Depth of field and the scale of model

[Anonymous]

How would you go about having a 1:100 scale scene in 3ds max but working with a bunch of import files in 1:1?

I've been trying to use depth of field using v-ray camera in 3ds Max. Because the depth of field can only work on relatively small objects I ended by rescaling my site model file by 0.01. So from now on, I planned to do all my Max files in this 1:100 scale. But it causes problems. For example, Forest pack defaults don't work ideally in such a small scale as well as importing some 1:1 scale asset.
My system units are 1=1m (and display units happens to be in millimetres). My workflow is: xref-ing my model files that contain geometries into a render file that contains cameras, lights and render settings and using one render files to render various design options.

[Richard.Vivanco]

In 3dsmax you model using real dimensions, not in scale.

About the system units, in my case i work with inches and in the display work with meters.  All my projects are modeled in meters and dont see any problem with imports or plugins.

[Byteman · Accepted solution]

Depth of field works according to the laws of optics and a small scale can only cause you the effect of shooting a miniature model with varying levels of blurriness. Nevertheless, 3D applications have several settings you can use to achieve non-real life effects. 

If you are shooting large areas you can't have varying fields of depth unless you have relatively close subjects in your view or look at farther distances with a sort of zoom lens (with high focal length) and still have relatively close  subjects together with the farther ones in your view.

You need larger aperture to achieve depth of field, which corresponds to smaller f numbers. 

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

So I took again the same scene. Camera: Film gate: 200 ; F-number: 2. Render setting for the depth of field strength: 100000000.. max

1:100

Using 'Rescale World units' I scaled up by scene by 100 (now it's 1:1 scale with buildings having 100meters) I did second render and Max automatically updated my camera to have Film gate: 200000 (what a surprise). And the result is the same.... Oh dear, that was easy, why the heck did I play around with scaling down my models.

1:1

[Richard.Vivanco]

Check the position of the target camera and decrease the value of fstops to 0.2