Lights

Toolbar Menu

Render Tools

Render / Window

Panels > Lights

The Lights command opens the Lights panel.

Lights Panel

Container options

Toolbar

Add light

Click to select a light type and pick points in the viewport to place the light.

Filters and tools
Light selection to viewport

Selecting a light in the list also selects the light in viewports.

Show groups

Displays light groups in the list.

Show lights on layers that are off

Displays the lights in the list when their layers are turned off.

Name

The lighting object names. Double-click a lighting item in the panel to access more settings in the Properties or Sun panels.

See: Naming conventions in Rhino

Skylight

Provides an overall lighting effect.

  • Select the Skylight to show quick settings at the bottom in the panel.

    Skylight on/off

    Click the button to toggle Skylight on or off.

    Intensity

    Move the slider to change Skylight brightness.

    Rotation angle

    Rotates the environment background image.

    See complete information about Skylight settings

  • Double-click the Skylight to open the Rendering panel to access complete settings.

Sun

Provides a strong, directional lighting effect depending on the settings in the Sun panel.

  • Select the Skylight to show quick settings at the bottom in the panel.

    Sun on/off

    Click the button to toggle Sun on or off.

    Manual control

    Sets the sun by dragging the north direction, Azimuth, and Altitude controls.

    Intensity

    Move the slider to change Sun brightness.

    See complete information about Sun settings

  • Double-click Sun to open the Sun panel to access complete settings.

<Light>

Provides different types of artificial lighting source.

  • Select a light to show quick settings at the bottom in the panel.

    Different light types may have different settings.

Selected light(s) on/off

Click the button to toggle the selected light(s) on or off.

Color

Sets the illuminating color of the light.

Falloff

Specifies how lighting intensity changes when light travels in the scene.

Intensity

Move the slider to change brightness of the light.

Shadow intensity

Move the slider to change darkness of the shadow cast by the light.

Spotlight hardness

Controls the blurriness of the light spot edge.

See complete information about light properties

Isolate

Turn on the lights with the checkbox checked, all other lights will be turned off. Clearing all checkboxes turns on all lights.

Type

Displays the light type.

Intensity

The brightness of the light.

Color

The light's illuminating color.

Layer

The light's layer.

Right-click context menu

Turn On/Off

Turns the selected lights on or off.

Delete

Deletes the selected lights. Sun and Skylight cannot be deleted.

Properties

Edits the selected light in the Properties panel.

UnIsolate All

Unchecks all Isolate checkboxes to turn on all lights.

Group

Groups the selected lights.

UnGroup

Ungroups the lights in the selected group.

Edit

Edits the light's name.

Falloff

The lighting intensity changes when light travels in the scene. Details...

Light properties

Color

Sets the illuminating color of the light. Setting the color to shades of gray dims the light.

On

Turns the light on or off.

Intensity

Controls the brightness of the light.

Drag the slider beyond the right end to increase the range of intensity above 100%.

Shadow intensity

Controls the darkness of the shadow cast by the light.

Shadow intensity changes:

- size of a spotlight, point light, and rectangular light.

- angular diameter of a directional light.

- radius of a linear light.

Light size is only visible in reflection in the Raytraced mode or rendering.
Spotlight hardness (Spotlights only)

Controls the blurriness of the light spot edge.

Falloff (Except for directional lights)

Specifies how lighting intensity changes when light travels in the scene.

Constant

Distance has no effect to light intensity.

Linear

Light intensity decreases in a constant rate.

Inverse Squared

Light intensity decreases with the Inverse-Square Law (1/d2).

The Inverse-Square Law. d=distance, i=intensity.

See also

Snapshots

The Snapshots command saves and restores Named Views, Named Positions, Layer States, as well as rendering settings, object settings including locked/hidden state, display mode, material, position, light settings, curve piping, displacement, edge softening, shutlining, and thickening.

DirectionalLight

Toolbar Menu

Lights
Render Tools

Render

Create Directional Light

The DirectionalLight command inserts a light that simulates the sun defined with parallel rays and a direction.


Location point (1), dolly point (2), target point (3).

Steps

  1. Pick a location at which to aim the directional light.
  2. Pick a location for the directional light.
  • A directional light shines toward a specified direction. The location of the light does not matter: the light object merely indicates the direction the light shines.
  • Turn on the light's control points and move or drag the control points to edit the light's direction and target.
  • To move the light without changing its direction, move the dolly point (the control point at the midpoint on the direction vector).

LinearLight

Toolbar Menu

Lights
Render Tools

Render

Create Linear Light

The LinearLight command inserts a light that imitates a fluorescent tube.

Steps

  1. Pick the start of the light.
  2. Pick the end of the light.
  • In a rendered (openGL) viewport, linear lights are represented by point lights. Rotating or scaling linear lights will not affect lighting in the Rendered viewport.

PointLight

Toolbar Menu

Lights
Render Tools

Render

Create Point Light

The PointLight command inserts a light object that emits light from a single location in all directions (omni light).

Steps

  • Pick the light's location.

RectangularLight

Toolbar Menu

Lights
Render Tools

Render

Create Rectangular Light

The RectangularLight command inserts a rectangular light object that emits light from an array of light points in one direction.



Location point (1), length control (2), width control (3), dolly point (4), target point (5).
  • Turn on the light's control points and move or drag the control points to edit the light's direction, length, width, and target.
  • To move the light without changing its direction, move the dolly point (the control point at the midpoint on the direction vector).
  • In a rendered (openGL) viewport, rectangular lights are represented by point lights. Rotating or scaling rectangular lights will not affect lighting in the Rendered viewport.

Steps

  1. Pick the light's start point.
  2. Pick a the light's length.
  3. Pick the light's width.

Command-line option

Target

Aims the light at the specified location.

Spotlight

Toolbar Menu

Lights
Render Tools
Standard

Render

Create Spotlight

The Spotlight command inserts a light object into the model that directs a narrow beam of light with falloff.

The spotlight object appears as a cone shape. Its light appears only in full renderings of the targeted objects.

Use the Properties command to set the light's color and on or off state. Darker colors, like gray, light the scene less.


Location point (1), dolly point (2), radius control (3), target point (4), hotspot control (5).

Steps

  1. Pick the center and radius of the base circle.
    See the Circle command for option descriptions.
  2. Pick the end of the light.

Command-line options

DirectionConstraint

Direction constraints restrict the direction of the circle.

None

The center can be anywhere in 3-D space.

The second point can be placed anywhere using elevator mode, object snaps or other modeling aids.

Vertical

Draws an object perpendicular to the construction plane.

Pick the center and a radius or diameter.

AroundCurve

Draws a circle perpendicular to a curve.

Select a curve and pick the center of the circle on the curve and a radius or diameter.

  • Turn on the spotlight's control points and move or drag the control points to edit the spotlight's direction, length, beam angle, hotspot angle, and position.
  • To move the light without changing its direction, move the dolly point (the control point at the midpoint between the cone tip and the center of the cone base).
  • Spotlights with narrower cones produce more detail than spotlights with wider cones.
  • The cone for the spotlight represents the direction of the light, not the range of the light.
  • The brightness of the light from the spotlight remains constant, even as you move away from the tip of the cone.
  • The length and width of the spotlight together do control the shape of the infinite cone in space that is illuminated by the spotlight.
  • Objects near the center axis line of the cone are illuminated the most brightly. That bright full illumination continues for half of the width of the cone, and then slowly drops off to nothing at the very outside of the cone.
  • Spotlight hardness controls the fully illuminated region. You can either shrink it or expand it so that there is no drop-off at all. The easiest way to see what this does it is to create a plane with a single spotlight shining on it, and then play with the spotlight hardness parameter to see what it does.

See also

Snapshots

The Snapshots command saves and restores Named Views, Named Positions, Layer States, as well as rendering settings, object settings including locked/hidden state, display mode, material, position, light settings, curve piping, displacement, edge softening, shutlining, and thickening.

Render

Render the objects using the current renderer.

Add lights