#Is Vis. Reality for me?
4 messages in this thread
I am looking for a package to produce realistically rendered product designs.
Somebody in a CAD forum suggested that Visual Reality may be worth looking
into.
I am currently using DesignCAD 3D to create and render 3D models. The current,
DOS, version has some problems with Postscript output, which has led me to look
for another package.
Is Visual Reality a good package for producing realistic-looking product
renderings, or is it more geared to architecture? Does anyone know if it works
well with DesignCAD models, which can be exported in DXF format? Is it
possible to demo or try out the software before buying?
Any guidance would be appreciated.
Hi, Michael –
Coincidentally enough, I'm a DesignCAD 3D user also. Bought Renderize Live
some time ago to try to get photorealistic architectural renderings. Created a
"room" with four walls, a roof, and a floor in DCAD. Punched a couple of
windows in the walls and one in the roof. Used DCFILES to convert it to .DXF.
Imported it into RL. The walls with openings were distorted, lines going off
to infinity and such. Have not attempted to deal with that yet. However, RL
does seem to import DCAD layers correctly.
Then created a simple cube and a simple sphere. Imported them, and they came
up fine. I thought, forget about complex scenes for a while and just try to
learn the program.
Well, I tried – and am still trying – to use RL to simply render those objects
into glass. Would eventually like to superpose one in front of the other to
see how (and if) the refractions work. Have not succeeded. Cannot get the
hang of RL despite repeated tries. It is nothing like DesignCAD, nothing like
I have ever seen before. I have not heard of a demo copy of Renderize Live,
but If you can get a money-back offer I would love to see you get it to try it
out, to find out if someone like yourself does well with it.
One other thing – the manual is nothing like DesignCAD's, which by comparison I
find to be quite good, and which may be part of the problem I am having. There
are many folks on this forum who seem to be doing okay, and sysop Nick Josephs
is great on help.
Hope you get a chance to try it.
— gtm —
Thanks for your input.
I called Visual Software's 800 number and they are sending me a demo CD. I
will let you know if I decide to order the software and try it out.
It seems that DesignCAD 3D for Windows is about to be released. It has already
been reviewed, quite favorably, in InfoWorld. If that release overcomes the
Postscript output problems of the DOS version, I may just stick with it. It
sounds like Renderize is capable of much more realistic renderings but that it
will require a significant investment in time to get up and running with it.
I've had renderize since april or may and am just now starting to get the hang
of it. Tried using designcad3d with it. But to me designcad is like nothing
I'VE ever seen. I have gotten good results with Datacad though. I have a friend
who has both cads and he lets me go to his office and try them out. he's the
architect and I'm the "renderer" . the way I see it though is to create a
basic layout and then bring it into visual model there you can fine tune the
dxf file and then save it as a ged which I think renderize likes a little
better. all those lines that a shooting off into space may have something to do
with the clipping plane. I do understand y'alls frustration though, renderize
is a strange beast andseems to have a mind of it's own….zach