Augi World - July/August 2008 - (Page 14) REVIT ARCHITECTURE Render Unto Caesar Editor’s note: Revit® Architecture® 2009 has been launched, and it contains a number of quite visible changes. The program now opens to a page called the Recent Files window, from which you open project files or families. Three-dimensional views have new navigation tools, the ViewCube and Steering Wheels. These navigation tools are common to all Autodesk design applications as of this year. Modeling, massing, and annotations (primarily dimensions) have been enhanced. In this column we take a look at the changes that will take current users the most time to absorb, those in rendering. --Chris Fox, Revit Architecture Editor The Render button does indeed start the rendering engine. Ticking the Region checkbox opens an adjustable crop so you can work in a portion of the active view. New Controls and Interface for Rendering in Revit 2009 Figure 3: Quality settings for rendering. Simple is as simple does Okay, you’ve opened a building project from last year in the new 2009 Revit, made some changes for the client, and you want to shoot a color rendering. Get ready for a whole new set of controls that begin with the Rendering tab of the Design Bar, as shown in Figure 1. You can then specify values for: • Image Precision • Reflections • Refractions • Blurred Reflections • Blurred Refractions • Soft Shadows • Indirect Illumination Precision • Indirect Illumination Smoothness • Indirect Illumination Bounces • Daylight Portals If you have tweaked render settings before in Revit, these should look somewhat familiar. If you are just starting with rendering, be assured that you have a lot of control over the appearance of items such as glossy surfaces next to, or behind, glass. Put out the lights Figure 1: Rendering tab… one tool only! You see correctly—no more raytracing, no more lights, no settings, and no radiosity. Can rendering really be this simple? Well, yes and no. This is software, after all. Figure 2: The new rendering dialog. All-in-one dialog? The rendering dialog is also deceptively simple. I say “deceptively” not because there are any underhanded dealings going on, but because there are dialogs within dialogs to navigate and understand in order to get the specific results you want. We’ll look at this dialog top to bottom and then get into materials. Quality control You can start spending quality time inside the Quality Settings list. You can select one of the five preset output grades, or edit any one. To do this, select a setting by name, then click Edit. In the Render Quality Settings dialog that opens, click Copy to Custom to open the Advanced Render Settings for editing. Sorry, bad pun on Output, the next area of the rendering dialog. You can size your image for screen viewing or your printer. If you choose printer, you can pick DPI (dots per inch) resolution from a list. The dialog calculates approximate file size for you. The Lighting section replaces previous Scene Settings with much simpler Schemes. If you select a Scheme that includes Artificial Lights, the button activates to let you manage lights and light groups. The Sun list opens the Sun and Shadows dialog, which remains the same from 2008. Click Edit to open the dialog. You can have the sun shine at a mathematical angle relative to the view, or locate your project geographically to specify time and date for accurate angles and shadows. w w w. A U G I . c o m 14 http://www.augi.com
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