Visualization Guide
Visualization Guide
Visualization Guide

Render

Use it!

Used to request on screen rendering. The Render dialog box contains controls that determine what is to be rendered, the rendering mode, and shading type.

For ray tracing, radiosity solving, and particle tracing, the dialog box expands to display further options relative to the selected render mode. These include buttons to perform commonly used tasks, such as clearing existing solutions, creating new solutions, displaying the current solution in other views, and continuing after a Reset. As well, Brightness and Contrast slider lets you interactively adjust the most recently rendered Ray Traced (with Real World Lighting enabled), Radiosity or Particle Traced image.

Render tool settings for basic render modes.

  

Render tool settings for Ray Trace, Radiosity and Particle Trace.

  
Tool SettingEffect
Target

Sets the entity or area to be rendered:

  • View
    • — a selected view.
  • Fence
    • — the contents of an existing fence.
  • Element
    • — a selected element. Not available for Ray Trace, Radiosity, or Particle Trace rendering modes.
Render Mode

Sets the rendering mode:

  • Wiremesh

  • Hidden Line

  • Filled Hidden Line

  • Constant

  • Smooth

  • Phong

  • Ray Trace

  • Radiosity

  • Particle Trace

See Interactive, and Photo-realistic, Rendering Modes.

Shading Type

Sets the type of rendering:

  • Normal

  • Antialias

  • Stereo

See Shading Type.

Settings icon

(Render Mode set to Ray Trace, Radiosity, or Particle Trace only) Opens the settings dialog box for the selected Render Mode.

Create new solution

(Render Mode set to Ray Trace, Radiosity, or Particle Trace only) Used to create a new solution for Ray Trace, Radiosity, or Particle Trace. When Render Mode is set to Particle Trace, the new solution is created with both particles and meshing.

Add more shots/particles

(Render Mode set to Radiosity, or Particle Trace only) Used to add shots/particles to a radiosity/particle traced solution.

For radiosity solving, lets you add more shots, up to the current limits. This item is enabled only if the current number of shots is less than the current value of the Limit Number of Shots setting and the total unshot illumination is greater than the Min Illumination Threshold setting. You can change these settings in the Radiosity dialog box prior to selecting this tool (with Render Mode set to Radiosity, click the Settings button to open the Radiosity dialog box).

For particle tracing, lets you add more particles and redo mesh. You can use the Particle Tracing settings dialog box to specify how many particles are to be added (with Render Mode set to Particle Trace, click the Settings button to open the Particle Tracing dialog box).

Redo meshing phase only

(Render Mode set to Particle Tracing only) Used to recalculate the meshing phase only, without re-shooting the particles. Using this tool you can change the meshing settings and re-run the particle tracing, using the previously shot particles. You can change the Meshing Settings in the Particle Tracing dialog box.

Display current solution (in any view)

(Render Mode set to Ray Trace, Radiosity, or Particle Trace only) Used to display the current solution in any view.

When a design is first rendered, the rendering database is constructed in memory during pre-processing. By default, the rendering database is retained in memory until the design is closed, the solution is cleared manually (by clicking the Clear Solution icon), or a new solution is created (by clicking the Create New Solution icon). Using this option to render other views reduces the pre-processing time for the design data. This is most noticeable in larger designs.

Both Radiosity and Particle Tracing produce global lighting solutions. That is, they are view-independent. Once a solution has been loaded or calculated, you can use this option to display the result for any view and any view orientation. The shadow method used to display the solution (smooth shaded or ray traced) is set in the respective dialog boxes for Radiosity and Particle Tracing.

Continue after reset

(Particle Tracing only) Lets you continue a particle tracing after halting it with a reset. On resumption, the particle tracing commences from the point at which it was interrupted.

Clear Solution icon

(Render Mode set to Ray Trace, Radiosity, or Particle Trace only) Clears the current ray traced or radiosity solution from memory or the current particle traced solution from disk. By default, ray traced and radiosity solutions are retained in memory and particle traced solutions are saved to disk.

Right-click menu

Right-clicking on the icons, opens a menu that lets you Load/Save/Clear a solution.

  • Load Solution
    • — Opens the Load Rendering Database dialog box, which is used to retrieve a saved particle traced or radiosity solution. By default, solutions created from the Default model are given a name in the format “<DGN file name>.ptd/rad”. Solutions created from models other than Default are given a name in the format “<DGN file name>_<model name>.ptd/rad”.
  • Save Solution
    • — Opens the Save Rendering Database dialog box, which is used to save a particle traced or radiosity solution. By default, solutions created from the Default model are given a name in the format “<DGN file name>.ptd/rad”. Solutions created from models other than Default are given a name in the format “<DGN file name>_<model name>.ptd/rad”.

    If Use Alternate Workfile is on, in the Particle Tracing dialog box, then the alternate file name, unmodified, is used for particle tracing work files.

  • Clear Solution
    • — Deletes the current particle tracing solution from disk, or the radiosity solution from memory. Prior to the solution being cleared, an Alert box gives you the option of cancelling the deletion.
Brightness and Contrast sliders

(Active only while a Ray Trace with Real World Lighting enabled, Radiosity, or Particle Traced solution, is present in memory) Lets you interactively change the brightness and/or contrast of the most recently rendered view. Adjusting this slider will also update the current value of the Brightness Multiplier or Adapt to Brightness setting (whichever currently is active) in the Radiosity and Particle Tracing dialog boxes.

Move the sliders to the right to increase the brightness/contrast of the image, or to the left to darken the image.

Adjusting the sliders in the Radiosity or Particle Tracing dialog boxes affects future renderings only, while adjusting the sliders in the Render tool dialog box interactively affects the rendered view.

When interactively adjusting the brightness of a view where the background can be seen in reflections, transparency, or in portions of an antialiased pixel, these background pixels may be adjusted to a different brightness than they would appear when they are re-rendered. All other pixels should be displayed correctly.

To render a view
  1. Select the Render tool.

  2. From the Target option menu in the Render settings window, select View.

  3. From the Render Mode option menu, choose the desired rendering mode — Wiremesh, Hidden Line, Filled Hidden Line, Constant, Smooth , Phong, Ray Trace, Radiosity, or Particle Trace.

  4. From the Shading Type option menu, choose the desired shading type — Normal (default), Antialias, or Stereo.

  5. Select the view.

    6. For ray tracing, the view's back clipping plane and reference clip boundaries are ignored.

    If Radiosity is selected, the rendering mode is controlled by the Final Display setting in the Radiosity dialog box. To open the Radiosity dialog box, click the Settings icon in the Render settings window (with Render Mode set to Radiosity), or from the Settings menu select Rendering > Radiosity.

    If Particle Trace is selected, the rendering mode is Smooth, unless Ray Trace Specular Effects is turned on in the Display Settings of the Particle Tracing dialog box. To open the Particle Tracing dialog box, click the Settings button in the Render settings window (with Render Mode set to Particle Trace), or from the Settings menu select Rendering > Particle Tracing.

To render the fence contents
  1. Select the Render tool.

  2. From the Target option menu, choose Fence.

  3. Accept.

    4. When Target is set to Fence, the Shading Type Antialias can be used only when Render Mode is Ray Trace, Radiosity, or Particle Trace.

To render an element(s)
  1. Select the element(s).

  2. Select the Render tool.

  3. From the Target option menu, choose Element.

Alternative Method — To render an element(s)
  1. Select the Render tool.

  2. From the Target option menu, choose Element.

  3. Identify the element.

  4. Accept.

    5. Target can be set to Element for the following render modes only — Wiremesh, Hidden Line, Filled Hidden Line, Constant, Smooth , or Phong.

Key-in: RENDER ICON


or

Key-in: RENDER <VIEW | FENCE | ELEMENT> <WIREMESH | HIDDEN | FILLED | CONSTANT | SMOOTH | PHONG | RAYTRACE | RADIOSITY> [NORMAL | ANTIALIAS | STEREO]

If either Ray Trace, Radiosity, or Particle Trace is the selected Render Mode, View or Fence are the only Target options available.

An alternate way to render a view is to use the Utilities menu's Render submenu. The submenu items Wiremesh, Hidden Line, Filled Hidden Line, Constant, Smooth, Phong, Phong Stereo, Phong Antialias, Ray Trace, Radiosity, or Particle Trace, directly correspond to the Render tool's Render Mode and Shading Type options. Choosing one of these items is equivalent to selecting the Render tool and setting Target to View. Choosing the Phong Stereo item is equivalent to selecting the Render tool (Phong), setting Target to View, and setting shading type to Stereo. Choosing the Phong Antialias submenu item is equivalent to selecting the Render tool (Phong), setting Target to View, and setting Shading Type to Antialias.