TheKitchenAbode

Here's the last texture file. Sorry for all of the separate files, for some reason it was limiting my upload file sizes. Just unzip them all and place everything in one folder. Abode_LP_Kitchen_PBR Sample_Textures 3.zip

Here's the 2nd texture file. Abode_LP_Kitchen_PBR Sample_Textures 2.zip

Here is the first texture file. Abode_LP_Kitchen_PBR Sample_Textures 1.zip

Had some time to tidy this up a bit. Here's the plan file. Will send textures next. Abode_LP_Kitchen_PBR Sample_Plan.zip

Never had that problem with activating deactivating. The message that pops up telling you the need to deactivate your other license has a link to your login. Just go there and deactivate your other computer and then go back and activate on the new one. You don't activate through the CA site, you just deactivate. When you load CA on your laptop it will check again to make sure no other system is activated and then it will go directly into CA.

Suggest you give CA Sales Support a call. They will let you know what your options are and possibly the fact that your are also a student you may qualify for some additional discounting. They have always been very helpful when I have called and they do try hard to come up with something to retain you.

Thanks Alvar. Yes, I think the best way would be for me to just share the entire plan. Those interested can then just look through it to see what I did. Also, it would be easier for me to explain my thinking if we are all looking at the exact same thing. Just need to clean it up a bit, lot's of left over junk from playing around. Will likely take a few days before I can get this done.

Here is an exterior PBR with reflective glass. Here is the latest interior PBR with reflective glass. Will try to tidy things up a bit over the next couple of days and then post the texture files for others to play with.

I've also completely dropped using Ray Trace. PBR'ing is so fast, essentially live, and I personally think better results can be achieved. Totally agree that exteriors are a bit more challenging, once again especially the glass. Have also been playing with this aspect and I'm getting some positive results. Will post some suggestions soon once I gain a higher degree of consistency.

Thanks. Yes it's definitely addictive, just a personal thing, I've always enjoyed hunting for "Waldo".

I've been doing a similar thing , using a texture that has fine directional lines and the general properties material settings, seems to work fairly well for items like wine glasses and bottles. For flat glass such as table tops and cabinet door panels I am still using a texture but something more soft and wispy. I posted this the other day, you can see how the glass is PBR'ing. One thing I'm doing differently is that I don't use the "Metallic" check box under General Properties, instead I copy my texture file and place it in the Metallic Map box. Transparency is somewhere between 50% - 70%, Roughness between 0% - 20%, colour is something like an 80% greyscale. Still playing with this but I think with a bit more work and some customized maps a realistic glass effect could be achieved.

Thanks, still playing with this to see what other improvements can be obtained. Focus right now is to get the glass looking better. The hardwood is the Walnut 5" Plank - Natural from the CA main library. The properties are "Polished", U & V Roughness = 10%. I also adjusted the color. Concerning the PBR settings, the camera exposure is 0.25, brightness is 75%. The sun is 100,000 Lux and as a reference the recessed lights are 3,000 lumen. However, I would not take these settings as a golden rule, they will vary according to each scene. As I have noted before, it seems that the most important first thing is to find the right balance between the suns direct and indirect contribution and that of the interior light fixtures. Here is the scene showing how it changes according to the type of light. This demonstrates a bit of the challenge, neither of the 1st three scenes are acceptable, 1st scene is too dark, 2nd scene is better but sun is way overexposing certain areas, 3rd scene better overall balance but lights are causing overexposed regions. 4th and final, everything balances out. I have made no adjustment to any properties other than turning the Sun and Lights on or off. No Sun, no lights. Bright areas are just where I have added some emissivity to some materials. Just the sun turned "ON" Just the light fixtures turned "ON" Both Sun and Light fixtures turned "ON" As can be seen there is a countering effect that takes place between the sun and the lights. When they are on their own the scenes exhibit regions of over exposure but together this overexposure seems to cancel out. As you can likely also deduce, it would be a total waste of time attempting to adjust material properties in any of the scenes other than the last one. Lighting first and then material properties.

Hi Cheryl - Not yet as I'm still working on it. The glass is a bit tricky and how well it shows when PBR'ing depends upon the orientation of the glass and the surrounding lighting conditions. I'm just trying to find the middle ground so it does not have to be constantly tweaked. Will definitely post it soon.

Many Thanks Rene. Nicely done. For fun I dropped it into a kitchen plan I'm working on and ran a PBR. Just adjusted the glass to my current glass properties settings.

Through your comments it sounds to me that your concern is mostly related to quality of workmanship. If you utilize the manufacturers installation procedures you can always add an additional cover page to address those important procedural elements. Something as simple as a point/bullet type list "Check to ensure Windows are as per order", "Confirm rough-in window openings are correctly sized", "Banked windows shall be properly aligned to adjacent windows within the bank". Something such as this should provide your clients with the assurance that you have the right quality control procedures in place to ensure the greatest degree quality of workmanship and adherence to the official manufacturers installation instructions.

I have had extensive experience in the preparation and writing of technical documentation within the building industry. Just wondering why you feel the need to prepare your own installation instructions when these are already provided by the product manufacturers. Why not just incorporate their documentation into your own internal reference manual/binder. If you prepare your own you run the risk of conflicting those of the manufacturer and their warranties. You would also need to ensure that your instructions do not conflict with code compliances. You would be potentially assuming a significant degree of liability, keep in mind that you can't just blanket waiver yourself out of this. Use their documentation and then focus your part on quality related practices such as proper supervision, inspections and training.

If I'm interpreting your question correctly you are asking about editing a symbol versus an architectural block. Symbols can be edited using the delete surfaces tool to remove surfaces or by adding additional surfaces or objects and then converting this to a new symbol. This should be done in a blank plan as when you convert something to a symbol CA will include all surfaces in the plan as belonging to the new symbol. All objects brought in from say 3D Warehouse will be treated by CA as a Symbol.

Place a roof on your structure, it's what we call light bleed. You can also reduce the sun intensity but best to use a roof.

Very nice Alvar. The night sky looks really good, much better than mine with only a few stars. Keep up the great work.

Yes, the glass table top does have a slight bump map applied. Those cabinet pucks need to be altered, I think that's due to the bloom in combination with probably to high an emissive setting on the cans lens. Please do not apologize, I want to know how things look through more than my eyes. Thanks, Mick

Thanks Mick. Yes, I'm spending a lot of time as I'm still exploring what does what. However, much of what is being done is reliable and reproducible, hoping that this will result in some fairly easy to replicate procedures that will make it much easier to achieve this type of result. Agree with your observations and yes that splash of pinkish is due to the sun in combination with the backdrop. Will likely change the sun angle slightly so it does not interfere with the glasses. The other items I'm not happy with is the glass in that decorative cabinet, glass front on the wine cooler and the glass table top They lack any reflections that one would normally expect. Of all the materials, glass seems to be the most difficult. For the hanging glasses, which I'm reasonable pleased with, I changed the material properties to General, changed the color to a grey scale, about 80%, roughness=0, transparency about 70% and I added a very slight bump map which seemed to enhance the reflectivity. This seems to work fairly well providing the surface has a curvature, it's when the surface is flat that it gets difficult to get any reflections.

Thanks Alvar - Yes adding additional content really helps to pull it off, just a challenge to find models that are sufficiently detailed. From a lighting perspective there is only the sun, recessed lights, pendants and undercabinet lights. I only have two 3D area lights to lighten two areas where the regular visible lights provided poor coverage. Materials are all standard with just a few adjustments for sheen level and color. Great suggestion concerning the wine, will go get that glass and add it in. I'm more than open to any suggestions others may have as to additions and tweaks to push this even further. As mentioned, I'm very interested in seeing how far this PBR can be pushed towards realism, once completed I would be more than pleased to send each commenter the final plan for their own use.

Here is the result after adding additional furnishings and decorative elements. All models are CA with the exception of the Edison light bulbs in the island pendants which are from 3D warehouse.

Thanks Alvar - The rebuild for every single change becomes frustrating for sure, even though I upgraded my graphics card it still takes 2 - 3 seconds before I get my cursor back. They have this option in the Adjust Lights DBX so hopefully they can also have this type of option when making other changes while working in an active PBR view. I made some additional changes to the posted wood kitchen. As per Rene's suggestion I adjusted the bump map for the wood grain, not perfect but better. I also made some material adjustments to the glasses in the right decorative cabinet unit, think the glass is looking much more realistic. Played with the island pendants to make them look better. So far I'm curious as to how far the current engine can be pushed towards the goal or realism. I'm reasonable satisfied with the lighting effect even though it can be a bit tricky to deal with shadow intensity. At this stage I believe the main issues relate to the material properties and the quality of the available models within CA. Many of the models are just too basic and no matter what you do they will never be convincing. Will hunt around for some better models to further decorate this scene and see how it goes.

Agree, would be interesting to see how other maps would work. I just copied the texture map into the bump map box, so it's not even a true bump map.