Lighting styles for shaded views in an .idw

[Gregg.Reinhart]

I've been working with a model where some of it is in a dark shadow when I make a shaded view on the drawing.  I've created a custom lighting style in the style manager, but I haven't found any way to succesfully assign that lighting style to the model in a way that will light the shaded views in my drawing.  I'm using Inventor Pro 2011.  Any thoughts?

[mcgyvr]

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Autodesk-Inventor/How-to-disable-reflections-and-gradients-in-shaded-v...

[Gregg.Reinhart]

This particular registry edit doesn't work for what I'm trying to do.  Here's a simplifed example.  I created a white cube, and some of the faces are grey due to the lighting when I make a shaded view in the drawing.  So I have gone inot the style manager and modified the lighting to remove the shadows ( in this examp[le I changed the light color to red so its more pronounced).  I went in created the registry key, shut down Inventor,a nd even tried a restart, and both opened the existing drawing and tried creating a new drawing, as as you can see the change in the lighting color doesn't show up in the shaded drawing view.

[mcgyvr]

OK.. Now I seem to remember a long time ago that I had this problem too .. I believe I had to edit the lighting.xml file because the lighting in an IDW is forced by the "Default" lighting style and is not tied to the part or assembly lighting styles.

I'll see if I can remember where I did that. or what I did..

Sort of discussed here

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Autodesk-Inventor/Lighting-in-idw/td-p/2351822

Open the xml file (make a copy first) then edit that "#1-Default" lighting style and that should fix it..

[Gregg.Reinhart]

Thank you, at least that points in the right direction.  But I'm not much a a coder, so any further info that you could provide on modifying the .xml file would be very helpful.

Thanks again

[lune_riezebos]

I am having the same problem and I'm no coder either.

Also normally the I.T. department doesn't like people "hacking" or tweaking their systems, and set up workstations so you cannot make any modifications.

I hope someone comes with an easier solution.....

I will keep following this thread.

[ghobbs99]

Hi, I know this is an old thread, but I'm having the same problem with Inventor 2016. I've modified the xml file to increase the brightness of the default lighting but this is not shown on the shaded views of my existing drawing.

Does anyone know how to solve this? thanks.

[ghobbs99]

Hi. Anybody any thoughts on this?

I really need to be able to adjust the lighting on my shaded drawing views.

[lando7189]

This is a rather old post, but i figured i'd put up my solution for this.

1.  Locate the following file:

         C:\Users\Public\Documents\Autodesk\Inventor ####\Design Data\lighting.xml

    ... where #### is your Inventor 'year version'.

2.  Make a back up copy (example:  orig_lighting.txt)

3.  Open it.  Search for the following text:

       1:Default

4.  Replace the entire style block with the following code that replaces the single light with 8 lights each pointed at each corner of a cube.  Adjacent lights are just ever so slightly different to create just a subtle difference.  You can tweak as needed.

	
  <Style AmbientLight="0.25 0.25 0.25 1" AmbientOcclusion="0" Brightness="0.2" Contrast="0.6" DisplaySceneImage="0" EditFlag="2" IBLBrightness="0.5" IBLRotation="0" IBLScale="1" IBLSourceId="" InternalName="1:Default" LightsOnOffBits="4294967295" MoveWithModel="0" ShadowDensity="0.5" ShadowDirection="1" ShadowIntensity="0.5" ShadowSoftness="0.5" UseIBL="0">
		<Light AmbientColor="1.0 1.0 1.0 1"     DiffuseColor="1.0 1.0 1.0 1"    Space="Undefined" SpecularColor="1 1 1 1" Type="Directional" XDirection2="-0.5" YDirection2="-0.5" ZDirection2="-0.75"/>
		<Light AmbientColor="0.9 0.9 0.9 1"     DiffuseColor="0.9 0.9 0.9 1"    Space="Undefined" SpecularColor="1 1 1 1" Type="Directional" XDirection2="0.5" YDirection2="-0.5" ZDirection2="-0.75"/>
		<Light AmbientColor="0.9 0.9 0.9 1"     DiffuseColor="0.9 0.9 0.9 1"    Space="Undefined" SpecularColor="1 1 1 1" Type="Directional" XDirection2="-0.5" YDirection2="0.5" ZDirection2="-0.75"/>
		<Light AmbientColor="1.0 1.0 1.0 1"     DiffuseColor="1.0 1.0 1.0 1"    Space="Undefined" SpecularColor="1 1 1 1" Type="Directional" XDirection2="0.5" YDirection2="0.5" ZDirection2="-0.75"/>
		<Light AmbientColor="0.3 0.3 0.3 1"     DiffuseColor="0.3 0.3 0.3 1"    Space="Undefined" SpecularColor="1 1 1 1" Type="Directional" XDirection2="-0.5" YDirection2="-0.5" ZDirection2="0.75"/>
		<Light AmbientColor="0.27 0.27 0.27 1"  DiffuseColor="0.27 0.27 0.27 1" Space="Undefined" SpecularColor="1 1 1 1" Type="Directional" XDirection2="0.5" YDirection2="-0.5" ZDirection2="0.75"/>
		<Light AmbientColor="0.27 0.27 0.27 1"  DiffuseColor="0.27 0.27 0.27 1" Space="Undefined" SpecularColor="1 1 1 1" Type="Directional" XDirection2="-0.5" YDirection2="0.5" ZDirection2="0.75"/>
		<Light AmbientColor="0.3 0.3 0.3 1"     DiffuseColor="0.3 0.3 0.3 1" Space="Undefined" SpecularColor="1 1 1 1" Type="Directional" XDirection2="0.5" YDirection2="0.5" ZDirection2="0.75"/>
    <Name Description="" Language="1033">Default</Name>
    <Name Description="" Language="1028">預設</Name>
    <Name Description="" Language="1029">Výchozí</Name>
    <Name Description="" Language="1031">Standard</Name>
    <Name Description="" Language="1036">Par défaut</Name>
    <Name Description="" Language="1038">Alapértelmezett</Name>
    <Name Description="" Language="1040">Default</Name>
    <Name Description="" Language="1041">Default</Name>
    <Name Description="" Language="1042">기본값</Name>
    <Name Description="" Language="1045">Domyślny</Name>
    <Name Description="" Language="1046">Padrão</Name>
    <Name Description="" Language="1049">По умолчанию</Name>
    <Name Description="" Language="2052">默认</Name>
    <Name Description="" Language="3082">Por defecto</Name>
	  <AuxData>
      <Variant Key="Exposure" Type="Float" Value="0" Version="0"/>
    </AuxData>
  </Style>
	

5.  Save the file.

6.  Reopen Inventor and create a new idw/dwg file and place a shaded drawing view.  It should now be fairly uniformly lit without harsh shadows.

7.  Create a backup of the additional file in your personal documents folder so you can edit the lighting.xml file in future releases it is changed.

Hope this helps.

[mcgyvr]

There is also a new setting (with a drawing open/active) in tools..document settings..drawing tab that you can uncheck.. Its "Apply Specular Effect"

That may be all you need now.. That setting was buried in the registry before and is now more easily accessible..

[tommy.bus]

I'm on Inventor 2016 and on the Documents settings, drawing tab, "Apply Specular Effect" is unchecked but I still get the reflection.  My only workaround so far is to change the reflection environment to Night Sky which is better than the parking lot default.  Am I missing something?  Seems that if Apply Specular Effect is unchecked there should not be a background image reflection.

[Alex.Shechter]

Hallo everyone

Is there any way, without changing the xml file, to force Inventor to use different lighting style than “Default” for the .idw ?

 I have the suspicion that somehow after our upgrade from Inventor 2015 to 2018  Inventor has started to use “Default” lighting style for the .idw instead of “Two Lights as it was all the time even though our templates for parts and assembly are set for “Two Lights”.

Please help, it is very frustrating for the shaded view to see all the colors “over exposed” or shall I say bleached out so strong that there is even no difference between black and white. In Inventor 2015 we didn’t have this issue.

[mcgyvr]

---

@Alex.Shechter wrote:

Hallo everyone

Is there any way, without changing the xml file, to force Inventor to use different lighting style than “Default” for the .idw ?

---

Not that I'm aware of..

Nothing has changed in years with regards to that..

[Alex.Shechter]

Thank you for your reply Mcgyvr

I have changed lighting.xml by copping all the lights values from “Two Lights” to “Default” and then restarted Inventor. Inventor is ignoring this lights change and still keeps on the same old bleached out light style.

What else can I do?

[mcgyvr]

@Alex.Shechter

Did you try checking or unchecking the "Apply Specular Effect" box on tools..document settings..drawing tab?

[Alex.Shechter]

I haven't try that yet but i will.  :Thumbup:

I noticed that after restarting windows finally the effect took place and the changes in xml file do work now.

@AutoDesk

I wish that there was an easier way to  solve this issue than edditing exml files. 😉