Light Sources

When creating realistic views, the light sources and cast shadows are major component of the display

Light Source:

Default Lighting
Turn ON by default, to prevent you render a model without lighting

Shines on all faces of the model
Used on mechanical models that do not need the cast shadows

Sunlight
Defined by location, date and time

Distance

Similar to sunlight
Shines parallel in one direction with same brightness on all surfaces
Only available when Lighting Units set to Generic

Point Light
Similar to light bulb
Radiates in all directions and fades in intensity further from source
Used for genral light effect

Spot Light
Focuses a cone of light on a specified portion

Weblight

Similar to point light
3D representations of real-world light intensity
Used in rendered images

Generic and Photometric Light

The ways of control light intensity

Generic Lighting Units

Uses default lighting without any lighting units

Photometric Lighting Units

1. American Lighting Units - Foot candles
2. International Lighting Units - Lux

You can access the photometric lights by Tool Palettes

Ex: Sun Study

Create a sun study on a building in the actual location
Observe the shadows change over time

Render tab > Sun & Location panel > Sun Status

Click Turn off the default lighting (recommended)

Building show the sun effect

Render tab > Light panel > Ground Shadows

Building show the shadow

Set Location

Render tab > Sun & Location panel > Set Location - From Map

Click Yes to use the live map data

Input the location to search

Select A standard road map

Select Drop Marker Here

Time Zone: (GMT +08.00) Kuala Lumpur, Singapore

Click Continue

Click a point near the left of the building

Point up, click another point to define north direction

The building place in the location as specify

Set Different Timing

Sun & Location panel - Slant Arrow

Sun Properties

Sun Angle Calculator

Click the ... button of the Date properties

Choose the date

Change the palette's transparency to 50%

Time: 10:00 AM

Shadow fall on the southwest direction

Time: 12:00 PM

Shadow fall on almost south direction

Time: 1:00 PM

Shadow fall on exact south direction

Time: 3:00 PM

Shadow fall on slightly southeast direction

Time: 5:00 PM

Shadow fall on southeast direction

Ex: Placing Lights

Placing point lights, spot lights in a model
Add photometric light from Tool Palettes

By default, before you add any lights in the model, the default lighting is turn on, to prevent rendering without lighting

Add Point Light

Render tab > Lights panel > Point

Draw a guideline to positioning the point light

Off the Guideline layer

Add Spot Light

Render tab > Light panel > Spot

Add a spotlight at the top-mid of the left wall

Snap the target point on the cup

Adjust the settings of the spotlight
Hotspot angle: 10
Falloff angle: 40
Intensity factor: 1

Add another spotlight on the right wall

Snap the target point to the table-leg

Hotspot angle: 70
Falloff angle: 80
Intensity factor: 1

Add Web Light

Draw a guideline down 200 on the back wall

View tab > Palettes panel > Tool Palettes
Swith to the Fluorescent tab

Select the 4th Pendant Fluorescent

Place the web light on the back wall

Change the settings of the web light
Intensity factor: 8

Turn off the center point light

Render tab > Lights panel expand - Light glyph display
Toggle off the light glyph

Rendering Concept

Create a rendered image of 3D models for presentation

Display 3D information contain visual styles, materials, lights, shadows

Render Preset

Draft

The lowest rendering quality which entails no raytracing, no texture filtering, and force 2 sided inactive

Low

Rendering quality is improved over draft

Low anti-aliasing and a rayteacing depth of 3 reflections / refractions are processed

Medium

Rendering quality is improved over low

Include texture filtering and force 2 sided is active

Moderate anti-aliasing and a raytracing depth of 5 reflections / refractions are processed

High

Rendering quality is improved over medium

High anti-aliasing and a raytracing depth of 7 reflections / refractions are processed

Presentation

Rendering quality is improved over High

Very high anti-aliasing and a raytracing depth of 9 reflections / refractions are processed

Render Output Size

Output image resolution can be set to different levels

Create New Render Preset

Select a similar render preset

Click Create copy, change the settings accordingly

Save a Render

Click the button to turn On the Render Output File

Click the ... button for the location of the saved image