Artistic Touch Needed for Rendering

I have created a 3D model of a steel assembly in AutoCAD 2019 and it looks good. The preliminary renderings I'm doing with it are nice but I'm noticing a couple of things.

1. Years ago when I was working with AC 2010, 2012, etc... I was doing similar renderings and they seemed to be much clearer and focused. With this new version of AutoCAD I am noticing what seems to just be a blurry image, of fog if you will. I never tweak settings like fog so I'm not sure how to remedy this.
   
2. The materials I have been applying to this model are quite simple. Just some galvanized and stainless steel. But when the rendering runs at the level I've set, the image just doesn't come out with the crispness and focus that I am expecting.
   

That said, I'd like to ask some of the more experienced rendering people here if you could offer some advice. I'm using lights instead of the sun. You can see how I set them up in the file. Any advice as to how I can get this rendering to pop off the page with a little more clearness and plizaz will be appreciated.

AC Render Testing.dwg

How about using something else to render?

I brought your model into SimLab Composer 9 (there is a free Lite version even for commercial jobs) and I applied 2 materials and hit "render". This was the result.... (about 5 minutes)

Thanks for the reply. I never heard of SimLab but I'm reading up on it and installing a trial copy this morning. I guess what I'm still unsure of is what really happened between the old rendering engine and the new one AutoDesk chose for AutoCAD. Did I somehow miss something? I'm not and expert at rendering but I do a decent job at it. I can't seem to get the desired results using what I'm thinking are the exact same settings I used with the earlier versions of AutoCAD. The renders produced in 2019 seem to be cloudy, not clear and crisp as before.

I don't see why they continue to included rendering in AutoCAD. There are so many better options at this stage of the game. Just remove it and be done with it.

I don't see why they continue to included rendering in AutoCAD. There are so many better options at this stage of the game. Just remove it and be done with it.

I've been saying that for years. Autocad is a great 2D drafting program, but in my opinion, it really falls short in the 3D department. As you said, there are much better options out there.

That render from Simlab looks really nice for only 5 minutes. What was the image size and resolution?

It was rendered at 1920x1080 and cropped down a bit.

I think AutoCAD is still a player in the 3D modeling game but just not for rendering. Now having said that I have seen some sweet ACad renders in my time.

You can say that twice. I installed a copy of SimLab's trial version. Gotta learn how to use it first. I imported the dwg file and all I got was a few of the angle shapes.

On top of everything else, the last render I was running just choked this i7 cpu with 12 GB RAM. Was typing this reply (which was lost) when the computer just shut down cold turkey. I think the power supply in it is old, like me.

Huh? I imported your dwg file with no issues what so ever. Easy file transfer is supposed to be be one of SimLab's strengths. There is also an AutoCad plug for SimLab for easy file transfers.

Thanks again everyone. I have figured out the issues of getting the model into SimLab Composer. It's really cool and much faster at rendering than AutoCAD. Now, here is a very simple model which I am still having trouble with.

The model in AutoCAD with materials applied and the sun turned on is just a dark box with a lid. Honestly, I don't remember AutoCAD 2014 doing it like this. But it's been a long time since I had to render a model. The top lid on this model is supposed to be steel diamond plate. So I applied the material Polished Diamond Plate, and then I tried just plain diamond plate. When I run the render at high resolution all I get is a out of focused bluish plate. No diamond tread plate pattern appears on it. And as per my original complaint, the image is blurry, out of focus and is just not acceptable for what I'm trying to achieve. Several years ago when I was using 2014 and the materials library that came with it, I was getting much more in focus and sharper images.

Okay, switching back to SimLab, I get a slightly better image with it but still the tread plates doesn't show up. Even if I apply the materials from SimLab the tread plate does not come out like I need it to. The only results I got which came close was the diamond plate pattern but it was tiled and not uniformly spread across the plate. I know that rendering is an art form and what one person achieves is not necessarily the same another modeler would end up with.

I've used another environment which I used back in the 2014 days with three lights setup at various angles, two in front and one from the back side. That setup worked great back in those days, but here I'm still getting the same blurry, out of focused imaged with nothing at all like the resolution I was getting before.

BTW, this computer is an i7 with 8 GB RAM and it has an Nvidia Qudropro FX 380 graphics card. It's about 9 years old now but it's the same card I was using back in the 2014 days.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Steel Box.dwg

1st off Bill, save your SimLab file with materials and upload that for me to look at. 2nd, what gen is your i7? If it is below 4th gen then it is time for an upgrade. I also don't think SimLab uses the GPU for rendering but instead uses the CPU. So the more and faster cores the better. I'll take a look at your DWG and see what I can see.

Sean

Also watch this....

Thanks Sean. I have saved the SimLab file. Still too new with the app to know if it included the materials, etc...

The forum will not allow me to upload a .sim file so here is a link to the drop box I put a copy in for you.

This i7 cpu is at least 4 years old. I don't recall when I rebuilt it but it's definitely now a newer one.

Hey Bill, you scene is washout for some reason. I changed this by going to Libraries (bottom left) and clicking on Rendering and then Presets. I clicked and dragged on Default and dropped it into the scene. This got me to a normal render.

Also your materials didn't seem to hold or work on this file. I click on the lid and it says "Diamond Plate" but I don't see it. How did you apply these materials, was it don it AutoCAD? If so they might not transfer. Did you download the extra materials for SimLab? If not go here and follow the instructions. Then you will have loads of materials to use.

http://www.simlab-soft.com/SimlabArt/library/

I applied a Diamond Plate material from this library to your top and got this.

Here is the file.

Sean

https://expirebox.com/download/4c51ba2be06aaec48df8907e35720ab0.html

Keyshot 8,

A few custom materials and realism is fantastic!