When creating a custom suite workflow that exports a building model to Showcase, define settings carefully to achieve the desired results.
Appearance: Visual style
These options are of two general types: abstract and realistic. Abstract styles are recommended for conceptual designs or work in progress, as they clearly show the relative sizes and proportions of objects. Realistic styles are recommended for more advanced designs, as these styles show details more clearly.
Options
- Realistic - No Shadows. Provides faster performance.
- Realistic - Ambient Shadows. Screen space ambient occlusion (SSAO) is active, providing soft shadows. Directional environment shadows are disabled.
- Realistic - Shadows. Directional environment shadows are active and ambient shadows are disabled.
- Realistic - Both Shadows and Ambient Shadows.This is the default visual style. It enables both ambient and environment shadows for a more realistic hardware rendering of the scene.
- Realistic - Ray Tracing.This option produces the most realistic visual style. With ray tracing, objects can reflect each other. Other benefits of ray tracing are more accurate rendering of transparency and scene illumination.
- Abstract - Flat Color. This option displays the model without shading. It turns on geometry edges and renders the materials as the average color of their textures. Ambient shadows, reflections, and the environment light are not displayed.
- Abstract - Toon Color. This option renders the scene as a cartoon illustration, using geometry edges and the average colors of the materials. Ambient shadows and reflections are not displayed.
- Abstract - Shaded Textures. This option generates a shaded look for the model. It displays the geometry edges and renders the materials with textures, but without reflections or bump. Ambient shadows and reflections are not displayed.
- Abstract - Tech. This is an ideal choice for illustrations of models with reflective materials. The textures and environment reflections are enabled. Ambient shadows are not displayed. Both the geometry and the environment are rendered as an illustration.
- Abstract - Realistic with Edges. This option renders the model realistically, and enhances the look by adding geometry edges. Ambient shadows and environment reflections are enabled.
Background Environment
These settings provide the visual context for your design. The environments are not simple background images. They cast light, so the surroundings can be reflected in the surfaces of your design. Choices are largely subjective, but some guidelines are provided.
Options
- Default environment. Set the environment to use for smaller designs.
- If model is larger than. Specify the maximum linear dimension in meters for a smaller design.
- Use large-scale environment. Set the environment to use for designs with a linear dimension that exceeds the specified value.
- Environment ground level. Specify the ground level in relation to the model. The ground plane receives shadows from the model. It can be placed at the bottom of the model, or select Ask User if you want the user to specify where the background environment floor is to be positioned when the workflow runs.
- Center environment on model. This setting centers the environment without moving the model. Moving the model is not recommended when you import constraints or when you assemble the scene out of multiple files.
Showcase Environment and Large-Scale Environment Options
The following scale-independent environments use a back plate (BP), do not scale when you zoom out, and can be used with very large models.
- BP Black-White (Scale Independent - Abstract)
- BP Generic (Scale Independent - Abstract). Gray background.
- BP Gradient (Scale Independent - Abstract)
- Empty (Scale Independent - Abstract). No image, which is good for controlling color display.
The following environments are recommended for large designs, up to 70 m in size.
- Grass Field (Building Size - Realistic)
- White Room (Building Size - Abstract)
- Black Room (Building Size - Abstract)
The following environments are recommended for designs up to 7 m in size.
- Country Road (Car Size - Realistic)
- Daylight Gypsum Crater (Car Size - Realistic)
- Desert Dawn Road (Car Size - Realistic)
- Docks (Car Size - Realistic)
- Dry Lake Bed (Car Size - Realistic)
- Exhibit Hall (Car Size - Realistic)
- Night Plaza (Car Size - Realistic)
- Night Street (Car Size - Realistic)
- Old Warehouse (Car Size - Realistic)
- Sepulveda (Car Size - Realistic)
- Stuttgart (Car Size - Realistic)
- Generic (Car Size - Abstract)
- Green Room (Car Size - Abstract)
- Photo Studio (Car Size - Abstract)
The following environments are recommended for small designs, up to 1 m in size.
- Empty Lab (Chair Size - Realistic)
- ID Hardwood (Chair Size - Realistic)
- ID Bloom (Chair Size - Abstract)
- ID Box Sweep (Chair Size - Abstract)
- ID Simple Skylight (Chair Size - Abstract)
- ID Speed (Chair Size - Abstract)
- ID Tech (Chair Size - Abstract)
Navigation
Create walk zone for interactive walkthrough . Select this option to generate walkable areas in the scene, based on visible objects and the environment floor. This feature is useful for large, immersive scenes that contain traversable characteristics such as stairs and hallways.