light line

[joey altalef]

Hi everyone

I used to use light lines to creat the impresion of led ceiling lights. It used to work well on previous versions of Vectorworks. I uploaded here an example where you see how it looks on VW 2016. How can I make it look smoother and more regular?

I tried creating a glowing texture instead, but I cant make it to emit light.

any thoughts?

thanks

joey

[PVA - Admin]

Have a look at the following, there are a couple of tricks:

If the LED effect you want is more to show individual points of light along a path, you can also simply Duplicate Along Path a number of Light objects (You can make a symbol of a single light object and duplicate that instead to make controlling the appearance of all of them together much easier) to get those sharp points of light at regular measured intervals.

[zoomer]

A glow texture needs to have Indirect Illumination activated.

Glow Textures don't provide direct light.

Beside, in the Line Light settings > Line Light Specs

I found a quality control setting that is set by default to by render mode.

Does it help to crank it up manually ?

[joey altalef]

Im trying to make a glow texture to glow, but I cant make it to work right. In the rendered image, my glow texture looks white, but it doesnt glow. The inderect illumination option in the "edit texture" window is activated (override indirect lighting + emit light)

I tried also creating a light and directing it to my glow texture. but it still doesnt glow.

Does the "final quality render" have the indirect illumination activated?

thanks

joey

Vectorworks 2016

[PVA - Admin]

I think it's off in that mode, I normally use a custom Renderworks Style, but I think Realistic Interior Final should have it enabled by default as well.

[AlanW]

The line light and area lights have always been patchy so I use the glow texture. You need to up the brightness to say 300% and choose to emit light and use a renderworks render to get the light to glow.

This image has 2 thin polygons under the mirror and bench.

HTH

Edited April 19, 2016 by Alan Woodwell

[zoomer]

Is your "glowing" geometry still that Line ?

Lines have nor Surface.

Geometry that uses a Self illuminated Material has to be some sort of surface.

The brightness setting will be multiplied by the surface area.

So for example, if you use very thin slabs als LED strip, you will have to set very high

brightness, something like 2000%

Also it will lead to noisy GI because it is quite unlikely that many of the rays calculating

GI will ever see part of the glowing geometry.

As larger the surface, as easier and cleaner to render.

Because you can not assign a material to a 2D surface in VW, it has at least to be a

3D Polygon. As these are harder to modify or deal with, it is easier to 3D Volumes

instead (Extrudes, Generic Solids, ...)

So maybe one Extrude positioned to the wall, beside a second extrude with a normal

material that shadow the glow towards the room and camera.

[AlanW]

These are simply 3D polys and attach the Glow texture to them No other tricks, the width of the surface area or the intensity will determine the light level on the object.

I do tend to hide them as you would in real life to gain a more realistic effect in my renderings.

HTH

Edited April 19, 2016 by Alan Woodwell

[zoomer]

I once did black boxes with a glowing 3D Poly (or a mesh for all at once),

slightly under the box to fake hanged neon lights in an open-plan office.

To prevent the glow lighting the ceiling.

[joey altalef]

thanks everyone,

I finally understood how to do it. The glow texture does work much better than the line/area lights.

Is there any reason why to use the light/area lights?

thanks

joey

[PVA - Admin]

The main issue I hear about using glow textures it that since they don't appear in the Viz palette, turning them on and off can be more of a hassle than using a traditional light or line/area/light object if you commonly use Visualization to control all lighting.

[zoomer]

thanks everyone,

I finally understood how to do it. The glow texture does work much better than the line/area lights.

Is there any reason why to use the light/area lights?

thanks

joey

Yes, Area Lights will give you real controllable shadows and much better quality,

if you can handle the longer render times.

The examples shown here mostly won't profit from that very much.

It is more applicable if you use larger illuminated surfaces like to fake softboxes

in a studio environment.

[zoomer]

The main issue I hear about using glow textures it that since they don't appear in the Viz palette, turning them on and off can be more of a hassle than using a traditional light or line/area/light object if you commonly use Visualization to control all lighting.

I have them always on one or more separate Classes/Layers which visibilities I switch

like for other Objects, or even Lights.

Not sure if it makes sense to integrate Geometry and Material settings in Light Lister.

If treated as a, or as an option of Area Lights, to use luminous Materials instead of

light samples, then YES.

[Dave Donley]

Note also that in 2016 you can use the Backlit Reflectivity shader to help with these extended area light sources. Aim a spot light at a surface that uses the Backlit shader. Make sure that Cast Shadows is on for the texture. Turn on Indirect Lighting and you should get a nice soft lighting from the surface, similar to area lights and glow. One advantage of doing it this way is that you can see and control the spot light in the Viz palette to turn it on and off, unlike Glow.