[Cosmasad]

Good morning friends,

Looking at the Rhino manual we have some questions about the Export options on p. 46. First of all, we wonder if you could clarify what you mean by export? Is it what happens when you hit the Render button while you are in Rhino and it sends the scene to the Core Application for rendering? We have an architectural interior with a lot of furniture and lights that are block instances. Would checking the Instances here apply? And if so, when you say "export speed can be reduced greatly" you mean what happens between the time you hit the Render button and the moment when the Core Application opens up, right (which has been taking about one minute)? You don't mean the actual rendering time, right?

"Native lights: Enabling this option will cause the plugin to translate native spot, cone and rectangle lights into real geometry for use by Maxwell."

This only applies if we are using IES right? -- since based on all of our conversations, we are not supposed to use native lights for any other reason.

From p. 47 " Active Camera Only: Normally, the plugin exports a camera for each view..."

Why would it do that? Why would Maxwell need anything more than the view in the active camera?

Thank you.

[JDHill]

Looking at the Rhino manual we have some questions about the Export options on p. 46. First of all, we wonder if you could clarify what you mean by export? Is it what happens when you hit the Render button while you are in Rhino and it sends the scene to the Core Application for rendering?

That is correct. Around here, when we say 'Export', we are talking about the plugin's main function of transferring mesh data from Rhino into an in-memory Maxwell representation; when using Export or Render types of commands in the plugin, the next step is that this in-memory data is written to disk, in order that it may be rendered by Maxwell, or opened in Studio. When using Fire in the plugin, it is only the in-memory transfer which happens; the transferred data is then rendered directly in the Fire window with no need of writing it to disk.

We have an architectural interior with a lot of furniture and lights that are block instances. Would checking the Instances here apply? And if so, when you say "export speed can be reduced greatly" you mean what happens between the time you hit the Render button and the moment when the Core Application opens up, right (which has been taking about one minute)? You don't mean the actual rendering time, right?

Again, correct. In Rhino, instances (i.e. block instances) are primarily used as an organizational tool. In Maxwell, however, they are used for reducing memory requirements. Here's why: normal geometry in Rhino exists directly in world XYZ space, such that two meshes, even when one is a direct copy of the other, are completely different entities. Blocks are different; many block instances may refer to a single block definition, with the only difference between them being the transformation used to locate each in 3D space. As you may imagine, it is much faster to write a small transformation than it is to write an entire mesh's data over and over.

"Native lights: Enabling this option will cause the plugin to translate native spot, cone and rectangle lights into real geometry for use by Maxwell."
This only applies if we are using IES right? -- since based on all of our conversations, we are not supposed to use native lights for any other reason.

No, it applies to all native Rhino lights, whether they have been assigned an explicit material or not, and whether that material uses an IES file or not. The argument against using Rhino lights is a performance/quality-based one; you are free to use them all you want, but I would not really expect a professional to be doing so. IES-based spotlights are currently the sole caveat to this recommendation, and only in the 2.5.1 release preview, simply due to their ability to let me derive a transformation which allows Maxwell to direct the IES lobe.

Why would it do that? Why would Maxwell need anything more than the view in the active camera?

Many people use Maxwell Studio to work on their models after exporting from another app like Rhino. By default, the plugin reads the Named Views contained in your Rhino document and exports them all as individual cameras in the MXS, so that you will have access to them in Studio (there is also a camera dropdown in Maxwell Render). It may not always be desirable to do that though, so the plugin makes it optional.