General rendering speeds

[Allison]

Hi there,

I completed rendering of a 3 storey building. It was achingly slow - every time I added a new colour to something, the whole thing refreshed and took about a minute before I could work on it again.

I've only had 5 lessons on the programme, so obviously still have a lot to learn, but wondered if there is something I am not doing that would speed this up. I am guessing it may be something to do with classes? For instance, I added a circular table with 4 chairs, then copied these to create a total of 6 sets for a cafe area. The floor with this cafe area was the longest to keep refreshing, and I am thinking perhaps I should have put these items on a furniture class so I could have switched it off whilst doing other work on that floor?

I also found the resource browser to be a bit limited on symbols (for instance there doesn't seem to be much for retail display counters) and in particular the choices of colours for walls, although I figured if I rendered according to Obj. Atrr it seemed to let me change them this way - and somewhere in doing this it stopped letting me render my top floor walls.

[gmm18]

Some objects are built with thousands, if not millions of very small parts. I have found this with a lot of the furniture symbols that come with VWks. Definitely suggest using a furniture class. Light objects and textures with reflectivities, transparancies, etc. will also slow it down.

Turning of the class with those objects will help, or if you don't need such detailed objects try using simpler ones that will render faster.

Also try just using OpenGL rendering for your general work. It is the fastest.

Then when you are doing fancier rendering use some of the more intensive options knowing that it will take longer.

[M.CH]

Use of symbols is what you need, keeps files smaller and speeds up rendering. Especially true if you create your own symbols, using minimal polygons!!

[JP Architect/Build]

I just upgraded my entire computer system.

I am still disappointed at the length of time it takes to render an Animation of a House rotating in RenderWorks.

I hate to complain w/ this much hardware.... but, does anyone have an idea as to what would add even more speed?

Thanks, Jim

[Gytis]

There are lots of elements to rendering, and lots of things to slow it down. Various manuals cover in depth, but some quick rules of thumb, in addition to those already mentioned:

• Keep light sources to a minimum, i.e. do not try to replicate real world
  
• Avoid line lights and area lights
  
• Avoid complex textures with bump maps, maybe reflectivity maps
  
• Minimize transparencies/reflectivities
  
• Tinker with settings in Custom RW, though Open GL will always be faster...
  

HTH.

BTW, you're on the bleeding edge with 10.5.6 !!??

[JP Architect/Build]

Gytis-

Good point, I got a bit ahead of myself. I am on 10.5.5. Perhaps just wishful thinking about the next upgrade.

I doubt that more RAM above 10GB, will help much on speed. Maybe when VW2010 comes out, maybe not.

I crave more SPEED.

JP

[Ray Libby]

Can you post an image of what you are rendering?

You may want to post this in the Vectorworks RenderWorks forum to get the right people looking at your question.

[JP Architect/Build]

Ray-

Good point about the RW forum.

The house file is 106MB and I was rendering a 20 second quicktime movie of it rotating, in Fast RW w/ Shadows. It took 2 hours plus.

Now admittedly, I'm new at this & just- used OpenGL on a smaller model & it rendered exceedingly fast. So I will have to try the OpenGL on the complicated house.

JP

[M.CH]

The house file is 106MB and I was rendering a 20 second quicktime movie of it rotating, in Fast RW w/ Shadows. It took 2 hours plus.

106MB for a house is very large, are you using symbols etc.

Have you tried Artlantis Studio?