Artlantis

[Greg Kmethy]

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Artlantis is a popular and easy-to-use rendering application for ARCHICAD and other CAD software. It is developed by the French software company Abvent Among the features of Artlantis are a real-time preview window that shows radiosity (illumination), textures, shadows, reflections, dynamic clouds and water surfaces and more, allowing real-time drag-and-drop scene setup and preview. Post-processing filters allow for not just exposure adjustments, but also artistic effects. The most recent version of Artlantis includes HDR image (HDRI) backgrounds and illumination as well as a physical camera interpretation of the scene. There is an extra-cost option to render using a built-in version of Next Limit's Maxwell engine for a physically accurate render. ARCHICAD users can continue to modify their model even after they have set up scenes in Artlantis thanks to the 'reference file' technology of Artlantis. By exporting an updated model which refers to the reference file (typically the last saved Artlantis version), all scenes, lighting, object insertion, shader changes, etc are merged into the updated model seamlessly.

Versions

• Artlantis Render (also known as "Artlantis R") provides still-image renderings using radiosity, multiple core performance, and drag-and-drop ease of use for applying surface shaders and textures.
• Artlantis Studio adds animation and VR capabilities to the other rendering functions of Artlantis R. In an animation, not only can cameras be moved, but any object can be moved and rotated in the timeline. Built-in support for animated water surface effects and animated clouds are included. Animated textures (such as an image on a TV screen) are possible by using movie files as textures. The VR scenes produced by Artlantis Studio are generated as HTML files that can be inserted on a web site or e-mailed to a client, or as self-contained files that can be viewed dynamically on an IOS device such as an iPad using Abvent's iVisit 3D app.

Tutorials

• Video tutorials on the Abvent web site
• More videos on YouTube
• "The Artlantis Attitude e-book" (English language PDF) can be ordered at www.objectsonline.com, or from the Abvent distributor partners: http://www.artlantis.com/buy/ipartners/
• "Artlantis 3: The Missing Book" (Italian and French edition books; English edition PDF). English PDF download available from ArchiRADAR.

Demo and Plug-in for ARCHICAD

• A demo version can be downloaded from: http://www.artlantis.com/index.php?page=download/demo/index

Free student version

• Students of Architecture can get a one-year Artlantis license for free, as part of Graphisoft's and Abvent's joint Student program. Check out details here: https://eduregistration.graphisoft.com/artlantis.aspx

Links

• Arlantis image gallery
• http://graphisoft.wordpress.com/2012/08/02/maxwell-render-inden-i-artlantis/
• How to use ARCHICAD and Artlantis