solidThinking comes with a standalone batch-rendering application called “rQ.” This can be used to render a number of images or animations automatically, in a predefined sequence. This is especially useful if you have very large images or scenes to render or if you are creating a number of “variation” images of a certain design. There is no need to wait until the rendering finishes and start the next one manually – simply load them all into rQ, press “Start” and come back hours (or days) later and find all of the rendered files safely on your hard drive!
What follows is a visual summary of setting up and batch rendering your files using rQ. There is more explanation in the “Help” files for the application (accessible through the Help button at the bottom of the main screen), and the options available for features like animations and image rendering outputs are too numerous to cover completely here.
The rQ application is installed, by default, in the same folder as the main solidThinking application. When you launch rQ, it also launches a “background process” of the main solidThinking applicationto read all of the file variables for each rendering. The objects, lights, cameras, materials and render settings are all saved with the solidThinking file (”.st”), and the rQ utility reads these settings and runs the renderer to produce the images and animations that were last set up and saved in each .st file. Therefore, it is important to save your files for batch rendering with all of the desired render settings (method, resolution, frames, etc.), visible objects, and correct materials before launching rQ.
The main rQ window (seen in the image to the right) has three working areas: the Queue, where you add and arrange files; the Output location for each file; and the Render controls and progress indicators. The Output Directory can be defined for each file by selecting it from the Queue and browsing to a directory; and the Render controls are for all files in the Queue, starting with the top most file.
When you add files to the Queue, the individual File Properties dialog will come up with options for the render. This dialog allows you to choose whether you want to render a static image or a full animation (if one was saved with the file). You can also choose which camera view to render from as well as the animation frames and “video codec.”
Because animations in solidThinking are saved as single video files, you must choose a codec (compression-decompression scheme) for the output file. Similar to saving a single image for the Web, the video codec and its settings will determine the visual quality of your final animation video. Press the “Video Codec” button to bring up the selection dialog (seen to the right). The types of codecs you will have available depends on the global codecs installed on your computer, but they will include the basic QuickTime options that were installed with solidThinking.
The still images produced by rQ will be in the file format defined in each file. You can find the image format settings in the Shading panel, under the “Output” tab, and set this for each file to your preference.
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The cover story of the February 2009 edition of DEVELOP3D magazine is about KORG, one of the most widely used and respected names in professional music worldwide.
