DriveWorks Pro 24

Glass

Glass - Render Property

The Glass render property is a specific render property for creating glass like objects. Glass like objects have certain characteristics that this render property takes into account. These are effects like light refraction and chromatic aberration.

Using the Glass render property can improve the look and feel of your 3D models. It can add another level of realism and accuracy to your design that makes the 3D object more realistic.

The Glass render property uses similar settings to the Bump render property. This means that it is possible to apply a Diffuse, Specular and Normal texture to the Glass object. This gives the glass object even more surface detail. Effects like refraction and chromatic aberration also work with these textures to provide more detail. The Normal (Bump) Texture will cause the light to refract more at these areas.

The Glass render property can be used for almost any object that is transparent and even some translucent objects. The Glass render property gives you great looking transparent models and can improve the look of your 3D models.

Without the Glass render property	With the Glass render property

Setting up an Appearance to use the Glass render property

1. In a DriveWorks 3D Document, navigate to and select an Appearance.
2. In the Information Panel select the Render Properties drop down.
3. Select Glass from the drop down list.

Render Property Settings

The settings available on the Glass render property are grouped into the following categories:

Diffuse Color settings

Sets the color to use for the diffuse color of the Appearance.

Will apply a hexadecimal value to the Diffuse Color in the Parameter Panel.

• Red

  Modifies the amount of red in the Diffuse Color. Enter a number from 0 to 255.

• Green

  Modifies the amount of green in the Diffuse Color. Enter a number from 0 to 255.

• Blue

  Modifies the amount of blue in the Diffuse Color. Enter a number from 0 to 255.

• Alpha

  Controls the alpha channel or transparency of the Diffuse Color. Enter a number from 0 to 255.

  If the geometry wih the Diffuse Color applied is to have Shadow Casting or Edge Sketch applied, the appearance is required to be fully opaque.

  The alpha applied needs to be exactly 255. Anything less than this value is considered not fully opaque.

• Ambient Intensity

  Controls the ambient intensity of the Appearance as a whole. Enter a number.

• Diffuse Intensity

  Controls the intensity of the Diffuse Color/Texture. Enter a number.

Specular Color settings

Sets the color to use for the specular.

Will apply a hexadecimal value to the Specular Color in the Parameter Panel.

• Red

  Modifies the amount of red in the Specular Color. Enter a number from 0 to 255.

• Green

  Modifies the amount of green in the Specular Color. Enter a number from 0 to 255.

• Blue

  Modifies the amount of blue in the Specular Color. Enter a number from 0 to 255.

• Intensity

  Controls the intensity of the specular highlight on an Appearance. Enter a number.

• Reflectivity

  Controls the amount of reflectivity of an Appearance. Enter a number from 0 and above.

Texture Offset settings

• Offset X

  Offset an applied texture in the X Axis. Allows you to position textures accurately on surfaces. Enter a number.

• Offset Y

  Offset an applied texture in the Y Axis. Allows you to position textures accurately on surfaces. Enter a number.

Texture Transforms settings

• Scale X

  Modifies the scale of a texture to suit the size of the model.

  Enter a number from 0 and above.

  See Scaling Textures below for information on how scaling affects the applied texture image.

• Scale Y

  Modifies the scale of a texture to suit the size of the model.

  Enter a number from 0 and above.

  See Scaling Textures below for information on how scaling affects the applied texture image.

• Angle

  Change the rotation of a texture on a model. Enter a number from 0 to 360.

Scaling Textures

The scale of a texture is applied differently when World Position Textures is enabled.

• When World Position Textures is Disabled:

  A scale of 0.5 will stretch or shrink half of a texture repetition over the corresponding axis of the geometry it is applied to.

  A scale of 1 will stretch or shrink one full texture repetition over the corresponding axis of the geometry it is applied to.

  A scale of 2 will stretch or shrink two full texture repetition over the corresponding axis of the geometry it is applied to.

  For example:

  Geometry Scale in the X and Y axis = 0.5 (meters)

  Texture Transform Scale X and Y axis = 1

  Will result in one full texture repetition over the 0.5 meter of the X and Y axis.

  

• When World Position Textures is Enabled:

  A scale of 0.5 will apply half of a texture repetition over a 1 meter length in the corresponding axis.

  A scale of 1 will apply one full texture repetition over a 1 meter length in the corresponding axis.

  A scale of 2 will apply two full texture repetition over a 1 meter length in the corresponding axis.

  For example:

  Geometry Scale in the X and Y axis = 0.5 (meters)

  Texture Transform Scale X and Y axis = 1

  Will result in half a full texture repetition over the 0.5 meter of the X and Y axis.

  

World Position Textures

World Position textures allow seamless texturing over multiple models.

To understand how a World Position Texture is scaled see Texture Transforms settings above.

World Position Textures Disabled	World Position Textures Enabled
The same textured appearance applied to multiple geometries does not flow seamlessly when one of the geometries differs in size.	Enabling World Position Textures allows the same texture to flow into geometries with a different size without the need for complex calculations to scale the texture.

The following parameters can be selected:

Checking each checkbox will add that world position axis value at each pixel's location, to the corresponding texture coordinate value.

This has the effect of making the texture flow along that axis in world space.

• Enabled

  Checking this will enable World Position Textures.

  A rule can also be built for this from the parameter panel by selecting the Enabled (with the address WorldPositionEnabled) property.

• Horizontal
  • X

    Checked by default

    Check to add the horizontal X axis to the corresponding texture coordinate value.

  • Y

    Unchecked by default

    Check to add the horizontal Y axis to the corresponding texture coordinate value.

  • Z

    Checked by default

    Check to add the horizontal Z axis to the corresponding texture coordinate value.

• Vertical
  • X

    Unchecked by default

    Check to add the vertical X axis to the corresponding texture coordinate value.

  • Y

    Checked by default

    Check to add the vertical Y axis to the corresponding texture coordinate value.

  • Z

    Unchecked by default

    Check to add the vertical Z axis to the corresponding texture coordinate value.

Diffuse Texture

• Texture

  Select a diffuse texture from the list of available textures in the Document. Alternatively you can browse for a texture or build a rule to the path of a new texture.

Specular Texture settings

• Texture

  Select a specular texture from the list of available textures in the Document. Alternatively you can browse for a texture or build a rule to the path of a new texture.

Normal Texture

• Texture

  Select a normal texture from the list of available textures in the Document. Alternatively you can browse for a texture or build a rule to the path of a new texture.

Using the Glass render property

The Glass render property can be used in several ways. A Glass appearance can be used with a Diffuse, Specular or Normal Texture, or without any of these textures. You can also use combinations of textures depending on the outcome you need.

Diffuse Color

The Glass render property can be used without any textures to create smooth Glass like objects. No textures need to be applied. You can simply just use the Diffuse Color, Index of Refraction and Chromatic Aberration to setup and create your glass object. This basic method will give you great looking transparent objects. This method is used in the lighting model below. The round objects refract the light nicely and give a realistic finish to the model.

Diffuse Texture and Normal Texture

Diffuse, Specular and Normal textures can also be used with the Glass render property. The Diffuse texture can be used instead of the Diffuse Color.

A Diffuse texture adds additional detail to the Appearance and the surface of the model. For a glass object, the diffuse texture will need to be transparent or semi transparent for it to become see through. In the image below the glass wall is using a Diffuse texture for the blocks and a Normal/Bump texture to add detail to the surface.

The Normal/Bump texture effects the result of Glass and causes further refraction. This distorts the image further and allows you to create effects that you would see in glass, such as frosted glass in doors and windows.

The textures below were used to make the glass wall above.

It is also possible to just add a Normal texture. A diffuse texture is not always required. The Normal texture can give a nice effect on its own. For example the table in the above image only has a normal texture. This is enough to give it a glass effect and refract the light.

Working with Glass

Glass is a great way to improve your models look and adds realism to your scene. There are some things that you need to look out for when using the Glass render property.

Render Order

The Glass render property renders models in a specific order. It has to do this to work out what needs to be transparent and what to show behind a transparent object. DriveWorks calculates the render order using each model/geometries origin. It puts these origins in distance order from the camera and renders them in that order.

This can however have an adverse effect on the resulting rendered image. Sometimes models can appear to disappear behind a transparent object. If a model disappears behind a transparent object it is because of the model origin order in the 3D scene.

This can be resolved by either reordering the scene or splitting up the scene into smaller models with separate model origins.

Glass Examples

Other Render Properties

DriveWorks has other render properties available to use on an Appearance.

These add different levels of realism to an Appearance.

• Default
• Specular
• Bump
• Emissive Bump
• Reflective
• PBR
• PBR Advanced