Topic: [Answered] Lighting in lamps

[ErgoArchitecture]

Hi Guys,

1. I'm trying to get lamp objects to behave a certain way.  Is there a way to control the shade to make it a translucent material? I want to be able to see the "bulb" inside of the lamp shade create a hotspot within the lamp shade and also illuminate the shade so that it creates a soft diffuse light to the surrounding walls.  Something that would behave like the first attached photo

2. It doesn't seem like light sources bounce off of objects.  In the second photo I've attached, i would think that the up light would bounce off of the inside of the dome and create a soft light below.   Is there a setting that I am missing? or a light source that you would recommend?

3. In the third screenshot I have attached.  I placed an omni light in the fixture but it is lighting up the wall as if there is no shade around it.  Should I be using a different type of light source?

4.  If I were to import in a complex light fixture with multiple light bulbs, I would have to set up individual lumion lights for it, correct?  My question is if I spend time setting up this complex light fixture with lumion lights, would I be able to group and save the fixture and lights so if I want to use the light again,  I don't have to set up all of the individual lights again?

I hope these questions make sense.  Thanks for all of your help!

[peterm]

Hi ErgoArchitecture

1. Apply a Standard Material to the surface.  Then set the level of Transparency using the Transparency slider.  (pic 1)

Note this type of material supports up to 16 levels of Transparency when rendered.  See our Knowledge Base Article: section Expanded Settings Groups: -> TransparencyWhat do the sliders & buttons in the Standard material do?

To get a glow from the light bulb add some Emissive.  Light sources such as Spotlights and Linear Lights cast light on to surfaces, so surfaces that need to glow (self lit/self emissive) need to include some Emissive amount in the material.  See also above article.

2. In Build Mode (especially) where you are building your Scene there are reduced lighting and other effects to maintain reasonable screen re-draws.  Light bounce is not visible until you add an effect that produces it such as HyperLight (only seen on final render, not in Preview) or Global Illumination.  These types of light bounce only produce a single further bounce.  You need full ray-trace based rendering to enable open levels of bounce and reduced bounce for softness.

Materials will further add to the lighting in the Scene when their Reflectivity and Gloss values are suitably set.

For interiors use the Indoor Style which includes all the core effects to get the best results, it includes Sky Light (recommended to set to High).  (pic 2)


3. Yes, you would need to use Spotlights.  OmniLights cast no shadows so the light past an intersecting object is not clipped.  OmniLights, Fill Lights and Linear/Area Lights that do not caste shadows have a faster rendering performance than Spotlights due to the shadow calculations required.  See What do the sliders & buttons in the Spotlight properties do? and Why are Spotlights not casting shadows?

4. You would, yes.  You can use the Nodes Replacement to quickly set the lights (assuming you are able to find an alternative if your AutoCAD 2017 is not able to help with making nodes).

You can Group objects such as Spotlights and lamp holders etc together.  However, there is no features/interface developed to allow that grouping to be saved out and used elsewhere as it's own separate object.  It has been suggested by some users for something similar - to save in the library a Group for future use.

Pro users can however, use the Merge feature to bring assets from one Scene in to another Scene.  It currently does not include Merge of the Group object, but the lamp model and the lights would be merged in, thus providing for re-usability.  You would then need to make a new Group if you needed to manipulate those objects as a Group.

Hope that helps answer your questions fully.  Any more questions on lights just ask.  And, let us know if there's anything else we can help with.