Piranesi

[Karl Ottenstein]

Thought I'd start a new thread just for Piranesi ... another thread has Sketchup included, and it should be its own thread as well.

It would be useful to hear other people's reasons for purchasing Piranesi and any tips and tricks that they have discovered.

I've convinced myself to make the purchase after several days with the demo and will write more about that later. Neither the Piranesi web site nor comments on archicad-talk were specific enough to explain to me (a hard-sell) why I would want this tool. Now that I've played with all of the tutorials as well as images from ArchiCAD and Artlantis, I understand just how revolutionary a product this is ... very eye opening (just as is Sketchup ... but keep that in a different thread please).

Cheers,
Karl

[Anonymous]

*** Do not overlook the fact that there is a very useful (essential?) pdf guide to all the contents...

IMHO worth a few branches and an octopus ...

- Stuart

[Djordje]

Geoff wrote:
A-OK.
But considering how well you had everything mapped in Art*lantis it seems kind of a shame that another (rather expensive) application is needed just to achieve the soft focus.

Have you ever tried Depth of field in Art•Lantis?

I'm sure I'd feel differently if direct export from AC was smooth. And clearly the value of Piranesi increases the farther you take your renderings from their "default" state.

Piranesi is IMHO a perfect post-renderer. You do not need Art•Lantis as an intermediate step; and the difference is more than obvious. I will post two images soon ...

[Anonymous]

Karl et al
Sorry this is a little after the fact, but I've only just come across this discussion.

It should be possible for Artlantis billboards to come across into Piranesi as being usable. The alpha values used in the rgb channels just need to be used for the material and depth channels as well. I believe the problem has been reported to Abvent and hopefully there may be a fix in an upcoming version.

Brian

PS to see some different style images done with Piranesi and Sketchup take a look at:

http://sketchup.com/forum/read.php?f=3&i=7072&t=7072

[Karl Ottenstein]

BrianWW wrote:
It should be possible for Artlantis billboards to come across into Piranesi as being usable. The alpha values used in the rgb channels just need to be used for the material and depth channels as well. I believe the problem has been reported to Abvent and hopefully there may be a fix in an upcoming version.

Thanks, Brian. Yes, that would solve the problem.

For me, if the plan is to go into Piranesi anyway, I would just omit any Artlantis billboards since they are so limited: unlike Piranesi, the scale cannot be precisely entered, nor can the hook point be modified, nor are they effortlessly created, (and more)...

Karl

[Anonymous]

Still in process of learning Piranesi, but found it very easy to use and a ton of fun!

PS. The epx file was saved straight from archicad using the sketch rendering engine. And about 10 minutes in Piranesi once some basic techniques were mastered.

[Conrado Dominguez]

I see them ! I see them.

Good work.

Conrado

[Djordje]

BrianWW wrote:
It should be possible for Artlantis billboards to come across into Piranesi as being usable. The alpha values used in the rgb channels just need to be used for the material and depth channels as well. I believe the problem has been reported to Abvent and hopefully there may be a fix in an upcoming version.

To be sure of this, please post the wish in the Other Products forum, where Abvnet people reside!

[Conrado Dominguez]

I am testing the Piranesi Demo and I'll appreciate some help from hose of you familiar with the Program.
I created a perspective view in AC8.1 with different colors for the "above ground" and "below ground" background.

1. In Piranesi, I am able to Paint a sky texture to the above ground background, but none to the area below. Any suggestions.

2. Karl indicated in an earlier post that "textures" from AC 7 & 8 can be used by Piranesi. How are these textures imported or attached to the Piranesi file.

3. When using Piranesi to illustrate a Plan or Elevation view, what is the best file format to save from AC to open and render in Piranesi ?

Thanks,

Conrado

[Djordje]

Conrado wrote:
1. In Piranesi, I am able to Paint a sky texture to the above ground background, but none to the area below. Any suggestions.

Have not trie this recently, but AFAIR the area "above" the horizon IS the sky - so Piranesi knows. Check the depth.

Conrado wrote:
2. Karl indicated in an earlier post that "textures" from AC 7 & 8 can be used by Piranesi. How are these textures imported or attached to the Piranesi file.

Used how? As textures? Just show the ArchiCAD texture folder to Piranesi, and you can pick the textures from there. If you want the textured Piranesi file, render it from ArchiCAD into EPX.

Conrado wrote:
3. When using Piranesi to illustrate a Plan or Elevation view, what is the best file format to save from AC to open and render in Piranesi ?

EPX, of course - the Piranesi format. BUT - you might find it impossible to render a parallel view from ArchiCAD? In that case, use the old "camera miles away, view angle minimal" trick. OR, use the new capabilities of Piranesi 3 where you can open any image and define working surfaces (covered in the tutorial AFAIR).

Didi not have the time or opportunity to work with Piranesi lately, so I might be wrong on some finer points, sorry!

HTH,


Thanks,

Conrado

[David Pacifico]

I created a perspective view in AC8.1 with different colors for the "above ground" and "below ground" background.


1. In Piranesi, I am able to Paint a sky texture to the above ground background, but none to the area below. Any suggestions.

Check what you have locked. Also if you want to paint the Sky with one texture and the below the horizon with another you may need to define different colors in ArchiCAD then in Piranesi you can lock to the Color and the Depth.

How are these textures imported or attached to the Piranesi file.

For one Texture at a time: As Karl noted earlier, you can drag and drop them into the texture window, or In the Piranesi Settings Pallet go to the Textures Tab and click on the Browse.
You can also create your own Library: In the Style Browser menu, Library Menu/New/Style Library Builder.

to illustrate a Plan or Elevation view, what is the best file format to save from AC to open and render in Piranesi ?

The best, yes, would be saving those views from the 3D window as an EPIX. Consider using a a horizontal cutting plane in ArchiCAD for a Plan view. Piranesi has the ability to open other image files but then you may be having to construct pixels with depth. Where as if you made the EPIX from the ArchiCAD 3D those pixels would already have depth.

On the Mac side one still needs to go through Art.lantis or use the Vedute program that comes with Piranesi. On a side note Art.lantis and ArchiCAD seem to create the EPIX file slightly differently. For example I don't think you can import cutouts made in one and imported to the other.