[Radiance-general] An open materials library?

[Peter Apian-Bennewitz]

Randolph Fritz wrote:
> 
> It seems to me that a public material surface properties library would
> be a really valuable thing.  I don't know that I'm putting myself
> forward to make it work, and I'm not really sure what it would entail,
> but do you-all have opinions on this?

Hi Randolph, hi all,

two thoughts:
How does a user know the real visual appearance of the "light yellowish
wood" he finds in the library ? Plus variants like "polished" "slightly
polished" etc. One may supply photographs of the real thing, but I'm not
sure that's good enough.
Secondly, measuring materials (spectral and/or angular) is, even with
automated and fast machinery, some work, data processing and modeling
are too, especially for an easily increasing number of materials, such
as in a catalogue.  

It'll be very valuable to get feedback from users how they would use any
form of catalogue - education or project work, for filling in data when
no materials are given in a project or for matching a given material in
a project ?

I had the idea of compiling a reference sample catalogue, around 8-12
material samples (e.g. 3x6cm) initially, plus their measurement data and
fitted Radiance model. Would be quite handy for projects and feasible
too, using my 12 year old, still used and fully automated
gonio-photometer at FhG-ISE or a newer one, but I doubted there'll be
enough interest. 

Any comments welcomed
-Peter
-- 
 pab-opto, Freiburg, Germany, www.pab-opto.de