Maxwell Render | Official public forum

Using Maxwell for previews of cabinetry work we do. The cabinets themselves are all created programmatically (nothing except the room structure in these models is hand created) into Sketchup and then sent on to Maxwell. The creation of the cabinetry itself is very fast as it comes from parametric libraries that we build. Every single piece that goes into the actual construction of the cabinet is included in the model. The same program that creates the model in Sketchup creates CNC code for the router to cut the pieces.

Cool...those images don't look very appealing in an artistic way...but they look exactly right for about 10 or 15 days before closing. I expect to see the countertop guy walking in any second.

What CAM do you guys run? What type of CNC?

You're right. They are meant to be functional and we don't have time to turn each one into an art piece. They are, however, about 100 times better than what our competitors are providing...

CNC is a Shopbot. All of the programming comes from the system that builds the cabinet models. Keeps everything predictable and consistent.

Don't misunderstand, it was a total compliment. I think adding more frills would actually make these look less realistic to the target audience. Btw...been doing CAD/CAM/CNC programming since about 1990...I understand where you're coming from completely.

JD

Looks good, and sounds like a great workflow you've developed there. One thing though - you may want to check the miter angle for the crown molding on the upper corner cabinet. Looks like you've got an overlap there (unless it's supposed to look like that). Could cause some problems for the assembly guys if these get cut wrong by the CNC....

Yes, there are a few details that aren't quite right yet. That crown is one of them

Are you using the wizard generated wood material? Try changing the reflectance color on the varnish layer to white, rather than using the wood texture. Looks much more realistic- not so flat. If you look at a piece of finished wood, it reflects colors pretty cleanly, without adding much of a color cast.

Thanks, I'll try that. I have almost given up on the wood material actually. I have turned to rendering most projects using a white matte material. A lot of customers don't understand when the finished product doesn't match the color of the rendering exactly. Way too difficult to explain the whole thing to them. Also trying to match some of the glazed finishes takes hours and hours of screwing around. For my purpose it has turned better to just show them a white rendering that illustrates the structure nicely and then actual color samples for color selection.