[Radiance-general] Running multiple rpict commands for different scenes

[Lars O. Grobe]

Hi!

> My idea is to run many simulations, for now up to 1200, in order to
> create data for a fuzzy system.  I have many simulations because I have
> a glass part of a building which has 4 sets of blinds which are
> autonomously controlled. If I am thinking correctly when the angle of
> each blind changes we have a new scene, which is separately simulated.
> For each scene I am running a new rpict command to see the result. I
> found out that in the University we have a grid-computer which is
> working on Linux. From the grid-computer web-site I read the following:

Two options:

A) Create your scene octrees, name them according to your parameters. 
Create a rif-file with the settings you use. In this rif-file, you use 
dummies names for the critical parameters that should not be shared 
(e.g. all file names including the ambient file). Write a script that 
loops through all the possible names (and thus setups), replaces the 
dummy by the current scene name, runs rad on the rif file. sed is a very 
useful command for doing so.

B) Create one rif file, and replace the varying parts of your scene (can 
be material definitions, geometry, ...) by shell commands (preceded by 
!) that produce the output. In the simplest way, this command can just 
return the value of an environment variable that is altered by your 
script. E.g. in your script, you set the variable myVariableMat="void 
plastic thisTimeItsWhite 0 0 5 1 1 1 0 0", and in your material 
definition file, you reference it by adding a line !echo $myVariableMat.

Hope this helps.

Cheers, Lars.