Lighting on walls

[marlem2000]

Hello!

I hope everybody is enjoying this year that’s ending.

I’d like making a question before 2023 comes. Is there a way to make some kind of “up holes” in a wall in order to set some puck lights up too?

First, I tried with a wall niche but it’s too thin. I don’t know if I’ll have to use a pony wall or other but I have never worked with them so I’m feeling a bit lost. Any idea?

 

Many thanks and Happy New Year!

[DBCooper]

Looks like a case for rope lighting.  Might want to check out this video:

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/70/rope-lighting.html

 

As for "up" lighting, you could modify one of the puck lights from the library so that it (and the light source) are both facing up.  You can flip it upside down in the "open symbol" dialog and then adjust the light in the "open object" dialog.  You might be able to use a cabinet soffit and then place the light on top of it.  You could probably also use a molding but you will then need to position the light manually.

 

As for your wall niche being too thin, did you know you can set the depth in the dialog?  I don't think it can be deeper than the wall but you can set it to anything less that the wall thickness.  If you want to make an actual hole in the wall, you could probably just use a pass-thru.

 

[marlem2000]

Hi, DBCooper! Many thanks for letting me know about the rope lights. I've been working with them together with the wall niche but the result needs to be improved yet. I'm doing everything manually. This means I need to play the rope lights by hand. For the moment I'm trying to find out a way to get the proper up light from the light data section.

13 hours ago, DBCooper said:

As for your wall niche being too thin, did you know you can set the depth in the dialog?  I don't think it can be deeper than the wall but you can set it to anything less that the wall thickness.  If you want to make an actual hole in the wall, you could probably just use a pass-thru.

 

I know. Anyway, I'm getting problems to remove the borders (in the wall niche) from the walls.

 

Many thanks and Happy New Year!

[Bob-Roraback]

I am thinking that you should do this with a crown molding that is lowered from the ceiling. Do you need help in doing that?

[Bob-Roraback]

Is this what you are looking to do?

[Bob-Roraback]

Here is the plan file for you. I hope that this helps you, Bob

196640711_Helpwithlighting.zip

[marlem2000]

3 hours ago, Bob-Roraback said:

Here is the plan file for you. I hope that this helps you, Bob

196640711_Helpwithlighting.zip 13.14 MB · 1 download

Many thanks for the file, Bob! I've been working with it and making tries for a pair of hours now but, for the moment, I'm getting some problems. I've tried puck above cabinet lights and rope ones but when some are on the others are off and viceversa. I don't know why they turn off. Even sometimes they both are off.

Then, light data configuration is another problem since I don't know how to get the proper ilumination.

By the way, Happy New Year!

[Kbird1]

1 hour ago, marlem2000 said:

I don't know why they turn off. Even sometimes they both are off.

 

If you have left the number of Lights allowed to be a maximum of 20 , (default) you may lose some as the rope light it has a light every 3" (75mm) so you soon go through 20 "lights".

 

try setting it to 200-300 instead ..... Put this in your plan templates under camera defaults so you don't need to do it for every camera in the future too.

 

[marlem2000]

Hi, Kbird1! Many thanks for your help. I changed my camera configuration and now I can see all lights. The only doubt I'm getting now is rope lights aren't visible on the standard view. They are only available in the physically based one.

[Kbird1]

48 minutes ago, marlem2000 said:

The only doubt I'm getting now is rope lights aren't visible on the standard view.

 

They should show .......but the Lighting in STD vs PBR is totally different , and normally you would need to choose which View Type you want and make adjustments for it , which may require (2) Plan Files , one for each View type.

 

You can take a back clipped Cross Section and make sure the Rope Light is not buried in the wall or Trim (crown) , you can also play with the Light Data and point the Lights on the Rope UP  (spot light >Tilt Angle 90°).  ( turn off the Blue Arrows once you have it pointing the right direction or you will see them in 3D too)

 

If you turn down Ambient Occlusion to 20-30% you won't get the dark shadows in the corners either (also something I set in my Template. Plan) I usually don't use Bloom either as to me it "softens" the look and 1 last tip , to also set in your Template plan, is to set the Standard Camera Ambient light levels to 58%  each ( play with it a bit but I find 58-62% works well for most indoor scenes , CA's default 31% is far too low.)

 

You can also depending on the look you want Turn OFF the option for the Lights to Cast Shadows and add a single Light to a Room if you don't have some already to stop Chief from adding the the automatic Light to each Room that doesn't have one.

 

   

        

[marlem2000]

Many thanks for your help, Kbird1! I have made a new template with the new configuration. The rode lights at 90 degrees position don't work but I think the ilumination in general has improved. The physically based view keeps on beeing the best for lights on but I think I'll manage.

[Kbird1]

4 hours ago, marlem2000 said:

The rope lights at 90 degrees position don't work but I think the illumination in general has improved.

 

Did you switch the Light Data Type to Spot Light?  with it left at 0° you will tend to get "hot spots" at the corners as the lights point along the Rope Light not up at the ceiling.  You can also then adjust the Cut-off and Drop-off rate settings.

 

   

[marlem2000]

20 hours ago, Kbird1 said:

 

Did you switch the Light Data Type to Spot Light?  with it left at 0° you will tend to get "hot spots" at the corners as the lights point along the Rope Light not up at the ceiling.  You can also then adjust the Cut-off and Drop-off rate settings.

 

  

I still don't have the best results working with 90 degrees. Something's telling me that the rode lights position is not correct. I'll keep on trying. I have changed the general light configuration (rendering techniques > technique options). At least, now I can see the standard view better than before. Tons of thanks, Kbird!

[Bob-Roraback]

Try putting 90 in the tilt angle and 0 in the direction angle

[Bob-Roraback]

I attached a plan. 

Untitled 1.zip

[GeneDavis]

Bob's plan file used but with lights set to 3 lumens not 100.  And then at 1 lumen.

[marlem2000]

I have changed the units of the programme (I always work with meters) and now I'm seeing an improvement. I don't know why this happens. I though the soft made a good conversion between feet and meters. I think I need to adjust all parameters and see how it is going.

Many thanks for your help!

[Kbird1]

4 hours ago, marlem2000 said:

At least, now I can see the standard view better than before

 

In Standard View while "Working" I turn on Lines too, all set as low as possible ie to 1 or 0, so I can see how things interact with each other better , later you can turn it off for Client meetings.

 

 

 

You won't get the light to work in both STD and PBR as the Lumen level are drastically different....... eg 100 lumen in PBR might look good but in STD you may need 5000 lumens, as I did above, or even higher.

 

* it doesn't look like you have turned Ambient Occlusion down to 20-30% ...see the dark corners....

M.

 

 

[marlem2000]

20 hours ago, Kbird1 said:

 

In Standard View while "Working" I turn on Lines too, all set as low as possible ie to 1 or 0, so I can see how things interact with each other better , later you can turn it off for Client meetings.

 

 

 

You won't get the light to work in both STD and PBR as the Lumen level are drastically different....... eg 100 lumen in PBR might look good but in STD you may need 5000 lumens, as I did above, or even higher.

 

* it doesn't look like you have turned Ambient Occlusion down to 20-30% ...see the dark corners....

M.

 

 

Hi, Mick! Sometimes I forget about modifying the options in the Rendering Technique when I load a project. I was trying to set them by default in all plans but I didn't find a way.

Thanks for letting me know about the line drawing. It's really useful!

[Chrisb222]

29 minutes ago, marlem2000 said:

I was trying to set them by default in all plans but I didn't find a way.

 

That's done by creating a custom Template Plan. Once you set all your defaults, go to File > Templates > Save As Template, and save the file as your custom template plan. You can then open it as a new plan by going to File > Templates > New Plan from Template, and the new plan will include all of your custom defaults.

 

You can also choose to make this plan the default template plan when saving it, and new plans created with the New Plan command will use this template.

 

This will only work with new plans. All existing plans will retain their default settings.

[Kbird1]

2 hours ago, Chrisb222 said:

This will only work with new plans. All existing plans will retain their default settings.

 

Chris is right and it why I mentioned above to also make the Changes in your Custom Template Plan.......

 

There is the Option to import Defaults into Older Plans but that may mess somethings up - do it in a COPY of any Plan 1st to test,

the downside is that any existing (saved) Cameras will not be updated to the new Defaults.

 

M.

[marlem2000]

5 hours ago, Chrisb222 said:

 

That's done by creating a custom Template Plan. Once you set all your defaults, go to File > Templates > Save As Template, and save the file as your custom template plan. You can then open it as a new plan by going to File > Templates > New Plan from Template, and the new plan will include all of your custom defaults.

 

I did but when I try to save my template and in the case of rendering techniques I need to get an active camera. It seems this option only works with every new camera you create. It's a bit messy.

[robdyck]

13 minutes ago, marlem2000 said:

rendering techniques I need to get an active camera.

Hi Marlem. For that last example, you should have posted your entire screen:)

That being said, you were attempting to edit the rendering techniques but you are following the wrong path! See the snippet below for the correct path.

Or Edit / Default Settings / 3D View Defaults / Rendering Techniques...

[Kbird1]

16 minutes ago, marlem2000 said:

It seems this option only works with every new camera you create. It's a bit messy

 

The Adjusting of your Template will only effect New Plans and New Cameras ...it's for future work , but generally you would open your template Plan and then adjust the Plan Defaults for your Cameras.....  ( I am not sure what you are showing above)

 

 

  and 

 

[marlem2000]

49 minutes ago, robdyck said:

Hi Marlem. For that last example, you should have posted your entire screen:)

That being said, you were attempting to edit the rendering techniques but you are following the wrong path! See the snippet below for the correct path.

Or Edit / Default Settings / 3D View Defaults / Rendering Techniques...

 

I understand now! Yes, definently, I was following the wrong path. I was just trying to edit a single camera. I think I can say now I have the software properly configured. Many thanks for all your help!