForce GTX 960 (2GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11

Hi Barry,

Thank you for responding. In Surface > Exposure to Light > Emission

You mean this setting.

BarryKelly_0-1651635859472.png

 

It should stay exactly as you set it, so long as you OK the dialogue and save your file of course.

I just tested in 25 and they stayed as I set them.

 

Is this a teamwork file by any chance?

If so, maybe they are being overwritten by someone else.

 

Or are you using hotlink modules?

 

It is not a very important setting.

It is only used for the 'Basic' 3D engine as far as I know.

I don't think you will see any difference on screen even when viewing with the Basic (Vectorial) engine.

I think you will only see a difference if you do a render using the Basic render engine.

 

Barry.

 

One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
Dell XPS- i7-6700 @ 3.4Ghz, 16GB ram, GeForce GTX 960 (2GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11

Emission would be the light output from the surface. Not sure what it looks like with the Basic engine, but when matched to CineRender it makes the surface a simple light source. I believe there are some limitations to it's use as a light though, which I suspect might have to do with shadows and bounce. Have not dealt with it in years... Usually define a light strip with a emissive material, then use an omni or plane light as the actual calculated light source.

 

 

Ling.

AC22-23 AUS 7000Help Those Help You - Add a Signature
Self-taught, bend it till it breaksCreating a Thread
Win10 | R5 2600 | 16GB | GTX1660 

Thank you, Barry. Yes, that's the one. I don't think it's a teamwork file, I am not sure if I'm using hotlink modules either.

 

The main purpose I am modifying the Emission is so that my materials appear brighter when I save the perspectives. All the images were too dark and this is the easiest way I found to brighten it all up. Unless there is another way?

Are you rendering a perspective view or are you simply placing a 3D view on a layout?

Only if you create a render using the basic engine will you see this have any affect.

If you render using any other engine that emission setting should make no difference.

If you are simply placing a view on the layout, you won;t see any change.

Still it should stay set as you change it.

 

Also in your 3D perspective view, are you using the basic engine - i.e. just surface colours?

Or are you using the OpenGL (or they call it Hardware) engine - i.e. you see textures and not just plain colours?

If so then that setting has no effect with OpenGL anyway.

 

If you just want to brighten the 3D window, then you might want to play around with the Parallel Projection Settings > Sunlight Settings.

 

BarryKelly_0-1651714204182.png

 

 

Barry.

One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
Dell XPS- i7-6700 @ 3.4Ghz, 16GB ram, GeForce GTX 960 (2GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
Lingwisyer
Guru

If your scene is dark, you could instead increase your Sunlight settings  to increase the amount of light in the scene or increase the Ambient Reflectance is your surface to increase how much of said light is reflected?

AC22-23 AUS 7000Help Those Help You - Add a Signature
Self-taught, bend it till it breaksCreating a Thread
Win10 | R5 2600 | 16GB | GTX1660 

Thank you Barry, I'll try those options

Hi Lingwisyer,

That's actually a good point. Thank you.