I've gone YouTube

I've finally got a video up on my youtube channel, intended to be the first of a number to explain my idiosyncracies and the method behind the madness in the way I use ACA. 
A few ideas are planned but this first one takes a light dive into explaining my Mult-Level in 1 file approach for residential and small commercial projects.  Sorry I did spend a little too long on my pretty picture but it is just an intro!   Let me know what you think.

On googling my blog I came across this interesting link placing my site in the top 2 million for the UK and in the top 19 million in the world.  Haha!  I guess there is a lot of people in the world so I should feel good about it but I do think they may be over estimating it's worth.  Apparently most visitors are from Turkey so welcome to you all.  Once we fought but now the best of friends hey - we have an important history together.  Hopefully you can understand my accent on youtube.

It's great to see despite not being able to blog much lately it's still of value to some.

I should also mention AU - Autodesk University which has just begun.  If you have subscription it's free and there is a number of previous year classes that can be accessed which are still very relevant. I've just downloaded recorded movie files & pdf's for classes on Rendering in Autocad to see if I can pick up any good tips as well as Advanced Modelling etc in ACA.  Don't forget that you can get benefit from some AutoCAD classes as well as ACA.  Might have to wait for this year classes to be uploaded.  I did try to partipate in a live class last year but the lag and the timeframe (early morning for me) saw me falling asleep in class.  The opportunity to be able to download previous year class video recordings is a fantastic learning opportunity.  They are BIG files but well worth the cost (free).

Free Tree Downloads

If you are into rendering in any way you may have seen Xfrog.com which offers a tool for creating and editing trees and plants.  Well they have just released quite a portion of samples for you to try out.  Among the strange list of download options for max, maya and terragen you also have the old 3ds format for 3DStudio which I think is now a defunk product.  Using the 3dsin command, these tree files (oops see below) can be brought into AutoCAD for rendering.   Each zip folder downloaded contains a number of 3ds files along with bitmaps (tif) for leaves, bark etc to be applied to the tree. Whilst the tree is modeled, the leaves are a single face for a bitmap to be applied. 

There are some tricks to getting the 3ds file into AutoCAD though.  It seems it can't handle so much data (another memory handling problem?) and so you are best to load portions of the info at a time.  But oh dear in trying to test this thru my ACA2009 crashed each time trying to bring the file in. So I loaded 2011 which can save the files down to 2009 (for non ACA items) though I am wondering what the translation does to the material definitions.

FAIL again.  Crashed every time with xfrogs 3ds files?  I had loaded a couple earlier so perhaps I need to reboot.  I'll report the problem with xfrog and see if they offer any solution.

If you get past the crashes, and the load fails, try loading without leaves and roots. once imported, do it again and this time load the leaves (do you need the roots?).  I have a technique for simplifying the number of materials so I might not assign any material, using my own oft repeated material (e.g. Leaf1). In this case the leaves are just a square face and require the leaf bitmap to look somewhat realistic so I might include materials. I also don't allow multiple layers and put it all on layer 0.

Anyway, until I get it successfully loaded I can't post a picture of what you might expect.  If I do I will update this post with a sample pic but it's all there on xfrog's site.

er...happy rendering

and Now for the Really Important Stuff

Well we're off to a wonderful holiday destination for just a short break.  I think we have the blue trailer and some storage space in the red sea container reserved.  I sure do need the open air exercise and I'm assured the pool is clean.

Thanks for sharing the journey.  I hope you all are holding your own as the world shudders. 

I've been working from home looking after my kids on their aussie break and they have got into Sketchup - release 8 just released.  My middle son has designed his dream house.  Not sure about the engineering issues but it's gets a great view and will catch any breeze!  They have also messed with Envisioneer Express (free).  So if you got young'uns who you'd like to inspire but don't want them messing up your cui or your pallete then these are great simple and free options for play. 

Actually I tried out Sketchup myself to be able to quickly review the sun path for a new display home I'm working on.  It allowed me to quickly test the height and angle of a highlight window design. The sun slider is quick to show real time shadow and I was able to determine refinements required to allow in more winter sun and still block summer sun. I reduced the overhang.   I could also evaluate the effectiveness of solar panel positioning and as here determined that some panels were just not going to be very effective and need another location.

To get your aca model into Sketchup use the 3DSOUT command on a 3d view. (Don't have 3DSOUT??)  You can then import the 3dstudio format file into Sketchup.

I also placed a camera and rendered shots at different times of the day using ACA, easy to adjust the time and rerender but it's not real time.  Just looks better! 

I am working on a 3 level house now and upgraded my lisp tools to work on it within 1 drawing and it's working quite well.  I have another post to share some finer details of my system of working in one file.  I've also added some extra commands that allow more quick efficient manipulation of parts of the building model.

anyway.....

So here's to you and yours.  May you have a most enjoyable Christmas holiday with good family and friends, may your ability to shoulder the troubles increase and your understanding of the deeper things bring you peace.  May your laughter be louder and longer and your tears be shed in joy and in sorrrow with those you love.

In this, His season,

God's best to ya

Cheers from AusACA

Rendering is fun!

This is another project that I keep rendering over again.  I have strict council guidelines to match a pocket of pre-war housing and I have to ensure that I satisfy the gods... er I mean the planners. A pretty picture can go a long way in getting support.  I am not supposed to have a garage door and possibly the brick beam is going to get vetted but I'm hopeful they both have a chance. 

Being able to constantly refine a design, hit render and in around 5-15mins (dependant on settings) I can have a reasonable image to sell the design.  It goes a long way to winning a client.  I will use the actual model, viewed from each side in a viewport with the vp set to hidden for elevations and they aren't perfect but it's quick.  We can use aecElevations down the track when we get serious but time spent rendering will win over everytime.  The included expanded (around 100) RPC's are enough to get you by though you can buy extra as you need it.  To get the RPC's going you will need to download from Archivision.  Look in your browser.  I've mentioned before that if you have a license of 10, you can use the extra RPC's included in 10 in 09 without any problems.

Jay of Visionrez has posted some helpful tips on getting started in rendering in pdf form for you to download.  He explains that it was created for their VR clients but it's mostly useful for anyone using ACA or even Acad.  (Can someone tell me where this is posted?)

Some simple tricks n tools shown in this image.
Rafter ends are a block of the rafter overhang ensconsed in a curtainwall style which automates the repeatable spacing. (I'm still figuring out how to automate the hip rafter).
The front fence is a railing style.
A curtainwall fashioned as vertical blinds create an interesting look behind the windows.
The boarding to upstairs clad walls are a profile applied to a cladding componant.
Roof hips and Gable treatments are profiles (shapes) applied to a structural brace style.
Gutter is a wall style with a profile.  (my typical fascia and eave lining is turned off).
Windows have a surround attached to fatten them up.

Having these items set up ready in a library and in a pallete at your fingertips makes bringing together an image like this an efficient process.

Rendering  .. . .. . you gotta try it.

Model Rendering (edited at bottom)

James posted some lovely images in the ADesk NG and I thought I'd like to add it to my blog as well as my wallpaper.  This is modeled and rendered inside ACA2009 and shows that it's quite capable of a decent image for presentation.  

One of the tasks for the image is as part of the presentation to the local authority to gain their support for a project that overreaches in some aspects of planning regulations.

A particular nicety in this image is the shade ribbon (a ribbon I like) that meanders around the balconies and brings about a wonderful interplay between the regular rhythm of the balastrade both glass inside the ribbon and solid outside, and the random travel of this shade device.

James has drawn 2 circles, one offset of the other, extruded both and then subtracted the inside from the outer resulting in a tube.  A plan view PLine was also used to map out other flat sections, extruded to a solid, other solids used to subtract portions and after some union'ing the whole lot was converted into Mass Elements. 

I've just derided the overuse of ME's in my last blog but here they are quite useful because as James points out, they obey the cut plane when displaying each floor.  Now He doesn't use the PN but regardless, positioned correctly, the ME ribbons will 'cut' correctly in the plan views whereas using solids would not, having no intelligence of that sort.  Also in this situation the ME 'Ribbon' style can be assigned an aecMaterial and different rendering options can be swapped quickly to explore ideas.  With an ME style, you only need to deal with the aecMaterial and mess with the 'Render' material to do this.  If you used solids here, you would either have to alter the actual render material used (loosing previous options) or create a new material and then remap it to each seperate portion of Ribbon each change.  The style system of ACA works well here although masselements are now more primative than solids and not able to show a true curve being segmented.  But if your settings are high enough (as here) this can be barely noticable.

Oh and James is working on a 64bit system with 8Mb of RAM.  I doubt I could finish such a render on my 32bit home system with only 2Mb of RAM.

tips: remember that ME's can be easily turned into solids and visa versa.  Select the object and RC for options.

I should mention that the first image is an updated rendering. BACKGROUND command will allow you to choose options such as a background image (sky)  seen above, or sun & sky with illumination (no background) seen right.   If you want to place a sky picture in later you can use a solid colour which makes selection easier in a paint program like photoshop or free GIMP.  The Background setting can be saved in a VIEW you create. If you added a camera you will already have a view by the same name as the camera.  Using a camera can allow easier adjustment of the view and easier setup in plan view.  I'm still playing with these settings and cannot get light shadows with a sky background as James managed to get in the top image here so I've gone to pasting skies in later in GIMP.  I'll post some images later to illustrate more on these settings.

James' Tip:  If you are not using sky illumination you may have trouble getting shadows looking anything but dark.  Try GI (Global Illumination) and forcing FG (Final Gather) on (not auto)  (more the FG than the GI).   "It's the only way of achieving lighter shadows if you don't want the generic mental ray background (Sun & Sky setting). I also use the logarithmic exposure control over the automatic."   You can see the Globe button lit up for GI to tell you it's on as the settings display whether it's on or off (no greying out functionality here).  The interface design is rather poor on a number of the palletes in 2009 and I don't think it's really improved in 2011.  Be aware too that these two settings will greatly increase your render times.  For my day to day images I will not use them but if I am trying to render higher resolution and better quality for special shots I will turn them on, set the render to go when I turn the lights out and hopefully in the morning I am greeted with a fabulous image.                                                                                                                          If you are using RPC content then you may be warned to alter your Physical Scale setting.  Be good if the defaults were set already.  James thinks it's 1100.  I thought I read 600.    Oh!   this pallet is raised by the command RPref  .   Sunproperties will open the sun pallete (I've alised it to Sun).

Other settings I know to mess with: If you have lots of RAM, you can try setting your memory limit higher than the default 1048.  With 3.5Gb I have used 1800 but 2000 will crash.  My home system with 2Gb will not get above 1600 (if I am lucky to get that).  If you can get to 64bit and lots more RAM you will have better success trying to render larger images.    At the top you can select from the presets.  Medium will give you a reasonable quick render (5-20mins) but High or presentation turn on FG & GI and alter some of the other settings so only use them when you are ready for the final render.  Of course the render time is greatly effected by what you are rendering, the materials applied, transparency, reflectively and the settings you have applied.  When experimenting don't work on that 18 storey building!  Try something small, even a few masselement boxes on a floor so you can get quick feedback. 

Rendering is fun!!  Go on.  Have a go

Get Rendering

I have a number of posts about my own experiences rendering inside ACA.  I held off using 2007,8 and 9 because I had a quick and efficient system with ADT2006 but I have been enjoying using ACA2009 for almost a year now.  If you are not rendering then you are missing out on the fun.  I thought it would become a slow labourious process with overnight renders and the nightmares to go with it but I've found it almost as quick and efficient as it was in 6 and of course the new Mental Ray rendering engine can produce a higher quality finish.

As a side issue I have discovered that a number of OOTB practises of ACA are detrimental to an efficient process, namely the overuse of MassElements within styles, the overuse and underuse of Render materials and of course the use of the Project Navigator or even X-ref's.  Not that I don't use X-ref's but if you do you have a number of extra steps to go thru to edit files in preparation for rendering.  At best it's clumsy and verbose (but maybe necessary for larger projects) hence my development of multilevels in one file.

So..with the acceptance that I'm no expert renderer and that there are few that are on rendering inside ACA I would like to offer the tips I've learned to get a little something out of this baby.  If you are after the highest quality renders, then Max may be your gig but if you would just like to get a basic good quality render out quickly and efficiently without paying the premium in time and upgrades for another program then you can get there with AutoCAD and ACA.  You also have the advantage of being able to alter the file and re-render without having to learn & link to another separate program.

In ACA assigning materials is a step sideways from the direct approach in Acad which assigns materials directly to an object or bylayer.  With the styles manager and it's matrix it can be a little more complicated.  But that's ok.  Unlike Max which is a dedicated renderer and not much else, you can use the same file for preparing your Development Application and rendering and still rip off quantities so changes need to be only done once.  You could progress the same file to construction drawings and even still use it for rendering at a moments notice!

Here's some links which may be helpful on learning about Acad rendering but also try google.
http://www.dailyautocad.com's%20e-book%20%22creating%20render%20materials%22/
http://alt.dailyautocad.com/files/2009/2009-011-mat-def-toolbar.zip
http://www.dailyautocad.com/2006/01/autocad-tutorial.html#render
Archidigm article on Materials
Archidigm's Development Guide (look up materials (P1) and the appendix at the end for render/materials)

Firstly it's good to get your head around the use of aecMaterial definitions.  That's not just for rendering though they contain the link for any render materials as a part.  aecMats are used to describe how a material when applied to an aecObject will display in any of the display reps (Presentation, Medium Detail, Reflected etc) and in any view (plan, elevation, model etc).  This would generally be understood as a hatch pattern, line thickness and possibly colour shading.  However within this definition set you can also assign a render material (RMAT).  Here I have developed my own thoughts apart from the OOTB system to reduce the number of RMATs used which will quickly bring your system to a crawl, especially if you are still using a 32bit OS.  I also work on more low end stuff and have no time to fiddle and tweak too much so I need a system that will allow rapid development and render.  It's not uncommon for me to start a design in the morning and finish the day with a set of presentation drawings (site,floor plans, elevations) together with a smart render for the cover sheet.  With my multistorey in 1 file approach this has become much easier to achieve.

As for the overuse of MassElements I have discussed that here but in case you didn't get it I'll say it again here.  You don't always need to use a ME for an object (block) that you embed into a style.  I used the example of the aecDoorPanel that's OOTB but here's another example. 

My young partner who is new at ACA created a letterbox MultiViewBlock.  He created a model and 4 views (Plan,Side,Front,Rear).  For the model he used MassElements and for each material created an ME style and then created seperate render materials that were captured in aecMaterial definitions.  Now he did a great job and followed ACA methodology but adding this letterbox into a file added a swag of render materials, aecmaterial and ME style definitions that quite frankly we didn't need.  This letterbox comes in a series of colours but apart from that there are no choices and it's going to look the same in every instance.  So here is what I did to make this object a much more friendly object. 

Editing the 3D model I turned every ME into a 3DSolid using the Right Click option.  I edited the Render Materials so I only had RMats I would typically have in my file (and is on the limited list of materials required).  The cast concrete letterbox can use the same render material that's used for rendered walls (a sand finish render).  The steel letter recepticle can use Paint-SemiGloss though really do you really need to see shine on a letterbox (and add the associated render time).  In the Style manager, using the 'Broom' button sweeps away the no longer required ME styles and aecMaterial styles.  Purging the file removed the unwanted RMats.  I make sure there are no layers in the file and all is on layer 0.  The command "SETNESTEDOBJECTSBYBLOCK" (alias'd by me to FB) rids all layers,colours, plot styles, linetypes, and pen thickness's but leaves the render material assignment assigned.  LAYDEL will remove unwanted layers that won't go.
Now both 'Paint-SemiGloss' and 'Render' do NOT have any colour assigned.  That comes from the object being set to 'ByObject'.  This means that when placed in the drawing I can pick the MVB and without exploding set a colour if need be. (I use aec Standard.stb plot style where colour is meaningless unless told otherwise).  
So now my letterbox can be dropped into my drawing on a layer of my choosing, coloured if required, rendered, all with a light touch and minimum fuss.  Any item that is a specific colour like the backplate is given that colour in the original block (after using FB of course).  You can see you get one selection for colour so it won't work where you need two.

Oh the ME's?  Well if my letterbox was an ME I would have to dive into styles and search thru menu's to find which style was assigned and if ByMaterial, then trace thru the material settings to find the colour.  Now for a wall or roof I use this 'style' process (not always) but for peripheral items (props) like letterboxes it's just so much overkill and takes 10x as long to manipulate.  Dump the ME's and just use plan ol' 3DSolids.

Have you downloaded a block and found lots of weird colours?  I downloaded a speed boat that I've never used.  This one had lots of render materials for seats, chrome, engine parts and nice colours assigned for the paint and the flames.  However the acad model itself was all green!  Now making an entity a colour is simple but years ago we might have followed an office assignment.  Colour 151 = chrome and Colour 204 = red leather etc.  But we don't need to follow such an indirect scheme.  Make the object the desired colour and the chrome silver and then assign RMAT's that have colour ByObject.  I also removed all the layers (no need to assign material ByLayer either).  Now if I ever use that speed boat in an image it won't add any layers, (new) RMATs, plot styles or, linetypes  If I make the body ByBlock I can even colour it when added to the drawing without exploding the block and it has Paint-HighGloss applied so I get a great spray job as well.

It's a prop!  Who wants to spend time fiddling with a boat? You just want to drop it in your drawing and it behaves and stays quiet!  I've used this technique for the car in this image. The car is dropped in (the body is white or whatever the layer 0 colour is) and a colour selected).Now it ain't going to win me any rendering awards but it has won the client over.

If you've had a chance to check out the even newer Mental Ray rendering engine update in 2010 and 11 it may have a high drool factor - the new materials look lovely, but it's going to slow you down and weigh down your system and prevent you from an efficient process.  Check out the paint colours.  Each colour has it's own RMat !! That's a lot of Rmats.  Ditch the colour, make it ByObject and then you can use the same RMat where-ever you use that same gloss level.  And remember unless you are trying to create a high image level, then many of the subtle variations in paint are lost on a simple quick rendering.  Is gloss plastic that much different from Gloss paint.  If you think so then you shouldn't be reading this article.   If you require a specific material like brickwork then yes you will need a RMAT for each different one though for something like concrete pavers you can simply use a bump map and colour ByObject again.

Odin Cary of Archidigm is doing some great investigation articles of ACA2011's new rendering and materials and it seems he's having better luck.  He also has explained the 'jump to perspective' bug that had me in frustration.  Odin has also started renaming the complex and longwinded material names so I am not alone here.

Also be aware I am talking exteriors here.  For interiors the game changes alot.  Rather than the one light source (sun) you need the reflective values of many surfaces to realistically light an interor but to be efficient you can still greatly reduce the number of RMat's used by using the above techniques.

Get in and render!  (or simply!!  then render :-)

Render Materials in a 32bit world.

Further on from my discussion about the use of aecMaterials....

Hey I wanted to share some ideas about creating render materials with ACA.  Not the method itself but some methodology that I have dreamed up in an effort to reduce the RAM overhead with windows 32bit that causes so many crashes in rendering.  It obviously taxes the system considerably and 32bit Windows is limited in how much memory it can access.  So .... my thinking was how do I reduce the number of render materials I am using. Have you noticed how slow the Materials pallete makes Acad run when it's open.  I am learning rendering and have some way to go to get the most out of the new rendering engine now in AutoCAD (Mental Ray).  I often have materials I don't want but can't delete because they are buried in some style somewhere and there really is no quick or easy way of finding where it's attached.  When opening the Material pallete the system slows and doing anything suffers from having the pallete open and the more materials present the worse it is.   So ..... what was my brilliant idea this time?

How can you reduce the number of render materials (RMAT) used?  Well, where you need to apply a bitmap to show tiles, paving, bricks, grass etc you will need a RMat with a bitmap applied (as in a picture of brickwork or roof tiles).  But where you don't, you may be able to use one render material for several different instances by setting the diffuse colour to By Object which removes the colour factor from the Render Material definition.  To explain....  here are different examples in practise.

If I have a colourbond roof, whereas previously I tried attaching a bitmap of the colour together with a bump map of the sheeting, now I have no diffuse map, setting the colour to By Object.  Now the material will apply with the bump giving the impression of a corregated roof sheet but the colour comes from the aecMaterial definition.  Furthermore if I have several roofs of different colour, rather than setup several aecMaterial definitions, I can set this colour also to By Object and then physically pick each roof and set it's colour by the old acad colour dropdown.  Better By Style but this method even reduces the number of aecMaterial definitions and also allows quick adjustment of different roofs.  (Note:  I use .stb plotstyles so that I can use any colour and it doesn't define line thickness) 

For the above image, the roof corrugation simply comes from the render material however the walls are swept profiles.  However I could use the same RMaterial by rotating the RMAT in the aecMaterial definition for walls with horizontal sheeting.

For the gutter and ridge/hip cappings (Missing on the front unit-woops) I use to define an aecMaterial definition with colour and then attach a Render Material called Ridge or such.  However NOW where an item is solid colour, I may assign it to 1 of 4 paint finishes, Paint-Matt, Paint-SemiGloss, Paint-Gloss and Paint-HighGloss.  These RMats have their colour set to By Object so they can be used for any instances of any colour and they will be rendered appropriately.  The HighGloss I apply to Car bodies etc - anything with really high gloss!  Furthermore these same paint finishes are now available to any furniture etc I insert. 

So a TV surround may have Paint-HighGloss applied to the black casing and it doesn't introduce another Render Material but does render with that lovely gloss.  Of course if you want a timber finish you will need a bitmap and it's own RMat.  I have always held back on interiors not wanting to fuss with so many render materials.  Max might be great but AutoCAD will never be a renderers dream, however following these principles I can create a library of furniture that will not introduce any RMATs into my file at all, again (unless I am using bitmaps but even then following a simple approach I can greatly reduce this as well).  So a table maybe given a color and a RMat applied in the block and I can just drop it in and move on.  If required, make the table ByBlock and you can set the colour on the fly without exploding the block.  This also allows you to remove any and all layers from the table block and put it all on layer 0.  No unwanted layers added to your file.  Ever downloaded a block online to find it have wierd colours assigned?  Usually this is following someones colour-to-render assignments but why not use a direct approach and just colour it the colour you want and assign the material.  I think using .stb's has pushed me in this direction but a 3D model of a chair has only one purpose - it's appearance in 3D so colour it as it should be and remove all those obnoxious layers. 

Tip:  SETNESTEDOBJECTSBYBLOCK will quickly set all items within a block to 'ByBlock'.  Put all your bits in the one file (like a style file) and create your render materials.  Apart from the paint series, try StainlessSteel etc.  Then these RMats are available in that file to assign to any componant.

Previously I had 2 seperate RMats for window glass and car window glass.  However with the Glass Render Material colour set to By Object, I can darken the car glass objects so you can't see in (no interiors!) and still be able to have transparency for the building windows.  Setting the colour in the aecMaterial setting for glass to the windows I can control the windows glass colour/transparency/look.  I could even control different styles or windows separately if I needed to.  All this is setup and defined in my library file for the car so it's ready to just drop in and render.

This all has 2 main effects 

• It reduces the number of RMats required thereby reducing the overhead and easing the load when opening & closing the (render) Materials Pallete.
• It becomes quicker to adjust colours when you don't need to open said Pallete but can either use aec style boxes or even just by picking objects knowing you have already set the correct 'Gloss level'.

I have car models which I wish to quickly x-ref in and have render without fussing.  For a carpark, I might use the one car several times.  By setting the car body colour to By Block I can use the same car a number of times and simply select the X-ref and choose an acad colour for each.  Because I also have Paint-HighGloss applied in the car file it renders glossy without introducing another Render Material into your file.  This is applied to Acad objects not aec ACA objects so it's simple to apply without any styles etc.

Hint : Any Render Materials in your x-ref files will travel into the Render Material Pallete unless they have the same name as one existing in the host file.  Updates in the X'Ref'd file will not affect those in the host file unless you unattach, purge the material and reattach.  Of course if there is already a used material by the same name it will have no effect to change the RMAT in the X-ref file.

Your Acad library of 3D objects can be set to ByBlock for colour and assigned a simple 'Paint-Gloss' and it will render ok.  If your block is inside a MVB then sorry you don't have this luxury and the colour is defined in the 3D block used.

I am still working through the above process but it has already brought about a good efficiency return and finally given me confidence about how to set up my 3D library of bits to enhance a design presentation without spending heaps of time adjusting each little part.  Maybe the methodology can be useful to you too.

Hopefully I can post some more tips that have really helped me slim down the file and improve efficiency. 

I've converted many MassElements to Solids with a material assigned such as the must be famous door panel.  Having Paint-Gloss applied I can easily update the colour in the door style definition rather than having to chase down a MassElement style or exploding the block itself to find I've done an object override.  It's there now - easy to get to.  I have always tried to stay within the system but I realised that in this case, ME's are actually detrimental to efficiency and weren't helping.  Plus Solids have exceeded ME's capabilities (i.e. curves!).

To the right I clip various dialogue boxes to hopefully show you the path.  If you are new at this it can seem a bit daunting but most of this would be set up in your library files and you only need to tweak a colour here and there. You can see the render material has no colour assigned.  You can also assign a % of colour and % of bitmap if that helps.

Also to mention that I go against the long winded approach to naming that is adopted in Adesk products.  Of course this may be necessary for a hospital wing but you are going to bring your system to it's knees if you try to have so many RMats that you need to group them so catagorically. Unlike Max, ACA is also trying to do lots of other things than just concentrate on shapes and materials.  So I use direct names.
Roof-Colourbond.
BrickFace   (I should use WallBrickFace but that's too longwinded for me).
Also the shorter, the less scrolling you will have to do.
Grass  etc

ah I could waffle on forever..... hope this helps you.
cheers

Materialisationability

Using the ByMaterial settings.

Maybe because my materials are different to what's available OOTB (I didn't even know what CMU was), I set about creating my own materials including bitmaps of bricks and timber finishes etc. but I ended up with lots of overrides in my wall styles to show the floor plan hatching as I wanted it, the backlining, the section view.  It's a very labour intensive process and not very efficient.  Ok maybe I didn't understand what I was doing but a year or so back I  'got' the idea of using the ByMaterial setting and it has vastly simplified my process and therefore the maintenance and editing of my projects.  Now this isn't my own wacky creation - it's how the OOTB content is setup to perform so it's as per the creators intended.  Duh!  At first it seemed too laborious to set up but it's not and pays dividends down the track.  If you can use the American materials even better - it's set up for you.  There are other packs available.  I have the UK set, a pack has even been released for Chinese content!

Now I want to be able to quickly design up a building, shoot 3D's in the design process, then document all in as efficient process as possible. 3D's are an extra that most avoid but it's an enjoyable one and if you can make the process efficient then it's not really much extra effort to create.  All your modelling becomes part of the CD's so that time is not wasted.   My main work is common residential and it's all the more important to have an efficient process because the drawing fee is not generous!

I have found that aecMaterials is a big part of the key to get this process happening efficiently.

So now here's what a typical wall style use to look like for me and how it look's now.

You'll notice that there are now NO style overrides now which as said before reduces the effort = productivity boost.  All wall styles are controlled by the 'Standard' wall style settings. (ok not all - more on that later).

Background
I have come to the conclusion that it's best is to stay as close to OOTB as possible but probably most international users will need to customise for local conditions. So here is my practise I have adopted with the Display Representations (DR).

Presentation DR is used for designing & sketching and renderings.
Medium Detail is used for construction drawings usually at 1:100
High Detail is used for Detailing at 1:20-1:1
Low Detail is used for Site plans
Reflected is used for service layouts (generally just electrical) (With a lowered cutplane to show doors & windows) 

Above is a sample wall taken from the UK Wall Styles shown with the different display rep's.  If you examine them they won't have overrides except where required to remove endcaps but these can and should be removed or displayed for the standard style.  I undid the overrides and got the same outcome.  i.e. For Low Detail you would generally not want endcaps for any style and conversely you would for High Detail - so the settings can be made in the standard wall style and set for all styles.

Remember too that if you add extra DR's you will multiply your maintenance so be cautious and only add what you really need.  See if you can make use of an existing unused DR (screened?) instead of creating a new one. 

I know that some don't like to manipulate layers but it does give you another dimension of control and it's easy if you follow good practise and make use of the (express) layer tools.

How the OOTB content works... (wish I'd understood this before - DOH!). Open the wall style drawing from the Content/Styles folder. Then cycle thru the different DR's and see how the wall display changes.  Turn on your LineWeight display so you can see the Bold lines. Now click on any wall and see if they have any overrides set - (No!)

For Presentation (DR) drawings the walls are shown as a solid fill. Any wall with any material will simply show as a solid fill. All the componant displays are turned off so no individual componants (Brick, frame. cavity) will show giving you a nice simple solid for any wall (regardless the style). This is all controlled from the Standard wall style as there are no style overrides.  Have a look at a wall style at the Layer/C/L tab and note which componants are on. (remember that no matter which wall you pick, you are looking at the settings in the Standard wall style as there are no style overrides).  So all wall styles will show the same shrinkwrap and sw hatch.  Bring in a new wall style and it displays the same.  OOTB uses the standard material for the shrinkwrap but I added my own material 'Shrinkwrap Wall' so I know it only applies to walls. Sometimes I may use diagonal lines instead of solid fill and I may not want that everywhere standard is used.

For Medium Detail the shrinkwrap hatch is turned off and the shrinkwrap is used as the overall backline.  The componant displays are now turned on and control of the componants is controlled by your material settings. This is so because the ByMaterial boxes are ticked. No overrides are set in individual styles because your custom control happens in the material definitions (MD). This is the trap for international users because we may not have sets of appropriate material definitions set up. But hopefully I can show you why it's worth the effort if it's required. (remember you may use the OOTB materials).

The beauty here is that if you change the display of your certain brick material every wall style containing that componant will be instantly changed, in plan, elevation, section and even a render view. Done in one simple edit.  If you have overrides in your wall styles you would need to chase every instance of that (brick) and remember each setting you changed (i.e. hatch, scale and rotation, pen thickness and plot style etc).  The material once defined can be stored and retrieved and applied to any wall (or other) style just by assigning the material.
 For High Detail, it's much the same as Medium except the hatching is shown for a larger scale for details but remember the hatching comes from the material definition not the wall style.  Shrinkwrap could be a thicker line for the larger scale.
In the Reflected DR, the componants are again not displayed, the shrinkwrap hatch is turned off and the Shrinkwrap is a light line instead of bold. A nice background for your electrical & ceiling drawings.  You could even turn your componants display on here and shrinkwrap off if you wish to show cavity or some level of detail.  Your material settings could ensure the lines are all still light. You would not usually have your componant hatching turned on.


Remember there are no wall style overrides (except for special walls) so this is all determined in only my (1) Standard wall style and the aecmaterials definitions. This IS pretty much how the OOTB styles are set up and it's easy to adjust the whole drawing and all wall styles in one shot.

Next: But what about?? - some overrides you DO need to make.

Customisations I've made.

Why this is important for efficient renders

Why I thnk some of the OOTB is over the top - simplify!

Here's a couple of customisations that I needed to make to get this working for me.

I created a new material called 'ShrinkwrapWall'. Every wall gets this assigned for it's shrinkwrap material. (I created this rather than use 'standard' as that is applied to many styles and componants and I wanted to be able to control my walls independantly.  If you don't do this, just remember that 'Standard' is used for your wall styles so don't change it without thinking about the consequences)

Because my wall cavities are empty I need to create a material that wouldn't show but because there are no overrides to control this one componant I needed another trick to make it disappear.  Realise that in your standard wall style you have no idea which componant is which, they are just numbers and you don't know which one is your cavity.  So using the ByMaterial setting I created an 'Air' componant (which is also useful elsewhere).  In most DR's this material display is turned off and doesn't display.

Tip: Alias aecMaterialDefinitions to MD for quick access.

Rendering in ACA

James recently posted an image with a query but he really should have been posting in the gallery section. These images are lovely so I asked him if I could post here and he sent me some different shots. James has developed the 'white' method of rendering without materials which really allow you to review the building form without the complication of considering colours and materials. If you are wanting to get into rendering, this might be a great way to try. See my original post on James' method here. Also my method of achieving this scheme in the OOTB display reps. Sweet James! Thanks for sharing.

Using Landscaping Objects Acad 14-2009.

There were some of us who were actually using the rendering tools in ACAD2006 (ADT6) or previous who felt neglected when it was all gone in the '07 release. Suddenly my whole efficient method of working on 3D's was gone. Not that it was all a bad thing as it's great to have an updated rendering engine (based on Mental Ray in Max) but my process no longer works in the new versions and I need to re-setup. The old engine, whilst it could do the job, is not at the level of the high end renderers, but it did a reasonable job quickly and efficiently for a fast turn around, rapid alteration and re-render which is what I need.

Of course the Biggie was not the rendering, which was replaced by something better, but the lack of any landscaping tool. I brought in my old LO's into 07 and they displayed and though they did render it wasn't properly and they did not 'face the camera'. So I was very excited to see that later releases have enabled the OLD landscaping objects (LO) to be used in the new engine, but as you have no landscaping creation tool, you have to create them in version 06 or previous. It doesn't have to be ADT as this is all AutoCAD stuff. So I thought I would share my tips on their creation and use, if you are still using v6 or prev. OR if you would like to bring them into ACA8 or 9. I am suspicious that v8 needs the service pack for the object to face camera but I'm not going to uninstall sp1 to find out.

Note of thanks: There is no mention of this improvement from Adesk but I assume that they did some work to allow this to happen so my thanks to whomever did the tweaks necessary.

There is also a good option to download the free RPCcreator from Archivsion which will allow you to create your own RPC objects from your own maps as well as have access to their large library. It's based on it's big brother, to be had for a price. I became obsessed with making my own maps so I have many that I wanted to use. I tried the RPCcreatorFree but I was impatient with the long process to create and was concerned about the hard coding of file paths but I could be wrong on that.

Anyway onto revealing some tips.

I have all my maps in folders (duh) organised how I like. In AutoCAD each folder path MUST be entered under OPTIONS- FILES-Texture Maps Search Path. It's important NOT to allow Acad to save the search path in the LO. as it hardcodes it, preventing you from altering your folder structure. Going to another office will 'break' your LO if the paths are different. I have set up several times over the years and if I decide to re-organise where and how I sort my maps, I don't want to break my LO. (See image below)

You might choose to group them in folders, ie. Tree, Plant, People, Stone, Roof, etc. (I have my general textures with my LO textures) so you will add each folder to the search path.

Here are some great resources on rendering and the landscape tool in the OLD engine from Archidigm. 1,2, & 3 . Always great tips from Odin!

In Acad2006 or previous use the Render toolbar or type _LSLIB and you are ready to create your object. DON'T use the the 'find file' button. Instead open windows explorer to your texture maps. Select your map and either right click and select rename or slowly double click and whilst the name is selected, CNTRL-C to copy the name. Now paste that into your 'Image File' space in Acad. If you do use the find file (why would you?) once you have selected the file, remove (cut) the file path information just leaving the file name itself.

IMPORTANT: If your name won't stick it means your file search paths are not set properly. Having this in place will give you flexibility to change in the future and SAVE YOU TIME. Cancel out and add your map folder to the search path.

I name the LO the same as the jpg as it's easier to find. This name appears on the object when you are working in Acad so you know what it is. Tree1 is not as helpful as JacarandaTall so name your jpgs carefully and logically. Too long a name is also not helpful. You can see the code on my name which was before I found out about not coding the file path LS= landscape, Tre = Tree. If you use Windows folders to group like items then you don't need to do this, you just have to add each folder to your file path. (Did I emphasise this?:-)

You can use a variety of bitmap formats for LO's (& textures). Jpg's are efficient size. PNG's will display transparent when making a movie but the quality is so bad that you probably wouldn't worry about it. .png's are good for maps you place with Photosomething after rendering as they can carry transparency so you don't have to remove the white/black as an extra step.

Tip – DON'T use the library tool to insert your trees (except once). It's clunky and awkward. Instead insert your created LO's into a .dwg file and have them ready to cut & paste. It's much quicker, you can see what you are choosing and you can see them all at once. I have a file for Trees.dwg, Plants.dwg People.dwg etc. When you open it, select shademode and all your maps are visable (love to see RPC do that). Here you can size them to scale so that once you insert them they don't have to be resized (could be a metric issue as they are always too small using the inbuilt tool even at 100 scale). You can see in the adj. image there are blanks for some LO's. It's where the file path has been hardcoded and the map has changed location OR I have renamed the image along the way.

You could also arrange them on a predetermined layer if you wish. ie. Trees, Plants etc.

Tip: When positioning your LO, have it in shaded mode and you can 'place' a tree correctly in the ground (not floating). Very handy where people need their feet to be on the path etc.

In my working process of rendering inside ADT6, I have to work around the issue of not being able to render materials in X-ref's. So I had to 'map to a colour' anything that required a material or avoid X-Ref's. However, LO's do perfectly well across an X-Ref so I set up a landscaping file to hold all my trees and 3D cars. This means I can load it at anytime and run a render quickly after changes and not have a different file for CD's or Renders. So I only make changes once. Once the render process is finished, unload the landscape file and continue on. A client makes a change. Make the change, reload landscape x-ref and re-render and very quickly you can have a response. Have model layers seperate from any annotations or detail drawings also helps. I grew very impatient with the slow unresponsive Viz-Render link process so I am excited about the new engine and the potential to do everything in the one program. Maybe you have time to play around more than I do but If I took more time, I wouldn't be doing much rendering!

Now the interesting news is that once you have created your LO, you can bring it into v8 or 9 and use it in your renderings. There are some caveats and I haven't done enough testing to fully vouch for it but I do know that it works. I have found MR more fussier with your maps so it doesn't give great results on some of my homegrown maps but IT DOES WORK. I just have some tidy up to do.

Let me know if there is any part of this process I haven't made clear or you would like explained.

Materialisationability & standards

Somebody has pointed out to me that aecMaterials play a very important role in having everything work efficiently. I had to agree and also confess that I have only just recently realised what a mess I was making. I had numourous style over-rides set for many of my wall styles but after I re-thought what I was doing, I have removed all the overrides from the (most) styles and left the componants set to ByMaterial setting in the default standard wall style. Now I can control my display by the material settings which typically might have style overrides set for some views except the more simpler reflected ceiling plan type display rep's. It means that you have more materials to manage, but it works much more efficiently because you have less over-rides to manage (in the one material rather than several styles).

After James' pictures got me thinking in the right direction on having the ability to have two different rendering schemes ready to go, and wanting to keep as close to OOTB as 'Aus'ily possible, I determined that the rendering scheme should be set to the Presentation DispRep (high detail) and the Medium Detail DispRep should be kept for a carboard image render (rather than introduce a new scheme). I'm also thinking that James render scheme can also be used for shadow studies which is now required in your development approval submission for two storey buildings.

So I created a new file in 2009 using the template AEC Model (MetricStb).dwt, added some styled walls, windows and doors from the OOTB catalogues. They already have materials applied and I wanted to see what Adesk ACA team is thinking.  Unfortunately I'm not sure they have as Medium Detail renders the same as Presentation DispRep. Mmm.... Seems a waste to have 2 different DispReps do the same thing? (The problem in having the Low Detail for the Cardboard Render is that you would then need to add your modelling customisations to this DispRep as well and I would think it should be kept simple for large scale work and massing studies).


So I set up different view ports in Pspace to review what they looked like. To my surprise I found that OOTB the Presentation DispRep on a wall is now linked to the Model view. I opened up ADT6 and did the same thing using the equiv. templates and set up the same view and as I remembered the OOTB Presentation DispRep is linked to the HighDetail model view not the standard Model view. Why the change??

So now I am asking for feedback from users out there to let me know what they think and have they made any determinations that make sense on these issues.

It's difficult to set up an OOTB scheme that eveyone can just 'use' and not have to tamper with to get it to work with their setup (Do I hear a croak?). If Adesk themselves keep tampering with it!!! ah! But why would they set up different DispRep's to give the same result??

So I propose to drop the material over-rides from the Medium Detail DisplayRep and use a universal cardboard colour (or white) and only keep the material assigned in the Presentation High Detail view. It's almost how Archidigm has done his content, probably based on how it was done previously.

So how does that effect my OOTB content? What do I need to do to make this change and what impact would it have? In my view the Presentation view is the most logical view to have rendering settings set up. High Detail Model view is also the logical view along with Medium Detail to have to add all your necessary over-rides. The more DispRep's you add the more you have to maintain so I am trying to keep them to a min. whilst providing a broad number of options for users. The fact that the ACA team has changed it throws me off a bit. (Why??) But having 2 separate DispRep's that output the same result makes no sense to me. BUT altering the OOTB Display matrix should not be done lightly.

Nevertheless, in 09, whilst in a presentation viewport, I open the display manager, Under Configurations, click on Presentation and Model Presentation and sure enough the Wall object has the 'Model' rep ticked which I untick and tick High Detail instead. Now it's back to how the 06 is set up and makes more sense. Remember that I have only done this in one drawing and unless I saved to the template it won't happen in each drawing I do.
THOUGHT: I notice that in the OOTB content that the materials have overrides to EVERY DispRep. This makes massing studies a rather long affair where you might like to follow James 'building mass study' images something common in architectural practise before materials are applied. So my curisosity asks “Why Is It So?” What point am I missing that the ACA team has set up here. Wanting to have a setup where things 'just happen' rather than having hours of tweaking to do to get the output I want I have to investigate further. To alter materials across the project, you would need to edit every material where-as if they all share a common definition, this becomes much easier. (mmm.... perhaps they all have their own over-ride but it could point back to the same rendermaterial.) Now you also have visual styles to use but they are not rendered views and have different uses. Both DispReps yeald the same visual style display so what's the point of having 2 different display reps?? Why do DispReps such as Screened and reflected need overrides to every material def? Surely they can all use a generic setting? Mmm....

So anyway after unticking the Material override for the Medium Detail DisplayRep and assigned a material to this view that will apply to all materials without an over-ride here is what I get. A model I can render for a 'James like' Massing Study or also for Shadow diagrams (article coming) where you don't want to show the materials. Note that I have left the glass with it's material over-ride just as James had done.


Odin (archidigm) says on his site that in Medium Display his content is set to render using object colour and no materials are assigned so it's not exactly the same. I wonder if he does shadow & massing studies. He does have some examples using one of the visual styles.

Here's the catch. If you say why don't you use the Low detail for a carboard view, then that's another view I have to add all my customisations and overrides too. We want to keep it simple which is why I am proposing to manipulate the existing DispReps rather than add another.

Actually what I wanted to talk about was having materials that would work in elevation, section, plan view etc. Ha! That will have to wait. One of the big issues probably in any customised program is that you need to know everything before you start customizing so that you know what the rules are for making the changes. Sigh!

Best to ya