Lftofcenter

Hey all,

I'm very new to lightscape. I've attempted to teach myself the program about a week ago with help from a very limited tutorial that I've found thusfar. I completed the tutorials and they went great but now I'm trying to import my own projects and I can't seem to get it right.

Whenever I attempt to import my DWG or DXF file I get an error message, and lightscape promptly closes itself. I checked at what the problem might be and my best guess is that my 3d modeling is incompatible with that of lightscape. I model in 3d solids, that's what I've always known. Now I've come to find that the example tutorials are modeled in 3D Faces or Polygon Meshes. I remodeled my project using these two instead of solids but I still get an error message when importing. Is there such a thing as an incompatibility with solids? Is there something I'm overlooking? Help!

Thanks,
Bianca

Ernest Burden

What are you modeling in? You are using ACAD terminology, so I'll guess that. Which format are you saving in? Remember that Lightscape was frozen in time several years ago. Try an older version, like dwg2000

You say LS generates an error message--what does it say?

Typically, LS does not 'just close' if it can't read data in a file, and it always read solids from ACAD before. By the way, which version of LS?

__________________
Ernest Burden III
AcmeDigital
architectural rendering

Lftofcenter

I'm using Architectual Desktop 3.3, and Lightscape 3.2 (Educational Version if that makes a difference).

My procedures are Import > DXF > Browse > Load > then a pop appears that says "Failed to load C:\.....house.dxf." I click OK and a blank screen appears but Lightscape remains open.

I follow the same steps for the DWG file and it says "ObjectDBX has reported a fatal error: Unable to load the Modeler Dlls." I click OK on the pop up and lightscape closes.

You might be right about using an older version of aCAD, I'll try that as soon as I can. I'm glad to hear that LS reads solids and that I don't have to restrategize my old work.

Larry Zasitko

The educational version I beleive was the same as the retail so that should not matter.

What does matter is Arch Desktop. I used it for a while but that was a few years ago and if I recall right it has it's own 3d format and to use them in other programs you have to export. I recall trying this and could never get it to work 100% so I started using other programs.

One that I still use for doing the basic structure is Floorplan v4 by IMSI. They licenced it from Cadsoft. Cadsoft did programs for Autocad and this was developed for visualization. Floorplan had Lightscape as the rendering engine and it generates the preperation and lighting solution files which can be opened in Lightscape. I find Floorplan easy and fast to get the structure done, then add all the extras in Lightscape.

Larry

Lftofcenter

Thanks for your help everyone.

I think I might have inadvertantly fixed what was inhibiting me from importing to LS. It could have been either a corrupt layer or block in my file. I created a new file and simply copied and pasted the essential 3d elements that I need for my model and excluded any extra blocks. I did manage to import my Arch Desktop file into LS but sometimes it was hit or miss. In one instance I'd import it and everything went smoothly, while in another I'd import it again (just for trial purposes, with no change in the original dwg file) and I'd get the same error message. Well atlest half the time is better than nothing right?

Larry, I'll look into Floorplan. I've never heard of it but it sounds convenient. I'm trying to teach myself many programs to become well versed in a little bit of everything.

Larry Zasitko

Make sure it is v4 as it was the only version of floorplan that used the Lightscape engine. All versions since have a Lightworks rendering engine which operates totally different. You should be able to find it for no more than $20.00 (yeah I know.....:-), check ebay.

Larry

CEREAL_KILLER

i heard with desktop imported to lightscape, surfaces imported are double.... 2 mesh on 1 space... do i make sense... my english is bad today sorry

is it true???

__________________
kapag ang palay naging bigas... may bumayo!