Environments

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Render Tools	Window / Render Panels > Environments

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Render Tools

Window / Render

Panels > Environments

The Environments command opens the Environments panel to edit background color, image, projection.

Render contents (materials, environment, and textures) can be hidden by plug-ins or scripts. More information...

Environments panel

Panel options Container options

Environments panel toolbar

The Environments panel has additional browsing tools.

Add Environment

Click to select an action to create a new texture.

Import Environment from File

Imports environments from a saved Rhino .renv file.

Choose existing

Creates a new environment by using an existing environment as the template.

Basic Environment

Creates a new basic environment.

More Types

Opens the content type browser to see more options for creating a new environment.

Search

Click the search box (magnifying glass) to display a menu for searching names, notes, or tags.

Search Names

Limits the search to names.

Search Notes

Limits the search to notes.

Search Tags

Limits the search to tags.

When tags: is selected, a list of available tags appears. These tags are gathered from the materials, environments, and textures in the document.
In the tags list, arrow keys move up and down and the selected tag is appended to the search.
Type a semicolon to keep the selected tag and append a semicolon to the search.
Backspace removes the last tag from the search.
Once the focus is on the tags list, you can navigate the list using the keyboard with the semicolon and backspace keys appending and removing tags from the search without having to use the mouse.

Search info

Displays how 'name:', 'note:', 'tag:', '?', '#' and '^' are used for searching items.

Help

Thumbnail indicators

The icons at the lower-right corner of an environment thumbnail indicate usages of the environment.

The environment is used for reflection and refraction raytracing.

The environment is used as the skylight for lighting the scene.

The environment is used as a 360° background.

The external background image used by the environment is missing.

Pointing the mouse cursor to the icon shows information about the missing image.
If any missing image is detected when Rhino opens a model, the Missing image files dialog appears.
The Save textures option in the Save dialog stores images in the 3dm file to prevent images from missing.

Thumbnail actions

Right-click a thumbnail to display a context menu.
Right-click the blank area of the thumbnail browser to display a context menu.
Right-click and drag in the thumbnail to change the view.
Double-click a thumbnail to edit in a floating window.

Drag and drop actions in the list section

Drag and drop to a different position in the list to reorder.
Drag and drop with Ctrl to a blank area to make a copy.
Drag and drop with Alt to a blank area to make an instanced copy.

Name

The name of the environment.

See: Naming conventions in Rhino

Type

Sets the environment type.

Basic

Basic Environment Settings

Background

The basic environment is a simple background color and optional texture. The projection of the texture can be set to either planar, spherical (otherwise known as equirectangular or longitude/latitude) or box.

To set the background color

Select the color for the environment background.

You can drag the color swatch to a folder to create a Rhino color file (.rcolor).

To add this color to a color library

Drag it from a folder to another color swatch in the Materials, Environments, or Textures panels, or you can drag it onto an object.

Background image

Uses an image as the environment background.

To specify an image

Click the texture control.
(click to assign texture)
The check box automatically becomes checked the first time you do this.
You can clear the check box to turn off the assignment.
Select an image file to use.

Projection

Sets the projection style for the background image.

Planar

Maps texture directly to background. Environment looks always the same no matter where the camera is looking.

Light probe

Also known as angular fish-eye projection or azimuthal equidistant projection. Elliptical subsection reaching each border of the texture is mapped onto the sphere.

See: Wikipedia: Azimuthal equidistant projection.

Equirectangular

Also known as spherical projection. Horizontal line in the middle of the texture is mapped to the equator of the sphere.

See: Wikipedia: Equirectangular projection.

Cubemap

Subsections corresponding to each side of the cube are located side by side dividing the texture into six equal parts.

See: Wikipedia: Cube mapping.

Vertical cross cubemap

Subsections corresponding to each side of the cube are located in a vertical cross pattern. Each subsection is one fourth of the image in height and one third in width.

Horizontal cross cubemap

Subsections corresponding to each side of the cube are located in a horizontal cross pattern. Each subsection is one third of the image in height and one fourth in width.

Emap

Elliptical subsection reaching each border of the texture is mapped onto the sphere. This projection is the result of taking a photo of a mirror sphere with an orthographic camera.

Hemispherical

Like spherical projection but the entire texture is mapped onto the upper half of the sphere. The bottom border of the texture is stretched over the under side of the sphere.

Rotation

Sets the rotation of the environment. This helps put the image in the correct position to accomplish the correct reflections and lighting.

Intensity

Specifies the strength of the environment.

Save and share render content

Render content (materials, environments, and textures) are stored in models. They can also be saved to files and shared across models. The Libraries panel displays the default content folder. Content can be dragged and dropped between Rhino sessions or between a Rhino window and a disk folder.

To access command-line options

Type a hyphen in front of the command name: -Environments.

Command-line options
ShowPanel	Displays the Environment Editor panel.
Options	Displays command-line options. Add Delete Rename Change Duplicate LoadFromFile SaveToFile

Command-line options

ShowPanel

Displays the Environment Editor panel.

Options

Displays command-line options.