In addition to the awesomely powerful mental ray renderer we added in AutoCAD 2007 we have added more control and features to allow you to create even more stunning renderings with AutoCAD 2008.
Photometric Lights
Photometric lights use “real-world” values for adjusting lighting. For example, if your scene requires you to use fixtures (luminaries) that contain a 75W bulb, you can select a bulb that is 75W from the tool palette. You can adjust the lamp intensity of the bulb in Candela, Lumen, or Lux units.
Luminaires
A luminary assembles a set of light objects into a light fixture. For example, you can create a set of lights to create a light over a dining area.
Sun and Sky
You can now simulate the effects of sunlight in your drawings by applying the new Sun and Sky background to a drawing view.
Procedural Maps:
Materials are improved with the addition of new procedural maps. You can even nest a procedural map within another procedural map.
Advanced Lighting Override
With advanced lighting override at the material level, you can adjust aspects of the light emission, reflectance, and color bleeding to produce even more realistically rendered images than if you relied strictly on the light sources illuminating a scene.
Preview realistic Materials
Any change to a material updates the preview swatch. You can see what the material “really looks like” before you do the final render.
And more.
OK well I need to pack for my Seattle trip in the morning. I will be entertainment for the PSAUG users group tomorrow night then presenting at the Seattle AUGI CAD Camp. Should be interesting without a laptop (got stolen last week) otherwise I will stand in front of everyone and describe my presentation and make shadow puppets. :-)
Cheers,
Shaan
