[Radiance-general] Re: radiance question

[Jeffrey McGrew]

I use Revit. I export my models to a DWG, and then open them in 
AutoCAD, clean-up some of the layers and such (it puts things on 
layers named by category of the element, not by the element's 
materials), and then run an old LISP routine called 'TORAD' that then 
generates my Radiance files. I then create test renders under Cygwin, 
and then when the project is ready I feed it to a OS X box I've got 
acting as a 'render server'.

However, I've just found out that Revit (which is a lot like ArchiCAD, 
only more so ;) also includes into it's DWG/DXF exporting 'xdata' 
about the material a surface is, so I'm currently investigating how to 
write a new 'revit2rad' converter that would take a DXF from Revit and 
turn it into a logical structure of Radiance files.

Finally, there is a wonderful little 3D modeling program called 
ECOTECT that allows you to make simple surface models and includes a 
Radiance exporting feature & rendering front end. This you might find 
to be your best bet to get into Radiance at first.

Best of luck,

Jeffrey McGrew