Some items do not render shadows

[Anonymous]

When I render designs, sometimes the render has shadows while others do not.  I googled this - followed all the advice.  So...  Tech help person - please do not run me through the same sequence that has already been advised.  

And, It's not my vid card because some renders have shadows, while other do not...  not sure why.

If this is a bug your working on, please say this as it seems the other posts are all crickets when people ask for help.

[jeff_strater]

I am NOT a graphics/rendering expert, so I will be unlikely to be able to help, but I'd like to take a quick look.  Can you share a model where the objects do not have shadows?  It could be something with the model.  I'd at least like to see whether this happens on my machine as well.  Also, what kind of rendering are you doing (local, cloud, in-canvas)?

[TrippyLighting]

I would consider myself fairly experienced in the word of rendering inside Fusion 360 and in other applications.

None of the screenshots you shared look like a render to me. They all look like the viewport preview when changing into the render environment.  

Sometimes it shows shadows, but it depends on the direction of the camera and the light source.

Even when sharp shadows can be seen in the preview, they might not be present in the actual render or just faintly. That also has to do with the light source.

I think you have to be a bit more specific, and as has been said already, sharing your model in .f3d format will help.  

[Anonymous]

Thanks for trying to help - you're awesome!
File attached. 

The display shows sharp shadows.  When rendered, the shadows super blur, and defy physics as they do not project where they should.  
Then, when I activate different components, the shadows move - as if the angle of the light source has moved - it's as if an algorithm is redefining the floor or light source or projections based on the cumulation of the active components vs each individual component. So depending on the position of the "camera", the shadow can cast out of shot.

To get the the effect of a rendered video (animation doesn't do this and we don't have a billion dollars to buy all of Autodesk's products - wish:), I'm rendering this scene and sequencing active the different components so each render progressively shows more of our stuffs.  Shadows are not essential, but make it look way more "Wow - these guys must have an large marketing group":).

[TrippyLighting]

The builtin ground plane in Fusion 360 always adopts ist Z-location to the lowest object.

As you are adding objects to your scene that will cause the ground plane to shift its Z-location.

So I would recommend to turn the builtin ground plane off in the scene settings and then model your own.

Then perhaps adjust the Z-location of your objects in the scene.

If the shadows then still aren't sharp enough, you either need to add one or more small but bright light sources.

Ot you ditch the HDRI (turn the lux to 0) and use classic 3-point lighting.

This always takes some experimentation.

Edit: I missed that you can also manually adjust the height of the builtin ground plane.

When you open the scene settings and click on "position" you'll see a little blue arrow that will allow you to adjust the ground plane to a fixed value.

 

[jensenw2]

I recommend following the steps on this page. It will give you greater control for lighting and shadows. All you need for a light source object is a sphere. Or a make a box if you want to illuminate one (flat) face. The Emissive category is under Miscellaneous in the Appearance library. You can also use a lower brightness if you have one light source and you want to lighten some of the shadow(s).