Rendering a wire frame image out of Max

[Jay Phelps]

I need a clean wire frame image of a site model in Max. I'd prefer white lines and a black background. Is there a way to do this besides doing a screen capture? The site and bldgs are modeled in AutoCAD and linked into the Max scene. Is there a way to get a wireframe image out of AutoCAD without using screen capture? We have Max 9 and V-ray. Ultimately I need an image file that our marketing art director can use. Thanks for any tips

[Neal Kemp]

easy - change to the scanline renderer and in the render dialogue click on force wire frame.

[Jay Phelps]

DUH! Thanks.

Now, is there a way to change the color of the lines? I'd prefer a black background with white lines. It rendered with black lines.

[Neal Kemp]

in the material window, make a white material and apply it to everything in your scene than make sure your environment background colour is black. easy as that.

[Jay Phelps]

Ok, did that but it didn't seem to change the color of the lines in the rendering.

[Joel C.]

1) set your render engine to scanline
2) select everything in the scene
3) materials -> new slot -> make it white and tick wireframe
4) render -> environment -> black

that should do it

I like adding a skylight and turning on advanced light tracing

[Frances Gainer Davey]

I need a clean wire frame image of a site model in Max. I'd prefer white lines and a black background. Is there a way to do this besides doing a screen capture? The site and bldgs are modeled in AutoCAD and linked into the Max scene. Is there a way to get a wireframe image out of AutoCAD without using screen capture? We have Max 9 and V-ray. Ultimately I need an image file that our marketing art director can use. Thanks for any tips

You can do this using Vray. In the Max Environment dialog, go down to Atmosphere and Add... VRayToon. In the Material Editor, create a Vray light material with default settings. In the Vray render dialog, enable Override mtl in the V-Ray Global switches rollout and drag your light material onto the material slot. Disable GI in the Indirect Illumination tab. If you are using a Vray physical camera, disable exposure control for this.

ETA: Invert the image in your photo editor of choice.

[Claudio Branch]

Joel,

can you please post up something using this approach? I have played around with setting my mat to wireframe and increasing the wire size to reduce the aliasing it creates, but still not satisfied with the results. Just not crisp enough for my tastes.

Instead, I take a model, select all the edges, and "Create Shape from Selection." I will take that shape and make the splines renderable.

[Joel C.]

Hey Claudio,

Your method gives you far more control over the thickness. Couple more steps, but far worth it.

[Thomas Burns]

I would usually just start with a standard material turn on wireframe and a little self illumination. then I would put this material in the material overide slot turn it on and render. This way you don't have to save another drawing or reassign materials.