I'm an Office Designer and have been doing this for a few years, but to me it seems my 3Ds are still a bit 'childish' or 'amateurish'. Below is one typical that shows how my 3Ds generally look.I'm hoping to move to AutoCAD 2012 very soon, but for now, in 2009 or
2010, is there a better way to present my 3Ds? I've heard about
lighting, and seen some pretty remarkable renderings, but I don't know
much about it yet and can only get the simplistic grade drawings shown above.Anyone have thoughts or recommendations on where I can get more information about how to present better quality 3Ds?

LOL--GET INVENTOR! or solidworks! Acad SUCKS for 3D!!I know...I used to work with Inventor...now Im teatherd to Acad...and it SUCKS!!!But really, to answer your question, theres a sh*t ton of options and rendering techniques to play with...sorry I cant do more than bash Acad 3d, lol

Autocad 2012 doesn't exist yet. It won't be released until March or April next year, but 2009 or 2010 should work just fine. I can't see the image you posted for some reason, so I don't know what sort of quality you're getting currently, but you should be able to produce very realistic renders with either of those versions you're working with. You just need to know how to set up your scene and adjust all the parameters.Take a look at these tutorials:http://www.we-r-here.com/cad/tutorials/level_3/3-17.htmhttp://www.dscohn.com/AU/handouts/GD115-2%20Rendering%20part%202-DOC.pdf

LOL...thanks tulip. I wish!!! But unfortunately for me, that ISN'T an option.1. I don't have any control over what I can and cannot use here in the office.2. The 3rd Party software that I use to specify office furniture only works with AutoCAD.Any idea where one could find those 'options and rendering techniques' you speak of?Thanks!!!

[QUOTE=Cad64]Autocad 2012 doesn't exist yet. It won't be released until March or April next year, but 2009 or 2010 should work just fine. I can't see the image you posted for some reason, so I don't know what sort of quality you're getting currently, but you should be able to produce very realistic renders with either of those versions you're working with. You just need to know how to set up your scene and adjust all the parameters.Take a look at these tutorials:http://www.we-r-here.com/cad/tutorials/level_3/3-17.htmhttp://www.dscohn.com/AU/handouts/GD115-2%20Rendering%20part%202-DOC.pdf
[/QUOTE]Thanks Cad64, that sounds like exactly what I need to learn. I'll check those links out ASAP.

Well, from a quick check of my tools in 2011, I would start in 'view'. Scroll down to 'render' then over to the settings and just play with em'. And be prepared to wait your as* off unless you gotta pretty hopped up computer, lol. Best of luck, man!

Yes, it's true, producing a quality realistic render does take time. But that's not something that's exclusive to Autocad. It doesn't matter what program you use. Producing a high quality photo-realistic render is going to take some time. A high end, multi-processor machine will render faster than a low end machine, but you will still have to wait. That's just the reality of 3D rendering.

[QUOTE=tulip3D]Well, from a quick check of my tools in 2011, I would start in 'view'. Scroll down to 'render' then over to the settings and just play with em'. And be prepared to wait your as* off unless you gotta pretty hopped up computer, lol. Best of luck, man!
[/QUOTE]LOL...I hear ya Brotha. My system is FAR from being 'hopped up', and I'm already waiting waaaay too long for the standard Conceptual VSM, so I can only begin to imagine how long this will take; but I will really only be playing with it when I have nothing else running, and any actual production renderings will be few and far between (at least until I can get a new system).Thanks for the input!!

[QUOTE=Cad64]Yes, it's true, producing a quality realistic render does take time. But that's not something that's exclusive to Autocad. It doesn't matter what program you use. Producing a high quality photo-realistic render is going to take some time. A high end, multi-processor machine will render faster than a low end machine, but you will still have to wait. That's just the reality of 3D rendering.
[/QUOTE]I understand completely! I'm not running a low-end system, but it isn't high-end either. Most of my current drawings are pretty small anyways, so I think learning it won't be too difficult. I think I'll just dive into those tutorials you provided and do some Help File reading. Thanks!!

If you are interested to produce rendering with AutoCAD, you may want to try project Neon: http://neon.labs.autodesk.com/ You can upload your drawing, let Autodesk network rendering service do it. It's quite fast, even compared to your own i7 processor :)It's still beta, so probably there are still many bugs, but worth to try.At least we can render it rough in AutoCAD to see if the settings are right, then let Neon render the high quality for us.If you are interested to setup lighting in AutoCAD, probably a tutorial I wrote can help: http://cad-notes.com/2010/07/setting-up-autocad-sun-light-is-easy/

[QUOTE=edwinprakoso]If you are interested to produce rendering with AutoCAD, you may want to try project Neon: http://neon.labs.autodesk.com/ You can upload your drawing, let Autodesk network rendering service do it. It's quite fast, even compared to your own i7 processor :)It's still beta, so probably there are still many bugs, but worth to try.At least we can render it rough in AutoCAD to see if the settings are right, then let Neon render the high quality for us.If you are interested to setup lighting in AutoCAD, probably a tutorial I wrote can help: http://cad-notes.com/2010/07/setting-up-autocad-sun-light-is-easy/[/QUOTE]Excellent!! Thanks Edwin. I will check both of those out ASAP