Layers

[Anonymous]

Is there some way to get the glass and sash of windows on separate layers so when exported to a rendering program I don't have to pick each individual piece of glass and window sash to apply (new) material definitions?

[TomWaltz]

Which renderer are you using and which export method are you using from Archicad?

I believe the 3DS export allows you to define layers by material instead of Archicad layer, which would get the effect you are aftecr.

[Anonymous]

TomWaltz wrote:
Which renderer are you using and which export method are you using from Archicad?

I believe the 3DS export allows you to define layers by material instead of Archicad layer, which would get the effect you are aftecr.

Tom, thank you for the 3DS export tip...yes, by being able to define layers by materials would do the trick. I used the DWG translator.

Little bit of a long story on the renderer we're using, since it's the same one inside Archicad. We've been using the Lightworks engine inside FormZ (Renderzone). You might wonder why in the world do that? Well, we have been using FormZ for quite some time and have been able to put out some pretty decent renderings. It also seems that the Maxwell plug-in for FormZ is a little further along then the one for AC, just judging by the MW forum posts. Anyway, we purchased 2 AC licenses a couple of months ago as I'm really sold on the concept of creating the 3D model and pulling 2D drawings off that, and we've found when we got to the rendering stage that some things like uniformly being able to scale texture maps in xyz directions is really an important feature (lacking in AC) when placing (a lot) of landscaping which requires the bushes/trees to each be slightly different in size when used in multiples, otherwise it looks unnatural. We got pretty exasperated having to create numerous different material styles (different size maps) to accomodate this. It's creating a lot of stress for us and so I'm thinking about just exporting the AC model into FZ Renderzone and work in a more familiar environment for the final rendering output. Once Maxwell is really up and running, then we'll be using that also.

[TomWaltz]

You're absolutely right. Archicad's Lightworks engine is surprisingly good for Architecture, but pretty bad for entourage items like people, plants, and cars.

We're using Cinema 4D, partially because we were blown away by its capabilities then reinforced when the AC-to-C4D linking program came out which allowed us to make changes in Archicad then pick them up in C4D without completely re-importing. It's not perfect, but pretty nice!

[Anonymous]

We're having some other issues with the Lightworks engine as the texture maps were assigned inadvertently to the internal engine. All the trees went upside down all over the place when we switched to the Lightworks engine, and the whole rendering went kabombers! It looks like hours of redoing texture map assignments

I found that the Electricimage (by material) translator worked best for me and also was very fast. Although it put everything on one layer, when I selected one piece of glass it automatically selected ALL the glass in the house. The 3DS translators hung up on me a couple of times and I was not able to get the layers by materials although as you said there is that option to select.

One advantage of being able to import into FormZ is that we can add some 3D detail that is MUCH easier to do in FZ and add all the trees, cars, people, etc. The Lightworks rendering engine inside FormZ Renderzone seems to work a LOT better than inside AC. I'm not familiar w/Cinema 4D but have heard some about it. Once Maxwell is up and running, we'll do all our better renderings there (hopefully they have achieved the 1000% speed increase they were talking about). In the meantime we'll use the FormZ Renderzone rendering engine.

[TomWaltz]

Josephus wrote:
One advantage of being able to import into FormZ is that we can add some 3D detail that is MUCH easier to do in FZ and add all the trees, cars, people, etc. The Lightworks rendering engine inside FormZ Renderzone seems to work a LOT better than inside AC. I'm not familiar w/Cinema 4D but have heard some about it. Once Maxwell is up and running, we'll do all our better renderings there (hopefully they have achieved the 1000% speed increase they were talking about). In the meantime we'll use the FormZ Renderzone rendering engine.

From the sound of it, you are gettng the same benefit from FormZ that we are from C4D. Basically better rendering and the ability to add in things that Archicad has a hard time with.

I am curious to see how Maxwell turns out, but I think the idea of paying for a beta is crap.

[Anonymous]

C4D might likely do a more sophisticated render than FormZ Renderzone (I just posted "Our First Project"), but I like it quite a bit for exteriors...tends to have a "warm" feel usually. There's more we could do with tweaking the grass mesh and some fine tuning, but after abandoning the Lightworks rendering engine inside AC and exporting into FZ/RZ and resetting up the whole scene, we were too burned out to go the extra distance.

Re: Maxwell beta purchase....I believe in that product as much as I do in the Archicad concept....what some users did with the Alpha and Beta versions is nothing less than awesome. I figure it as an investment at half the inevitable cost, although if they decide to significantly discount the final release I think there will be a lot of very unhappy customers.