Topic Title

As a 10 plus year user of Visual Reality (Renderize) I have been loathe to abandon the product to O2C or Sketcup (both of which I use also). They don't give the high end results (at least the way I use them) that I have come to expect in VR. I noticed a reference to Artlantis software here in one of the posts and downloaded the Demo (Artlantis R). It seems to be a great package - easy to use, fast, with options that surpass VR - the price seems reasonable in the $500 range.

Artlantis is faster, with shadows that are a toggle on/off and slider bars for intensity; clip cubes that let you take interior shots of your model without turning off walls and ceilings; when placing objects it locates them on the surface plane of the entity automatically and brings them in at scale; 2D objects like people or trees it automaticlly places them facing the camera and then has a slider scale that adjusts size; you just click on the 3D entities to apply materials and textures.... very impressive compared to old VR.

My concern is that it is a European program with little direct support here in the USA. I tried the two USA distributors that I could find and one - Cadoutpost - connected me to a clearinghouse of sorts which had no knowledge of the program or Cadoupost. The other, in Florida, had two phone numbers both of which gave me the "Mailbox Full" recording.

Does anyone here have any experience with this program "Artlantis R" or its parent company Abvent?

Have you checked out/posted in the Sketchup forums yet? There is a wealth of information there for just about every rendering program, and avid Artlantis users, as for many of us SketchUp is a mere "gateway drug".

Greetings,

We have seen both Artlantis and Piranesi demonstrated at recent DBUG meetings, and personally I like Piranesi better:

http://www.informatix.co.uk/piranesi/gallery.shtml

Priansi - I will check that out - thanks. I did manage to speak with the dsitributer of Artlantis (Objectsonline) and it appears tha this program has been around quite awhile. He wsa also very knowledgeable atout the program. I think I will be upgrading soon (after I check out Piransi).

I prefer the Blender to render. It is open source and very powerful.

The color control is great. Lights, materials, cameras, without words. And I use Blender to model 3D from dxf 2D DataCAD.

I decided to purchase Artlantis and look forward to using it - it reminds me of what Visual Realtiy might have become if it wasn't orphaned 10 years ago. I feel comfortable with the general use and feel of the product.

We still use VR mainly because it can handle large files easily. We're working on several high rise buildings (20-30 storeys) and once the data is loaded and materials, lights set up it's very flexibile in how you are able to control the output. It's a pity it wasn't continued as it has a lot of potential.

In comparison, we also have Lightworks (Fresco packaged with Spirit) and although it should be able to output superior images, it struggles and is awkward to use. It's unable to even open the larger project files and can only be used on small projects. It's strength's include crisp images, sharp shadow and realistic glass. I think there is a bug with VR in the shadow map density - we're unable to make the shadows darker - anyone know a work around?

I hope DataCAD eventually include another rendering package but with the option of running it external to DataCAD. We're running 4GB RAM machines with high-end cards and Lightworks(Fresco) running inside Spirit and Windows makes it unusable, whereas we can export models directly out of DataCAD into VR and have no problems.

I have now used Artlantis R for a few days. What a great program! It is so intelligent compared to VR and it is easy to use. The results, once you get used to the sun shadow controls are impressive. I especially like the 3D objects that come with the program and the ability to create your own from previous 3D models. Great program, worth a look.

i use artlantis now for many years and datacad it is very easy to use this software www.studioschaper.com here you can see my work