Getting Started with nXt for Revit
Problems - Contact Us - Don't Give Up
If you are trying IRender nXt for the first time, and have problems, Don't Give Up.
- Between the combinations of Revit versions, Windows versions, and machine types, sometimes somethings goes wrong. It anything is not working, don't give up. Let us know.
- If you have problems with downloads or installation, contact us right away at support@renderplus.com.
- If you have other problems, or questions on how to use IRender nXt, place them on our Forum.
- Download Problems - If the download doesn't start, try again. Sometimes our download service gets messed up, If is still doesn't start email us and we will send you a direct link to try.
- Installation - During installation, you need to select the proper version of Revit. If you have problems contact us right away.
- Other Problems - - Contact Us - Don't Give Up.
Contents |
Installation
Visit: Downloads Page to download nXt for Revit.
- You may need to be an administrator to install nXt for Revit.
The installation will attempt to determine where Revit is installed. If it has any problems, it will ask you to help locate the Revit.ini file in the Revit folder.
- The revit.ini file is normally located in “Program Files\Revit Architecture 2009\Program”. Once you find the file and select Open, you should get a message box indicating a successful configuration.
- This version only works with Revit 2009, 2010 and 2011.
- On Vista and Windows 7: Revit will likely need to run as an administrator in order to load its plug-ins. You can do this temporarily, by right-clicking on the Revit icon and selecting “Run as Administrator”. You can also change any Revit shortcut to always run as an administrator by right-clicking on the shortcut, selecting Properties…, going to the Shortcut tab, clicking Advanced, and finally checking Run as Administrator.
Starting nXt
For Revit 2009
- Open Revit and load a model. An additional menu item, nXt should appear.
- Load a non-perspective 3D view, so that the nXt menu items are enabled.
(You can switch back to perspective later.) - From the nXt menu, choose Control Panel.
For Revit 2010 and Revit 2011
- Open Revit and load a model. An additional menu item, Add-Ins should appear.
- Make sure you are not in a Camera or Perspective View. (You can switch back after loading the add-in.)
- Select Add-Ins, and the Add-Ins Ribbon should appear, with the External Tools button.
- Select nXt From the External Tools drop-down list, and the Control Panel should appear.
Control Panel
The nXt for Revit icons on the Control Panel are:
Render Model, using the current 3D view.
You decide when to Stop the rendering—it will continue refining the picture until you stop it. Try rendering a small to medium sized model first—before you throw something very large at it.
Load Setup Options Tab Dialog. Set rendering options.
Load Sun Position Dialog. Set the sun position.
- Note: The Sun Position button appears in Revit 2009 and 2010 only. Revit 2011 uses the Revit Sun Settings on the Revit Rendering dialog for the current view.
Load Materials Dialog. Map a nXt material to a Revit material with the same name.
Load Plants Dialog. Map an AccuRender Plant to a Revit family, by family name.
Note: If you wish to render a non-perspective view, select the view while leaving the Control Panel visible.
You can leave the control panel up while selecting different models and views. nXt for Revit will always render the currently active model and view.
Setup Options Tab Dialog
The Setup Options dialog is used for rendering settings in nXt for Revit. Settings are grouped in the following tabs:
- Presets Tab - Lighting Presets and the settings they affect
- Render Tab - Render window size, lights per pass, bounces, etc.
- Lights Tab - Overrides for Lighting Defaults
- Sky Tab - Sun and Sky modes, colors, and intensity
- HDRi Tab - HDRi Sky Settings
- Background Tab - Background Image and Ground Plane settings
- Foreground Tab - Foreground or Watermark Image settings
- Image Tab - Automatic Save Image and Image Quality settings
- More Tab - Other miscellaneous settings
Sun Position Dialog
In Revit 2009 and 2010, we are not able to read the Sun position from Revit, so you will have to set the sun again before using nXt for Revit, using our Sun Postition dialog shown here.
In Revit 2011, we use the Sun Position from the Revit Sun Settings dialog, accessible from the Revit Rendering dialog, so this Sun Position Dialog is not used. Note: We do not yet correct the Sun Position if the "Relative to View" check box is checked on the Revit Sun Settings dialog.
Materials Dialog
You can create a nXt Material for any of the Revit Materials in your drawing.
Select a Revit Material on the left and Use the tabs on the right to define the nXt Material to match it.
The nXt Material will have the same name as the Revit Material.
The material named nXt_Ground_Plane is the material name used to set the AccuRender nXt material to be used for the ground plane.
Map Materials
- Advanced - Use the AccuRender nXt Image Editor to create a custom AccuRender nXt material to be mapped to the selected material.
- Browse - Browse for an AccuRender nXt material to be mapped to the selected material, from a list of pre-defined materials, or from favorites that you have saved as 'User' materials.
- Groundcover - Define an AccuRender Groundcover to be mapped to the selected material .
- Load - Load a saved AccuRender nXt material from the disk.
- Save - Save the current AccuRender nXt material to a file on the disk.
- Clear - Delete the AccuRender nXt material currently mapped to the selected material. The material will be rendered using the Revit rendering color, transparency and reflection.
- Import - Import and re-use the material mappings from another project, where you have already created and mapped AccuRender nXt materials.
Default Tab
Use the Default tab to start with one of these pre-defined materials.
- Matte - Colored material with a matte finish
- Glass Thin - Thin should be used for glass created with a single face
- Glass Thick - Thick should be used for glass with two faces - one for each side.
- Plastic - low transparency, and somewhat blurry
- Reflective - medium reflection
- Metal - highly reflective, with Metallic highlights.
- Mirror - 100% reflective
- Shade - creates a Translucent lamp shade
- Glow - creates a material which glows like a light
Settings on the Trans tab
Set the values desired:
- Daylight Portal - Produces realistic sun and daylight effects from windows.
- See: Daylight Portal
- Caustics - Creates caustic refraction of light for a transparent object.
- Thick - Marks glass as created from more than just a single face.
- See Thin - Thick
Settings on the Glow tab
- Illuminance - the object act as a light source, if the illumination value is greater than 0.
- See: Glow
- Self Glow - the face glows, but does not illuminate other surfaces. This is the best setting or Neon lights.
Set the glow percentage - 0 to 100%
Browse
Select a material from predefined materials, or use "Browse..." in the list tree control to select a texture image from your disk. Use the Parameters tab to set the transparency, reflection and image tile sizes for the new material.
- Project - AccuRender materials already saved in your project
- User - Materials you have saved by category as favorites
- Libraries - Predefined materials based on image files or colors
- Browse... - Start a new material by selecting an image file from your disk
You may also use the Create New Material tab to save the selected texture in your user Documents\RPS\User\Materials folder, so that it can be easily selected for other projects. You will be asked to give the material a category and name, for displaying under Favorites section in the list tree control.
Use the Colorize buttons to select a different color for a texture, either selecting from our list of predefined colors, or by clicking on hte color box to set the actual RGB values for the new color. Reset will reset the material to its original color.
Plants Dialog
You can use the Plants dialog to map AccuRender Plants to families by name.
Render Toolbar Functions
These are the functions for each of the buttons on the Render Dialog Toolbar:
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- Load the About dialog
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Image Filters
and
Tone Operator
- Adjust Image Brightness, Contrast, Burn, and Saturation or apply other filters.
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- Brightness Control - Adjust the brightness without loading the Tone Operator dialog
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- Save the rendered image to a JPEG or PNG file. See:
Saving Rendered Image
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- Copy rendered image to clipboard
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- Zoom All - This button will toggle the render display between showing the actual pixels and filling the current window.
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View Rotate
- Change View and re-render.
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Revit Render Setup Dialog
- Change Revit Setup Options before restarting the renderer.
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Revit Render Material Dialog
- Change Revit Materials before restarting the renderer.
- After changing Setup Options or Materials, use the Start Render button
to see the changes.
- After changing Setup Options or Materials, use the Start Render button
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Lighting Channels
- adjust the intensity of sun, sky or groups of lights directly.
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Image Effects
- Switch to nXtImage Format for special effects -
Real Time Haze
,
Depth Blur
and
Glare
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Resume Rendering
- Use the Resume button to add more passes to a rendering which has been completed. See:
Resume Rendering
.
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Start Rendering
- This button is red while the renderer is processing. It will turn green when the rendering in finished. Click on the red button to stop the rendering. Click on the green button to restart the rendering.
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Render Farm
- see the status of the Render Farm - or restart it.