Photometric Gizmo Size

[mmundy]

Working with IES files for the photometric web of my lights... most of the IES files produce a web that I can see, albeit usually pretty small. One of the IES files produces a web no bigger than a dot. I cannot tell which way it is oriented. I have to use a different IES file to orient the light, then switch at the last moment (if I remember). This is not a scalable gizmo like a point helper and the transform gizmo. I haven't seen anything in the IES file that suggests the size that the gizmo will be, even with the help of a lighting engineer. Got any ideas?

 

I've attached the IES file, which I renamed as a txt. You'll have to rename it ies if you want to test it in Max or Viz.

 

Thanks for your advice,

 

Mike Mundy ASAI

Bridge Architect

Sr 3d Technical Artist

[Angela Giladi]

Hello Michael,

 

I've attached another IES file corresponding to your txt file. Looks correct, narrow beam, and a bit better in Max, not a dot at least! Hope this helps until an experienced Max person can.

 

I'm new at Max and find the photometric curve frustatingly small (I'm used to Lightscape) and have been searching for a way to increase it. I've also tried different scale units but to no avail.

 

Hope you get a reply

 

Angela

[James Clarke]

Mike,

 

Lights are what Max refers to as a Non-scaling object. This goes for both your standard spot,direct,etc lights as well as Photometric IES lights. Regardless of the scale transform value of these objects, the 'icon' of what is displayed in the viewport remains the same. In order to change this value, navigate to Customize > Preferences > Viewports Tab. Then under the Viewport Parameters area, the bottom value, labeled, "Non-scaling object size" will allow you to change the size of this icon.

 

Unfortunately this is a scene wide value, so you cannot just fix lights that have that specific web file applied. However, you could temporarily increase that value when working with lights that have your troublesome ies file and then decrease it back to a normal value afterwards. For whatever reason, that specific web file needs to have the preference value set to incredibly high values before you can really work with the orientation of the light, so I'd reccomend hiding other objects that fall into the Non-scaling object category prior to working with it. This would include other lights as well as cameras.

 

It's not entirely ideal, but it works.

 

Good luck,

 

James Clarke

3D Visualization Specialist

[Angela Giladi]

Excellent. Thanks James