Appearances Droping when Rending through A360 Cloud

[kevinwatts]

I have run into a problem rendering through the A360 Cloud.

To be more specific, the appearances applied to some faces (LED touch pad buttons) of a component are dropped in the Acquired Renders thumbnails, when looking at the project through A360.

They appear fine in the local Fusion Data Panel Project thumbnail. When you open the design they show in Model mode and when you switch to Render mode they are still there. They render fine through the local Ray Tracer in Fusion.

I tried to do a simple test render, using the Final and Advanced settings through A360. The buttons are not rendering correctly. One button with the LED appearance is visable the others are not. The image exposure looks ok before rendering but it is under exposed in the final photo render in A360. I belive that you can adjust the exposure in A360. It is hard to judge the exposure if the preview looks fine.

To get some renders completed, I am proceeding to render local in Fusion 360. However, the behavior described above when redenering through A360 seems to be unusual.

[Anonymous]

I have had similar problems in every project I've done in F360 so far (and I haven't been using any "exotic" appearances -- just a few different metal surfaces and unfinished walnut). It seems to be worse when applying a new appearance after originally assigning a different one, but this could just be my imagination. I have found that sometimes I have to do the appearance assignment several times for it to "stick" when running cloud renders, even though the modeling workspace appears to show the correct texture.

[kevinwatts]

Thank you Greg for your comments and sugestions.

This problem needs to be addressed. Especially, if it is affecting others.  One of the other support members in another area of expertise has forword this to others on the support team for comment.

Perhaps Colin Smith, who specializes in the rendering will be able to  provide an answer on why this happening and how to avoid it? Hopefully, the process will become seamles, that is what we see locally can be rendered in the Cloud.

Kevin

[colin.smith]

Kevin and Greg, 

From your posts what I understand is that assigned materials that look good on your desktop (or even rendered locally) looks find but are not showing up in the cloud rendered version. 

If that is the case, it is a bug. When we send models and materials to the cloud renderer there is a translation step that happens and sometimes a material gets lost along the way.  I have seen this also from time to time but I haven't seen it in a while.

Would it be possible to get a copy of the file so that our rendering team can debug the problem?

Sorry for the inconvience, thanks for your support.

Colin

[kevinwatts]

Thank you for picking this up Colin. Yes, that would be great. I just need the contact information to allow them access to project to examine the problem.

[kevinwatts]

A possible clue... In A360 Project Preview window, the thumbnail shows the applied appearance. However, if you then select "Renders" button, then in that next view they are missing.

[colin.smith]

I am hearing of similar reports internally. Our visualization team is investigating.  Someone will get back to you when we know what is happening.

Thanks for your patience.

Colin

[anavaidya]

@kevinwatts - Hi, please add me to your Fusion project, aradhana.vaidya@autodesk.com. I am from the A360 Rendering team and would be happy to take a look and help figure out what is going on.

Thanks,

Ana

[kevinwatts]

Hi Ana,

I appreciate the offer to help. Sorry not to reply sooner. We had a local power outage yesterday while I was working on the project. I tried reappliying the Apearances to the bodies/faces that did not render properly. I need to run some more tests. It may have solved that problem. Hopefully, it and the power interuption in the middel of the process did not create others. I will post a note here after I run the tests.

Kevin

[kevinwatts · Accepted solution]

Hi Ana & Colin,

I had edit to the project design file. When I did, the button appearances dropped and reverted to the first appearances that I had applied to them.

So, I reapplied the appearances (as suggested by the other Forum Member) and replied YES to removing the appearances that where applied dialogue box. Good news... the new appearances seem to be holding! I a A360 Cloud render test and the appearances are holding.

Is it possible that you have two variables for the applied appearance and the one (used through the translator) is not always being reset if changed? Just an idea. Ana please let me know if you still need to look at the project. There might be clues to help you in the older versions.

The other problem that I had with the A360 image being underdeveloped. I used the Final and Native settings this time. The image is not underdeveloped with those settings.

Colin: There was example that you were working on with a LED light and lens cover. Here is the link for others to benifit from: http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/design-and-documentation/fusion-360-interactive-rendering-self-illumin... . I was very good and I wish that I had found it before I had applied the appearances. I also like your article: Making it Look Good: Apply and Edit materials in Fusion360. I am having a hard time to get the photo quality that I am after and need in my shots. My main exterior material is a White Plastic (glossy). The ability to modify the angle of the light source would also make it easier to control reflections and shadows. I am a little reluctant to change the setting in case something happens to corrupt the files at this point.

Thank you both for your help and support!

Regards,

Kevin