How shadow casting in Archicad can improve your renderings

[Olivia basily]

Ready to enhance your renderings? Let's try the shadow casting feature in Archicad to bring your scenes to life. By adding depth and realism, this feature can transform your designs into life-like renderings. This will help you improve your designs.

 

Shadow Casting in Archicad enhances realism by generating shadows based on light sources and object interactions by controlling the quality and presence of shadows in your scenes with light sources like the Light Object and Archicad sun.

This tip is from the Advanced Visualization In Archicad course, offered through the BIM Author Program. For more insights like this, subscribe to the program!

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Let’s follow these tips for realistic renderings

Open one of your projects  or download a sample project and follow the steps below!

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Enabling Shadow Casting

• Go to Document > Creative Imaging > Select the Photorendering Settings.
• Select the CineRender engine to ensure you are using the correct rendering engine and tick the Detailed Settings box.
• Click on the Render settings > Tick the shadow casting.

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Adjusting Shadow Quality

• In the Lamp Tool found in the toolbox, click on Light Settings and ensure Shadow Casting is enabled.
• Enable or disable shadows for each light source and adjust their density and quality. Modify Shadow Casting Settings to achieve the desired effect, as these adjustments impact the Shadow Casting Effects in the PhotoRendering settings and as a result the Final Rendering.

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•  Access Light Settings by going to Document > Creative Imaging > PhotoRendering Settings.
• Untick the By Light Settings checkbox to manually adjust shadow quality using the sliders.

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   Setting Shadow Depth

• Find the Shadow Depth parameter in the PhotoRendering Settings dialog.
• Adjust the value to define the maximum number of surfaces a ray can interact with. A higher value increases shadow detail but may slow down rendering.

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Practical Tips

• Start with a Shadow Depth value of 5 or 6 for most scenes
•  Increase the Shadow Depth value if shadows are missing in reflections.

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By applying these steps, shadow casting will elevate your renderings, making them more photorealistic. Enhance your designs and bring your scenes to life with this tip!

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This tip is from the Advanced Visualization In Archicad course, offered through the BIM Author Program. For more insights like this, subscribe to the program!