Exporting file from Ecotect to Radiance

radiance-general
1

Hi,

I have just uninstalled Desktop Radiance and installed the MinGW version on
my computer (Windows OS). I have been informed that this is the latest
version of Radiance for Windows OS. Unfortunately I now have trouble reading
images exported from Ecotect.

When I export the Ecotect example file "RADIANCE_example.eco" I am able to
see a rendered view of the space in the image viewer, but I cannot run any
of the options for the information overlay (e.g. contour lines, false color,
daylight factors etc.) and get the message "RGBE read error"
When exporting the file from Ecotect, I noticed that when checking whether
Radiance is functional, the exporter returned a message saying that the
application "rview" is missing from the directory. Could this be the
problem? If so, what are alternative ways for evaluating the radiance image?

I have uploaded an image of the error message to the Autodesk discussion
forum:
http://discussion.autodesk.com/forums/message.jspa?messageID=6124907#6124907

Thanks,

Krystyna

2

Hi,

the subject-line of this mail is not very helpful. What kind of file do
you want to export from Ecotect? I try to understand what you wrote, and
it seams that you want to use the image processing tools of Radiance on
images generated in Ecotect, is this the case? I also do not know which
"image viewer" you refer to, the only image viewer in Radiance that I am
aware of is ximage, and it offers no such things like your information
overlay functionality, as this is done by filters in Radiance. So I
guess you are using other software here, not Radiance.

Can you please find out some details about what kind of data you want to
process using which Radiance tools?

Good luck, Lars.

3

Hi Krystyna.

Hi,

I have just uninstalled Desktop Radiance and installed the MinGW version on my computer (Windows OS). I have been informed that this is the latest version of Radiance for Windows OS. Unfortunately I now have trouble reading images exported from Ecotect.
When I export the Ecotect example file "RADIANCE_example.eco" I am able to see a rendered view of the space in the image viewer, but I cannot run any of the options for the information overlay (e.g. contour lines, false color, daylight factors etc.) and get the message "RGBE read error"

Unfortunately 'falsecolor' (which is the master tool behind most
of these overlays) is not distributed with the MinGW binaries
because it is a CSH-script that does not run on Windows. Therefore
the ImageViewer bundled with Ecotect can not generate this type
of analysis.

There is another picture viewer around which is based on
Python and that seems to be the best option to create
falsecolor images on Windows at the moment:

Raddisplay - http://www.deluminaelab.com/en/tools.html

It requires some time to setup, though.

When exporting the file from Ecotect, I noticed that when checking whether Radiance is functional, the exporter returned a message saying that the application "rview" is missing from the directory. Could this be the problem? If so, what are alternative ways for evaluating the radiance image?

The application 'rview' is now called 'rvu' and AFAIK it has
not been ported to Windows.

There have been some significant changes to the Radiance
applications since Desktop Radiance has been released. This
affects mostly the rendering process, though. The image format
is still the same and you should be able to open a 'new'
image in the old 'rview'. You could try to copy the missing
applications from your DR installation over to the MinGW
installation and see if that solves your problem.

Regards,
Thomas

···

On 14 Feb 2009, at 01:57, Krystyna Zelenay wrote:

4

Hi,

I have just uninstalled Desktop Radiance and installed the MinGW
version on my computer (Windows OS). I have been informed that this
is the latest version of Radiance for Windows OS. Unfortunately I
now have trouble reading images exported from Ecotect.
When I export the Ecotect example file "RADIANCE_example.eco" I am
able to see a rendered view of the space in the image viewer, but I
cannot run any of the options for the information overlay (e.g.
contour lines, false color, daylight factors etc.) and get the
message "RGBE read error"

This might be useful, refer to the following site:
http://irc.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/ie/lighting/daylight/daysim_e.html

On the right under the Column click on the 'Getting Started' PDF link.

Navigate to page 26 (headed Radiance), steps 27-37 provide a walk through of how Ecotect exports to Radiance and the built in Radiance viewer that comes with Ecotct to create false-color images.

Step 37 'Info' box describes the RGBE error and suggests a possible way to fix it.

When exporting the file from Ecotect, I noticed that when checking
whether Radiance is functional, the exporter returned a message
saying that the application "rview" is missing from the directory.
Could this be the problem? If so, what are alternative ways for
evaluating the radiance image?

Step 30a shows the procedure to set-up Ecotect to export to Radiance and how to point to correct directory.

Regards
Sean Mooney
Buro Happold
The Father Mathew Hall
Church Street
Dublin 7
Ireland

This message has been scanned by MailController - www.MailController.altohiway.com

···

On 14 Feb 2009, at 01:57, Krystyna Zelenay wrote:

5

Square One/AutoDesk recommends using Ecotect with Desktop Radiance. It is old, but if it is still available, it will resolve these issues. Their instructions--I hope they still work--are here: <http://squ1.org/wiki/Installing_Radiance_Tutorial >. If you want to use a more current Radiance, try copying "rvu" to "rview"; it is unlikely that you have "vi" on your Windows system to create a name conflict.

Randolph

···

On Feb 13, 2009, at 5:57 PM, Krystyna Zelenay wrote:

Hi,

I have just uninstalled Desktop Radiance and installed the MinGW version on my computer (Windows OS). I have been informed that this is the latest version of Radiance for Windows OS. Unfortunately I now have trouble reading images exported from Ecotect.
When I export the Ecotect example file "RADIANCE_example.eco" I am able to see a rendered view of the space in the image viewer, but I cannot run any of the options for the information overlay (e.g. contour lines, false color, daylight factors etc.) and get the message "RGBE read error"

When exporting the file from Ecotect, I noticed that when checking whether Radiance is functional, the exporter returned a message saying that the application "rview" is missing from the directory. Could this be the problem? If so, what are alternative ways for evaluating the radiance image?

I have uploaded an image of the error message to the Autodesk discussion forum:
http://discussion.autodesk.com/forums/message.jspa?messageID=6124907#6124907

Thanks,
Krystyna

_______________________________________________
Radiance-general mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.radiance-online.org/mailman/listinfo/radiance-general

6

I would like to thank everyone for their advice. It looks like the problem
has been resolved and that it was not related to the fact that the rview.exe
application does not come with the version of Radiance I am using (MinGW
Radiance Installer for Windows (HEAD snapshot 2008-04-17) available for
download at http://www.radiance-online.org/).

I had to reset my Radiance directory within the 'image viewer' program in
order to be able to apply any of the overlays. Below is an excerpt from an
NRC document explaining how to get started with Ecotect-Radiance-DAYSIM
(available at http://irc.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/ie/lighting/daylight/daysim_e.html),
in which specific reference is made to the issue I experienced:

Please note: The first time you are trying to generate a falsecolor image
you might get an error message stating "RGBE read error". If this is the
case, you have to reset your Radiance directory within the 'image viewer'
program above under OPTIONS >> SETTINGS (see also Step 30.a).

The NRC document describes how to import/export files from
Ecotect/Radiance/DAYSIM. It is very helpful, although parts of it may be
slightly outdated. For example, I think that the link provided for the
Radiance download (
http://www.arch.mcgill.ca/prof/reinhart/software/Radiance3P7forWindows.zip)
may refer to an older version of Radiance.

I am keeping my fingers crossed things will run smoothly from now on!

Square One/AutoDesk recommends using Ecotect with Desktop Radiance. It is

old, but if it is still available, it will resolve these issues. Their
instructions--I hope they still work--are here: <
http://squ1.org/wiki/Installing_Radiance_Tutorial>. If you want to use a
more current Radiance, try copying "rvu" to "rview"; it is unlikely that you
have "vi" on your Windows system to create a name conflict.

Randolph

Hi,

I have just uninstalled Desktop Radiance and installed the MinGW version

on my computer (Windows OS). I have been informed that this is the latest
version of Radiance for Windows OS. Unfortunately I now have trouble reading
images exported from Ecotect.

When I export the Ecotect example file "RADIANCE_example.eco" I am able

to see a rendered view of the space in the image viewer, but I cannot run
any of the options for the information overlay (e.g. contour lines, false
color, daylight factors etc.) and get the message "RGBE read error"

When exporting the file from Ecotect, I noticed that when checking

whether Radiance is functional, the exporter returned a message saying that
the application "rview" is missing from the directory. Could this be the
problem? If so, what are alternative ways for evaluating the radiance image?

I have uploaded an image of the error message to the Autodesk discussion

forum:

http://discussion.autodesk.com/forums/message.jspa?messageID=6124907#6124907

···

On Sun, Feb 15, 2009 at 8:13 AM, R Fritz <[email protected]> wrote:

On Feb 13, 2009, at 5:57 PM, Krystyna Zelenay wrote:

Thanks,
Krystyna

_______________________________________________
Radiance-general mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.radiance-online.org/mailman/listinfo/radiance-general

_______________________________________________
Radiance-general mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.radiance-online.org/mailman/listinfo/radiance-general