exclude an element from rendering?

[Paopao]

Is there a way to exclude elements from rendering? In my case I have a wall which I do not want to appear in the visualization. I know it it possible in 3D Max. Is there a way around this using Cinerender in Arch 18? I haven't been able to figure it out yet.

Thanks savvies!

[Laszlo Nagy]

If it doesn't show in the 3D Window it will not show up in the rendering. So make sure it is not displayed in 3D.
One way to do this is:

1. Select all elements in 3D.
2. Remove this element from the selection.
3. Use the Show Selection/Marquee in 3D command of the context menu. This will hide the element that was removed from the selection.
4. Save this state of the 3D Viewpoint as a View so you can restore this state if needed later.
5. Render it in CineRender.

[derekjackson]

Hi, has anyone found a way to do this yet?

I'm wanting to hide elements from the main render, yet still have them create shadows and reflections.

Removing them from the 3D window means they they stop affecting the scene entirely. I still need their cast shadows, reflected walls, etc.

Maybe a setting buried somewhere?

[Laszlo Nagy]

No new setting I am aware of.
If it is not there in 3D, it will not affect the Rendering in any way.

[vfrontiers]

Hmmm... curious request...

One idea to consider is to PAINT the face of the wall that is nearest the camera with "AIR" and leave the other faces with their normal materials...

Of course, as soon as you change views, this will not work. And if your view sees a corner of the wall, there may also be issues...


I see you are in AC 18.. They probably didn't have the AIR material back then, but you can just make a material that is 100% transparent.

Also, in AC21, the Graphic Overrides will allow you to choose a specific material and replace it (when that graphic override is chosen)... so you if you needed that wall to also show COMPLETELY solid, you could create it that way, with a special material on the "transparent" side and have that replaced with "AIR" just for the rendering.

[Erwin Edel]

With graphic overrides you can also make a rule set to pinpoint the one wall with for example element ID.

I think you would be able to make a surface that casts shadow, does not receive shadow and is invisible and apply this to the override.

Reflective properties, I am unsure of being able to get that to act as the actual wall, without seeing it.

[alemanda]

Paopao wrote:
Is there a way to exclude elements from rendering? In my case I have a wall which I do not want to appear in the visualization. I know it it possible in 3D Max. Is there a way around this using Cinerender in Arch 18? I haven't been able to figure it out yet.

Thanks savvies!

+1

I'm very interested into that as well.
This will allow to see inside the rooms with a nicer perspective to produce nicer renderings!

[vfrontiers]

So I did a quick test of the AIR idea yesterday.. It worked well in the OpenGL 3d window... could see right thru it and it cast a shadow.. Of course there are no reflections in the 3d window anyway.....

But when rendering, it all of a sudden picked up the of the "outside" plane so you couldn't see thru it. I'm not sure that it actually cast a shadow either...

[Erwin Edel]

You will need to make a custom cinerender material. I'm pretty sure you can control received and cast shadows, however you may be right that fully invisible surface will not cast shadow.

[alemanda]

I made some tests as well ... but with no success ...
In particular I thought that playing with the transparency and alpha channels I could have bypassed the problem but no ... I think both the channels affect the light ... so if you set the transparency it will be transparent for camera and light ...
We need a material that should be invisible to the camera but visible for lights