Rendering Settings

 

1. Current material: This variable sets which material applies to new entities. The default setting is (ByLayer), meaning that whichever material is designated as the Global material is used.
2. Lighting units: This variable controls which unit the lights of your model use. 
   
1. [0] = Enables generic lighting. No defined unit.
2. [1] = Enables American lighting units: Foot-Candles.
3. [2] = Enables International lighting units: Lux.
4. Web lights can be created only if the LIGHTINGUNITS system variable is set to 1 or 2.
3. Default lighting: This variable controls if default lighting overrides other lights in the drawing. Default lighting is a distant light that follows the viewing direction and can be set per viewport. 
1. [0] = Default lighting is used if no lights are switched ON.
2. [1] = Default lighting is used instead of the light sources defined in the drawing.
4. Linear contrast: This variable controls the ambient light intensity. Values between -10 (maximum ambient light) and 10 (no ambient light) are accepted. 
5. Linear brightness: This variable controls the scaling factor for light intensity. Values between -10 and 10 are accepted. The default value is 0 (no scaling). Negative values decrease light intensity; positive values increase light intensity. This setting can vary per viewport.
6. Render using hardware: Choose User software only (slower) if hardware rendering fails. It may be necessary to restart the software after changing the setting.
7. Real world scale: Controls the rendering of materials with units set to real-world scale, rather than drawing
8. Sky status: Specifies whether sky illumination is computed at render time. (Not yet supported)
9. Texture map path: Defines the search path for texture map images. 
1. The BricsCAD program folder has 3 subfolders under Textures, with each containing the same images in different resolutions.
   
1. Folder 1’s images have a resolution of 256 x 256.
2. Folder 2’s images have a resolution of 512 x 512.
3. Folder 3’s images have a resolution of 1024 x 1024.
2. If the Diffuse map setting of a material uses the image name only (not path), you can control the quality of a rendered image by setting the TextureMapPath user preference to folder 1, 2 or 3.
10. Tile mode light synch: Controls the synchronization of lighting in all model space viewports. (Internal use only)
    

Rendering Presets

1. Materials: Select whether the materials assigned to 3D solids are displayed in the rendering. Materials themselves can be controlled via the “Materials” section of the Drawing Explorer. 
2. Shadows: Select whether shadows will display in the rendering. To change the specific location of the shadows, change the location of your lighting in drawing space. 
3. Ray Tracing: Ray tracing is a 3D graphical setting wherein lighting and shadows can be assigned to emulate the reflections and refractions of real life, to give the rendering a more realistic visual style.
   
1. Max Depth: Specifies the maximum total number of times light bounces and refracts.
2. Max Reflections: Specifies the maximum times that light beams bounce off entities.
3. Max Refractions: Specifies the maximum times that light refract through transparent entities.
4. Processing: Specifies how the rendered image is processed, applied to renderings sent to a separate window.
1. Tile Size: Sets the size of the tile, representing the area of the rendered image being processed. The default value in all premade presets is 128.
2. Tile Order: Defines the order in which the tiles are generated.
   
1. Hilbert: renders with a Hilbert curve, a continuous fractal space-filling curve pattern. (Default)
2. Spiral: renders in a counterclockwise spiral from the center.
3. Left to right: renders vertical columns, starting from the bottom left corner.
4. Right to left: renders vertical columns, starting from the bottom right corner.
5. Top to bottom: renders horizontal rows, starting at the top left corner.
6. Bottom to top: renders horizontal rows, starting at the bottom left corner.
   

Premade Presets

1. Draft: Shadows and materials enabled, ray tracing is disabled, with a max depth, reflection, and refraction level of 3. 
2. Low: Shadows and materials enabled, ray tracing is enabled, with a max depth, reflection, and refraction level of 3.
3. Medium: Shadows and materials enabled, ray tracing is enabled, with a max depth, reflection, and refraction level of 5.
4. High: Shadows and materials enabled, ray tracing is enabled, with a max depth, reflection, and refraction level of 7.
5. Presentation: Shadows and materials enabled, ray tracing is enabled, with a max depth, reflection, and refraction level of 9.
   

Custom Presets

 

1. Cube: Displays a preview of the selected material on a cube.
2. Cylinder: Displays a preview of the selected material on a cylinder.
3. Sphere: Displays a preview of the selected material on a sphere.
4. Light Intensity: This slider sets the light intensity in the Preview window.

Color

 

1. Diffuse: Sets the diffuse (base) color. Clicking the colored field will open a color index to manually select the color from. If Inherit is checked on, the base color of the entity is instead applied.
2. Ambient: Sets the ambient color. Clicking the colored field will open a color index to manually select the color from. If Inherit is checked on, the base color of the entity is instead applied.
3. Highlights: Sets how highlights appear on the material. You can select Non-metallic or Metallic.
4. Glossiness: This slider determines the level of glossiness of the material surface. Select a number in the range of 0 – 100.
5. Transparency: This slider determines the level of transparency of the selected material. You can choose a number in the range of 0 – 100.
6. Refraction Index: This slider determines the refraction index of the material surface. You can choose a number in the range of 1.00 – 3.00.
7. Self-Illumination: This slider determines the level of the self-illumination of the material. You can choose a number in the range of 0 – 100.
8. Reflectivity: This slider determines how reflective the material surface is. You can choose a number in the range of 0 – 100.

Maps 

Note: See "Texture Map Path” in the Rendering Settings section for information on the folders images and image sizes in BSB's files.  

1. Diffuse map: Diffuse maps apply a texture to the surface of a material, such as wood grains, bricks, or tiles. Select the location of the map using the selection field beneath the slider.
   
1. Blend factor: This slider controls the intensity of the texture map. In this way you can blend the texture map with the Color settings. You can set the Blend factor in a range of 0 to 100.
2. Transparency Map: If Transparency Map is selected, the selected Texture Map image defines a transparency map, with white pixels invisible, black pixels opaque, and gray pixels transparent.
1. Blend factor: This slider controls the amount of transparency that is applied to the transparency map, overwriting the transparency level set in the Color section. If this slider is set to 0, the transparency values of the map will be ignored, and transparency will be entirely based on the value set in the Color section. If this slider is set to 100, then the transparency value will be controlled completely by the Texture Map image. 
3. Cutout Map: If Cutout Map is selected, then the selected transparency map defines cutouts. White pixels are visible, and black pixels are invisible. 
4. Cutout Map Inverted: Inverts the Cutout Map effect. Black pixels are visible and white pixels are invisible.
5. Bump map: Simulates bumps and wrinkles on the surface of an object. The result is a bumpy surface although the surface of the underlying object is not modified.
1. Blend factor: Defines the amount of bump which is applied to the material.
   

Note: If you select a colored image for the transparency, cutout, or cutout inverted map, it will be converted to a grayscale image in the background. The alpha channel of the image is ignored.

Map Transformation

This section contains the width, height, and positional factors for texture maps.

1. Scale: The Width and Height fields. The size of the texture map image is 1 drawing unit multiplied by the Width and Height values. For example, if the Width and Height factors of both are set to 25, then the size of the texture image would be 25 x 25 drawing units.
2. Projection type: Defines the way the material is projected onto the object:
   
1. Planar
2. Box
3. Cylinder
4. Sphere

Position

1. Offset: The values entered in these fields measure the offset (in drawing units) that the tiles of the texture map are set away from the material origin.
2. Rotation: Sets the rotation of the texture maps.