How to get the aspect of polished chrome on a spotlight

[cristianb]

Hi all,

 

I am really new in this business and I am trying to learn but sometimes I am completely stuck.

I want to put in my plan a metallic spotlight.

I downloaded the corresponding skp file but the spotlight is looking in my plan like being painted.

I used some texture of a brushed stainless steel but the result is so far from what I want.

I saw that some other articles ( a bathroom sink tap) is looking well in my plan having the same aspect of polished and shinning chrome.

I saw that instead of texture there was used a photo of the object.

I tried the same for my spotlight but the result is worse.

Please guide me how to get the sinning aspect for my spotlight.

 

I am on CA Premier X7.

 

Thanks.

[rlackore]

Read about pre-defined metals on page 854 of the Reference Manual. You can assign these in the Properties tab of the Define Materials dialog box:

 

 

EDIT: Please note that these metals will only show up as shiny in a Raytrace.

[cristianb]

EDIT: Please note that these metals will only show up as shiny in a Raytrace.

Thank you Robert.

Strange but I have in my plan at least two objects shinning in normal view and I should like to find out the technology used to make them shinning.

(see image3.png from my initial post)

Regards.

[HamlinBC]

Hi Christian,

 

I'm guessing it has something to do with the scale of that texture.  Looks like on the faucet you have a scale of 25mmx25mm, and on the light you have a scale of 500mmx500mm.

 

I would try playing with the scale a bit and see if that helps at all.

 

It could also have something to do with the way that the lamp is modeled as well...

[rlackore]

The faucet in your first post was created, and the material was mapped, in SketchUp. SketchUp has tools that allow mapping a photographic image to objects, including positioning the image, wrapping it around cylinders and corners, etc. Chief doesn't have these tools.

[cristianb]

Robert, it seams that you are right, I just looked in SketchUp and I saw that they have such a mapping tool. I tried it but with no success because my lamp is modeled in an unsuitable way for mapping, as Jonathan already suggested me.

I shall try, like an exercise, to remodel the lamp and to map the photo (photos). I have good quality photos, from all angles. 

Thanks to all, I shall come back with the result.

[Joe_Carrick]

Try a "Mirror" material.  I find that's much more like a "Polished Chrome" and it provides the reflections in Ray Traces. 

[Rich_Winsor]

Hey Cristian,

It looks like you are trying to achieve a "chrome" effect

while in Standard View. I doubt that you will ever get

the effect you want there. To get a realistic chrome you

need to do a Ray Trace. Some of the qualities you need

like Reflection only apply to Ray Traces.

 

Here is a sure fire way to get a good chrome effect. In

the Define Material dbx go to the Properties tab and set

the Material Class to Shiny Metal. Set the Roughness

level to 0. Set the Reflection level to somewhere in the

80 to 100% range. Specular isn't as critical and you can

try different values but start around 50%. Now when you

run a Ray Trace you will have shiny reflective chrome.

 

By way of an example, here I have changed a marble

vase from the Browser Library to chrome.