Converting Geometry Data
Since Rayfront is exclusively a simulation package,
we need some way to create and convert the geometry data
that we want to work with. There are several possibilities
to do this.
Autocad/Intellicad Integration
The most convenient way is to run Rayfront as
an Autocad/Intellicad extension. Check Operation within Autocad/Intellicad for details.
Data Import
The "Import" menu offerst two possibilities to get
geometry data into Rayfront.
- Foreign Scene Geometry...
- This function reads external files that are
created in the Radiance scene file format
or have been converted to it somehow.
- DXF Geometry...
- This function reads external files in the
DXF file format, which is a very common exchange format
for geometry data.
Convert Data
If you don't have your data in one of the above formats,
there are many ways to convert them. Rayfront
includes the following command line tools to convert
geometry data to Radiance scene file format:
- Archicad2rad
- Convert from RIF files as created by some versions
of Archicad (by Paul Bourke).
- arch2rad
(pdf)
- Convert Architrion text files.
- mgf2rad
(pdf)
- Convert "Material and Geometry" (mgf) files.
- obj2rad
(pdf)
- Convert Wavefront object files.
- thf2rad
(pdf)
- Convert GDS "things" files.
- tmesh2rad
(pdf)
- Convert a triangular mesh.
Generators
As a last resort, it is entirely possible to write
Radiance scene files manually, as they are just plain
text files in a special format. To make this easier,
you can use so called "generators", which are little
programs that create parts of a scene.
The following generators are included with the package,
and recognized correctly when imported from Rayfront:
- genblinds
(pdf)
- Generate a Radiance description of venetian blinds.
- genbox
(pdf)
- Generate a Radiance description of a box.
- genrev
(pdf)
- Generate a Radiance description of a surface of revolution.
- gensurf
(pdf)
- Generate a Radiance description of a curved surface.
- genworm
(pdf)
- Generate a Radiance description of a functional worm.
- genpyr
(pdf)
- Generate a Radiance description of a square based pyramid
(by Abraham Yezioro).
- genshell
(pdf)
- Generate a Radiance description of a membrane
(by Abraham Yezioro).
- genwedge
(pdf)
- Generate a Radiance description of a wedge
(by Abraham Yezioro).
- triangulate
- Triangulate a surface over a set of 3D points
(by Paul Bourke).
- gensuperellipse
- Generate a Radiance desciption of a superellipsoid
(by Paul Bourke).
- genarch
- Generate an architectural arch.
(by Paul Bourke).
- gencolumn
- Generate an architectural column.
(by Paul Bourke).
- genlinearstairs
- Generate architectural spirail stairs.
(by Paul Bourke).
- genspiralstairs
- Generate architectural linear stairs.
(by Paul Bourke).
- genvault
- Generate an architectural vault.
(by Paul Bourke).
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