Render

Using the current renderer, the Render command produces a color rendering in a separate display window.

Change render options on the Document Properties dialog box. The dialog box page will reflect the current renderer.

Add spotlights along with other light types to create lighting effects on your model in all rendering methods.

To set the current renderer

1. From the Render menu, click Current Renderer.

2. Choose the renderer from the list.

Notes

• The materials assigned from either the Properties command or the Layer dialog box determine the colors of the rendered objects. The color of objects and layers does not affect the render color.

• If the objects you are rendering are very complex, Rhino may be slow to shade or render them the first time. It is during that time that Rhino calculates from the smooth geometry a hidden mesh that is used for the rendering. The next time you render the same model, the performance will have improved.

• If strange cracks show between surfaces when you shade them, first try increasing the density of the render mesh on the Document Properties dialog box, Mesh page. Also, some surfaces may need to be joined into polysurfaces. Then Rhino will mesh those surfaces so that the mesh vertices for each surface will be exactly shared along their common edge and there won't be any holes or cracking.

• The PictureFrame command makes a plane with an image attached to it. When you draw the plane, it also keeps the plane to be in the same aspect ratio of the image, so it won't be deformed.

Troubleshoot Rendering

A possible problem with rendering is that objects that should look smooth are jagged. This is because Rhino converts all NURBs objects into polygon meshes before rendering them. Sometimes the conversion does not use enough polygons. This can make the individual polygons distinguishable, and, since the polygons are flat, they look jagged.

Change the settings in the in the Document Properties dialog box on the Mesh page to set the Render mesh to Smooth & slower.

Render Window File menu

Save As

Saves the image.

Print: 1:1

Prints the image to the Windows default printer at full scale.

Print: Fit to page

Prints the image to the Windows default printer expanded to fill the page.

Render Window Edit menu

Copy

Copies the image to the Windows Clipboard.

Render Window Zoom menu

In/Out

Zooms in and out on the image, increasing or decreasing the pixel size in the window.

Render Window Help menu

Help

Displays the Help topic for the current renderer.

Notes

• The render display window is the same size as the viewport it renders, and the resolution of the render image is the size of the image in pixels, unless set to a Custom resolution in the Document Properties dialog box, Render page. To quickly increase the resolution (number of pixels) for the render image, increase the size of the viewport, and render again.

Texture folder

When rendering a scene, Rhino loads the textures and bump maps specified for each object. If Rhino can't find the texture in the folder specified, it looks for the texture in the following places:

• the folder where the model is saved.

• the current working folder.

• a folder named "Textures" (if it exists) under the Rhino install folder.

RenderWindow

Renders a selected area of the current viewport, in the viewport, at viewport resolution.

Notes

• Uses the settings on the Document Properties dialog box Mesh page.

RenderInWindow

Renders a selected area of the current viewport, in the render window, at viewport resolution.

Notes

• Uses the settings on the Document Properties dialog box Mesh page.

RenderPreview

Renders the current viewport, in the render window, using the resolution setting for current renderer, while all other settings minimize render time.

Note: Uses the settings on the Document Properties dialog box Mesh page.

RenderPreviewInWindow

Renders a selected area of the current viewport, in the render window while all other settings minimize render time.

Note: Uses the settings on the Document Properties dialog box Mesh page.

RenderPreviewWindow

Renders a selected area of the current viewport, in the viewport, at viewport resolution, using settings that minimize render time.

Note: Uses the settings on the Document Properties dialog box Mesh page.

CopyRenderWindowToClipboard

Copies the image in the render window to the Windows Clipboard.

SaveRenderWindowAs

Saves the image in the render window to a file.

Steps:

• In the Save Bitmap dialog box, choose the name, location, and file type for the bitmap file.

• You can save the bitmap in .bmp, .tga, .jpg, .pcx, .png, and .tif  formats.

  In a script, you can follow the command with the name of the file to save to:

  SaveRenderWindowAs "C:\My Images\Rendering Two.bmp".

PrintRenderWindow

Prints the image in the render window.

Options

Scale

FitToPage

Print filling the page.

OneToOne

Print the render window paying attention to the DPI setting.

CloseRenderWindow

Closes the render display window.

This is useful for doing multiple renderings. When combined with the SaveRenderWindowAs command, you can create multiple renderings and save them to different files from your script.

SetCurrentRenderPlugIn

Sets the current rendering plug-in application.

Steps:

The SetCurrentRenderPlugin command sets the current render plug-in by passing the name that appears in the menu (in quotes if there are spaces in the name) or the plug-in ID.

You can download plug-ins, from www.rhino3d.com/plug-ins.