AccuRender Studio

[Roy Hirshkowitz]

Here's the latest version of the new stuff.  If you're interested, try it at your leisure and let me know what you find.  It's a work in progress, so please be kind.  We'll likely have some bugs and certainly have some missing features.

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Some highlights:

Standalone renderer which accepts input from Rhino, Sketchup, Obj and FBX.

Plugins for AutoCAD and other CAD applications.

Online material and plant libs.

Single advanced engine with fewer compromises and biases.  Similar to current hybrid engine but noisier.

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AccuRender Studio is 64 bit only and will not run on 32 bit machines.
On older machines, the installation may require updating .net versions which can be a lengthy process. Windows 10 is recommended (but not required.)

The AutoCAD plugin can be run with or without a recent version of nXtRender loaded.
If you run the plugin without nXtRender, you will get only AutoCAD information in the ArScene file. If nXtRender is loaded some conversion of nXt information will occur.

Instructions:

1. Download and install AccuRender Studio.
2. Open an AutoCAD session.
3. Load the correct .net AccuRender Studio plugin for your version of AutoCAD by typing           netload at the command prompt (not appload!) and navigating to

    c:\program files\AccuRender Studio.  The plugin versions are:

    ArStudioAcadPluginR19.dll (AutoCAD 2013-2014)

    ArStudioAcadPluginR20.dll (AutoCAD 2015-2016)
    ArStudioAcadPluginR21.dll (AutoCAD 2017)
    ArStudioAcadPluginR22.dll (AutoCAD 2018)

    You should only have to do this step once. The file will be demand loaded after that.

4. Optionally load nXtRender (by typing nxt at the command line, for example).
5. Type arstudio at the command line to run the command. It will inform you if the correct         version of nXtRender was found. If not, an update from RenderPlus may be required.

[Roy Hirshkowitz]

If the preview was running you'll need to reload.  Any changes you make to the objects won't be captured automatically. (I need to change the "Go" button color or something when ardecal command is used.

If this doesn't fix it something else is broken, but it's working here.

[Roy Hirshkowitz]

Use png for this-- it's much more reliable.  All I did was go into the Material Editor and replace your tif with my png.

[Peter Milner]

Okay. I've changed it to a png file.

What steps do I take within AR Studio to get it to work properly

[Roy Hirshkowitz]

There really isn't much to it.  All I did was go to the Material Editor and replace the bitmaps in the decal with the png version-- I can't remember whether I had to change both the Color and Opacity (I think so.) 

If you're using your own png it  may not have an alpha channel-- something may not have worked correctly in Photoshop.

[Roy Hirshkowitz]

The png I sent you does have an alpha channel.

[Roy Hirshkowitz]

Here's the png again.

[Peter Milner]

The material previews don't seem very clear.

Compare nXt to AR Studio below.

[Roy Hirshkowitz]

The material thumbnails currently use a non-rendered representation.  I may change that at some point, but the intention was to use the preview renderer to see your material changes in real time.  Adding a rendered material preview simultaneously will slow that down significantly.  

Question for you:  should I just bring up the preview window when you type ArStudio?  I'm leaning towards yes.  Currently it only grabs the settings from the drawing, not the geometry.  Showing the preview requires me to repeat that process which can be lengthy if the materials are complex or have large bitmaps.

[Peter Milner]

Not sure. The materials take quite a long time to load as it is.

Also, you may just want to make some adjustments first before launching the preview.

[Roy Hirshkowitz]

I'll release a version that just loads the whole thing and we can take a look.  I can also try another command like ArStudioLite that doesn't launch the preview.  As it is the "Go" button on the control panel is split, the dropdown contains both of these choices.

[Peter Milner]

I think the model should load automatically.

If you try to import a material before loading the model, you get an unhandled exception:

[Roy Hirshkowitz]

Thanks-- that's a bug.