Autocad

AutoCAD – Command MEASUREMENT

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Most of us in Europe work in metric units. We usually start a new file and it’s already preconfigured but sometimes we need to amend something in the file received from someone else and we encounter Imperial units like on the image below:Measurement 3a

Of course changing the UNITS doesn’t help.

Measurement 4 On the list of available scales which we can add still there is no metric scales:

Measurement 1
Only one thing can be done in this situation – command MEASUREMENT need to be entered and its value changed between 1 and 0 (or from 0 to 1 for opposite problem) Command MEASUREMENT is responsible for the file internal units settings where values mean: 0 – Imperial file system 1 – Metric file system

Recently we had this situation in my office so I hope this tip may be helpful to you in the future.

Grasshopper, Rhino

Grasshopper for Rhino – How to start parametric design.

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Parametric design gets recently more and more popular. It gives not known previously endless possibilities for designers. More software starts to incorporate parametric functions or generative components which give ability to design parametric objects or structures. One of the most popular is Grasshopper for Rhino.

“Grasshopper® is a graphical algorithm editor tightly integrated with Rhino’s 3-D modeling tools.“

The best way to learn it (to see what it does) is to watch the main tutorial from the Gasshopper web page. In 2h time it shows various examples how to use it in practice. Take a look.

David Rutten’s Introduction to Grasshopper Webinar from Rhino Tutorials on Vimeo.

 

3DS Max, VRay

3DS Max – Orthographic render with VRay Camera

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Small script allows to set up an orthographic VRay camera in the scene.

You can download it from here: VRay Orthographic Rendering Camera Rig

You just need to set it up once. The script doesn’t need to be loaded/running to render the view later or even on the different machine.

To make a top view just rotate the camera. It is possible to adjust position of the camera (with the rig) and its parameters (focal length and film width) without the script interface.

I needed it to render sections/elevations of a hotel room in my work. It worked fine. Camera cuts the model in the place where is here center (origin).

The viewport doesn’t show orthographic view. The scope of the render needs to be tested.

Here is a quick render I made with this script.Room elevation

 

Bez kategorii

3DS Max – How to make a curtain material.

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There is a great tutorial at RonenBekerman.com blog about how to create realistic curtains. You can find it here. The trick is to use Vray 2 Sided Material with properly adjusted transparency (usually texture map on refraction layer)

I was trying to use this material on the light shade and I’d found a problem when the second side of the material was also visible. My light shade with 2 sided material reversed was darker inside than on outside. Images below explain how this material works and what had happened.

2 sided material-BlackVRay 2SidedMtl – Transparency: BLACK – material not reversed.

2 sided material-GrayVRay 2SidedMtl – Transparency: GRAY – Front and Back materials mixed. Internal side dimmer then before.

2 sided material-WhiteVRay 2SidedMtl – Transparency: WHITE – material reversed. Internal side doesn’t represent the nature at all.

QUESTION: How to adjust the brightness of external side and not loose the brightness of the internal side?

SOLUTION

I have found the way to fix that problem. I added another Vray 2Sided Material to the Front material slot. Here it is:

2 sided material preview

How it works?
With Transparency color in Vray2SidedMtl (2 Sided Material in the image above) in the Front material slot you can adjust the mix between the front and the back material, but then the back material in the main VRay 2 Sided Material (Front/Back Material in the image above) is override by any material in the Back material slot. Black Transparency color in that main 2 sided material ensures that the back side is as bright as possible. Other Transparency color will mix it with Vray 2 Sided Material (2 Sided Material in the image above) in the Front material slot.

It’s not the perfect solution. The light on the front side get weaker if more back material is mixed with it. Ability to blend the front and the back material in overlay or multiply mode would be useful to prevent that but that as I know can be only done in the Photoshop.

Images below present how the material behaves when the main 2 sided material   Transparency is set to black and only the Transparency in the Front material slot is adjusted.

2x2 sided material - black
Transparency: BLACK
2x2 sided material - gray
Transparency: GRAY
2x2 sided material - white
Transparency: WHITE

Sketchup

Sketchup – Edge Tools plugin

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Hello & welcome,

Today I’ll present another set of usefull tools incorporated into a plugin called Edge Tools but in detail I will present only two of them.

You can download the plugin registering at SketchUcation from here.

First tool allow you to split faces into multiple peaces with parallel lines.
You can use the array commands with that tool.

Edge-tools

The second tool I also use a lot erases stray edges.

Edge-tools_stray-edges

This are great useful tools which can help you to do things much quicker.
Have a good lack with them.

3DS Max

3DS Max – Missing Transform Gizmo?!!

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Have ever your Transform Gizmo disappeared?
Here is the solution to this very simple but annoying problem.

1. Hit ‘x‘ on the keyboard.
Transform-Gizmo-BIG

Additionally ‘+‘ and ‘–‘ keys (not on the Num Pad) re-size the gizmo.

It’s also worth knowing that you can toggle on/off the white “Selection brackets” shown above by pressing the ‘J‘ keyboard shortcut.

2. Go to the main 3DS Max Options window under Gizmos tab.
It’s the same option triggered by “x“.
gizmo options

3. When the Gizmo is completely missing check in the menu:
View > Show Transform Gizmo
Show Transform Gizmo

 

3DS Max, VRay

3DS Max – Vray Camera Manager

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Hello everyone,

I was recently really busy working on some visuals for Hilton Hotels and because I was using 3DS Max and VRay hence I have a new idea for the post to share with you.

I would like to encourage you to install a VRay Camera Manager. Similarly as a Light Lister it will give you an icon/button which opens an easy to manage list with all VRay cameras.

To install that script vcm.mcr just drop and drop it to the 3DS Max window or Run it from the MAXScript menu. Apparently nothing will happen but a new position named VRay Camera Manager will be added to a list of available commands in the Customize User Interface window on the Toolbar tab. You can drag and drop this command to any of your open toolbars.Vray camera manager

Version Requirement: 

Tested in in Max 2012, 2013, 2014 but should work in earlier versions

Other Software Required:

VRay 2.0 or higher

CAD Software Tips & Tricks