Linking the Model

Set up the lesson:

1. Open the Customize menu and choose Units Setup.

2. Set the Display Unit Scale to US Standard and choose Feet w/Fractional Inches from the unit list. Click OK to close the Units Setup dialog.

Link the model to Autodesk VIZ:

1. From the File menu, choose File Link Manager.

   The File Link Manager dialog is displayed.

2. Click the File button and browse to the \tutorials\mental_ray folder on your hard drive and highlight tut_tulipgallery.dwg, then click Open.

   

   Note: The model of the Tulip Gallery was originally designed with AutoCAD Architecture (formerly Architectural Desktop).

3. Click the Attach This File button.

   The model is linked into Autodesk VIZ.

   

4. Close the File Link Manager dialog.

5. Click the Maximize Viewport Toggle to change the viewport to the quad viewport layout.

6. Click Zoom Extents All to display the gallery in each viewport.

Hide the roof:

Notice that the model has been built with a roof; all you see is the complete exterior structure. Before adding a camera to the scene, you need to hide the roof in order to show the interior.

1. On the main toolbar, click the Layer Manager button.

   The Layer Manager dialog is displayed.

   

2. Scroll down the list of layers and find the Roof layer.

   The layer name has a plus sign (+) to its left, which means the layer contains at least one object.

3. Click the plus sign to open the list of objects associated with the Roof layer.

   You'll see one object named Layer:roof.

   

   If you did the same to the A-Door or A-Wall layers, you'd see many objects on each layer.

4. Because the Roof layer contains only one object, you can hide the layer by clicking the gray dash in the Hide column.

   The gray dash is replaced by a mask symbol, which indicates that the layer is hidden.

   

   In the Perspective viewport, you can see that the roof isn't visible.

   

   While you can use any of several different methods to select and hide the roof object, a well-organized drawing utilizes the layer system to help improve your modeling efficiency. The appropriate use of layers makes displaying and hiding objects in the scene very fast and easy.

Add a camera to the scene:

Now that you have a better view of the interior of the gallery, you'll add a camera to the scene.

1. Right-click in the Top viewport to make it active.

   If necessary, move the Layers toolbar out of the way.

2. On the Create panel, click the Cameras button.

3. Click Target and place the base point of the camera at the center of the gallery, and then drag the camera target to where stairs meet the second floor in the left wing. Release the mouse button to finish the camera placement.

   

4. Right-click to exit the Target Camera command.

5. Right-click in the Perspective viewport, and then press the C key.

   The view changes to that of the camera you just placed.

   

6. Left-click in the Front viewport to make it active.

   You'll work in this viewport to raise the camera and target off the floor.

7. Click the Select And Move button, and pick the Camera.

8. Open the Reference Coordinate System list, and change the setting from View to World.

   This ensures that the Z axis is associated with vertical movement in any viewport you work in.

   

9. Right-click the Select And Move button to display the Move Transform Type-In dialog.

   Note: The Select And Move button must be turned on before you can enter data into the Transform Type-In dialog. The same is true for Select And Rotate and Select And Scale.

   

10. In the Offset:World group, enter 6'0” in the Z axis field, and then press Enter.

    The camera shifts up to a more reasonable vantage point as shown in the Camera viewport.

    

11. With the Camera selected, right-click in the viewport, and choose Select Camera Target from the quad menu.

12. In the Move Transform Type-In dialog, enter 10'0” in the Offset:World Z axis field, and then press Enter.

    You can now close the Move Transform Type-In dialog.

    

    The camera and its target are now positioned so that you can create a test render of the scene.

Unhide the roof:

Before test rendering the scene, you'll need to unhide the roof layer.

1. From the main toolbar, click the Layer Manager button.

   

2. Scroll down the list of layers and find the Roof layer.

3. Click the mask symbol in the Hide column.

   The gray dash reappears and the layer is unhidden.

Render the scene:

With the model linked and a camera placed in the scene, you can now create a test render to see if the camera's placement is suitable.

1. On the main menu, choose Rendering > Environment.

   The Environment and Effects dialog is displayed.

2. Turn off the Active switch in the Exposure Control rollout.

   You're turning off Exposure Control because it will cause the scene to be too bright when rendered.

3. Close the Environment and Effects dialog, and then choose Rendering > Render from the main menu.

4. In the Output Size group, click the 320x240 rendering preset button.

   Tip: You want your test rendering to be fast, so use lower resolution settings. Increase the resolution for final renderings that you'll present to your clients.

5. At the bottom of the Render Scene dialog, change the viewport setting to Camera01, and then click Render.

   This is the result you get using the Default Scanline Renderer.

   

6. In the Render Scene dialog, scroll down and open the Assign Renderer rollout.

7. Click the Choose Renderer button. In the Choose Renderer dialog, select mental ray Renderer, if it's not already set, and then click OK.

8. Click the Render button again.

   Both images are pretty similar, but that will change when you apply mental ray materials to the scene. You'll use the mental ray Renderer for the remainder of this tutorial.

   

9. From the main menu, choose File > Save and save the scene as myGallery1.max.