Detailed Rendering

CAMERA
Settings > Camera

1. On/Off - Pick view for perspective display.
2. Set Up; Move Camera; Move Target
   - Pick view for Image Plane Orientation; Set Lens Angle: Lens Focal Length; Standard Lenes.
   - select view, target point, camera position, front and rear clipping planes w/ view pyramid.
3. Lens - View Number; Lens Angle; Lens Focal Length; Standard Lenses; Apply

RENDERING- Setting up the rendering process
Setings > Rendering

1. General - these settings are not saved

• Miscellaneous
• Stroke tolerance -max deviation in pixels from surface mesh to the true surface. dflt=.5
• Anti-aliasing grid sze - quality of render and # of passes. dflt=2 (4passes) >3 rare.
• Shadow filter size - controls softness of shadows. dflt=2, 0-15 sharp to soft.
• Shadow tolerence - to prevent self-shadowing of surfaces. dflt=.02, >.02 may help with small incident angles.
• Interpolate textures - if ON extracts surface color from pattern by interpolating the 2 closest pixels.
• Save Shadow maps - if ON saves shad map the first render then uses saved map
• Ignore Open Elements - if ON will not render lines, arcs, points and text but will render closed shapes (includeing circles) and surfaces.
• Distance Cueing - simulates atmospheric effect (fog) on distant objects by fading surface colors to black or to a color (if fog color is set). 0 for all settings is a clear day (default).
• Near distance - distance at which fading begins - expressed as % of view volume
• Near density - sets the fog intensity at the near distance&127;
• Far density - sets the fog intensity at the back of the view volume
• Fog color - good for creating haze or smog. same as Modify Color

1. Rendering Vew Attributes - has significant effect on rendered image for each view

•  
• View - view that attributess are applied to
• Delayed display - displays image when rendering done. Faster, better dithering for 4&8 bit displays. More memory is needed (4bytes/pix). deflt=OFF
• Pattern/Bump Maps - ON (dflt) to show these maps
• Shadows - ON (dflt) to show in phong rendered images
• Transparency - ON to show materials with transmit value > 0. dflt=OFF
• Display - normal view render. Usually wireframe (dflt), sometimes wiremesh.
• Distance cueing - none (dflt), depth (fade to black), fog (fade to color). (see General above)
• Graphics Accelerator - if ON the settings (found in adjacent settings button) will be active. Only applies to Open GL type graphics boards.
• Apply or All - apply to selected view or all views

1. Global lighting - settings for ambient, flashbulb and solar

• Ambient - if ON (dflt) uniform illumination (example: general office lighting or cloudy day)
• Intensity (dflt=1) and color (dflt=76,76,76)
• Flashbulb - if ON directional light from view point; Intensity (dflt=1) and color (dflt=127,127,127)
• Solar - if ON (dflt=OFF) simulates sun lighting at a particular location or time;
• Intensity (dflt=1) and color (dflt=255,255,255).
• Solar Shadows - if ON shows shadows (dflt=OFF)
• Solar Shadow Resolution - sets shadow map resolution; lower value means less resolved and reduced processing time; 0-4096; dflt=512
• Solar Direction Vector - displays direction vector of solar light
• Lock - if ON, position of solar light is set by above vector values
• if OFF (dflt=OFF), position of solar light is set by below location & time
• Azimuth Angle - sets azimuth (horizontal) direction of solar light 0-360';OFF if Lock ON
• Altitude Angle - sets the angle of the sun above horizon 0-90';OFF if Lock ON
• Location - sets sun position by location
• longitude, latitude, and GMT offset (Greenwich Mean Time Difference)
• Cities - choose location from city list
• Map - choose location by clicking on map (does not set GMT)
• Zones - sets GMT offset by selecting time zone
• Time - sets sun position by time, date and year

1. Source Light - controls placement and configuration of source light cells

• Light type
• Spot - directional with control of Cone Angle
• Point - omni-directional from a point source, no shadows, lights all surfaces that face it example: point light in a white glass cylinder
• Distant - directional parallel light source (infinate distance like sun)
• Color - bings up Modify Color dialog box
• On/Off - turns Source Lights ON or OFF
• Intensity - 0 to 1
• Shadow - ON or OFF in phong render; Spot or Distant sources only
• Resolution - of shadow map; lower value means less resolved and reduced processing time
• Cone Angle - sets the focus of Spot light (beam cone); Spot source only
• Delta Angle - sets angle through which Spot light beam falls from full to zero intensity.
• Attenuate - if ON, source intensity decreases over distance; see Distance below
• Distance - sets distance from source (working units) at which intensity is .5 of the original.
• Tools Menu
• Place - places light cell with current settings
• Edit - change settings for selected source
• Scan for light - sequences through sources and highlights them in order of placement; the highlighted source has its settings displayed and can be modified.
• Apply Values - applies current settings to selected source.
• Move Light - moves an existing light source (light and target)
• Target light - sets a new target point for Spot or Distant sources.
• Delete light - deletes existing light
• Clear shadow maps - deletes existing shadow maps
• Procedure:

1. Load and attach lighting cell (optional)
2. open Source Lighting settings box
3. choose light type
4. turn source light ON with button (affects current light)
5. from tools menu choose Place New Light

• Lighting model: A typical product lighting model will involve 3-4 lights. These are - key, fill, back, and background lights
• key - focused spot, above and to the side of camera;focused on object
• fill - ambient to fill in shadow area detail; 30-50% intensity of key
• back - opposite key light,100% intensity of key
• background - flood to light background as necessary.

1. Surface Materials - Materials (color, texture, transparency and finish) are defined in a material palette file (.pal). A palette file can contin several different or related materials. Materials can be simple color or metalic finishes or they can be textured. Textured surfaces are created by "mapping" an image onto the surface. These texture maps can be pattern mapped like wallpaper or bump mapped like a stucco wall with variable texture depth. Material assignments are made in a Material Assignment Table file (.mat) and assigned on a particular level to a particular color. The .mat file is associated with a .dgn file and should be saved along with the .dgn file. If a custom palette is created, it too must be saved with the dgn file.

• Settings > Rendering > Assign Materials - brings up a dialog box showing the material assignmnet table (MAT) with current material asgnments, current palette of materials and a sample display of the material.
• To make new assignments:

1. File > Open Palette- to choose a palette file of materials.
2. Default palettes are in \ustation\material\
3. after selecting a palette file, the predefined materials are listed next to the MAT
4. after selecting a material, the sample display witl show the material on a simple geometry of your choice.
5. Tools > Assign by Selection - to select an element interactively to have the material assigned. Color/level will appear in the MAT.
6. Or Tools > Assign... to enter color and level of the element/s in a dialog box
7. Double clicking on an existing material in the MAT will also bring up the dialog box to change level and color.

• Settings > Rendering > Define Materials - to create or modify a material palette. The title bar displays the open palette which can contain pattern maps or bump maps or combinations of both.
• Pattern map - a bit mapped image for mapping onto a surface
• Bump map - a black and white bit mapped image where the black areas are rendered as high points or "bumps".
• To create a new material palette:

1. Settings > Rendering > Define Materials - open the Define Materials dialog box
2. enter a new name in the Material Name: field
3. click on ADD button to have material name added to the list of materials in the current palette.
4. set the finish characteristics such as color and transparency in the upper right hand section.
5. add tecture mapping (optional) by clicking on the Map: button to select Pattern or Bump
6. click on Select in the Map: area to select a pattern or bump map image file
7. a bump map material can have both a pattern map and bump map
8. File > Save Palette - save the palette file to your own directory

• To modify an existing material palette:

1. copy the palette file to your own directory and rename it. DO NOT MODIFY PALETTES IN THE USTATION DIRECTORY!
2. Settings > Rendering > Define Materials - open the Define Materials dialog box
3. File > Open Palette - open the palette file
4. select a material from the material list on left
5. change the finish and or texture aspects of the material.
6. File > Save Palette - save the palette file