Lights and materials can be added to a 3D model before a photorealistic image is rendered with the program's renderer.
The following outlines the basic process of setting up a 3D model and rendering a photorealistic image from a scene.
For information on rendering drawings that were originally setup in AutoCAD 2015-based products and earlier, see "About Migrating 3D Models."
| Task | Related Commands |
|---|---|
| 1. Create a 3D model containing the objects to be rendered with 3D solids, surfaces, meshes, and 3D faces. | 3DFACE, 3DMESH, BOX, CONE, CYLINDER, EDGESURF, EXTRUDE, LOFT, MESH, PFACE, PLANESURF, POLYSOLID, PRESSPULL, PYRAMID, REVOLVE, REVSURF, RULESURF, SPHERE, SURFBLEND, SURFNETWORK, SURFOFFSET, SURFPATCH, SWEEP, TABSURF, TORUS, WEDGE |
| 2. Define the views of the 3D model to render. Use named views for consistency and to make switching views easier. |
VIEW |
| 3. Assign a background to the current view. | BACKGROUND, VIEW |
| 4. Create materials to be attached to 3D objects. | MATBROWSEROPEN, MATEDITOROPEN |
| 5. Attach materials to 3D objects directly or by layer. | MATERIALASSIGN, MATERIALATTACH |
| 6. Add user-defined lights or use default lighting. Note: The LIGHTINGUNITS system variable must be set to 1 or 2.
Enable image-based lighting as an alternative to default lighting, or to fill an entire scene with light and eliminate dark areas. |
DISTANTLIGHT, FREESPOT, FREEWEB, LIGHT, POINTLIGHT, SPOTLIGHT, TARGETPOINT, WEBLIGHT, RENDEREXPOSURE |
| 7. Optionally, enable and define settings for the Sun & Sky based lighting when rendering indoor or outdoor architectural scenes. Note: The LIGHTINGUNITS system variable must be set to 1 or 2.
|
SUNPROPERTIES |
| 8. Set the Low render preset current. | RENDERPRESETS |
| 9. Render a region of the 3D model to test the attached materials and lighting. | RENDERCROP |
| 10. Adjust the materials and lighting in the scene based on the results of the test rendering. | |
| 11. Set the rendering environment and exposure settings. | RENDEREXPOSURE |
| 12. Create another test rendering; make any desired changes to the materials, lighting, and general rendering environment settings. | |
| 13. Set a render preset with the best rendering quality desired current and create the final rendered image. | RENDER, RENDERPRESETS |
| 14. Save the rendered image to a raster image file. | RENDER, SAVEIMG |