AR Studio testing

[Peter Milner]

Okay, a couple more questions.

When AR Studio is running inside AutoCAD, I can't work on the CAD model unless I close Studio down. Is this correct behaviour?

How do I add a new light in Studio? I can edit existing nXt ones, but can't see how to add a brand new light source.

[Peter Milner]

Just tried tweaking the view of the render and now the pre-render preview doesn't match the preview during rendering (see screen shots below).

[Peter Milner]

Okay. It appears to only match for the original window size when Studio is launched.

Changing the window size from large to small, or vice versa causes a mismatch.

[Roy Hirshkowitz]

I'll see if I can reproduce-- thanks.

[Roy Hirshkowitz]

There's an autocad command for tagging objects as lights-- it's called something like arstudiolight-- I'll check.

*****

You can start an out-of-process final rendering and close ArStudio down and continue to work without shutting the rendering.  It's on the Destination popdown of the Render tab.  I think this is what you mean.

[Peter Milner]

It's more that, when putting a render together, I work on the model, run a quick test render, go back to the model to adjust/add things, run a quick test render etc etc.

Having to close studio down and then re-open it every time I want to change something greatly slows the process down.

I've never used AutoCAD directly for any rendering stuff - lights, cameras, textures etc. I've always done it through Accurender. Looks like I'll have to learn something new.

One other point: I find the render window navigation very clunky, as to navigate you have to keep clicking on different buttons for different types of movement. The nXt walkabout worked extremely well as you could control your view with just the mouse (left button-swivel left/right/up/down, right button - move left/right/up/down, scroll wheel - move forwards/backwards).

[Roy Hirshkowitz]

Yes, it will be different.  Typing arstudio should be roughly the same operation as "running a quick test render"-- it may be a little slower, and the first time you type it, it will certainly be slower (it was before).  Hopefully, it will make up for that with the immediate feedback you get on material changes, etc..

The few additional commands are not really "using AutoCAD directly"-- they're my commands.  They can be easily located on a palette and/or toolbar that says "AccuRender Studio" on it.

If you select the pointer tool on the render window (it's selected by default), the right mouse button and the scroll wheel gives you access to all the navigation functions like before.  Using the shift and ctrl keys modify these for panning and walking respectively.