Tools for Architechture and Visualization?

[Henrik]

I liked to know that what kind of tools (plug-ins etc.) do you guys use while using Lightwave in Architechture & Visualization? Preferably free or low-costing.

I've used Lightwave (7.5d) for some time now, learning it, doing characters and mecha and stuff, but now I would like to focus on architechture & visualization. I may get a small non-paying trainee-work from this small architechture firm, and would like to use all the possibilites of Lightwave in my trainee-works.

One thing I especially liked to know, is that is there a way to make calculations easier? By that I mean the CAD-stylish ability to choose an edge and the program would automatically calculate the length of the edge and draw (model) a marker besides it. I know that LW7.5 doesn't support edges just like that but I've heard about some egdetools or something. Basicly any kind of CAD-stylish tools for Lightwave would be greatly apprechiated.

How about some architechture & visualization tutorials? I've seen and done a couple but I'm probably missing some great tutorials...

Actually any kind of info/help for starting with architechture & visualization in Lightwave would be great :) And sorry about my not-so-good english.

[cathuria]

I make occasional money on arch viz (delivering a job this morning, in fact) and the only plug-ins that I consider essential tools are Bevel++ and FPrime.

It's true that LW lacks a lot of CAD style tools that would be nice, but I've found in my work that such precision is a luxury that often isn't necessary. By far the best tool to get the dimensions right and speed up the modeling process is to get the architect to give you DXF files of the plans and elevations (make sure the symbols and blocks are exploded prior to exporting to DXF). Import these into LW and size them up properly, and they become good background templates to guide your modeling.

[pixym]

moveplus (translate by 2 points): a must in archi modeling

[nthused]

Have you guys checked out LWCAD? Take a look at Flay.com. This tool looks great. Just need to set a side some cash - and justify the purchase with my lovely wife.

[Nigel Baker]

Hello there,

I find that LW has all that you will really need.
The biggest asset for me is in rendersing and post production.
FPrime is an essential an can not be done without.

Also a collection of cars and potted plants, trees and the sort.

[3dworks]

hello henrik, LW's renderer is very fine for architectural viz, but still a bit slow.
for a faster setup get fprime (yes i know it's pricey, but well worth every cent), which is also very good at rendering out radiosity images et reasonable speed.

should you own more than one PC/mac, it's good to get some LW screamernet interface app (some of them are free) to speed up final renderings at high resolution using distributed rendering.

as a final - more general - tip, you might have a look at http://www.cgarchitect.com for more resources and tutorials. you will find some good tips on the forums there!

cheers

markus

[Henrik]

Thanks for the replies! I will check out the tools you told me about, even though right now I have no money to buy anything besides food.... and a few beers every once in a while :)

If anyone has any other useful information/advice, please put it here.

[Nigel Baker]

Not trying to encourage alcohol consumption but I am against over spending on computer materials e.g. plugins and the sort, even though some are essential once you get them and feel you can not do without, but stave off and put your money into something else. Like yourself.

All the best, enjoy the beers and keep posting :)[SIZE=3]

[Nencho]

Visit site of Nixo.Here is the link www.nixonanim.com

Can I ask yuo something?
Do yuo know sites where I can find archi cad floor plans and section/elevations.
For all kind of buildings.

Best reguards.

[Nigel Baker]

Sorry Nencho,

But the answer is no, i don't know of any.
But stay posted, maybe someone else will have a better response for you.

[Fasty]

Here are some that I've found useful:

Unigon - Great help for creating floor plans:
http://www.flay.com/GetDetail.cfm?ID=1980

Arc Tool - Best I've been able to find for getting angles and stuff (eg: for rooves):
http://www.flay.com/GetDetail.cfm?ID=1971

Mentory - Poor man's edge bevelling tool:
http://www.flay.com/GetDetail.cfm?ID=918

LW_indows - For windows, duh!:
http://www.flay.com/GetDetail.cfm?ID=1869

Another hand hint I found in another thread is to bring up the numeric panel when using the Snap Drag tool and select Drag Set> Connected Points. This lets you snap object to each other easily. Very handy and I never knew it was there!

[Henrik]

Huge thanks to you guys!
I've checking the new tools out and they look quite promising!

And Fasty, I also wasn't aware of the "Drag Set> Connected Points" -feature! Biig thanks for pointing that one out! :)

[Exception]

I am not very much of a plugin guy, but if there is one plugin I must say is a MUST for arch_vis... it is VertiBevel. Its amazing as to how versatile for so little money it is. The new Super Shift in modeler doesnt even come near it, and makes all kinds of mistakes.
Its ideal for windows, doors, windowframes, Lightscape-proper modeling and so forth.

Also I wish to add that although Fprime is great, Lightwave's interpolated radiosity rendering, when used properly, is much faster than the current radioaity implementation in Fprime. For stills that is. Using the Motion blur trick.


The other plugins I occasionally use are:

- Cleanup
handy script to quickly merge points, unify polygons, delete poly's with less than 3 points, delete alone vertices... that last step doesnt work in [8] though and you have to turn it off. I wish someone would fix this, as its very handy when importing 3ds models and such...

- MergeTrigonsX
Makes reasonably good quads out of triangles. Again, I wish there was a better alternative. If anyone knows one... this one is okay but sometimes it flips the poly's, making me unhappy. I'd rather have a command that replaces the triple command.

- Qemloss3
The mother of all polygon reduction tools. Updated version of ReducePolys+ in [8], preserves all vertex maps. Triples result unfortunately.

- Decimate
Another approach at polygon reduction, works better for architectural models I find, doesn't triple.

- Bridge!!
Its in [8]!... Try it out, its one of the most handy tools...
Bridge, merge, knife and split. your best buddies on the planet.

[EXIT]

I found that snapping has made modeling easier. I use a program called form Z that has all these great snapping tools but have not found it yet possible in Lightwave. The snapping tool snaps segments and verteces to another point. Yet does it do it for starting or creation from the start. Example if I wanted to create a box from another box starting at the vertex of the first box, or segment, can I get it to do it starting the shape using it from a snap to end segment or midpoint or center of face and then create the shape? Explaining more in depth can you have one line that you want to create snapped from a boxes corner out a certain distance ?

kinda hard to explain but I hope someone has the answer.

[trick]

...I use a program called form Z....

If you use FZ, keep using it and don't bother to look for something better. There is no better program for architectural modeling. I had a lot of co-workers using other CAD/Modeling software, but they never even touched the speed FZ gives me. However there is a very good alternative for setting up huge environments of low-poly models and that is Sketchup !!!

[kopperdrake]

Hmm...got to be FPrime for me :) I've tried various setups with Lightwave's interpolated radiosity and I still don't like the slightly random element of where any 'blotch' might creep through with flat colour surfaces. I had an image on at 4000 x 2000 with interpolated radiosity and had render times of about 12 hours per image. With FPrime, though I've had to use tiled images as I couldn't render it as one image due to memory limitations, it's only taken 5 hours with proper montecarlo radiosity. With a tolerance of 0.2 and a spacing of 1m I was losing shadows under cars with interpolated - not very elegant. I also prefer the slightly grainy look of FPrime renders (I tend to stop around the pass 70 mark) as I tend to add a small amount of grain to all of my computer images for print. This isn't because I want it to look like camera film grain, but some image rips used by printers will see a large expanse of similar colour and attempt to make it the same colour. With computer generated images you invariably end up with many areas of smooth similar colours (fake skies being one example) and you then end up with a weird block effect, similar to a JPEG artefact. At litho print scale it's barely noticeable, but when using something like 100dpi screen print techniques then it becomes very noticeable. Adding a small amount of grain forces the rip software to see every pixel as a different colour so it can't make any shortcuts :)

Ah, and it looks like camera film too - which is nice ;)

So for me it's got to be FPrime, and the best plugin you can evert buy is more RAM :D

Dunk

[duke]

- MergeTrigonsX
Makes reasonably good quads out of triangles. Again, I wish there was a better alternative. If anyone knows one... this one is okay but sometimes it flips the poly's, making me unhappy. I'd rather have a command that replaces the triple command.


Check out TB's untriple. I tried it out the other day and in my case it worked a bit better. It also keeps existing UV co-ords in tact whereas mergetrigonsX does not.

[animatedkona]

A user created modeling plane for arch visualization would be nice. In Autocad it is called a UCS. Other programs might call it a work plane....

If it wasn't for the c-plane plug-in, I am not sure what I would do in Lightwave.