Use Ray Trace Visual Style

The Ray Trace visual style is a photorealistic rendering mode that allows panning and zooming with your Revit model.


  1. The Ray Trace visual style is a photorealistic rendering mode that allows panning and zooming with your Revit model. While using this visual style, the rendering of the model starts at a low resolution, but quickly increases fidelity to appear more photorealistic. You have the option to set lighting, photographic exposure, and background from the Graphic Display Options dialog during or before entering Ray Trace mode. You can use the View Cube, Navigation Wheel, and other camera operations to interactively walkthrough your model.

    1. Orient your camera to a desired view angle, and set lights, materials, and category visibility to desired states.
    2. Select (Ray Trace) from the Visual Style icon on the View Control Bar. The Progressive Ray Trace Mode begins by caching all the model information. The time to cache varies depending on the model's size and complexity. The rendering automatically starts at a draft resolution and, within seconds, appears increasingly more photorealistic. The rendering continues to a high-quality, photorealistic image until it is explicitly stopped. You can change view settings such as background, exposure, and light scheme, in the Graphic Display Options dialog without exiting Ray Trace mode. Also, you can orbit, zoom, pan, or re-orient the camera, using the view cube or the navigation wheel. Once a new camera angle is set, the rendering process automatically restarts.
    3. Select (Stop) on the Interactive Ray Trace panel, or click in the drawing area when the view is satisfactory.
    4. Select (Save) on the Interactive Ray Trace panel to save the image to the project under the Project Browser Renderings node. Images are saved at screen resolution.
    5. Select (Close) on the Interactive Ray Trace panel to exit Ray Trace mode and return to the previous visual style. Alternatively, you can choose another visual style to exit Ray Trace mode.
    Note: Ray Trace is not available from the Model Style in the Graphic Display Options dialog.
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