Directional Light

Directional Light is a function that is most useful for shedding uniform light over a large area of the design. The incident light beams are parallel and therefore this is a close representation of natural sunlight. The illustration below demonstrates the effect of Directional Light.

1.It is best to switch to the appropriate 2D projection, depending on the direction you wish to set.

2.Go to the Lighting item in the Room group, Insert tab, and select Directional Light.

3.Use one click to set the origin for the light source.

4.Moving the mouse or entering figures on the keyboard enables you to determine the orientation and size of the graphic representation of the Directional Light.

5.Clicking again or confirming with the Enter key ends the creation stage.

There are a number of properties which can be edited for a Directional Light source. The screenshot below shows a marked Directional Light source in the Front projection together with its properties.

Property	Description	Can be changed by means of
Type	A Directional Light can be converted into a Point Light, a Spot Light or an Area Light.	Property Editor
Color	Sets the Color of the light.	Property Editor
Intensity	The figure is given in candelas (cd). 1 cd is approximately the Intensity of the light from one candle. The Intensity of Directional Light is constant.	Property Editor
Realtime Shadows	Enables or disables the calculation of shadows for realtime rendering.	Property Editor
Light enabled	This switches the light source on and off.	Property Editor
Size	This is relevant for photorealistic rendering. The larger the source of light, the softer the shadow in the image rendered.	Property Editor
Shadows	This is whether Shadows should be calculated during the rendering process or not.	Property Editor
Name	It is possible to give a Name to any of the light sources.	Property Editor
Target	The target interactor will set the direction of the Directional Light. There is a difference here from the Spot Light. The dot is not the actual target of the source but simply one of two points describing the direction of the incident light (see image).	Interactor (see image)
Origin	The origin interactor allows the position of the origin to be changed. There is again a difference here from the Spot Light. It is not the actual origin of the source but simply one of two points describing the direction of the incident light (see image).	Interactor (see image)
Position	It is possible to move the Directional Light.	Section of line (see image)