Posts by Pete Chamberlain

andybot - that's just for Revit as there is no Enscape Material Editor for Revit. For CAD's that have the Material Editor, there will be a new option under the Height Type texture slot, named Displacement map accompanied by a slider to adjust the Amount.

Here's the Release Notes for the latest Enscape v2.9 Preview - Version 5.

Please refer to this article for instructions on how to download the Preview version.

What’s included

- New Features:

• Vectorworks
  Export progress bar, video texture support, and View creation have been added to Vectorworks version.
• User Account Licenses
  Login with your account, navigate to User Management option form the top right menu.

  
  

  

  
  The following page will allow you to add a users email address and send out an invitation to join using the Add New and Invite buttons, upon which an email containing a link is sent out to the user to allow them to complete registration. They will then appear in the list as shown here below, where the license can be administered to the user by pressing the key icon, which will show the available licenses you may want to administer to that user.

  
  

  

  
  Each user is listed under their associated email along with the number of allocated licenses, and the status of the user. You can delete users via the trash can icon. This is a command to delete the user, so the user will receive an initial email warning that the account will be deleted in 14 days. If the user doesn't cancel the deletion in the following 14 days, they will receive an email informing them their account has now been deleted.
  
  Once the user is added to the list and a license is assigned, they can then log in to the associated account via the Enscape General Settings -> Licensing option by clicking on User Account (Login), and the License details will appear in the License Details section and Enscape will be unlocked for that user.

  
  

  
  

  

- Improvements:

• Custom Asset Library Improvements and Known Limitations
  We have improved our import capabilities again, covering more of the .gtlf, .obj and .fbx standards. The following limitations still persist:
  • Model files that are placed under file paths with Unicode characters won't work due to an issue in our conversion library
  • PBR materials in fbx files are unsupported

NOTE: These two limitations will remain in effect for the final 2.9 release.

We also currently have an issue where certain materials result in the model not showing up at all in the Custom Asset Editor Preview viewport or in Enscape itself. This will be fixed for the final 2.9 release.

• Screen space reflection quality
  Screen space reflection are now more precise, capturing finer detail and appearing sharper.

- Known Issues:

• Certain textures applied as Type 'Bump maps' will result in the texture flickering in the Enscape viewport when changing its Amount value in the Material Editor.

- Notable Bugfixes:

• Pre-processing of displacement maps - FIXED
• Texture flickering when adjusting the Displacement map Amount slider - FIXED
• Broken image rendering when Restmode is disabled - FIXED

A more extensive list of bugfixes can be found attached below.

some1new - that is stated in the Release Notes:

Video textures can also be assigned in Revit via a workaround. Just add the following formatted text to the Revit Material Editor's Description field of the material that you want to use a video texture with: [video:<path>|<X>|<Y>|<rotation>]

Where:

• <video> = the absolute path to the video file
• <X> and <Y> = a multiplier outlining the texture scaling (X * width, Y * height)
• <rotation> = the desired texture rotation (0 - 360)

Example: [video:C:\test\vid_texture.mp4|0.5|1|90]

Here's the Release Notes for the latest Enscape v2.9 Preview - Version 4.

Please refer to this article for instructions on how to download the Preview version.

What’s included

- New Features:

• Displacement Maps
  Displacement maps are now fully supported by the Enscape Material Editor. To apply a displacement map to any material please select the material and set the "Type" within the "Height" section of the Materials Editor dialog to Displacement. Displacement maps are incompatible with transparent materials so the entire "Transparency" section becomes unavailable where a displacement map has been applied (including mask textures).
  
  
  
  
  
  NOTE: brightness of displacement maps cannot be further adjusted or inverted.
  
  Revit users - unfortunately, no Displacement mapping available in Revit.

• Self-Shadowing of Normal/Displacement Mapped Materials
  We've added normal based self-shadowing of material surfaces. This feature further improves the depth perception of materials, especially where displacement maps are applied. The feature is active only for sun light when Rendering Quality is set to "High". If Rendering Quality is set to "Ultra" then artificial lights will also cast normal based shadows.

• Video Textures
  Support for video textures is now available in the Enscape Material Editor whereby a video can be assigned to the Albedo texture slot. The following formats are currently supported: .mp4, .mpg, .m2v, .3gp, .avi, .mov, and .mk.
  
  
  
  When assigning a video to the Albedo texture slot, associated transparency-related material settings become unavailable, although applying a mask texture still remains possible. The adjustment or inversion of the brightness setting normally available for still images is unavailable for video textures.
  Video textures can also be assigned in Revit via a workaround. Just add the following formatted text to the Revit Material Editor's Description field of the material that you want to use a video texture with: [video:<path>|<X>|<Y>|<rotation>]
  
  Where:
  • <video> = the absolute path to the video file
  • <X> and <Y> = a multiplier outlining the texture scaling (X * width, Y * height)
  • <rotation> = the desired texture rotation (0 - 360)
  
  Example: [video:C:\test\vid_texture.mp4|0.5|1|90]
  
  Video placed into the Albedo slot will loop continuously in Enscape, so please take into account that certain features like Video Export or Batch Rendering of screenshots might not lead to the exact same final output when using this feature. To switch this playback looping on / off use the "Restmode" checkbox which you can find available in the "Performance" section of the "General Settings" dialog.
  
  IMPORTANT: Not all of the codecs are working correctly in this preview version and you may experience some stuttering during playback of certain video file formats. We're still working on improving that.

• Custom Asset Library Batch Import
  You can now create several assets at the same time via a batch import feature that has been added to the Asset Library.
  To do this click the batch import icon at the bottom of the "creation tile" or in the footer section of the library. You can then select several 3d model files which are then continuously imported. The name of the file will be used as the asset name and a thumbnail showing the asset from a front view will be automatically generated. You can then adjust the assets further as usual.
  
  
  
  NOTE: this feature is largely aimed at file formats that embed the entire geometry and material information in one single file, like the .fbx format. Importing several .gtlf or .obj might prove cumbersome due to material files that are usually placed next to the source file. We might make adjustments to this feature in future releases to make the batch import of these file formats more convenient.

• Offline Asset Library
  You can now download the Enscape assets for offline use. Check the "Offline Enscape Assets" checkbox in the "Enscape Assets" section of the asset library and select a target directory. You are then prompted to either download the current version of all available Enscape assets or use the contents of the specified directory (in case one of your colleagues already downloaded the library to a network share). You will not be able to access the newest additions to the asset library while working in 'Offline' mode. To revert to using the assets hosted by our servers, simply uncheck the 'Offline Enscape Assets' checkbox.
  
  
  
  

- Improvements:

• Custom Asset Library (IMPORTANT)
  We improved the handling of transformations and different geometry configurations vastly in this preview release.
  Most models should now be displayed and sized correctly and are usable as placeholder geometry within the CADs.
  Please note though that using high poly placeholders will lead to a bad CAD performance.
  
  IMPORTANT: The changes made to improve the geometry support might lead to sizing issues for assets created with previous previews when re-edited. Please make sure to check the size of your assets when changing them.
  
  Furthermore, you can now choose which axis should determine the orientation of your asset (up axis). To rotate models exported with a different orientation than Enscape.

• Batch Rendering Performance
  We largely improved the performance of the batch rendering feature, overall decreasing the amount of time needed per batch rendering.

- Known Issues

• SketchUp becomes unusable when Restmode is set to 'Off' (unchecked)
• WebStandalone: Trunk of Tree Asset with unwanted animation
• No 'Confirmation Email' after submitting Feedback Form
• Displacement Map will break the Material in ArchICAD and Vectorworks
• Web Standalone Exports appear broken when using a 4k*8k Skybox
• Vectorworks will crash when switching to another project after linking a View to a Setting Preset

- Notable Bugfixes:

• Flickering of emissive geometry in some Sketchup and Rhino projects - FIXED
• A number of OUT OF MEMORY issues (Error codes 5 & 10) when rendering high resolution images, especially on older NVIDIA hardware have been fixed. This was caused by graphic card driver timeouts when performing path trace computations. - FIXED

A more extensive list of Bugfixes is contained in the attached .pdf document below.

DaveP - Please read the Release Notes again for 2.8.1 Hotfix. It says it will be fixed within the 2.9 development cycle. That means (hopefully) before 2.9 official release. The developers are still having issues reproducing this.

In regards to the bug #90046, I asked the developers to clarify this, and it is NOT the same issue as the one concerning BIM360.

I hope that makes the position clearer. But to reiterate, BIM360 issue is a current Known Issue that is currently being looked at by the developers and in the meantime, you should use the various workarounds suggested here in this thread,

Just as a note here, and a request. We do not appear to have any Revit 2021 users having this issue at present, but if someone is, then please let us know.

Also, if those of you who are having this issue can provide detailed minimum steps taken in order to experience this issue, such as:

• Open the project from BIM360
• Click on that button
• Then I click on that other button
• Then it freezes

That would be a great help and much appreciated.

Here are the Release Notes for Enscape 2.8.1 - Hotfix!

To upgrade:

• Open the Enscape "About" window and click the Download Area link

For detailed questions and issues, feel free to write us at support@enscape3d.com or use this thread.

Changes in Version 2.8.1

New Features:

Support for ArchiCAD24

Bugfixes:

The main bug that was fixed was the 'OUT OF MEMORY' errors that users were experiencing in version 2.8 for projects that had previously worked.

There were also some other bugs fixed and these are listed in the .pdf attached below.

As always, if you have further inquiries regarding any of these bugs, please refer to their ID when getting in contact with our Support Agents.

Known Issues

The following bugs are seen as 'Known Issues' and will be addressed during the 2.9 Preview cycle:

• BIM 360 Synchronization

  Revit versions other than Revit 2021 can freeze when synchronizing a BIM 360 project (see the workarounds listed here in the meantime)

• Material Editor in ArchiCAD24

  ArchiCAD24 could crash when editing a material in the Enscape Material Editor

If you experience any other issues with Enscape, please use the Enscape Feedback button to report the issue directly to us.

mark-g - if you have not done so already, can you please submit log files as Demian suggests above.

Referencing this forum thread in the Feedback Form would be helpful also,

Thanks.

Marshallae - I am sorry to have to say, this is not possible at present, as it will break the assets texture mapping.

We have a feature request for this though, so I have up-voted that on your behalf in the meantime.

cdorfi - your transparency slot should be using an alpha map, so an Image needs to be selected from the Transparency drop down, and then you will need an appropriate alpha channel map. Selecting 'Glass' will not give you the result you want.

If you continue to have issues with this, please get back to me.

arqcova - up-voted on your behalf.

fginzberg - Web Standalone files are only rendered out in the equivalent of 'Draft' mode in the full Enscape version. This is currently a limitation of the WebGL 2.0 technology that is being used.

There is a full list of the current limitations for the Web Standalone files listed in our Knowledge Base article here.

jakedidier - Files can disappear when the properties are set to "hidden" and File Explorer is not configured to show hidden files. Computer users, programs and malware can edit file properties and set them to hidden to give the illusion that the files don't exist and prevent you from editing the files.

That would be the first thing to check.

Let me know if that helps or not, but this sound more like an OS issue, and not an Enscape issue.

wpstudio - We would need more information.

Log files and the project file.

Can you contact is via the Enscape Feedback button (which will send us the log files), so we can inform you of how to pass the project to us securely?

Goodmorning - I think I am right in saying that when it comes to materials in Rhino, we are somewhat limited by what is available in the API from Rhino, which is one reason why we provided the Enscape Material Editor.

Kwangmin - I am not sure i understand your image correctly though. Are you saying that surface a, b, and c all have different materials assigned in Rhino,? Or are you talking about applying different materials to each side of a surface? Some clarification would be really helpful in allowing me to better understand your request.

mark8848 - added your vote to the story.

mmlahti - No, this will not work at present, but is a valid Feature Request, which I have now created in our developer agenda.

So, your only option for now is to switch to Otthographic mode in Enscape and use the NumPad keys to set the elevation.

I will make sure to up-vote the Feature Request for all those concerned here.

Just as an addition to the Release Notes, you will now also find a list of bug fixes (attached as a .pdf) at the top of this thread.

Neelesh, skhayward, a valid request. We already have a feature request for the BIM Info to be available in VR, but I can see how the Collaboration feature or perhaps part of it) could be useful in VR: I will create a new Feature Request for this in our developer agenda.