Integrated BIM tools, including Revit, AutoCAD, and Civil 3D
Professional CAD/CAM tools built on Inventor and AutoCAD
Any referenced datasets can be downloaded from "Module downloads" in the module overview.
Transcript
00:07
PROFESSOR: There are many visualization tools
00:09
to help you create unique and compelling presentations
00:12
of your designs.
00:13
Now, we can access some of them on the View control bar.
00:16
And the rest, we'll see in the Graphic Display options
00:19
dialogue.
00:20
So let's start with a look at a couple of the visual styles
00:22
on the View control bar.
00:24
So on the View control bar, I have the visual style
00:27
pop up here.
00:28
And we're currently looking at hidden line.
00:30
But some other popular ones are shaded,
00:33
which will change all of these surfaces to a solid color.
00:36
And it will also introduce a little bit
00:38
of shadowing based on the direction
00:41
that you're looking at those surfaces.
00:42
If you want to remove that shadowing,
00:44
you can use consistent colors instead.
00:47
And then it will be a solid color
00:49
only without any kind of shade or shadow.
00:53
Now, there's a few other options under here as well.
00:55
And we'll look at some of those a little bit later.
00:58
But let's go ahead and go to the Graphic Display options
01:01
dialogue next.
01:02
Now, the keyboard shortcut for this is GD.
01:05
Now, if you look carefully at any
01:06
of the diagonal lines on screen, you'll
01:07
notice that they all look a little stairstep
01:09
and a little bit jaggy.
01:10
So there is an option right here for smoothing lines
01:14
with the anti-aliasing.
01:15
And when I click Apply, you're going
01:17
to see that it kind of remove some of that jaggyness.
01:19
Now, one of the really nice things
01:20
about the Graphic Display options
01:22
dialogue, as you can see, is we can experiment
01:24
with different settings.
01:25
And then just simply apply them to see
01:27
how they look without having to cancel out of the dialogue.
01:30
Now, I'm going to go to back to a hidden line here.
01:32
And let's click Apply again.
01:34
And you can see that just coupling
01:36
the anti-aliasing with the hidden line,
01:38
it makes a difference.
01:39
Now, in addition to that, we also
01:40
have a transparency setting here.
01:42
So that transparency setting can be set to 0, of course,
01:46
or you can add a little transparency.
01:48
Or you can add a lot of transparency.
01:51
And the more transparency you add,
01:52
the more it starts to look like wireframe.
01:55
So it's an interesting effect, but probably
01:57
not one that you're going to use very often.
01:58
So I'm going to set that back to 0.
01:60
And click Apply.
02:02
Now, let's talk about chateaux next.
02:04
So if I expand the shadows, the first one I want to talk about
02:06
is the show ambient shadows.
02:09
Now, I love using this in combination with hidden line
02:12
because I think the two together just make
02:14
for a really simple yet compelling presentation.
02:17
So we're not getting distracted by a lot of colors
02:20
and materials, we're just simply keeping
02:22
everything hidden-lined.
02:23
But we're muddying it up a little bit,
02:25
almost making like a hand sketch kind of charcoal effect.
02:29
We're using these ambient shadows
02:32
that kind of pool the light around the corners
02:33
and so forth.
02:34
So it's a really nice effect.
02:36
And I use that one quite frequently.
02:38
Now, we also have cast shadows which are literally
02:41
looking at the direction of the sun
02:42
and then casting the shadows of the geometry
02:45
from that direction.
02:46
So when I turn that on, now we get that much more
02:49
mechanical effect with the cast shadows, which
02:52
can also be quite compelling.
02:54
Now, you can use either of these settings independently
02:57
or you can use them together.
02:59
It's entirely up to you.
03:01
Now, the direction of the shadows
03:02
is being controlled by the lighting.
03:05
So if we move down to the lighting branch
03:07
next, under Sun setting, there's a button here.
03:11
And if we click that, that will bring up the Sun settings
03:14
window.
03:14
Now, there's lots that you can play around with in here,
03:17
but I'll just simply demonstrate one of the presets here--
03:21
Sunlight from top-left, and I'll click Apply.
03:24
And that sort of reverses the direction of the sunlight
03:27
and makes the shadows go the other way.
03:30
So I click OK on that.
03:31
If you want to control the intensity of the shadows,
03:34
you've got a slider for that right here.
03:37
So we could make it significantly lighter
03:40
or we could go the other way and make it significantly darker.
03:44
This is a really nice way for you
03:46
to decide just how intense you'd like your shadows to be.
03:49
Now, there's also a Sun in an Ambient Light option here.
03:53
But I think those are a little bit easier to see maybe
03:56
when you're in a shaded mode or perhaps in a realistic mode,
04:01
but notice that the sun, we can make it quite intense
04:06
and that sort of brightens things up a little bit.
04:08
And we can also do the same thing with the ambient light.
04:11
And that'll kind of brighten up the dark spots
04:13
by kind of introducing an even light across the entire scene.
04:17
So with a combination of all of these sliders here,
04:20
you can fiddle around with them until you find a combination
04:24
that meets with your liking.
04:26
Now, let me OK out of here for a moment.
04:28
And I do have two different materials
04:31
assigned to the topography.
04:33
I've got a concrete material assigned to the parking lot.
04:37
And then I'm just relying on the default
04:39
material for everything else.
04:41
Now, the default material is this brown kind
04:43
of ground plain.
04:45
And it might be nicer if we put something a little different
04:48
in there.
04:48
So because it's using the default,
04:51
let's actually modify that default setting.
04:54
I'm going to go to the Manage tab.
04:57
And then click on Object Styles.
04:60
Now, Object Styles is the global settings
05:02
for each category that get applied across the board.
05:06
And then you can always override those on a per view basis.
05:09
So I'm going to scroll down here and locate
05:12
the topography object.
05:13
And notice that the material is set
05:15
to Earth, which is why we're getting this brown material
05:18
on our topography.
05:20
So I'm going to click the small little browse button that
05:22
appears when I select Earth.
05:24
And that takes me to the material browser.
05:27
Now, the material browser window comes in a little small.
05:30
So let me make that a little larger
05:32
just by stretching the corner there.
05:34
What I want to do is search for a grass material instead.
05:38
Now, notice when I type in grass, nothing
05:40
appears here in the current document.
05:43
So down at the bottom, there are material libraries.
05:46
And you'll see this little icon right here.
05:49
And that hides or shows the Material Library panel.
05:52
So let's click that to expand that panel open.
05:55
And notice that the search was run not only
05:58
on the current document, but it was also run in the library
06:01
as well.
06:02
And there are actually a couple different grass materials
06:05
to choose from here.
06:06
Now, this one is a little brighter green than this one.
06:09
So I think I like this one here, this planting material.
06:12
And notice when you hover over it,
06:13
there's a small little up arrow that
06:15
allows you to add that to the current document.
06:18
So that's exactly what I'm going to do.
06:19
Now, unfortunately, it comes in this gray color.
06:22
So that's a little bit weird.
06:23
But there's an Appearance tab right here.
06:26
And what we're actually getting here
06:27
is a texture on this material that looks like grass.
06:32
Now, we can come back to graphics and check this box,
06:36
and it will take the color from that grass bitmap,
06:40
and it will find the average color
06:42
and apply that as the shading material.
06:44
So that's what we're going to do.
06:45
We're going to click OK.
06:46
OK, again.
06:47
And now, you're going to see all of that brown material change
06:51
to this grass color.
06:53
And I think that makes for a nicer presentation
06:57
in this situation.
06:58
Now, I'm going to zoom in a little bit closer here
07:01
and take a final look.
07:02
Currently, we're in shaded mode so we're just seeing
07:04
a hatch pattern for the bricks.
07:06
But if we come over here and change this to realistic,
07:09
then you can start to see these surface patterns
07:12
that we've begun applying.
07:13
We're getting the bricks on the far wall.
07:16
We're getting the grass on the ground.
07:18
And even the wood grain off in the distance
07:21
through the windows.
Video transcript
00:07
PROFESSOR: There are many visualization tools
00:09
to help you create unique and compelling presentations
00:12
of your designs.
00:13
Now, we can access some of them on the View control bar.
00:16
And the rest, we'll see in the Graphic Display options
00:19
dialogue.
00:20
So let's start with a look at a couple of the visual styles
00:22
on the View control bar.
00:24
So on the View control bar, I have the visual style
00:27
pop up here.
00:28
And we're currently looking at hidden line.
00:30
But some other popular ones are shaded,
00:33
which will change all of these surfaces to a solid color.
00:36
And it will also introduce a little bit
00:38
of shadowing based on the direction
00:41
that you're looking at those surfaces.
00:42
If you want to remove that shadowing,
00:44
you can use consistent colors instead.
00:47
And then it will be a solid color
00:49
only without any kind of shade or shadow.
00:53
Now, there's a few other options under here as well.
00:55
And we'll look at some of those a little bit later.
00:58
But let's go ahead and go to the Graphic Display options
01:01
dialogue next.
01:02
Now, the keyboard shortcut for this is GD.
01:05
Now, if you look carefully at any
01:06
of the diagonal lines on screen, you'll
01:07
notice that they all look a little stairstep
01:09
and a little bit jaggy.
01:10
So there is an option right here for smoothing lines
01:14
with the anti-aliasing.
01:15
And when I click Apply, you're going
01:17
to see that it kind of remove some of that jaggyness.
01:19
Now, one of the really nice things
01:20
about the Graphic Display options
01:22
dialogue, as you can see, is we can experiment
01:24
with different settings.
01:25
And then just simply apply them to see
01:27
how they look without having to cancel out of the dialogue.
01:30
Now, I'm going to go to back to a hidden line here.
01:32
And let's click Apply again.
01:34
And you can see that just coupling
01:36
the anti-aliasing with the hidden line,
01:38
it makes a difference.
01:39
Now, in addition to that, we also
01:40
have a transparency setting here.
01:42
So that transparency setting can be set to 0, of course,
01:46
or you can add a little transparency.
01:48
Or you can add a lot of transparency.
01:51
And the more transparency you add,
01:52
the more it starts to look like wireframe.
01:55
So it's an interesting effect, but probably
01:57
not one that you're going to use very often.
01:58
So I'm going to set that back to 0.
01:60
And click Apply.
02:02
Now, let's talk about chateaux next.
02:04
So if I expand the shadows, the first one I want to talk about
02:06
is the show ambient shadows.
02:09
Now, I love using this in combination with hidden line
02:12
because I think the two together just make
02:14
for a really simple yet compelling presentation.
02:17
So we're not getting distracted by a lot of colors
02:20
and materials, we're just simply keeping
02:22
everything hidden-lined.
02:23
But we're muddying it up a little bit,
02:25
almost making like a hand sketch kind of charcoal effect.
02:29
We're using these ambient shadows
02:32
that kind of pool the light around the corners
02:33
and so forth.
02:34
So it's a really nice effect.
02:36
And I use that one quite frequently.
02:38
Now, we also have cast shadows which are literally
02:41
looking at the direction of the sun
02:42
and then casting the shadows of the geometry
02:45
from that direction.
02:46
So when I turn that on, now we get that much more
02:49
mechanical effect with the cast shadows, which
02:52
can also be quite compelling.
02:54
Now, you can use either of these settings independently
02:57
or you can use them together.
02:59
It's entirely up to you.
03:01
Now, the direction of the shadows
03:02
is being controlled by the lighting.
03:05
So if we move down to the lighting branch
03:07
next, under Sun setting, there's a button here.
03:11
And if we click that, that will bring up the Sun settings
03:14
window.
03:14
Now, there's lots that you can play around with in here,
03:17
but I'll just simply demonstrate one of the presets here--
03:21
Sunlight from top-left, and I'll click Apply.
03:24
And that sort of reverses the direction of the sunlight
03:27
and makes the shadows go the other way.
03:30
So I click OK on that.
03:31
If you want to control the intensity of the shadows,
03:34
you've got a slider for that right here.
03:37
So we could make it significantly lighter
03:40
or we could go the other way and make it significantly darker.
03:44
This is a really nice way for you
03:46
to decide just how intense you'd like your shadows to be.
03:49
Now, there's also a Sun in an Ambient Light option here.
03:53
But I think those are a little bit easier to see maybe
03:56
when you're in a shaded mode or perhaps in a realistic mode,
04:01
but notice that the sun, we can make it quite intense
04:06
and that sort of brightens things up a little bit.
04:08
And we can also do the same thing with the ambient light.
04:11
And that'll kind of brighten up the dark spots
04:13
by kind of introducing an even light across the entire scene.
04:17
So with a combination of all of these sliders here,
04:20
you can fiddle around with them until you find a combination
04:24
that meets with your liking.
04:26
Now, let me OK out of here for a moment.
04:28
And I do have two different materials
04:31
assigned to the topography.
04:33
I've got a concrete material assigned to the parking lot.
04:37
And then I'm just relying on the default
04:39
material for everything else.
04:41
Now, the default material is this brown kind
04:43
of ground plain.
04:45
And it might be nicer if we put something a little different
04:48
in there.
04:48
So because it's using the default,
04:51
let's actually modify that default setting.
04:54
I'm going to go to the Manage tab.
04:57
And then click on Object Styles.
04:60
Now, Object Styles is the global settings
05:02
for each category that get applied across the board.
05:06
And then you can always override those on a per view basis.
05:09
So I'm going to scroll down here and locate
05:12
the topography object.
05:13
And notice that the material is set
05:15
to Earth, which is why we're getting this brown material
05:18
on our topography.
05:20
So I'm going to click the small little browse button that
05:22
appears when I select Earth.
05:24
And that takes me to the material browser.
05:27
Now, the material browser window comes in a little small.
05:30
So let me make that a little larger
05:32
just by stretching the corner there.
05:34
What I want to do is search for a grass material instead.
05:38
Now, notice when I type in grass, nothing
05:40
appears here in the current document.
05:43
So down at the bottom, there are material libraries.
05:46
And you'll see this little icon right here.
05:49
And that hides or shows the Material Library panel.
05:52
So let's click that to expand that panel open.
05:55
And notice that the search was run not only
05:58
on the current document, but it was also run in the library
06:01
as well.
06:02
And there are actually a couple different grass materials
06:05
to choose from here.
06:06
Now, this one is a little brighter green than this one.
06:09
So I think I like this one here, this planting material.
06:12
And notice when you hover over it,
06:13
there's a small little up arrow that
06:15
allows you to add that to the current document.
06:18
So that's exactly what I'm going to do.
06:19
Now, unfortunately, it comes in this gray color.
06:22
So that's a little bit weird.
06:23
But there's an Appearance tab right here.
06:26
And what we're actually getting here
06:27
is a texture on this material that looks like grass.
06:32
Now, we can come back to graphics and check this box,
06:36
and it will take the color from that grass bitmap,
06:40
and it will find the average color
06:42
and apply that as the shading material.
06:44
So that's what we're going to do.
06:45
We're going to click OK.
06:46
OK, again.
06:47
And now, you're going to see all of that brown material change
06:51
to this grass color.
06:53
And I think that makes for a nicer presentation
06:57
in this situation.
06:58
Now, I'm going to zoom in a little bit closer here
07:01
and take a final look.
07:02
Currently, we're in shaded mode so we're just seeing
07:04
a hatch pattern for the bricks.
07:06
But if we come over here and change this to realistic,
07:09
then you can start to see these surface patterns
07:12
that we've begun applying.
07:13
We're getting the bricks on the far wall.
07:16
We're getting the grass on the ground.
07:18
And even the wood grain off in the distance
07:21
through the windows.
There are many visualization tools to help you create unique and compelling presentations of your designs. Let’s start with a look at the “Graphical Display Options” dialog.
Catch-up file completed to this point: 22_Medical Center_Visualize.rvt
Most views default to Hidden Line display. But there are other useful shading modes as well.
Figure 22–1 try various Visual Styles
At the top of this pop-up menu there is also a Graphical Display Options item. This opens the “Graphical Display Options” dialog. This dialog has many more options.
At the top of the dialog, the Style list is the same visual styles. You can change it there too.
Figure 22–2 Anti-aliasing will smooth the edges to make them less jaggy
There are several other groups of settings in this dialog. Shadows is simple, but makes a big impact on the view.
Figure 22–3 Ambient shadows adds nice shading around the edges and in corners
Figure 22–4 Turn on Cast Shadows
Figure 22–5 Change the lighting preset and apply to move the shadows
Also in Lighting, you can use the sliders to adjust the intensity of the Sun, Ambient Light and Shadows. Give it a try.
Notice that the ground plane is a dark brown color. It is currently using a default Earth material. It might look nicer if we adjust this.
This displays the “Object Styles” dialog with a list of all the categories and their default settings. The settings here are the ones we are overriding when we use the Visibility/Graphics command.
Notice in the far-right column, it says Earth (see Figure 22–6). This is the material that is used for all topography by default. We can change it here and all toposurface elements will update accordingly.
Figure 22–6 Object Styles controls the default settings of each category
This will open the “Material Browser” dialog.
Figure 22–7 Search for grass materials
In the figure, there are two panes at the left. Materials in the current project file show in the document area at the top. The library area at the bottom displays external material libraries. To see the lower pane, click the icon indicated in the figure. After searching, there are no grass materials in the current document, but there are two options in the library.
This sets the color of the material to match the render material settings and it should turn a shade of green (see Figure 22–8).
Figure 22–8 Load a material from the library and make its color match the render material
This changes the color of the topography to green to match its new material assignment. If you change the shading mode to Realistic, you will also see that a texture has been applied for rendering. You might need to zoom in to see it better (see Figure 22–9).
Figure 22–9 Realistic shading displays the bitmap textures tiled across the surfaces for a more realistic look
Let’s make another material for the roads and parking.
Figure 22–10 The Materials tool
Figure 22–11 Load a material for the roads and parking
When you deselect it, it will be apparent that the new material is applied (see Figure 22–12).
Figure 22–12 Apply the asphalt material to the roads
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