Physics Based Rendering? What am I doing wrong?

[Timeless_16]

7 minutes ago, Donco15 said:

JON

 

PER YOUR LINK I NEED 431 FC

48272 LUMENS

 

I THINK THAT YOU ARE CORRECT THAT I DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH LIGHTS BECAUSE I HAVE 8 AT 1200 EACH = 9600 LUMENS

 

I TYPICALLY USE 8 RECESSED LIGHTS IN A KITCHEN AND UNDER CABINET LIGHTING - IN THE PHYSICAL SPACE - I HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TOADD UNDERCABINET LIGHTING IN HOME DESIGNER PRO

 

THANKS FOR CHECKING OUT THE FILE.

You can add under cabinet lights and lights in the cabinets. I put them in my designs. I'll post an image and guide to doing it when I get home from work.

[xJonQx]

Donco,

 

I don't use the lighting calculator to tell me how much lighting I need, rather how many foot candles i'd get with a certain configuration. The kitchen is 114 sqft, So with 8x 1200lm bulbs, that comes out to 84fc which i'd say is right in range, especially if you add under-counter lights.

 

To add under-counter lights to HD Pro 2020, I added a 4" recessed light, resized it to 2.5", changed the lumens/cutoff/dropoff (total guesses - you'll need to set these properly), and then offset them from the ceiling:

 

 

You'll have to play with the offset for each light depending on where you place them, as it could be relative to the ceiling, or soffit etc. 

Note that i just placed these willy-nilly for the example.

 

Here's some renders with some under-cabinet lights thrown in:

 

Note that you had some issues with your main recessed lights. One can had 2 lights in it somehow, and they didn't all have the same light data. I normalized them all.

 

I don't know if you placed your main lights based on where they already are, but I moved them to the typical placement ratios relative to the wall just to see what that overlap would look like. I use CAD boxes to create a grid and then just snap the lights to the intersection points:

This is a handy calculator to determine spacing:

https://blog.recessedlighting.com/recessed-lighting-calculator/

 

Hopefully this gets you started on getting the look you're after! I look forward to seeing the renders when you're done.

 

Good luck,

Jon

 

galt_towers_FRIDGE_SAME_SIDE_-_vJH.plan

[Timeless_16]

That's a nice difference and makes it so much better. Personally, I can't wait to finish my next project. Just the lighting and effects make 2020 worth it. 

 

Just would be nice to blow the dust off of my HD PRO skills a little quicker. I've been using Sketchup for 2 years and have forgotten so much in HD Pro, that I get a little frustrated when something doesn't automatically come to me.

[Donco15]

Jon

wow.. I can’t believe how much you improved my drawing.  The tutorial is priceless.

 

you managed to make me fall in love with home designer pro 2020 all over again

 

The under cabinet lighting issue has been a struggle with me forever thanks for your tip on resolving this issue 

 

the photo looks fantastic and realistic 

 

i look forward to playing with the plan when I get back to the office

 

I will still check to see if i can duplicate this picture with my current graphics card

 

Your expertise in this software has given me new hope in my design skills

 

Thanks again

 

D

 

 

 

[Donco15]

Zachary

i have often thought about sketch up 

 but now with the pbr I think I will be satisfied for the time being

 

I know That you can create beautiful things in sketchup

But home designer pro 2020 has opened up new possibilities big time

 

 

 

 

 

D

[Donco15]

Update:  

JON 

Thanks Jon.. I have replicated your camera view in the plan that you sent..  It took awhile to figure where all  the settings were but I found open object and then mirrored your settings.

It looks awesome..

 

I am still working on the grid for the cad boxes..  I am learning by trial and error.. Your plan is so helpful.. so thanks for this tool..

I am so thankful for the support from the Forum... I look forward to paying it forward and contributing to others with the new found knowledge.

 

D-

 

 

[xJonQx]

Donco,

This is actually pretty easy and doesn't require any trial-and-error (or even a calculator!) to be precise.

The basic rule of thumb for spacing lights is that the distance from a light to the nearest wall should be half of the distance between 2 lights. Eg:

https://blog.recessedlighting.com/recessed-lighting-calculator/

 

The way I build my grid is as follows:

 

First, I create a CAD Box and fill the space I want to light (from wall surface):

 

I modify the fill to be Solid Green 50% Transparent - obviously you can style this how you want, but the transparency helps in the next step.

 

Here's what it looks like:

 

I then copy-and-paste the green box (location at this point doesn't matter), and then open the box to modify it's specification:

(initial size)

 

Then, I divide the Height and Width by the number of lights I plan to place in each dimension.

You can do the math right in the Height & Width boxes -- no calculator needed!

 

When you tab to the next field, you'll see the new calculated value is entered:

 

and finally:

 

Now you have this:

 

Next, duplicate the small rectangle (location at this point doesn't matter), and divide the height and width by 2:

 

 

 

So now you have this:

 

Here's where it gets fun.

 

Use the Point to Point Move tool to move the upper-left corner of the smallest box to the upper-left corner of the room box:

 

From:

 

To: (notice i'm selecting the wall surface)

 

Now you have this:

Notice why the transparent fill helps. You can see where these overlay clearly.

 

Next, create a copy of the mid-sized box, and point-to-point move the upper-left corner of that copy to the lower-left corner of the small box:

 

Now keep copying the mid-sized box and moving it until you get the grid completed:

Notice you don't need to create a full grid of boxes, you just need to make sure you have a box corner where each light would be placed.

 

Just in case you don't believe this worked precisely, i've duplicated the corner box to the other 3 corners to prove it fits perfectly:

But you do not need to do this last step typically.

 

The last step is you place your lights, snapping the center to each corner of the grid:

 

 

 

Repeat this process for the foyer:

 

And the end result:

(of course, don't forget to tune your light data, the camera PBR settings and the sun intensity described earlier in this thread).

 

One other note is that in rooms where there are cabinets etc. you probably want to space your lights relative to the cabinet faces rather than the wall.

 

ALTERNATE METHOD (especially if you have a large grid):
There is another way to do this which doesn't require the CAD grid, but does require a little math. I still prefer the grid method since it gives me a frame of reference to make it clear if i accidentally moved a light later on etc. but this alternate method works just as well, and is probably much easier for large lighting arrangements.

 

Measure the wall-to-wall height and width of the room you want to grid with lights. In my Example that's 252" x 348"

 

Divide this by the number of lights you want in each dimension. I'll do something much more complex this time, with a 7x10 grid of lights.

That results in a light-to-light spacing of 36" (Y) x 34.8" (X)

 

Divide the light-to-light spacing by 2, resulting in a light-to-wall spacing of 18" (Y) x 17.4" (X)

 

Place a light in the upper-left corner of the room:

 

Select that light and choose the Transform/Replicate Object tool

 

Move the light by the light-to-wall spacing you calculated:

 

 

Select that light again and choose the Transform/Replicate Object tool again.

 

This time Copy it 9 times (giving a total of 10 across the width of the room) and Move it just in the X-Axis by the light-to-light spacing you calculated:

 

Now you have 10 lights across:

 

Select all 10 lights, and choose the Transform/Replicate Object tool again.

This time Copy it 6 times (giving a total of 7 down the height of the room) and Move it just in the Y-Axis by the light-to-light spacing you calculated:

 

Now you have 7 rows of 10 lights:

 

and voilà!:

 

 

 

Combine the two methods!

You can also use the Transform/Replicate Object tool to quickly build your CAD grid.

 

 

I'm not a lighting designer by any stretch of the imagination, so clearly this post is more about the process of how to place lights according to a grid, but in many cases you'll want to deviate from a simple grid and have task lighting etc.

 

Let me know how this works for you!

 

-Jon

 

 

[Donco15]

Quote

 

JON

THANKS FOR SUCH A DETAILED TUTORIAL... IT MAKES MUCH MORE SENSE NOW... I WILL DEFINITELY TRY USING THIS METHOD.

YOUR SKILLS ON THIS PROGRAM ARE REMARKABLE.

[FredericG]

Thanks for the detailed education and test plans, I'm very happy with the new feature.

Here is what I could come out with, final touches on PS.

I'm remodeling my house and here is the future kitchen

[Timeless_16]

Very Nice!