I came across a post here from 2011 which said to use a different software package entirely. Has anything changed in the last 8 years that would allow me to simulate some basic light pipes in Visualize?
I came across a post here from 2011 which said to use a different software package entirely. Has anything changed in the last 8 years that would allow me to simulate some basic light pipes in Visualize?
A piece of material transfer light from one side to another.
Think optic fiber but bigger and could branch out.
They're what Frederick said. Just optical pipes to transport light from the source (often a surface mount LED) to their destination (an indicator on a housing, the backlighting on a keypad, etc).
I've attached an example of one. At the base is an LED. The circle fits into a hole in a housing.
Is there a way to somewhat accurately simulate these in Visualize? Or am I best off just cheating and shining a light from behind it?
Sounds like an exercise in some material/appearance calibration.
I assume these light pipes are generally not visible...ie behind enclosures, etc. Is there a reason using a simple emissive appearance doesn't work?
Otherwise, if you use "thick" transparent object for the light pipe medium, with proper density and IOR, does it not begin to simulate the result?? In this case, there is no physical light except .01 env lighting so you can see edges of the matte geometry, and then a red LED behind the wall where the "tube" comes out. The non-emissive tube, certainly transmits the light coming from the small LED behind the wall...
That's what I've done. I can get the output to look like I want it to look, but I'm not sure if that's how real components would look.
One thing about the design I'm working with is that I have to set the light source to be quite bright (5000) in order to get enough light out of the pipe to be easily visible with 1.0 env lighting and no other sources.
Hi Jeffrey, did some testing with different appearances. As Ron assumed, it´s not easy to find the right balance in the material settings.
I placed a disk light directly behind the end of the tube, so a brightness of 20 worked for me.
What's a "light pipe"?