Creating a custom light source in 9.0

[Anonymous]

I'm trying to create custom light sources for use with LightWorks that will actually cast light. Specifically long tubes, thin slabs, etc. that I can place to cast an even glow from under slabs, behind walls.. I've looked through all the LW materials settings, and downloaded shaders from the LW web site, but cannot determine how to create a material that actually casts illumination. Can this be done?

Don

[Anonymous]

Re-Affirming Old Decisions....

Rob, that is exactly what I am looking for. However, spending 10AM yesterday to 3AM today working on an interior rendering has convinced me to stick to my old rule of using Archicad for exterior and Artlantis for interior renderings. No matter how fast the LW engine is, adjust/render adjust/render adjust/render is not a feasible way to work. With interior renderings, I REALLY need to be able to see the lighting adjustment results in real-time. Not too mention that once you set up complicated lighting, the LW rendering engine will often hang.

That said, I have Artlantis 4.5, and the fact that you cannot simply duplicate an existing light source (think multiply, drag a copy, or simply cut & paste) is a bad joke. Try creating a string of ceiling mounted spots... My Artlantis rendering would have been much better if I had added more spots, but I got so tired of manually copying all the light settings that I gave up.

Anyway, I've attached two renderings (LW one will be in another post), one with LW, the other with Artlantis. In summary:

Artlantis: Real-time review of lighting changes, tedious creation of lights. Easy to create a "warm" environment".

Light Works: Fast and easy creation of lights, but adjust/render is not feasible. Overall image is clear and crisp.

[Anonymous]

Ligtworks rendering

[Karl Ottenstein]

Don wrote:
That said, I have Artlantis 4.5, and the fact that you cannot simply duplicate an existing light source (think multiply, drag a copy, or simply cut & paste) is a bad joke. Try creating a string of ceiling mounted spots...

Hi Don,

There are tricks (talked about a long time ago on escribe) with Artlantis, since the ATL file (and old OPT DB files) are text and can be edited. For example, here is part of one of my ATL files - the lamps appear towards the end of the file:

<Lights><[CDATA[12 
#Light
U"East Sconce"
605.366967 300.383967 329.476884 255 255 230 W 2.241379 D 201.562835 417.297663 R P 0.655172 Z 6 0.0 O G 0 0.146552 3 E
#Light
U"Loft ambient"
800.957436 361.319164 748.007527 246 254 140 W 0.517241 D 107.769454 334.521414 R P 0.356322 Z 6 0.0 O G 0 0.146552 3 E
#Light
U"Bookcase"
875.023984 187.96 624.397266 255 255 215 873.936695 -475.58753 622.828428 47.410699 0.5 W 2.068966 D 90.883817 155.424196 R P 0.758621 Z 0 0.0 O G 0 0.01 0 E
...more of same...
]]>
</Lights>

The number of lights follows the CDATA (12 here), and you can see what each light's parameters look like. (If you add or delete lights in the ATL text, be sure to adjust the light count!)

Since lights have names, the trick is to multiply your lights in AC to get the positions where you want... then go into the ATL file and copy the lighting parameters from one of your known 'good' lights onto all of the new multiplied lights.

A hassle, not the way it should be, etc., etc. ... but it is one way to work around the limitation.

HTH,
Karl

[Anonymous]

Hi Karl,

Thanks for the tip - it will certainly save time. But when I save my 3D model as an artlantis file, the option for Archicad lights is 'grayed out'. So my assumption was that I could not import lights into Artlantis. I have been painfully building and placing them in Artlantis. Yuck.

How do I get Archicad to allow me to export lights to Artlantis?

Thanks,

Don

[Karl Ottenstein]

Don wrote:
Thanks for the tip - it will certainly save time. But when I save my 3D model as an artlantis file, the option for Archicad lights is 'grayed out'. So my assumption was that I could not import lights into Artlantis. I have been painfully building and placing them in Artlantis. Yuck.

How do I get Archicad to allow me to export lights to Artlantis?

Well Don, I'm stumped! AC lights used to export with the model, but I'm experiencing the same behavior as you now: the checkbox is not available, and only the sun gets exported from 9.0, 8.1 and even 7.0! I know I used to do this all the time ... and experienced the problem noted by others of AC lights becoming 'black holes' and sucking light in the Artlantis model ... but at least the lights were exported and we could place them precisely in AC and then modify their params in Artlantis.

Does anyone know what Don and I are missing that we seemingly can't export lights from AC to Art*lantis anymore?

Thanks!

Karl


PS The tip for editing the light description in the DB/ATL file was from Francois Favier in February 2002. (Searching high and low for why the export isn't working, I came across his old post.) Thanks Francois.
http://www.escribe.com/software/archicadtalk/m12945.html

[Karl Ottenstein]

Don wrote:
That said, I have Artlantis 4.5, and the fact that you cannot simply duplicate an existing light source (think multiply, drag a copy, or simply cut & paste) is a bad joke.

Here is a tip from Stuart James from January 2002:

Stuart wrote:
in AL4+ it is possible to copy an existing light (at last!)... whilst the
'source light' is selected use 'ctrl' + 'create' to make a new light with
the same characteristics as the selected light. Don't forget to hold down
the 'alt' key whilst dragging the new light to its new position - this keeps
its orientation fixed.

http://www.escribe.com/software/archicadtalk/m11913.html

HTH,
Karl

[Anonymous]

to export lights they have to be switched on in photorendering settings > effects... likewise the sun

bill

[Anonymous]

Hi Karl - I found the problem: You need to switch your archicad rendering settings back to the internal rednering engine before exporting (lights will not be an export option if you have LightWorks selected). And as Bill mentioned, light sources has to be enabled as well.

Thanks Bill.

Don

[Karl Ottenstein]

Don wrote:
Hi Karl - I found the problem: You need to switch your archicad rendering settings back to the internal rendering engine before exporting (lights will not be an export option if you have LightWorks selected). And as Bill mentioned, light sources has to be enabled as well.

Thanks, Don and Bill!

UNBELIEVABLE to me that the choice of rendering engine (and options) should have any affect whatsoever on this! When I tested in 8.1 last night, I didn't even look to see what engine was selected: checking now, it was Sketch. Switching to Internal solves the problem.

Does this make sense to any of you guys (or others?), or should I/we make it a wishlist item that the engine choice should have no effect on the Artlantis export?

Thanks!

Karl

[Dwight]

The file export relies on the content of the 3D model file. If there are no lights in it, there are none to export. Obviously, the Sketch render option doesn't consider lights and does not include them in generating the file.

You got caught in a quirk.

Nobody is going to just "make it so" on this issue, but a warning note in the dialog box would be useful. I am sure other frustrating quirks exist in that dialog....