[Radiance-general] Re: radiance question

[Lars O. Grobe]

Hi,

just three ways:

Use dxf. This makes sense if you are e.g. working with AutoCAD. Get 
Georg Mischlers dxf2rad (www.schorsch.com), which is available for a 
lot of platforms. When exporting, take care of the units (I have always 
1unit=1meter, so the same as in most radiance apps). Use different 
layers for materials. dxf2rad will use the layernames as modifiers in 
the exported rad-model. Than write a material-mapping file, using 
aliases. That way, you can use ONE material file, that you will re-use 
for all your projects (simply adding new materials when needed) and put 
all the layer-to-material information into the mapping-file, that will 
be valid just for the model. If you are working on Mac or Unix, make 
sure to encode the (ascii)-dxf file in the ms-dos world format.

Use obj. This is available as an export option for different 
3d-packages. It is supported by obj2rad and the new mesh primitive in 
Radiance. Be careful, the coordinate system in radiance is with the 
z-achis up! Many of these modeler use other coordinate systems! The 
obj-export will often be triangulated, but you can use surface normals 
(e.g. for smoothing) and texture coordinates. As such, I would always 
prefer it for the not-so-classic architectural models containing lots 
of curved surfaces.

Use 3ds. This means that you first convert to mgf, than to rad. You can 
get "smoothed" surfaces like with obj, and 3ds is available in many 
3d-modelers, too. You can get some simple material definitions based on 
the 3ds-file, so you should be able to view the exported rad-file 
without changes by objview (the other formats' importers don't use the 
material / color information). However, some of the advanced features 
radiance offers with obj now are not available with 3ds (tecture 
coordinates).

If you have a big model, and used some kind of blocks (symbols, 
references, however your cad calls them), you can try to import them as 
instances or by using xform. This might help to reduce the memory 
needed during rendering a lot, however, it adds complexity to the 
import. Maybe we will have a converter that can handle blocks and 
export them as such to radiance without user interaction (I read that 
an early radout release was able to do so?).

Be careful with some CAAD apps. Archicad e.g. tends to include all 
details in the model, and if you want to render the overview of a large 
building, you won't want all the door-locks and furniture in your 
model. So try to control the details as needed (use layers etc, 
assigning the void modifier can switch off objects, right?).

What applications are you working with?

I use dxf for most architectural models, obj for free-forms (curved 
surfaces, smooth surfaces). U used radiance with AutoCAD, ArchiCAD, 
FormZ, Vectorworks.

Good luck, CU Lars.
--
Lars O. Grobe
grobe at gmx.net