Rendering Tab

Rendering Tab

Like the MaterialsLights and Effects tabs, the Rendering tab is divided into two panes for archives and palette. This tab is where you select in which style and how you wish the scene to be rendered. Each archive has a number of different render styles to choose from.

Rendering Styles

Rendering Styles

Rendering styles affect the way that the scene is rendered when a full photorealistic render is done (by clicking on the Render button). None of these effects are available as an interactive preview.

To set up a rendering style, simply drag your chosen style onto the palette on the right hand side of the tab.

To edit your chosen rendering style, simply double click on the style in the palette. The Render Editor dialog will appear. Each editor will be different for each type of rendering style. The High Quality editor is shown here:

At any time, click on the Apply button to apply the parameter edits to the scene.

Click OK to keep the changes made or Cancel to discard any changes made (since the last time you clicked Apply at least).

You can save an edited rendering style for use in other scenes by simply dragging it onto the My Render Styles archive.

Predefined Rendering Styles

Predefined Rendering Styles

The Recommended archive contains three predefined rendering styles:

• High Quality . Choose this rendering style for the highest quality rendered output. This includes all reflections and transparencies and anti aliasing on edges, reflections and shadows. Of the three recommended rendering styles, this will take the longest to render. This is also the rendering style used if no other is chosen. Use this style for the final export of your rendered output.

• Low Quality . Choose this rendering style for a quick, low quality render. This includes no reflections or anti aliasing. Use this style if you wish to quickly see the affects of materials and lighting you have applied to the scene.

• Medium Quality . Choose this rendering style for a medium quality render. This includes all reflections and transparencies and anti aliasing only on shadows. You may use this style for a final preview of the scene, prior to exporting your final rendered output.

The Standard archive contains twenty three rendering styles that simulate hand drawing and other non-photorealistic styles. These styles use a mixture of shaded, vector and image based rendering techniques. They are generally best suited to small models and small output images.

The Templates archive contains five main types of rendering style, which can be used to define your own rendering styles:

• Photorealistic (Raytrace) . This archive contains photorealistic rendering styles, including High Quality Low Quality and Medium Quality as per the Recommended archive. These rendering styles are fastest and use least memory where large parts of the model are obscured from any particular viewpoint. For example, when inside a room within a building, the walls of the room will obscure the rest of the building from view.

• Photorealistic (Scanline) . This archive contains photorealistic rendering styles, including High Quality Low Quality and Medium Quality as per the Recommended archive. These rendering styles are fastest and use least memory where most of the model is visible from any particular viewpoint. For example, when rendering an overview of a plant and process model, the majority of the model can be seen as there are fewer walls, or similar, to obscure your view.

• Simple Shaded . This template is a simple shaded rendering style, where advanced features such as textures and transparency are not required.

• Sketch . This archive contains twelve basic sketch rendering styles.

  Note

  Sketch rendering styles require multiple stages to render a scene. These can therefore often take a considerable time to render.

• Vector . This template is a vector rendering style, which will render the scene in wireframe.

Auto Exposure

Auto Exposure

Check the Auto Exposure check box to render the scene with balanced brightness and contrast. This is essential when using physically accurate lighting, such as a Sky or Sun light. If adding either of these lights to your scene, you will be prompted to turn auto exposure on, if it is not already.