Render palette

Tool(s): Render

Image resolution

Default

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

Note: The resolution set is also used by the Record Movie tool.

Resolution

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

General settings

Rendering mode

Rendering method used to calculate the image.

You can choose between the rendering methods GI (Global Illumination) with and without QMC:

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 may 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).

Ambient occlusion

Ambient occlusion is a shading technique you can use together with the rendering method of 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.

Example of rendered image without (left) and with (right) the Ambient occlusion option:

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.

Options

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

Alpha channel

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).

Virtual ground plane

Only if you have defined a virtual ground plane using Surroundings .

Specifies whether the virtual ground plane is displayed in the rendered image.

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

Optimize for

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).

Global illumination

Controls the gamma value and thus the brightness of the entire scene in the resulting image.

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 with different settings for global illumination (= gamma value):

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.

Quality

Default

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

Using the Advanced settings, you can customize the settings for the quality levels for your needs.

Advanced settings

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