How much detail do I need to create in CA when exporting to LUMION?

[John_Charles 1]

Hi all

 

I'm doing a project where we want to create approx 2ft x 2ft x 1 inch thick timber wall panels that have a rebated edge all round painted black.  They are then arranged in a pattern on the wall next to each other to create a textured feature and the black rebates create an outline.

 

My question for you people who use LUMION or Twinmotion, is do I need to model this in CA by creating each and every panel or is it something that can/should be done in Lumion?

 

Additionally, does the CA detail for doors show up adequately in LUMION?  For example, I am using a sliding door with multiple panels due to it's width.  Does the CA version of the door show the tracks for the doors?

 

I'm weighing up which program to use as I need interiors and external renders of marketing quality.

 

Thanks

[IvanCyr 7]

Hi Charles,

 

When you export to Lumion using the Collada file format (.dae) or 3ds, Chief will export what is visible on the camera screen at the time...this would, for example, include all your framing inside the walls that you might NOT want to see and it adds considerable weight to the file size and may push the limits of less powerful computers.  What you "see" in Chief, is what you will see in Lumion.  If you see a window track in Chief, that is what is will look like in Lumion....it is just a render engine which might improve on the render image quality and control of materials with lighting.  Model where you feel is best.  About the only thing I import separately into Lumion are animated objects, like opening a door.  One thing you may need to consider is material thickness for very large projects, where you have multiple homes spanning 3-4 blocks in a city for example.  The under surfaces of faces will expose with Z fighting...this is a computer presentation issue  that occurs...there are settings in Lumion to limit this, but sometimes if you're close to one object and far from another, lets say roofs for example, you might get the close ones to look good but the far ones will Z fight or vice versa.  Lumion allows each material to be assigned different properties, so you can get around that by using different bitmap names for the same material.

 

One other issue with the export is that Lumion most often applies a random bitmap to all Chief materials which includes ONLY a color (ie no bitmap assigned).  Before I export large projects I take the time to adjust all Chief materials (a most terrible menial task) to include a bitmap and differentiate those materials which I might desire to have specific properties in Lumion.  This can take a couple hrs in Chief but is a simple one click reload when updating an revision in Chief back into Lumion...a life saver on huge projects.

 

An example of quality of Chief in Lumion can be found at this link:

 

www.inteck3d.com/tour/kennedy/index.html

 

Perhaps this helps.