Rhino 6 and newer - Maxwell Options

In the Document Properties (in Windows) or in Rhino menu > Settings… > Maxwell Render (in MacOS) you’ll find some general options in a specific section for Maxwell for Rhino:

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SECTIONS

Maxwell Render

User Interface

• Decimal Precision: this lets you set the number of decimals shown in the numerical options of the plugin.

• UI size: it will let you choose between two text sizes for the plugin options: Mini and Normal. As the plugin sometimes has to pack many options in small spaces, the default option is Mini, but you can make it bigger if you wish.

• Displayed Texture Size: here you can choose the resolution of the textures shown in the viewport. This won’t affect the render.

MXM Gallery

• Download to Out Folder: if this option is active, the materials downloaded from the MXM Gallery will be stored in the same folder as the render output files. This one can be set in the Rendering panel > Maxwell for Rhino section > Output tab > Folder box. When this option is active, “Alternative Folder” option is disabled.

• Alternative Folder: (this option is disabled if the previous one is active). Here you can set a folder to store all the materials downloaded from the MXM Gallery (in the case you want to keep them in a more controlled folder or create a local gallery based on your downloads).

• To sub-folder: if active, this option will store each material downloaded from the MXM Gallery in their own folder (including their textures); otherwise, all the MXM files will be stored in the same folder as well as their textures. Deactivating this option can be potentially dangerous as some textures could overwrite others.

Search Paths

This section gives you the option to add 5 different folders where Maxwell will look for scene textures and dependencies. This will affect Fire and Render, but not the loading of the textures into the Rhino scene itself. So, it may happen that there are textures not found in the scene that actually load in Fire or Maxwell Render thanks to these paths. Three subfolders deep will be taken into account in order to find textures.

If you are looking for a tool so the plugin locates missing textures, when loading the scene, the plugin will run the Path Fix tool. This can be also found in the Tools toolbar.

Animation

This section provides control on what happens when exporting an animation either from Bongo or from the more basic animation tools offered by Rhino (sun study, fly through, etc.).

• Dialog before render: if this option is on, the plugin will stop after having exported the frames in order to let you choose some options: which frames to render, SL, time and where to launch the renders. If this option is off, the plugin will do what is set in the scene and in the options below regarding time limit, SL limit and which application you want to use for rendering. Having this option off can be useful if you have many frames to export and don’t want to wait for the export to finish to launch the renders; it can be done automatically this way if they are launched to Maxwell Render directly.

• Time: here you can set the time limit for the animation frames, which can be different from the value set in the scene for a normal render. For the animation, this value will prevail.

• SL: here you can set the Sampling Level limit for the animation frames; in the same way as before, this can be different from the value set in the scene for a normal render. For the animation, this value will prevail.

• Mode: this dropdown menu will let you choose what you want to do with the frames after having exported them. You can choose between

  • Maxwell: the frames will directly render in sequence in Maxwell Render.

  • Network: the network Monitor will open and the frames will be loaded in an animation job in the Add Network Job Wizard. This method will require your attention for the job to start rendering, so it is not recommended if you want to render the frames in an unattended way.

  • Cloud: the network Monitor will open in the Cloud tab and the frames will be loaded to be rendered in the Cloud system. This method will also require your attention for the job to start rendering, so it is not recommended if you want to render the frames in an unattended way.

  • Export Only: in this case, the frames will be exported to MXS and the animation will end there. Use this method if you want to leave the computer exporting and leave the render for a later time.

FIRE Settings

Here you can set several options related to FIRE.

• SL: this is the maximum sampling level FIRE will reach. Once it gets to it, it will stop rendering.

• Quality: this defines the resolution of the horizontal side of the image rendered in Fire. Lower resolution means less pixels and faster renders, but a coarser image. This doesn’t affect the quality of the light solution, ray bounces, or anything similar. Here is the resolution of the horizontal side for the different quality levels: 1: 200; 2: 320; 3: 400; 4: 640; 5: 720; 6: 1024; 7: 1280; 8: 1440; 9: 1680; 10: 1920

• Threads: here you can define the number of CPU threads used for FIRE render. 0 means “all available”, positive values will define the exact number of threads used; negative values such as -1 mean “all threads but 1”.

• Engine: here you can set the render engine you want to use for FIRE. You can choose between CPU Production (the same used in Maxwell Render for a non-interactive render), CPU Draft (the default for FIRE) and GPU;

• Edit in OpenGL mode: this mode will make FIRE change to OpenGL display mode (like Rendered mode) providing a more fluent and interactive experience on any edit action, such as orbit, pan or zoom the camera, move, rotate or scale objects, etc. Upon button release, Fire will quickly kick in again. It lets you choose between “Disabled”, “Enabled” (default) and “in GPU mode only”.

  • Disabled this will disable the OpenGL mode, FIRE will restart on each update while you orbit, pan, zoom or edit.

  • Enabled will make this feature work in both CPU and GPU modes. When you make changes in FIRE, orbit the camera, pan or zoom, FIRE will, on-the-fly, change to OpenGL display mode (like Rendered mode) providing a more fluent and interactive experience. Upon button release, Fire will quickly kick in again.

  • In GPU mode only will make this feature only work when FIRE is set to GPU, but not in CPU.

• Start delay (ms): this will determine the time (in milliseconds) when FIRE will kick in again if the mouse has stopped moving while editing but you have not released its button. For example, if you are slowly orbiting the camera, stop while still pressing the right-mouse button and this time passes, FIRE will start rendering again. If you release the mouse button, Fire will immediately start rendering regardless of this setting.

Here is an example of this mode in action:

• Baked Texture size: when you use a native Rhino texture, such as Noise Texture, Maxwell “bakes” the procedural texture and turns it into a normal texture on the fly in order to be able to render it. Here you can define the resolution of these textures.

• Floating Shadows and Floating Reflections: Here you can activate the Floating Shadows and Floating Reflections features of FIRE. These will only show in Fire. You can find more information about these features here.

Material Preview

Here you can adjust some settings related to the materials previews in Rhino.

• Time: here you can set the maximum time the plugin will dedicate to render each preview

• SL: here you can set the maximum sampling level the material preview will reach. Once reached, the preview will stop rendering (unless the time limit is reached first).

• Threads: in the same way as the FIRE preview, here you can define the number of CPU threads used for the material preview render. 0 means “all available”, positive values will define the exact number of threads used; negative values such as -1 mean “all threads but 1”.