Lighting Styles dialog box

Create and edit lighting styles for rendered images and animations. Lighting styles can be animated to produce more interesting and visually stimulating results

Access:

Ribbon: Render tab

Scene panel

Lighting Styles

Toolbar

The toolbar is located at the top of the lighting styles list in the Lighting Styles dialog box.

	New Lighting Style	Creates a new default local style. The new style is selected and can be edited.
	Purge Style	Removes the selected local style. Available if a local style is selected and the style is not being used.
	Update Style	Replaces the data for the selected local style with data from the corresponding global style. The local style must: be selected have changed since last updated from the global style.
	Save to Style Library	Saves the selected local style to the style library (on disk). Overwrites an existing global style. The local style must: be selected Read-write in the project file have changed since last updated from the global style.
	New Light	Temporarily opens the Light dialog box to create a light from the selected lighting style, or the lighting style to which the selected light belongs. Available if a light is selected in the styles list.

Styles list browser

Lists global and local lighting styles and their associated lights. If the Use Styles Library option is set to Read-Only in the current project, then only local styles are listed. Local styles have an asterisk (*) following the name. Local styles take precedence over global styles with the same name.

The default is to use the Current Lighting, that is, model environment lighting.

To activate a lighting style for use, right-click and select Activate.

Each lighting style can have one or more light objects positioned in the graphics window.

General tab

Brightness

Affects the intensity of all lights, and works like a global dimmer switch. The default is 100 per cent on a scale of 0 to 100 percent.

Sky Light

Enable activates the sky light controls for use with the selected light style. Sky light provides uniform, directionless scene illumination. Also enables bounced light.

Intensity specifies skylight intensity.

Colorspecifies the color for sky lighting. Default.

Image, when selected, uses colors from the image for sky lighting.

Image path and browser specifies the image to be used as a light source.

Indirect tab

Available when you select a lighting style in the dialog box tree list.

Ambience

Controls the intensity or amount of indirect illumination in the scene. In a range from 0 to 100 per cent, the default ambience is 10 per cent.

Bounced Light

Enable, when selected, provides a subtle type of global lighting that bounces from one object to another within the scene, with no additional setup required.

Quality specifies light quality, with settings for Low (100), Medium (500), High (900), and Custom. With Custom you specify the number of rays used. Higher ray counts require more render time. The default is Medium.

Note: When you select the Skylight option, bounced light is enabled and used in connection with the skylight parameters.

Shadows tab

Defines the shadows in the lighting style. Available when you select a lighting style in the lighting styles tree.

Type	No Shadow. Sharp Shadows. Default. Soft Shadows. Takes more time to compute, but are more realistic.
Quality	Low (256x256) resolution. Medium (512x512) resolution. Default. High (1024x1024) resolution. Available only if Soft Shadows is selected.
Density	Controls the shadow darkness using a slider. The default density is 100 per cent, the darkest shadow. To lighten shadows, reduce the density.
Light Parameters	Specifies the spherical diameter of the soft shadow cast. The diameter specified should be greater than the diameter of the part or assembly being rendered, or the area of interest being rendered.

Position tab

Orientation

Orients light styles to specified planes.

Provides a list of existing ground planes from which to choose. The default ground plane is the XY ground plane.

Flip, when selected, flips the direction of the light style.

Select, an alternate method, a work plane or model face as the orientation for the light style.

Note: If a scene style used by a lighting style for orientation is deleted, the lighting style reverts to the default XY ground plane. A message notifies you when you enter the Studio environment.

Scale

Modifies the lighting style scale. The initial 100% scale is defined in relation to the model when the light style is selected as the active style. Subsequent scaling is manual, ranging from 10 to 1000 percent.

Position

Specifies the coordinates for the location of the lighting style in relation to the top-level assembly X, Y, Z origin. Changing the coordinates repositions the lighting style..

Import

Use the Import command to import individual lighting styles that were exported and distributed.

Click Import.
In the Import dialog box, navigate to the directory containing the style you want to import.
Select the style and click Open.
If the style name exists, you are prompted to overwrite the existing style with the imported style.

Lighting Styles dialog box context menu commands

In the Lighting Styles dialog box, in the list of styles, you can right-click any style and access the following commands based on the current status of the style:

Active	When checked, denotes the active lighting style of the document. To deactivate the style, click to remove the check.
Rename Lighting Style	Places the style name in edit mode, enter the new name and click outside the edit field.
New Lighting Style	Creates a lighting style using the default lighting style parameters.
Copy Lighting Style	Creates a lighting style using the content of the selected style. A copy name is provided and can be changed.
Purge Style	The style, if unused, is deleted and removed from the list in the style type browser.
Update Style	Replaces the data for the selected local style with data from the corresponding global style. The local style must: be selected have changed since last updated from the global style.
Save Style to Library	Saves the selected local style to the style library (on disk), overwriting the existing global style if there is one. The local style must: be selected Read-write in the project file have changed since last updated from the global style.
New Light	Displays the New Light definition dialog box. Make the desired selections and settings and click OK to add the new light.
Import	Imports the selected style into the document as a local style. If a naming conflict occurs, you are prompted to overwrite the existing style with the imported style. The style file extension is .styxml.
Export Style	Exports the selected style to the filename you provide. The style file extension is .styxml.

Lighting Styles browser node context menu commands

In the browser, right-click the lighting style and access the following commands:

Edit	Displays the Lighting Styles dialog box with the active lighting style selected and ready for editing. Edit the style or individual lights.
New Light	Displays the New Light definition dialog box. Make the desired selections and settings and click OK to add the new light.
Enabled	Enabled lights are selectable and affect the scene. When disabled the light is selectable in the browser and does not affect the scene.
Visibility	Toggles light object visibility in the scene. It does not affect scene lighting.
Animate Light	Displays the Animate Light dialog box. You define the light position and parameters for the current animation action.