[Project Sharing Server Setup - Docker Container]

Setting up and Understanding Project Sharing - Docker

 

What is Docker?
When it comes to understanding docker, think of a shipping container, and it's cargo.  The shipping container represents your main operating system (The host), and the cargo are containers (operating systems within the host)
This means you can have a number of different operating systems running within another operating system, and the two can communicate using specified means set by docker but are otherwise oblivious to one another.

An example of this is you can have Windows 10 running as a Docker Host and have an Ubuntu Linux system running as a container.  However will not need to worry to much about the inner workings of what docker is and how it works.  So let's jump into setting up Project Sharing

 

With your installer media you will have a zip file for the project sharing server.  Within that zip you will find installation instructions.  The point of this post is to expand on those instructions.

 

In order to follow these instructions you will:

Have access to the host you plan on deploying this software to (should be an always on machine)

Have Docker installed and running
Have some working knowledge of a command line, however nothing in here should be difficult to grasp

 

 

---

The Project Sharing Server Setup

 

Make sure you are connected to the host and have the project-sharing-server.tar copied to your host

 

Loading our Docker Image:

docker load -i ./project-sharing-server.tar

Breaking this down we are telling `docker` to `load` the `-i` input of `./project-sharing-server.tar` file

 

Confirm load is successful:

docker image ls -a

You should now se something like:

REPOSITORY               TAG       IMAGE ID       CREATED        SIZE
project-sharing-server   latest    657e01b1dc11   2 months ago   85.2MB

Running our container:
I will be running you through two variants of this command, one will be the command line and the other will be using a helpful tool called docker compose.  However in order to get up and running, only one method is required.

 

Via Command Line:

docker run -d --env L=1 --name ps-server -v /your/local/storage/location:/usr/psserverd/Projects -v /you/local/storage/for/logs:/usr/psserverd/log -p 22001:22001 project-sharing-server:latest

Let's reformat this into something easier to understand

docker run -d --env L=1 
    --name ps-server
    -v /your/local/storage/location:/usr/psserverd/Projects
    -v /you/local/storage/for/logs:/usr/psserverd/log 
    -p 22001:22001 
    project-sharing-server:latest

From the top down here is what we are doing:

• We are telling `docker` to `run` a new container that is `-d` detached from our command window with the `env l=1` environment variable L equaling 1 for dockers logging of the container
• Then we tell our container that we are attaching two volumes to our host noted by the `-v` followed by the location of the folder on the host FS then a colon to tell docker everything after that is the file system within our container 
  • an example of this could be -v C:\Storage\Projects:/usr/psserverd/Projects
  • So here we are storing all the files and folder that get created in /usr/psserverd/Projects on our C drive in Storage\Projects
  • The /usr/psserverd/Projects directory is the directory that usually contains your existing PFs, VWX, PDFs, PNGs, etc.
• Next in order to connect to our new server we need to expose it to the outside world using the ports signified by the -p.  Now when we want to use this we connect to our host on port 22001 and it will pass the traffic to our container
  • Like our volumes, we have two parts, our host port and our container port.  Where the container port cannot change, we can change the host port.  so wee could say if we want to connect to our server on port 21035 we would type -p 21035:22001 then any time you want to connect to the project sharing server you would use your host IP with the port 21035
• Last up in the image we are using, this is the image we loaded previously and all we do here is call it to be loaded

 

Via Docker Compose:
This is the method I personally prefer as it will mean that all your settings are saved to a file so you don't have to remember everything
This method uses a file called docker-compose.yaml, this will be a new blank file in your host that you will fill out with all the right information
A special note, the use of the YAML format means that spacing has meaning, so be sure to use the same spacing everywhere, I personally just press tab as you will see.

#docker-compose.yaml
version: "3.9"
services:
  ps-server:
    image: project-sharing-server:latest
    container_name: ps-server
    ports:
    - 22001:22001
    environment:
      l: 1
    volumes:
    - /path/to/host/project/storage:/usr/psserverd/Projects
    - /path/to/host/log/storage:/usr/psserverd/log

Now all we need to do is in the same directory as this new docker-compose.yaml file we type in

docker-compose up

 

After you have your container up and running you can check the status of it by running

docker container ls -a

Please note that these are not official instructions and is intended as a jumping off point with the most basic setup.  There's a vast amount of tutorials and documentation surrounding docker and how it operates.

[Shiny floor]

Hello Carl,

 

You can achieve this by creating changing the color of the texture to black, setting the reflective option to plastic with the following options:

  -  Color: ~ 80% (dark grey) to black

  -  Brightness: ~40%

  -  Roughness: ~10%

  -  Reflective: ~ 10%

 

Then play with the bump map, but keep the strength between 3-10% and the scale to about 300%...

 

I have attached two variants to show you the types of end results.  Please note that you need to have renderworks active in order to gain reflections

[4-16 rebounds problems]

No, unless you have a renderworks texture that uses blur.  A texture such as smoked glass.

 

 

[4-16 rebounds problems]

I have attached my own approach to lighting along with the renders, explanations, and project file.

 

There are many different ways to get lighting just the way you want.  My example only illustrates my own method.

Archive.zip

[4-16 rebounds problems]

Before adding more lights, see what happens if you go into your render style and in the lighting tab change the ambient color to black while using 16 bounces.  This will darken the scene but still give you smooth results.

 

In the mean time I too will be looking into using 8 bounces.

[Interior space lit entirely by natural daylight (Heliodon tool)]

10 minutes ago, minotto said:

Josh,  I've been using HDRI Sky Day Mostly Sunny.  What other options would you suggest as far as a hidden sun?

 

 As for the HDRI you are mainly looking for any HDRI image with from within VW or on the web that does not have a strong spot in the sky.  If there is a haze around the sun, that will soften the shadows it casts.

[Interior space lit entirely by natural daylight (Heliodon tool)]

Another thing to keep in mind is that you have shadows coming from multiple exterior sources.  The Heliodon and the HDRI image.  If the HDRI has a sun spot in it, it will cause highlights and shadows like you are seeing.  Be careful which HDRI you choose as to not overlap, try something that either has a hidden sun, or overcast.

[Scaling textures on subdivided primitives]

One method to change the scale of a texture on sub division is to apply the texture.  Once applied, go to the resource manager and right click > edit on the texture you applied.  You will then see a size option in the lower left corner.

 

Downside: This will affect all objects with this texture.

[Free Texture Libraries]

Another good source of textures that I have used in the past is from https://www.textures.com/

 

[Renderworks - is it worth the effort]

As promised, here is a different scene that was set up to be a lighting example.  I have included an image of the end results of each steps with a description of each.  I have also included the Vectorworks file itself VW 2017 so you can poke around and look at the settings I used.  When looking at this, pay close attention to the render times.  These render times were based on a workstation laptop I'm using, so desktop results should overall be better.

 

Render: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1l12onl9846o0qi/Bedroom.png?dl=0

(Too large to paste in here)

Bedroom.zip

[Renderworks - is it worth the effort]

I have used a multitude of different rendering application including VW (C4D) Mentalray, and Render man.  My advice to you is that it is less about the software and more about your abilities.  It does take time to render photo-realistic, or even close to it in any application you choose.

 

This render was made from start (new scene) to finish in about 3 hours.  This was made using only Vectorworks 2017 and getting textures online to fit my needs.  I will post a follow up commend that outlines my lighting technique that may help you in the future.