Which 3D Rendering Application with ArchiCad?

[Anonymous]

I used to use Autocad/Microstation and model and render in FormZ. Everybody here talks non stop about cinema4D. I am a new Archicad user and would like to know which render app i should use to achieve best results.
Thanks!

[stefan]

patricprz wrote:
I don't understand Lightworks Render. I use FormZ as well as Archicad and they are both meant to use the Lightworks rendering engine. But the quality in FormZ is much better! Why is that?
Also, just out of curiosity - adding up the apps you are using you must have spent $10.000 plus on software.... how the hell can you afford that?
The 3D software market is very strange. I wish the integrated Archicad 9 rendering would be better. I think it is well below par, it compares to applications that were out 7 years ago. Why would a company do that???

It's actually about $7180...
ArchiCAD commercial -> $7000 (yes, it was that much)
3ds max 6 -> $150 (student version)
Cinema4D 6 CE -> free with a $15 magazine
Maya PLE -> free (I don't use it)
Softimage EXP -> free (I don't use it)
Art*lantis 4.0 -> free with a $15 magazine
And the others I don't use/have or are free... There are free demo-versions of most of these applications too.

The Lightworks engine inside ArchiCAD doesn't have the radiosity included.

It has it's limitations, but it's good enough for regular use. If you want something better, you can always add external software for rendering.

[Anonymous]

How do you get cinema 4D free with a $15 magazine?

[Anonymous]

This was how.


http://www.computerarts.co.uk/news/default.asp?pagetypeid=2&articleid=18181&subsectionid=841&subsubs...




Mark

[Anonymous]

Art-lantis have radiosity?! It's incredible! But I heard it is testing now. Do somone know the date of sale AL 5.0?
& no radiosity effect was found in Light work + AC9. It's disappointed!

[Dwight]

Hey, Mr Weird Avatar:

Many of us are on the Shakedown Train as authors and some of us are educators. The sad fact of human life span is that one can only get good at a solitary visualizing software, no matter what one "owns."

The issue with many softwares, as I have, is confusion - you might make a great material in one software and then lack it in another, but forget. Dang.

LightWorks is a little old style, especially since Graphisoft didn't implement the radiosity aspect, but it is capable of fine results with a little learning.

[Anonymous]

IMHO, if you are an architect, you should go straight to Art*lantis.
It is not a perfect rendering package (far from it), although version 5 promises to be something else, but you can do some decent looking images and movies REAL fast.
As an example, a first design approach, on a small size project, can take me from 8 to 20 hours to model in ArchiCAD. Then, on Art*Lantis, with 20 to 30 minutes more, I can churn out some 3 to 6 images, with enough quality to impress my client. I am not aiming at high end renderings (although I have done a few, which are great practice to learn tricks).
And it is VERY fast to learn. If you have someone to tech you, half an hour is enough to learn the basics (50%).
I have tried in my time some heavy duty rendering programs (remember Vue De Sprit?), but they have such a steep learning curve, and are so difficult to master, you have to spend weeks learning them and then practice constantly so as not to forget the commands....it just is not worth for us architects.
Anyway, here is a pretty picture done with Art.lantis 4.5. Notice that the lack of radiosity or caustic or whatever is not noticeable, specialy if you aim is not to make a perfectly realistic image, but only to explain to your client what wiil your design look like.[/img]

[fuzzytnth3]

I've just spent yesterday and today using AC 9 for the first time. I had to produce 2 images of our design montaged into existing site photos.

Previously I've used either ArchiCAD and Strata 3d or just gone straight to Strata to produce competition images.

As we are about to receive our upgrades to AC 9 and having seen AC 9 demo I was aware of how much faster and better the photorendering is in AC 9. Our AC reseller let us have a loan of his dongle so we could produce the images for this competition using AC 9.

I feel doing all the photorendering work in AC 9 is such an advantage now that I won't be bothering to use anything else for competition work. Up until this afternoon I had to make modifications to the model and due to the fact it was only taking 15 mins to create a render this wasn't a problem.

I will still use Strata for work that needs radiosity etc and obviously has more time allocated to it to produce an image of high quality. Compared to when I'm doing competitions which need a convincing image but doesn't need all the bells and whistles.

I found a couple of problems with AC 9. One of which is the alpha channel glitchhttp://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=4663 and the other was Lightworks misbehaving as far as I could tell with rendering textures on a random basis in a very strange way. I will post some images with some more info but for now I'm away home to catch up on some sleep as I've only had 4 hours in the last 36 hours

[Anonymous]

I have done my first visuals in Archicad and i think it is really all you need (Lightworks) for the everyday use. Choosing textures is a bit clumsy in my opinion - I like the FormZ setup for Materials much better, but i suppose i ll get used to it in AC. And if i really need a "special" image i ll use 3DSMax.
Thanks for the input.

[Karl Ottenstein]

Patricprz,

Try the tip (in this rendering forum) about placing the special LW sun and sky light objects in the scene, making the sun warm and the sky cool (perhaps), and turning off the sun and ambient (and turning the camera light down or off):

http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=24646#24646
and subsequent posts that give workarounds to the questions that I raised ... but don't worry about that, just place the two lights and take a look.

Takes seconds to do... then re-render your scene. I think you will be most pleasantly surprised with the results of the softer shadows and more natural ambient.

Karl

[stefan]

If you are fast, you can buy Vue D'Esprit 4 for only EURO 49 / $69

This is the download-only version, without objects & sample scenes...

www.e-onsoftware.com/products/vue4esd.php
www.e-onsoftware.com/buy/vue4

And it is available for Mac OS too !