When you hear about rendering awesome visuals one does not typically think of AutoCAD. The first program we think of is 3DS Max or Maya. The truth of the matter is that AutoCAD has a great rendering engine.
When creating great visuals in any package you need to look at how the material is created as well as the lighting and how it plays off the the material and environment. Below is a picture of an AutoCAD scene without any artificial lights being created.
Looks okay, but how can we make it even better? Lights. AutoCAD has 4 different ways that you can create lights namely Point, Spot, Distant and Weblight.
Point Light – These are used as general lights and emits light in all directions with a certain intensity and colour that you specify. I generally will have a few of these light in an environment to light up my scene.
Spot Light – These are used as a flashlight and have a fall off which can be controlled to give a softer light.
Distance light – This is a light that enacts a light source like the sun. It is a far away light.
Weblight – This is the most accurate way of representing a light and it works with the manufacturers specification when being utilised.
These examples showcase just one light of each type that has been inserted into the model. When creating your light sources you will create a few of each to get the desired result that you are looking for.
