Default Project Settings

[mjverbeek]

Some settings have to be set for each user per each project.
Those are stored in the .props file.
e.g. <prop name="vRayImageSampler" scope="Local" readableName="Sampler" factory="MPropFactory">Buckets</prop>

We would like to have those set by default.

I know there is a file C:\Program Files\Chaos Group\V-Ray\V-Ray for Revit\content\DefaultProperties.bin
Could there be a way to alter those Default Properties? So each project / user will start with the same properties we prefer.

Or maybe the possibility to save a striped .props file in C:\Program Files\Chaos Group\V-Ray\V-Ray for Revit\content which is the start for the project .props.

By the way, I read something about Ambient Occlusion in this DefaultProperties.bin file.
e.g. AoOn, AoAmount, AoRadius. AoSubDivs. Is this some hidden Amnient Occlusion feature?

Thanks.
Mark

[tanya.petrova]

Hi mjverbeek,

If you have started using the latest V-Ray 3.7 for Revit, you might have noticed that the DefaultProperties.bin file has been replaced by C:\Program Files\Chaos Group\V-Ray\V-Ray for Revit\content\VRayPlugins.json file. Each setting has several values which may differ depending on the selected Quality preset (i.e. Draft, Low, Medium, High, Very High). In case certain option is also available in the UI, the value configured in the UI overrides the default value included in the VRayPlugins.json file and is saved in the known vprops file of the project. Please note that the default UI values do no depend on the values in this file and currently there is no way to change them. The file includes some values for V-Ray plugins that are not exposed directly through the plugin interface and they will be applied just as defined in it.

In general we would not recommend changing these values. We have provided this ability as some of our users are quite experienced with V-Ray integrations in other platforms and in some specific scenarios require higher level of control over V-Ray settings than the one exposed in the simplified UI.

If it is possible, could you please send a list of the UI settings which default value is inappropriate for you to our support team? That could be a reason to provide a way to change UI default values in our next versions.

Regards,
Tanya Dilkovska-Petrova
V-Ray for Revit Team

[mjverbeek]

Hi Tanya,

Thanks for the clarification. So the DefaultProperties.bin is obsolete.
The values in VRayPlugins.json are values which are non configurable settings for the render engine presets (Draft, Low, Medium, High, Very High)
I noticed the Ambient Occlusion section. AoOn is set to FALSE for all the presets. Would this mean this could be a way to have AO applied?
So if I would set it to TRUE for High/Very High Ambient Occlusion would be calculated?

AO is very much appreciated! It's on the wishlist for a while. Not only noted by me.
It would be great to have, at least, AoOn, AoAmount and AoRadius available in the UI

As for UI defaults itself. At the moment I would like to default to Bucket rendering for every new user / project.
We're working on several Xenapp servers. Rendering is done by a dedicated swarm (about 96 CPU, 384 GB)
So I want to be sure the CPU is not used on Xenapp and the right settings for Swarm are set.
Those I can distribute by a GPO in %appdata%\...\config.json.
The Bucket / Progressive rendering I can't centrally control. And we think this would be a better startpoint for our users per project.


Thanks,
Mark

[tanya.petrova]

Hi mjverbeek,

You can play with the AO as explained and see the effect on your scenes. Just note that any value change will take effect after Revit restart. We will include this in the wish list for our next releases so just keep upgrading and checking what is coming.

Regarding the Swarm settings, it is true that the UI defaults are controlled by the %appdata%\...\config.json. The user can still override them in the UI and his/her new values will be stored in the *.vprops file of the given project. There is no way to force the users to use the same settings and prevent changes currently. If it is possible send a ticket to our support team describing why you need this. They may be able to give you more options.

We will also put the Buckets/Progressive rendering request in the wish list.

Thanks for your valuable feedback.

Regards,
Tanya Dilkovska-Petrova
V-Ray for Revit Team

[upsidedown72]

We also have a VDI environment and have a need to control the system defaults for every user who logs on to a terminal server. Right now we have 100+ terminal servers and 30-200 profiles per machine. The default is swarm=off and don't use local machine=off, which means any time a user who doesn't understand the settings clicks render, they lock up the machine for all other logged on users. At the machine level, we also want to control CPU/GPU, Progressive/Buckets, and pretty much the entire swarm job settings to be able to control the Master Node IP settings per office. It seems some settings should be project settings and others should be machine settings. Maybe 2 config files where the machine settings can be set to always override the project settings. Is there a way to set an option to save the vprops file with the project, or to never save a vprops settings file ever? Currently, all render settings are lost when users get assigned different terminal servers.

[Ana Lyubenova]

Hi upsidedown72 ,

I'm contacting you in pm. Please, check your messages in the top right corner of the page.

Ana