LIGHT FIXTURES AND LEGACY LIGHT FIXTURES

[chris castelein]

So i received an email declaring nXt is ready for prime time.. so not having been here in 6 months i quickly raced to this website only to find out my membership has been deactivated and must re-apply.

(not sure why, but ok) (having purchased early i wouldve thought i was automaticaly approved)

 

 i downloaded and updated... converted my current project to nXt format and test rendered... well only my primitive light sources were translated. None of the ies light fixtures inserted emit light. they are seen by nXt, but have no output. Nor are they editable to have output. All features are greyed out. They say they are ON but do not show. so searching the forums and downloadable content i see nothing but HDRI's for light fixtures... sooo here are the Questions:

 

1) are there downloadable light fixtures/libraries? (ies..?)

2) is there a way to convert ar3/ar4 light librarires and ies light libraries to nXt format?

3) is there a way to make inserted legacy lights function?

4) is nXt ready for prime time?

5) do i/ should i convert all my ar4 materials at this time?

 

i know, lots of questions. but wasnt finding anything searching the forums.

thanks

ccastelein

 

 

[Roy Hirshkowitz]

Most legacy lights should work OK-- if you've got some examples that aren't working upload them using the link under Support->Upload a File with a comment and I'll take a look. nXt does not have lighting libs or a way to convert the old ones.

I'm not sure what you mean by ready for prime time. We have quite a few users using it for commercial purposes (and have for some time.) All of the images produced on the Gallery are done using nXt. You now must pay for the product in order to use it without restrictions. On the other hand, I plan to continue development at the same level as before, with frequent updates.

This product should probably not be viewed as an update to ar4-- it is a complete rewrite which can understand some of the old data.

[chris castelein]

This directly from bob mcneels email:
"AccuRender Newsletter

October 2010

Greetings,
We are pleased to announce that AccuRender nXt for AutoCAD is released."

Sounds "finished" to me... but anyway...
sooo.. im confused.. will there not be a library of light fixtures? it is/was a great boon to be able to look thru a library of light fixtures to get your can lights, flourscent lights, track lights, wall sconces, etc. and not have to create a light fixture every time you need a light. Being able to "see" the light by thumbnail is very nice... i see that im able to tag an object in nXt with a ies file but i have no idea what "a-1.ies" file is.. (example of ies file from ar3 folder)
it occurred to me that this file im using also had a problem render RPC objects and maybe the file itself is causing problems on multiple levels.. i will try again with a new "clean" template and re-post....

but my above question still stands.. will there not be a light library and if not, why not, and how will light fixtures be organized?

Thanks for the prompt response roy! I appreciate it.
ccastelein

[Roy Hirshkowitz]

The Ledalite thing you sent me is definitely not working-- I'll take a closer look in a couple of days to figure out if there's an easy way to make it work.

Light fixtures are just blocks now-- they can be inserted into drawings in the usual way-- they already have thumbnails in AutoCAD-- the Luminaire switches in Object Properties apply to these. No additional UI is planned-- use file and folders.

No plans for a fixture library right now-- doesn't mean we (or other users) will never do it.

[Eric B]

As there are no plans for a fixture library now, and given the history of AR and its support libraries, I would assume there will never be an AR5 fixture library.

Unfortunately, this means that any manner of standard template or default light set-up will not get established. There will be no template generic fixture with all the basic parameters set up such as, position of primary light source, direction of light, type of light, generic base material.
Granted these are just blocks now but knowing what works better within AR5 would help and a stock library would go a long way toward that end.

If you recall, most of the stock fixtures that came with AR3 were just variations on a basic fixture so that there was some consistency. Remember the typical errors that people had when they first started to create fixtures - like having the light source slightly inside of some element or exactly in line with the ceiling plane? I studied the stock fixtures to understand how to make my custom lights work.

If we leave it up to all the collective users to generate things do not be surprised when you keep getting the same basic questions again and again. Or just be slightly proactive and dump a few simple starting point working fixtures in a prototype library to suggest a structure and method of indexing like what was done with simple stock materials.

Remember all the problems with the 2x2 stock fluorescent fixtures from AR3 in AR4?