Is there a best practice of some sort for setting the ZONE= parameter in a .rif file ?

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I am trying to render multiple scenes inside and outside a room using the rad program. Interior and exterior scenes are handled in separate runs and the view files for each case are different as well. The room is surrounded by 3d shapes that are proxies for buildings. Is there a way that I can get the values for x,y,z coordinates that follow the I or E after ZONE= ?

My geometry is split into separate files according to material type. I am currently getting the coordinates through getbbox. For example,

!getbbox interiorwalls.rad ceiling.rad floor.rad #for interior scene

!getbbox Scene.rad #for exterior scene.Scene.rad references the entire geometry using xforms.

I understand that I can measure the coordinates manually in the 3d model, however, I was just curious to know if there is a shortcut and if getbbox is indeed the way to go.

Thanks, Sarith

Getbbox is indeed the way to go for obtaining the extents of your geometry. You're doing the right thing by creating separate .rif files for interior and exterior views/calculations. What's the issue with just using getbbox? If you're looking for a more automated way to get those coordinates into your .rif file you could just put a call to getbbox in a rendering/calculation pipeline script, that calls getbbox, stores the extents coordinates, and then reads the whole rif file in and modifies the ZONE line.

I would encourage you to read up on the ambient exclude stuff (-ae option to many of the tools) to keep the ambient rays from getting totally out of hand when including far-reaching exterior shading geometry.

rpg777

answered 2015-09-23 10:33:46 -0500

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Thanks Rob. I did not find any mention about using getbbox for this purpose on the manpage for rad or in Rendering with Radiance so I wasn't sure if I was doing the right thing.

Sarith (2015-09-23 15:08:11 -0500) edit

You don't necessarily want to pass the entire scene to getbbox to get the exterior zone, which is meant to surround the object of interest. If you have a large ground plane or surrounding buildings, sometimes it's best just to give the exterior geometry for the subject building to compute the exterior zone.