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Faster rendering w/more efficient file?


MacDaid

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Hello All,

I'm looking for tips on ways to make more efficient renderings. While my new machine (see specs below) makes some operations noticeably faster, others like final rendering w/custom RW are just as pokey.

Current specs:

? VW/RW 10.5.0

? OS 10.3.2

? G5 duo / 1GB / 1.8 GHz

At the moment, I'm using my old G4 for modeling and the G5 for rendering. I'm guessing I'm somewhere around "intermediate-beginner" in my experience with RenderWorks.

I'm making some fairly complex renderings of a museum (2 floors) and am using numerous spot-lights, some imported image textures and glass textures. The bulk of the models are extrusions and solid subtractions.

I've been using symbols for lighting and modeled objects - sections of exhibit furniture that repeat are symbols.

Current file sizes:

? Floor 1: 47.2 mb !!!

This floor is not complete, and has fewer parts.

It has standard glass, but no image textures - so it should be smaller, right?

? Floor 2: 16.6 mb

This is largely complete and has some image-based textures...

I have included in Floor 1 some small artifact-drawings.

There are 2 types, both consist of fairly simple extrusions, solid subtractions and sweeps.

Type-1 has 10 parts, Type-2 has 8. Both are symbols and are duplicated up to 8 or 9 times. Saved to a separate file they were 2.6 mb. Simplified; removing solid subtractions and 3-d polys, saved 1 mb. Less complicated = smaller, they still take a lot of time drawing. I'm not using many because of this.

Are any of the following assumptions, taken from above, valid?:

1. Image textures don't always make files bigger.

2. Smaller (in megabytes) files seem to render as slowly as larger...

3. A Symbol of an object doesn't redraw (& render) faster than a group of the same thing.

Can anyone suggest sure-fire ways to craft a file that gets the visual job done, but that doesn't take 4-ever to render?

Or is it that I simply have to adjust my expectations to suit the medium?

Thank you for wading through the above.

Any suggestions anyone has will be most welcome and sincerely appreciated!

Chuck D

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The two big things that can affect rendering speed are the number of lights in a drawing - the more lights, the more time it's going to take. Each one of those lights has to be calculated on each texture it highlights, and the type of object that texture is applied to.

The more textures, the longer it's going to take - depending on the texture type. Reflective and see through textures like glass take a little longer because it's more complex in the physics of the lighting world.

To speed the rendering process up, you'd probably end up compromising quality.

One thing you can do, that isn't so terrible is remove glass textures from windows that you can't see in your elevation.

If you are rendering a right isometric view of the house - change the fill of the windows in the back of the house to no fill (which will eliminate the rendering)

If the objects aren't going to be shown or they don't affect a shadow that you want/need - try to eliminate it. Classing is good for this, but may affect the other purposes of using classes such as organization by object type like funiture, walls, electrical, plumbing, etc.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Hello Chuck D:

quote:

Current file sizes:

? Floor 1: 47.2 mb !!!

This floor is not complete, and has fewer parts.

It has standard glass, but no image textures - so it should be smaller, right?

? Floor 2: 16.6 mb

This is largely complete and has some image-based textures...


Are there any images as resources, on the drawing, or as unused textures in this file? Images are the easiest way to make the file large. Its harder to do this with just geometry.

quote:

Are any of the following assumptions, taken from above, valid?:

1. Image textures don't always make files bigger.

2. Smaller (in megabytes) files seem to render as slowly as larger...

3. A Symbol of an object doesn't redraw (& render) faster than a group of the same thing.


1. No, images always make the file bigger, because they are saved as uncompressed raw bitmaps.

2. Yes. It would be easy to make a tiny file that takes a long time to render and a large file that renders speedily.

3. Maybe. In RW modes symbols are more efficient than groups because only one copy (the symbol definition) is kept and then instanced which saves a lot of memory, and should save time. It may not save time directly but using less memory for the geometry should help stave off virtual memory thrashing longer.

I would love to see this file and tweak it for more efficiency and speed if possible. If you can please send it to me at dave@nemetschek.net

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  • 3 weeks later...

Katie & Dave,

Thanks very much for your detailed relies to my post. They are most helpful.

Since I made my orig. post I've learned a lot about the various rendering options & setting which can speed-up "study" renders.

In the end, I learned how to batch render, putting all 3 floors into a single (& pretty big at 54mb) file. 1 floor to a layer. Overall the renders took about, oh - 17 to 20 hrs each, I think. Better part of 3 days in all.

That's w/all whistles & bells turned on.

Dave, I will send you the 1st floor file. This has the most images, symbols, & image based textures. I'm very interested in how you would configure it for greater efficiency.

Thanks again!

Chuck D

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