Render palette

You can select one of the predefined resolutions, thus defining the size of the rendered image.

By using the Render size palette, you can select a resolution that differs from the Default resolution. This value defines the size of the rendered image.

Select the renderer. You can choose between Standard, Physical and Redshift here.

The physical renderer calculates many scenes better and/or quicker than the standard renderer. Problems that might occur with Standard, such as Moiré effects for tiled textures, do not occur with the Physical version. Redshift is a high-performance renderer from Maxon, which generally provides the quickest and best results. Furthermore, there are also advanced camera settings for Redshift (stereo-spherical and fish-eye).

Tip: Results can vary depending on the model and scenery. So, do some trial runs with reduced settings to find out which renderer works best for you.

You can choose between the rendering methods GI {...} (global illumination) and No GI (without global illumination).

Rendering without global Illumination produces results in less time and is therefore eminently suitable for quick sample renderings. Shining lights and sharp edges of shadows are clearly visible. However, it is not possible to assess lights, colors, color gradients or shadows.

For rendering methods with global illumination GI {...} you can determine the primary and secondary rendering methods. With the standard and physical renderers, these are:

GI {IR + IR}
Both methods use Irradiance Cache here.
This setting is ideally suited for interior views with artificial lighting.
GI {IR + QMC}
The primary method uses Irradiance Cache and the secondary method uses Quasi Monte Carlo. This calculation can take a bit longer.
This setting is ideally suited for exterior views with natural lighting; artificial lighting will also be included.

Tip: The GI {IR + QMC} method calculates shadows more precisely. If shadows are very important for your scene, you can also render interior views with this method. However, calculation can take a little longer.
If the resulting image is distorted, you can compensate for this by increasing the quality (see Quality - Default) and optimizing the image for interior views (see Optimize for).
GI {IR + Lightmaps}
The primary method uses Irradiance Cache and the secondary method uses Lightmaps.
This setting is ideally suited for small-area scenes with several light sources that are near and parallel to walls or similar objects. When you render these scenes with other rendering methods, you sometimes get strange lighting effects, such as light spots distributed irregularly.

Example of a rendering result without and with Lightmaps

Note: Rendered images created by this method are somewhat brighter than those created by other methods.
Rendering result without light mapping (on the left) and with medium Lightmaps quality (on the right)
GI {IR Legacy}, GI {IR Legacy+ QMC}
These settings correspond to the rendering modes GI {IR + IR} and GI {IR + QMC}. However, these modes use Irradiance Cache of Allplan 2017 and earlier versions.
Use these rendering modes if you want to edit projects from earlier versions. This ensures that the rendered images are similar to those created in earlier versions.

GI {BF + IPC}
The primary method uses Brute Force and the secondary method uses Irradiance Point Cloud.
This rendering method is particularly suitable for scenes containing several light sources or where the lighting conditions are difficult.
GI {BF + BF}
Both methods use Brute Force here.
The GI renderer Brute Force is the most fundamental and precise renderer. Interpolation of the calculation results does not take place. This calculation can take a bit longer.

By using the Options palette, you can achieve visual effects and include surface elements in the rendered images.

When you select this option, the program masks the background of the image with an alpha channel. In other words, the program cuts out a background color or bitmap when calculating the image.

This is necessary if you want to place the rendered, transparent image on top of a different background (alpha blending).

If you select this option, Allplan will include the virtual ground plane in the rendered image. Otherwise, it will be excluded.

Optimizes the calculation for exterior views (with natural lighting) or interior views (with artificial lighting and difficult lighting conditions).

This setting is directly affected by the Samples accuracy setting in the Irradiance cache area (see Advanced settings palette).

The gamma value of "Global Illumination" controls the brightness of the entire scene in the rendering result.

By using this value, you can brighten up dark images or darken overexposed images. Dark images result from small values for Diffuse depth (see Advanced settings palette).

Examples of rendered images (1 - 6) with different settings for global illumination (= gamma value) and a constant setting for diffuse depth = 3.

So that you can compare the results, the image at the bottom was rendered with the following settings: global illumination = 1; diffuse depth = 8.

You can select one of the predefined quality levels for the rendered image. Remember: The better the quality, the longer the calculation will take.

Use the Advanced settings area to customize the settings for the quality levels.

Opens the Advanced settings palette, where you can define advanced rendering settings, thus controlling the quality of the resulting image.

Ambient occlusion is a shading technique you can use together with global illumination. Ambient occlusion produces realistic shadows in a relatively short period of time. Another advantage of this technique is that it emphasizes details by applying shadows to edges and corners.

For example, you can use ambient occlusion to simulate lighting conditions when the sky is cloudy and there is no direct sunlight. You can use this technique both for interior scenes and exterior scenes.

When you select this option, you can define additional AO parameters in the Advanced settings palette.

The following illustrations show the effects of ambient occlusion. The image on the left does not use ambient occlusion, whereas the image on the right uses this technique.

When Blooming is switched on, an additional ring of light is placed around light sources, such as the sun or point-shaped sources of light. The prerequisite is therefore that the physical sky has been selected as the background via

surroundings (select) or one or more artificial light sources have been set via

set project light (select).

When the lens effect is switched on, additional circular light reflections (comparable to the reflection of a light source in a camera lens) are interspersed in the image.

If you select this option, Allplan will include the setting for the depth of field (DOF). This is configured via

3D view (Window Toolbar).

When you render scenes with great differences in brightness, such as scenes that contain both bright areas illuminated directly and shaded areas, you can thus reproduce the full range of light intensities present in natural scenes by reducing the dynamic range.

This is controlled via gamma correction (0 - 10) and light sensitivity (ISO value).

Important!
So that Allplan displays spherical panoramas correctly, you must select the image resolution so that it is at a ratio of 2:1 (for example, 4,000 x 2,000 pixels). In addition, you must select the Latitude, longitude option for the Mode and save the rendered image in JPG or TIF format.

Only if, under Renderer , the standard or physical setting has been selected and the spherical option has been activated.