Viewport Settings For B+W Exterior Elevations

[Cory W.]

I recently modeled a house for a presentation. For the exterior elevations in the construction documents I planned on using the viewport rendering settings to create a black and white image that I would add textures to on the annotations as needed. I don't think this is the best approach, but this where I'm at. I've tried Realistic Colors White and Final Shaded Polygon. I have the lighting options turned off, so can I I assume the 'shading' look on the Realistic Colors White is associated with that render type? And on the Final Shaded Polygon the glazing is grayish. I have that glazing class set to clear. I'd like it to read as a solid white. Is this possible?

 

As a more general question, can you have an object (let's say glazing) be assigned a class in one viewport and a different class in another? 

[twk]

33 minutes ago, CW2020 said:

I have that glazing class set to clear. I'd like it to read as a solid white. Is this possible?

 

As a more general question, can you have an object (let's say glazing) be assigned a class in one viewport and a different class in another? 

You can do this with class-overrides, per viewport.

You can't reassign an obeject's class via viewport, but you can override the graphic attributes of the class via viewport.

 

For your case, just set the glass's class to solid white in the class-settings of the viewport

[Cory W.]

Very cool. Thanks, twk.

[grant_PD]

If you actually add the textures to the model, you can render them in the viewport in openGL (shaded) with no lines drawn.  Then in the background render select hidden line mode.  Finally, use the image effects in the viewport to take out all of the color.  You will get a black and white image with textures and very crisp linework. 

[Andy Broomell]

Hey I recognize that 😉

 

To add onto that, I tend to make Background Render set to Shaded, then click Background Render Options and make sure "Draw Edges" in unchecked (this could also be where you uncheck "Colors" to get a white model effect without needing to use Renderworks). Then make Foreground Render set to Hidden Line, and click Foreground Render Options if you need to adjust the smoothing angle or other settings. As Grant says, use Images Effects to desaturate once rendered.

 

That combo tends to be a good starting point for the effect you're going for. Anything more advanced such as changing out the look of something in one viewport vs another would either be Class Overrides or Data Visualization (very powerful).

[grant_PD]

Also, when using the shaded+hidden line recipe, be aware that sometimes VW "hangs on" to the shaded render, even if there are changes to the model.  Even if you press update.  So sometimes you have to change the render mode, which then must dump the render out of memory, then set it back to shaded, and then you can update.  AND sometimes VW will get confused as to whether or not to apply the de-saturation effect so you have to reset that as well....but the end effect is good so I'm not complaining about the buggy behavior...today. 😁

[Cory W.]

Grant_PD that worked great. The linework is clean and a few graphical issues I've been fighting (such as a few random lines showing) was have been resolved. Thanks!

[Cory W.]

And no surprise, but the rendering times jam me up as much as anything. As my drawing is quite basic, I can't imagine the level of hardware I'd need to perform high quality renderings on a daily basis. That said, your work is very impressive.

[Cory W.]

Andy, I'll have to try that tomorrow... wanted to thank you though for the input. And data visualization keeps appearing in response to my recent board inquires. Definitely a priority to learn.

[grant_PD]

@CW2020 Glad we were able to help.  Re: hardware.  Get the best graphics card you can.  Shaded rendering is all the graphics card, and will also improve your overall 3d  experience in VW.  @Andy Broomell has a spectacular webinar on data viz somewhere on his website I believe.  Definitely worth a watch.  

[Andy Broomell]

50 minutes ago, grant_PD said:

Also, when using the shaded+hidden line recipe, be aware that sometimes VW "hangs on" to the shaded render, even if there are changes to the model.  Even if you press update.  So sometimes you have to change the render mode, which then must dump the render out of memory, then set it back to shaded, and then you can update.  AND sometimes VW will get confused as to whether or not to apply the de-saturation effect so you have to reset that as well....but the end effect is good so I'm not complaining about the buggy behavior...today. 😁

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one that experiences this. It's Image Effects that causes the bug, somehow... If you uncheck Image Effects, hit Update, then re-check Image Effects, it should rectify it.

 

Here's that Data Vis webinar: https://www.andybroomell.com/masterclass-data-visualization