About Point Lights

About Point Lights

Point Lights

A normal point light does not target an object, but illuminates everything around it. Point lights can be used for general lighting effects and simulate lighting sources such as candles and light bulbs.

A target point light has additional target properties so it can be directed to an object. It can also be created from a point light by changing the Targeted property of the point light from No to Yes.

In the standard lighting workflow, you can set a point light manually so its intensity diminishes with respect to distance either linearly, according to the inverse square of the distance, or not at all. By default, the attenuation is set to None.
Starting with Toolbox 2016-based products, all standard lights are calculated as photometric lights. It is recommended to update all standard lights in a scene to photometric lights.

Point Lights in Photometric Workflow

A point light can have photometric distribution properties. The attenuation for a photometric point light is always set to the inverse square.

When the LIGHTINGUNITS system variable is set to 1 (American units) or 2 (International SI units) for photometric lighting, additional properties are available for a point light. The following photometric properties can be set via the Properties palette:
  1. Lamp Intensity. Specifies the inherent brightness of the light. Specifies the intensity, flux or illuminance of the lamp.
  2. Resulting Intensity. Gives the final brightness of the light. (Product of lamp intensity and intensity factor. Read-only.)
  3. Lamp Color. Specifies the inherent color of the light in Kelvin temperature or standard.
  4. Resulting Color. Gives the final color of the light. This is determined by a combination of the filter and lamp colors. (Product of filter and lamp color. Read-only.)
When the drawing lighting units are photometric, the attenuation type property becomes disabled. Photometric lights have fixed, inverse-square attenuation.

The following image is an example of a photometric point light with the photometric properties outlined on the Properties palette:




In the legacy standard lighting workflow, you can set a point light manually so its intensity diminishes with respect to distance either linearly, according to the inverse square of the distance, or not at all. By default, the attenuation is set to None.

Powered by  AutoCAD ®

    • Related Articles

    • About Lighting

      Default Lighting When there are no lights in a scene, the scene is rendered with default lighting. Default lighting is derived from one or two distant light sources that follow the viewpoint as you orbit around the model. All faces in the model are ...

    • About Weblights

      A weblight (web) is a 3D representation of the light intensity distribution of a light source. Weblights can be used to represent anisotropic (non-uniform) light distributions derived from data provided by manufacturers of real-world lights. This ...

    • Creating a Point Light in Photometric Workflow

      1. Click Visualize tab  Lights panel (expanded)  Lighting Units drop-down  American Lighting Units    (find) or International Lighting Units   (find). Photometric lighting is enabled, and American or International lighting units is set. 2. Click ...

    • Working with Lighting Settings

      Set a Drawing to Photometric Lighting Choose one of the following: To enable International lighting units, click Visualize tab  Lights panel  Lighting Units drop-down  International Lighting Units. To enable American lighting units, click Visualize ...

    • To Work with Custom Render Presets

      Display the Render Presets Manager Do one of the following to display the Render Presets Manager palette:  Click View tab > Palettes panel > Render Presets Manager.  Click Visualize tab > Render panel > Dialog box launcher.  At the Command prompt, ...

    • Recent Articles

    • Toolbox Release Notes | Build 25.1.1204.641

      The following release notes apply to Toolbox build 25.1.1204.641 Toolbox Login Screen Update Fig. 1: The updated Toolbox Login interface. The Toolbox Login interface has had several changes applied to it to enhance its usability and allow for greater ...

    • Toolbox Release Notes | Build 25.1.1120.641

      The following release notes apply to Toolbox build 25.1.1120.641 Mouse Wheel Fix There was a reported issue in certain interfaces (such as report groups) in which hovering over a dropdown menu (such as Output Type) would result in the options within ...

    • Dynamic Dimensioning in Toolbox BSB

      When applying dimensions to products and other solids in Toolbox BSB, by default, all dimensions are drawn in 2D on the Y plane, requiring one to switch to a top view (or an appropriately high isometric view) to see them. BricsCAD has a feature that ...

    • Toolbox Release Notes | Build 25.1.1107.641

      The following release notes apply to Toolbox build 25.1.1107.641. Subassembly Prompt Fixes A pair of issues were reportedly occurring when attempting to work with subassembly prompts in the Edit Design Data interface. Subassemblies copied to the ...

    • Microvellum Foundation Library Release Notes | Build 25.1024

      The following release notes apply to the Microvellum Foundation Library build 25.1024. Additions Added Face Profile Options to the Door Wizard for enhanced design flexibility. Users can now apply decorative visual profiles to doors, drawer fronts, ...