The Environments Tab

Use the Environments tab to work with sun and sky properties, and exposure settings.

The sun and sky effects are only shown if the exposure is turned on, otherwise the background in the Scene View will become white.

Sun

Sets and modifies the properties of the sun.

On

Turns the sun on and off. If lighting is not enabled in the model, this setting has no effect. To control the model lighting, go to the Viewpoint tab Render Style panel.

General

Sets the general properties of the sun.

Intensity Factor

Sets the intensity or brightness of the sun. The range is from 0 (no light) to maximum. The higher the number, the brighter the light.

Color

Use the color picker to choose the color of the sun.

Sun Disk Appearance

These settings affect the background only. They control the appearance of the sun disk.

Disk Scale

Specifies the scale of the sun disk (1.0 = correct size).

Glow Intensity

Specifies the intensity of the sun glow. Values are 0.0-25.0.

Disk Intensity

Specifies the intensity of the sun disk. Values are 0.0-25.0.

Sun Angle Calculator

Sets the angle of the sun.

Relative Lighting

Uses a relative sun position to the building or viewpoint to quickly generate a rendering result using exterior sun lighting. This is the default setting.

Azimuth

Specifies the horizontal coordinate system azimuth coordinate. The range is 0 to 360 degrees. The default setting is 135.

Altitude

Specifies the altitude or elevation above the horizon. The range is 0 - 90. The default setting is 50.

Geographical

Select Geographical to use the sun/location settings.

Date

Sets the current date setting.

Time

Sets the current time setting.

Daylight Saving

Sets the current setting for daylight saving time.

Location

Opens the Geographic Location dialog.

Sky

Sets the properties of the sky.

Render Sky Illumination

Selecting this check box turns on the sun light effect the Scene View. The effect will be visible for both realistic and photorealistic visual styles. If this check box is clear, the sun light will not be shown.

Intensity Factor

Provides a way to magnify the effect of the sky light. Values are 0.0-MAX. Default value is 1.0.

Haze

Determines the magnitude of scattering effects in the atmosphere. Values are 0.0-15.0. Default value is 0.0.

Night Color

Use the color picker to choose the color of the night sky.

Horizon Height

Use the slider to adjust location of the ground plane.

Blur

Use the slider to adjust the amount of blurring between ground plane and sky.

Ground Color

Use the color picker to choose the color of the ground plane.

Exposure

Controls how real-world luminance values are converted into an image.

On

Turns the exposure (or tone mapping) on and off. The effects will be visible for both realistic and photorealistic visual styles. If you deselect this check box, the scene background will be white, and sun and sky simulation will not be shown.

Exposure Value

Overall brightness of the rendered image. This setting is comparable to the exposure compensation setting in cameras with automatic exposure. Enter a value between -6 (brighter) and 16 (darker). The default value is 6.

Highlights

Light level for the brightest areas of the image. Enter a value between 0 (darker highlights) and 1 (brighter highlights). The default is 0.25.

Midtones

Light level for areas of the image whose brightness lies between the highlights and the shadows. Enter a value between 0.1 (darker mid tones) and 4 (brighter mid tones). The default is 1.

Shadows

Light levels for the darkest areas of the image. Enter a value between 0.1 (lighter shadows) and 4 (darker shadows). The default is 0.2.

White Point

Color temperature of the light sources that should display as white in the rendered image. This setting is similar to the White Balance setting on digital cameras. The default value is 6500.

If the rendered image looks too orange, reduce the White Point value. If the rendered image looks too blue, increase the White Point value.

Saturation

Intensity of colors in the rendered image. Enter a value between 0 (gray/black/white) and 5 (more intense colors). The default is 1.