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Truss Toners


Namnik

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  • 4 weeks later...

Ryan,

I have had good success with line lights, but I warn you that (at least in VW2011), the line light is pretty render-intensive. This is because there are essentially infinite light sources that go in all directions along the entire length of the line light. The render engine has to calculate each of those sources. **The previous explanation may not be completely accurate, but it is how it was explained to me.**

I would not suggest putting a line light in every stick of truss on your drawing (depending on how much truss there is), unless you have a lot of time to watch it render.

The attached are prelim renderings, so I didn't spend too much time tweaking all the settings to get everything "just so." If the project had been realized to final renderings, I would have adjusted the line light fall-off (although I'm not sure if that's what it is called for a line light) so there wasn't so much spill onto the ceiling above the circle truss.

I also played with the texture of the truss itself, so that it was very willing to reflect the light that I was hitting it with. Another adjustment I would have made (had the project made it to the next phase) would have been to make the ceiling less reactive to the light, so it didn't shine so blue.

Cheers and good luck!

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  • 1 month later...

I did some truss with socks by a texture with "glow." I imagine it would work the same on regular truss.

The drawback is that you don't have falloff in the light along the truss. The whole surface glows at the same intensity. The benefit is that it is very easy for the rendering engine.

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  • 1 month later...

You should experiment with Line Lights and Area Lights in a new clean file. Draw a few objects, maybe four walls and a ceiling (or whatever) and set up a view or viewport using a RW Camera (or the old Set 3d command). The view should be of the interior and it will be dark. You will probably want to render in FQRW, but Fast RW w/Shadows will give you a taste and is much faster for quick trial and error.

LINE LIGHT: draw a line in plan view, then go to front or side view and move it up to just below the ceiling. Select the line and run command: Modify>Convert>Convert to Line Light. The rest is fairly self explanatory.

AREA LIGHT: basically same thing as Line Light, but you can use a rectangle, circle or even a 3d shape (like an extrusion)

The reason I suggest using a new clean file is that lights can dramatically increase rendering and regen times. The less data in the file the faster you will get an idea of what these things can do... They can be amazing if used thoughtfully! Have fun.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ridpath,

Sorry for taking so long to respond ...

Before you try to put the light inside the truss, make sure you are correctly creating the line light. Draw a line and "convert line light". As I recall, it was pretty self-explanatory after reading about it in the Help.

There isn't really a way for me to know why line lights didn't work for you without more information. Did you turn the light "on"? I can never keep track of what renders in what modes, but I'm sure line lights don't render in all the modes, so try several of them. Also make sure the line light isn't colliding with another object (such as the floor), as I imagine this would also make the line light not emit.

Good luck!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I notice Line Lights differ in the way they look when they are different lengths.

See attached is a render showing 3 line lights. 500mm, 2400mm and 19200mm.

Why is this??

The 2400 is looking the best for what I need but could be better.

Then there seems to be a BUG.

When a Line Light is created vertically it does not show except when it touches or intercepts anoher surface.

It will also show a black line in Renders eventhough it has a color from creation.

What I tried doing is having the same effect as the line light has running horizontally like a edge glow on the vertical corners.

I did some truss with socks by a texture with "glow." I imagine it would work the same on regular truss.

The drawback is that you don't have falloff in the light along the truss. The whole surface glows at the same intensity. The benefit is that it is very easy for the rendering engine.

Make the texture 50% transparent with glow selected

I made the lightboxes have a falloff by adding additional spotlights and raising the box about 3mm.

Not very successful, but looks good with the line light I added. When other lights are swithed off you can see the falloff

Edited by cad@sggsa
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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Carl,

If you are still having problems, you may get more help by posting in the Renderworks forum. There are more users in the Renderworks forum that may be able to help you out with rendering issues and offer you better solutions to your problem.

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Carl,

If you are still having problems, you may get more help by posting in the Renderworks forum. There are more users in the Renderworks forum that may be able to help you out with rendering issues and offer you better solutions to your problem.

Thanks for the headsup there.

This is a Spotlight problem though, but will post in there too.

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