TheKitchenAbode

Richard - There was something really great about those days that's been lost in the technological revolution. If you look back, those rooms full of draftsman with slide rules in-hand were intimately involved in many of the most significant achievements such as landing on the moon, the development of nuclear power, supersonic flight and so much more. There was a true pride in workmanship that has been lost in today's strive to improve the bottom line. Graham

There is no pause for Raytracing. You can only Raytrace one scene at a time. You can save a scene at it's current level without pausing but once you stop a Raytrace it's all over and done. Graham

Thanks Terry - would be more interested in your thoughts concerning small residential/commercial construction/remodeling. Would not spend to much time on the history of drafting and the virtues of software engineering and interference checking, not really the most important aspect at our level. Would be far more appealing to discuss the pro's and con's as they apply to us. Graham

Terry - Please try to step back a bit, you are way to personally attached to this subject and it is making it impossible to have a congenial bilateral discussion. Perpetuating the virtues of systems utilized by leading engineering and manufacturing consortiums is interesting but it is necessary to make this discussion more relevant to our segment. We do not have the resources or authority to just adopt a system and force our existing supplier/contractor/client base to conform to our will. As you are aware, the investment in time and capital is considerable and to fully benefit from this requires a collective approach. From the perspective of our segment, how do you propose, beyond the use of generalizations, to address these constraints. Please do so without the use of acronyms, we are all aware that we are talking about a collaborative database with a 3D model user interface. Graham

Lew: Same here, never really enjoyed drafting. The fact that non traditional persons can now become involved is something the industry is struggling with. As I am sure you understand, there are many traditionalist who do not like this trend as they see it as undermining their profession. What was their exclusive domain is now becoming open to others; increasing competition, pricing pressure and expended service offerings. Even us ourselves will eventually fall prey to this. I see more and more potential clients using free on-line layout programs for their kitchens, and although these programs are pretty basic they are constantly improving. I remember they days when to go on vacation you needed to go to a travel agent, now I go online myself book my flights, select my seat, specify my meal, arrange for the shuttle, book the hotel and even make my restaurant reservations. Travel agents are now a thing of the past, just like video stores and record stores. Graham

Moving this discussion back on subject. I don't believe there will be a diminishing need for Draftsman positions per say, there will however be a change in their functional duties. Traditional drafting is transitioning to information gathering and organization as continued software development takes over many of the rudimentary drawing tasks. Chief and many other programs are examples, there was a day when only a skilled draftsman could prepare accurate drawings/details with pen in hand and their personal expertise. Today, much of this can be done by learning software commands, the program builds the foundation, lays out the wall studs, builds the roof and then generates the appropriate layouts. Although not 100% there yet, one can foresee the day when this will be essentially automated. The so called Draftsman will be responsible to aggregate,manage and disseminate this information. Graham

The easiest way may be to use wall material regions. Find a tile, size accordingly and change finish to your paint. Graham

If all else is equal then it just comes down to DPI/PPI (dots/pixel per inch) density. That info will be in the manual. If the new 4k set is equal or greater than your other monitor then it will be equally or of better clarity/resolution). However, a TV is not the same as a Monitor so you will most likely have to make a personal judgment on whether or not you like what you see. Graham

Rich - with all those pixels I dropped it into Photoshop and did a few quick colour adjustments. 1st pic is your original, 2nd is the adjusted. Graham

The money you saved by not paying for SSA support should be more than enough to offset the cost of a tech support call. Graham

Looking much better. By any chance, did you change the recessed lights to point lights? If so I would make them spots again to avoid the ceiling being highlighted around the cans. If you need more overall light for the scene then place a few 3D point lights around the room, position them around mid room height, shadows off. You can then adjust their intensity to control/supplement the overall ambient lighting. Do not place them to close to walls, ceilings or objects as you will get bright white splotches. Graham

Besides the difference in intensity, which I would expect, the angles of cast appear different. Are you using any lighting other that the sun? If so then turn their shadows off. You can also place some 3D lights inside the room angled like the sun with shadows on to reinforce the suns shadow effect. Graham

Rich - very nice!! You're now shooting with a high end digital camera. Is it just my imagination or is there something strange going on in your home, seems like you have an infestation of aliens; or is it just your method of watermarking your work? Graham

Raytracing is 100% CPU. Moving to the FX8350 might improve performance by maybe 35%. You can overclock this one but would likely need to water cool. Might be better to change the MB and move to a topline I7, 6700K or better. Graham

You should try to be more specific about the particular raytrace problem you need advice on. As David indicates, there are way too many variables that would need to be worked on to get this plan to raytrace properly. Anyhow, here's a quick one with your settings (1st pic) and one with a minor adjustment to the ambient lighting (2nd pic). Hope this helps. Graham

Hi Rich - For the last few postings I have been runing these at 1200 x 800. I have played with higher pixel settings, usually do not go above 3960 x 2160 (wide screen format). Problem is every time you double the pixel size the raytrace time quadruples, my patience starts to max out at 2 hours for 50 passes. There is no doubt that with higher pixel counts you can go in and crop, the look can be very nice. Also, with a higher pixel count you have much better control if you wish to play with the pic further over in Photoshop. A billion wide would be interesting but would likely take longer than the creation of the universe . Here is my scene with some additional decoration including the original, both at 1200 x 800, 50 passes. Graham

I have made further adjustments to the lighting and existing material properties. Notice that the elements in the bedroom now have visible details and the blown-out mantel lights appear more realistic. In the tone settings I have adjusted contrast, saturation and intensity to help improve overall colour balance. For myself, I find getting the desired lighting and primary material properties to be the first thing to focus upon. Once this has been achieved you can then evaluate the scene for opportunities to inject additional elements to improve the perception of being realistic and to focus trhe views eye towards your desired focal points. Will add a few add items and repost a bit later. ​Graham

Nice Rich! - The scene composition is equally as important as the lighting setup. This can be challenging as you sort through the many objects, materials and colors. The other consideration is the amount of time you are willing to dedicate to this as it relates to your workflow and client needs. As you are likely noticing, more time can be spent on getting a good raytrace than what it took to drawup the basic structure. Graham

Some adjustments to the tone mapping settings. First pic you original.

Just some fast adjustments. - uncheck use camera view settings - ambient occlusion min = .3, max = 6 - direct sunlight = 3 - increased reflectivity on white wood work and trim. - reduced candle lights to 20% intensity. - changed the 3 lights colour to R=255, B=235, G=205 to warm things up a bit. All other settings are as per your original. Notice that the bedroom has now brightened up and the shadowing on the fireplace wood work is gone. Still needs more work but hopefully this is going in the right direction. First pic is your original. Graham

I ran your raytrace according to your settings. This is 20 passes in 4 minutes. One thing to note is that there is not really any benefit to runing a raytrace for hours on end. I find that 30 -50 passes is usually more than sufficient and much more than this is likely futile. To get better output you will need to work on the lighting & materials. Will play with it a bit and keep you posted.

Rich - Just curious, what material settings did you use for the mirror that enables it to reveal things that are invisible in the normal world? Graham

Looks like it's coming from the light in the kitchen, bright spots on kitchen ceiling. Graham

Rich - Excellent explanation and examples. The effect can be subtle but often it is these little things that brings a scene together. I find that the compute caustics can have a more profound affect when you have light fixtures where the bulb (light source) is behind a glass covering and must travel through the glass covering in order to light the room. One note, you may need to up your pixel size in order to fully appreciate the effect. Will take longer to raytrace but the wait may be worth it. Graham

Try posting the plan and a sample of what you get with 20 hours of raytracing. Maybe some Raytracers would be able to offer some suggestions that might help you out. Worth a try!!! Graham