3 Replies Latest reply on May 29, 2018 1:21 PM by Rich Fagioli

    Basic question about rendering for the Visualize Guys or other knowledgeable folks.

    Dave Goetsch
    Dave Goetsch May 29, 2018 12:00 AM

      I was playing around with an older model of mine today trying to improve on some of my past renders now that I have gained a little more knowledge with Visualize. This thought came to me during these renders.

       

      I modeled this Radial Engine in Solidworks from the original blueprints. It's a quarter-scale model of the Wright J-5 radial engine. The engine Charles Lindbergh used to cross the Atlantic in 1927. I modeled it complete with every internal component. A huge 3 month project. Ball bearings, needle bearings, gears, oil seals, crankshaft, pistons and rings, blower assembly, and the complete valve train assembly. There are loads of internals that can not be seen from the outside.

       

      The complete assembly in Visualize is around 13.9 million polygons. I can probably cut that down to 5 million if I suppress or delete the internal components.

       

      So my question is this: If I hide the internals in the Model Tree or even delete them, will it have any impact on render times? Will renders be any faster?

       

      Don't get me wrong. I'm thrilled with the new render times with the new AI Denoiser and that's really why I'm going back to some of my older projects to do some re-renders at higher more modern resolutions.

       

      Thanks for any info, insight or suggestions...

       

      Radial-Final.png

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        • Re: Basic question about rendering for the Visualize Guys or other knowledgeable folks.
          Rich Fagioli
          Rich Fagioli May 29, 2018 10:02 AM (in response to Dave Goetsch)

          Hiding, or deleting parts and models has no effect on rendering, as far as I can tell. All bets are off, however, once you introduce transparency to the outermost "shell" of your model. Then the ray-tracing algorithm seems to work very hard. This explains, as near as I can tell, why putting any glass into a model slows rendering times radically. Supposedly, this is the nature of the Ray-tracing rendering method, in contrast to the PBR, or Physics Based Reality method used elsewhere for rendering surfaces for games and film-based animations.

           

          Additionally, and of greater consequence to ray-tracing is the number of (surface) polygons that are exposed to the ray tracing algorithm. Here's where some real artificial intelligence would be useful: knowing when to reduce the quality of individual model parts, and thus number of polygons, based on part visibility, viewer distance, depth of field, screen resolution, environment complexity, and even atmospheric effects. As it is, you have to reduce the number of polygons in SW, by adjusting the "Quality" slider in the model properties. Once done, there is no zooming into your model for rendering details without noticing the reduced quality. Though effective, quality reduction in SW is a clunky method that requires added time and duplication of effort, making the process very inefficient.

          • Re: Basic question about rendering for the Visualize Guys or other knowledgeable folks.
            Mark Jackson
            Mark Jackson May 29, 2018 11:13 AM (in response to Dave Goetsch)

            Hi Dave,

             

            I'm very sure Rich's info on polygons and ray tracing is spot on, so no comment on that. I can tell you from my experience, when I delete parts, say inside an electrical enclosure on my industrial models, Visualize does render the the model faster. I often delete internal parts inside visualize, or suppress parts in SolidWorks so my polygon count is lower and my render times faster.

             

            If you delete out some hidden internal parts in your model, you will see the polygon count go down at the bottom of the window in Visualize.

             

            Hiding parts in Visualize has no effect on the polygon count so no effect on render times.

              • Re: Basic question about rendering for the Visualize Guys or other knowledgeable folks.
                Rich Fagioli
                Rich Fagioli May 29, 2018 1:21 PM (in response to Mark Jackson)

                Mark Jackson wrote:

                I can tell you from my experience, when I delete parts, say inside an electrical enclosure on my industrial models, Visualize does render the the model faster.

                I thought it did too, but I wasn't sure that I wasn't imagining, or hoping, it actually did. However, I noticed a marked improved in model manipulation speed when internal models were removed. In other words, there was a lot less lag when rotating and zooming. How that behavior compares to rendering a static view is not clear to me.