[Radiance-general] ConRAD / 3ds2rad converter - ArchiCAD -> Radiance

[John Mardaljevic]

Erwin,

To follow on from Greg - here's a tiny shell script to carry
out the 3ds > mgf > rad in one command.  I called it 3ds2rad (not knowing
there was another).

The mgfilt command (upto $nam.rad) is all one line.  This command
strips out perturbations to the surface normal that may have been
added to the CAD model at some point.  In my experience they have always
been spurious and best removed.

For file, say, "model.3ds", just enter:

	3ds2rad model.3ds

Ignore the report "3ds2mgf: unexpected EOF".

This will produce the files:

	matmodel.rad	- the material description
	model.rad	- the geometry
	
You should be able to view it right away:

	objview matmodel.rad model.rad

-John

PS.  I'd welcome any reports of using SketchUp to model scenes for Radiance.

=======================3ds2rad========================
#!/bin/csh -f

set tds = $1

set nam = $tds:r

3ds2mgf $tds

mgfilt '#,c,cct,cmix,cspec,cxy,cyl,ed,f,ies,ir,m,o,p,prism,rd,rs,sides,sph,td,ts,v,xf,fh' $nam.mgf | 
mgf2rad -m mat$n
am.rad >! $nam.rad

rm $nam.mgf $nam.inc
======================================================

---------------------------------------------
Dr. John Mardaljevic                     
Senior Research Fellow
Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development
De Montfort University
The Gateway
Leicester
LE1 9BH, UK
+44 (0) 116 257 7972   
+44 (0) 116 257 7981 (fax)

jm at dmu.ac.uk   
http://www.iesd.dmu.ac.uk/~jm