Who wants to try nXtRender Batch?

[Albert D Hart]

This is the first preview of the new nXtRender Batch.

You should only try this if you are adventuresome, and willing to make your way through some undocumented stuff. and not get mad at Rich and I if some things are not working properly.

If you want to try this, you can download it from here:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/em8aq6v0535r8j0/nXtRender_AC_Batch_MB...

And just install it.

This is Beta Test Add-on to nXt and AutoCAD at this point. Later it will be integrated into the nXt install. It should work with most recent versions of nXt. And it should work for AutoCAD 2010-2014 (We haven't tested every possible combination yet)

After downloading, you will get a .ZIP file with a message like this:

Click on the message to install it.

New Ribbon

After installation, a new Ribbon should appear in AutoCAD

Racecar

The Race car loads the nXt sidebar menu (the same as typing in nXt).

Help Button

The ? loads an about box:

(The 'Synch Options' button on the bottom will import some settings made while rendering, but not material changes (yet) from the nXtRender Batch Renderer)

Render Button

The green button will extract your current model and save it to the disk for use with the Batch Rendering process.

After Extract, the Batch Renderer will load as a separate process with this dialog:

You can set the render size, number of passes, etc.

And then start rendering.

I will add more documentation here later, but for now you may need to just try some things out.

[Albert D Hart]

Here is a quick rundown of the Icons on the top of the render window

Left to Right

• About - loads an about box
• Filter - loads images filters - like Contrast, Sharpen, etc.
• Brightness - adjusts brightness of the rendering
• Save - saves the rendered image in several formats - JPG, PNG and Native Image
  (Also will save the entire model as an Interactive 3D PDF - without lighting)
• 1:1 - fills the screen witht he image - or renders it at actual size
• Orbit - uses OpenGL to orbit, pan and zoom the model and then re-render it
• Clipboard - loads a ton of rendering options you can try out
• Purple globe - loads a material editor to edit materials.
  (The changes are not taked back to Autocad (yet))
• Panels - loads the background and foreground wizard
• Light Bulb - loads Lighting Channels
• FX - saves the image in nXtImage format and loads some functions - line Haze.
• Blue Right arrow - restarts a rendering for more passes
• Green Button - starts a new rendering after you have made changes.

- Click on a material in the image and select "Change Color" to try the "Material Channels" color slider.

Upload you questions, and I will provide more documentation in the days to come.

[Rich Hart]

Note: We've only tested this with AutoCAD 2012 and 2013.

The ribbon will only appear in AutoCAD 2102 if you have Service Pack 2 installed.

[Albert D Hart]

I see there have been a few downloads. Has anyone tried it yet?

There is more documentation here on the Wiki:

http://wiki.renderplus.com/index.php/NXtRender_Batch

[akinlolu olugboji]

Do we need to appload anything thing as I always have to to load accurender. Installed and cannot find any new ribbon. What happens to those of us still struck with the AutoCad Classic View? AUtoCad 2007, 2012 and 2013.

[Rich Hart]

We only wrote this initial version to work with the ribbons in AutoCAD 2012 (SP2) and 2013.

The Plugins ribbon will automatically load the .arx file that it need to get things started.

For example, AutocCAD 2012, 32 bit, will load:

      'C:\Users\Your User Name\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins\nXtRender
Batch.bundle\Contents\RPS_BIN\nXtRibbon_2012.arx'

and then you will have commands NXT_BATCH_RENDER and NXT_BATCH_INFO loaded, the 2 commands behind the buttons on the ribbon.

The other arx's are named with a 2013 or a "_64" suffix on the file name, for the other versions.

I assume that you don't have the ribbon, then you could load that arx and type in the commands to try them, but I haven't tried that.

[akinlolu olugboji]

I have no ribbon, loading the *.arx was success following the path outlined above, but at the command prompt level, I got this error after 10% loading.So what next?

[Rich Hart]

What version of nXt are you running, and where is it installed?

[akinlolu olugboji]

Version 318.

C: Program Files/ AccuRender nxt I believe that is where I always have to appload from since this latedt release.

[akinlolu olugboji]

Also I believe the program keeps going to Program Files (x86) instead of Program Files, hence the error.

[Rich Hart]

We get that path from the registry. I'll check and see if we need to get it from somewhere else.

Assuming that you're running AutoCAD 2012, 64 bit, we need to make sure that these 5 nXt modules are loaded before we can load ours.

  ArAcTexturedMeshObject_18_64.dbx
  AccuRender nXt_18_64.arx
  ArAcad_18_64.arx
  ArAcObjects_18_64.arx
  ArAcTexturedMesh_18_64.arx

Then we load ours:

  RPS_AcadExport_2012_x64.arx

You might be able to get it to run by loading those 5 nXt modules first.

[akinlolu olugboji]

Done all that still not loading.

[Rich Hart]

I see that I stop and throw an error if we don't find those nXt modules where we think they ought to be. I'll post a new version which will let you point to the correct folder if we are not able to get the location correctly from the registry.

It may be though, that if you installed the latest version on nXt, version 321, that the correct location would be put in the registry and the Batch module would start working.

Otherwise, wait, and I will post a new version with a fix for this.