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"Lighting Options" button on Viewport OIP needs renaming


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This button always catches me out when I've not done renderworks renders for a little while.

 

The name to me suggests it sets lighting options for that viewport  but in reality it opens a dialogue called "Edit Renderworks Style" and therefore any adjustments are going to affect any other viewports rendered using that style.

 

This I consider to be dangerous - easy not to realise that you are changing things globally. Not only do you risk messing up other renders that you've got set up, but because you edit the renderworks style there's no way of reverting to the previous settings (which may have taken considerable time to set up and adjust) other than trying to find a backup version of the drawing from before you inadvertently made the changes.

 

It either needs to be renamed something like "edit renderworks style applying to this viewport", or (more usefully in my opinion) a button that allows you to adjust things like emitter brightness for that viewport only.

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A few thoughts:

  • I agree that if nothing else changes, that button should be renamed for the exact reasons you describe. When I was learning VW I messed up way too many renderings that way.
  • Beyond that, having true Renderworks Styles would be immensely helpful, where you set the master style definition, but individual viewports can have certain parameters deviate from that on a per-instance basis. (Just like other things named Styles... consistency!)
  • I've actually begun exploiting the fact that the "Lighting Options" button takes you to edit the RW Style. I tend to adjust my render settings frequently depending on what I care about in a given moment as I'm working (such as examining the blurriness in a texture or checking on the soft shadows, etc.). Clicking this button is much faster than going to the RM, switching the RW Styles, and finding the correct one to edit. :) So in a way I'm thankful for this button despite its misleading name.
Edited by Andy Broomell
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I think the bigger issue here is that "Lighting Options" button does different things depending on the render mode of the viewport. It opens the "Edit Renderworks Style" dialog only if the viewport is rendered using Renderworks. If the viewport is rendered in OpenGL then it actually opens the "Lighting Options". Having it do both of these things is confusing and inconsistent with the interface. Ideally OpenGL needs to become a render style too.

 

I think Andy's idea of being able to "override" a style is a good one.

 

Kevin

 

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17 minutes ago, Kevin McAllister said:

I think the bigger issue here is that "Lighting Options" button does different things depending on the render mode of the viewport. It opens the "Edit Renderworks Style" dialog only if the viewport is rendered using Renderworks. If the viewport is rendered in OpenGL then it actually opens the "Lighting Options". Having it do both of these things is confusing and inconsistent with the interface. Ideally OpenGL needs to become a render style too.

 

Yes. All of this. I forgot that for OpenGL it DOES actually take you to a viewport-specific lighting dialogue box. Whereas with a RW Style it takes you to the same dialogue box you'd find via editing the RW Style globally through the RM.

 

19 minutes ago, Kevin McAllister said:

I think Andy's idea of being able to "override" a style is a good one.

 

Especially since that's becoming the definition of what a "Style" is in Vectorworks. :D

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49 minutes ago, Kevin McAllister said:

I think the bigger issue here is that "Lighting Options" button does different things depending on the render mode of the viewport. It opens the "Edit Renderworks Style" dialog only if the viewport is rendered using Renderworks. If the viewport is rendered in OpenGL then it actually opens the "Lighting Options". Having it do both of these things is confusing and inconsistent with the interface.

 

It's even worse than I thought then!

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Absolutely, being able to set date and time for the Heliodon per viewport would be hugely useful. I sometimes end up with several Heliodons set to different times, all in different classes or layers to allow me to have them on or off in various different views.

 

As a side issue I find the Heliodon really awkward to control anyway. And find in VW2018 that it sometimes becomes invisible in top plan view and therefore difficult to select in order to adjust.

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I don't have difficulty controlling the Heliodon but definitely YES! to the Heliodon "Override" in viewports.

There could be a button on the OIP that says HELIODON SETTINGS.

Click it and up pops the Heliodon Dialogue with it's Solar Animation Dialog. Slide the attenuator and VOILA!

 

Sorry for adding to the hijack of this thread.

Edited by bc
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