[Radiance-general] modelling and scene viewers

[Lars O. Grobe]

Hi Dharam!

1) I think it would be useful for you to browse the archives of the 
email list. There are lots of options to create geometry for use with 
Radiance. Autocad is one, if you e.g. export dxf and use one of the 
available converters (see radiance-online.org, strongly recommended!). 
There are lots of modelers with great support for Radiance, e.g. Blender 
or Sketchup. And anything that exports obj can be used, too.

2) For viewers, if you want to view Radiance scenes (octrees), the 
commonly used tool is rvu (rview). The great thing is that it also 
understands all parameters rpict knows. An alternative tool is Peter's 
rshow, but you need to install it first. It should also be listed on 
radiance-online.org. When viewing rendered luminance or illuminance maps 
(aka images), there is a bunch of tools available supporting Radiance's 
rgbe format, which is kind of a standard for high dynamic range imaging 
(HDRI).

3) Ecotect: is another (commercial) software. Maybe it used Radiance, 
but that does not mean that all Radiance users use Ecotect. As you paid 
for an Ecotect license, you should expect the provider of that tool to 
support it, not the community of another, open-source software.

Cheers, Lars.