Tutorial Render with Blender

Tutorial
Topic
Rendering
Level
Intermediate
Time to complete
60 minutes
Authors
vocx
FreeCAD version
0.18 or greater
Example files
none
See also
None

Introduction

This tutorial shows how to produce a rendered image in Blender, beginning from a part or assembly created with FreeCAD. It assumes that the user already created the part in FreeCAD, or has imported it into it. Then this part is exported to Blender for rendering.

It produces a rendering with Blender 2.80 with both the EEVEE and Cycles renderers. It shows various Python commands that can be used to perform actions quicker both in FreeCAD and Blender.

FreeCAD

1. Create an assembly using bodies from the Part or PartDesign Workbenches, or any other workbench that produces solid objects, for example, the Arch Workbench. Assign colors or materials to the individual bodies that make the assembly, approximately matching the color that you want in your render.

Assembly of three bodies created in FreeCAD, and with colors or materials assigned.

2. If your model is very detailed, make sure the ViewDeviation of the body is set to a low value, between 0.1 and 0.01, or even smaller. The lower this value is, the more detailed the exported mesh will be, and thus the better the quality of the render will be.

Deviation property of the bodies created in FreeCAD; the deviation needs to be small in order to export the parts with good resolution.

3. Select the Part, then File → Export, or press Ctrl+E, and export it as Wavefront OBJ.

Alternatively, the export can be done from the Python console. Define a list of objects to be exported and use the exporting function with a file name.

import importOBJ
objs = FreeCAD.ActiveDocument.getObjectsByLabel("Part")[0]

importOBJ.export(objs, "/home/user/assembly.obj")

Note: when exporting to OBJ, two files are created; the first one contains the mesh information itself, assembly.obj; the second one contains the definition of the materials, which in most cases is just the color, assembly.mtl.

Note 2: if the resulting OBJ file appears to be empty, you may have to export the individual bodies. In this case, select each of the bodies under the part, and repeat the export.

import importOBJ
objs = [FreeCAD.ActiveDocument.getObjectsByLabel("Body.base")[0],
FreeCAD.ActiveDocument.getObjectsByLabel("Body.bolt")[0],
FreeCAD.ActiveDocument.getObjectsByLabel("Body.bolt.big")[0]]

importOBJ.export(objs, "/home/user/assembly.obj")

Blender

Prepare the model

4. Open Blender. Change the Timeline panel into a Python Console (Shift+F4). This will help you to input commands and see the results. You may divide this panel, to keep the console on one side, and make the other division an Info panel; this will allow you to see the code of the actions as you click on the interface.

Make sure you are using the EEVEE renderer. In the Properties panel go to Render, and for Render Engine select Eevee.

bpy.context.scene.render.engine = 'BLENDER_EEVEE'

5. Import the model file from the menu, File → Import → Wavefront (.obj).

Alternatively, importing can be done from the Python Console.

obj_file = "/home/user/assembly.obj"
bpy.ops.import_scene.obj(filepath=obj_file)

6. Change the scale.

If the bodies appear to be very large you may have to change the units so the objects appear at the right scale.

In the Properties panel go to Scene, Units, and select the appropriate Unit System, Unit Scale, and Length.

For small parts, you may wish to keep the length to Millimeters, and the scale to 0.001. For bigger parts, for example, the model of a building, you may have to set these values to Meters and 0.001. Try other values of scale as required.

This can be set also from the Python console.

bpy.context.scene.unit_settings.length_unit = 'MILLIMETERS'
# or bpy.context.scene.unit_settings.length_unit = 'METERS'
bpy.context.scene.unit_settings.scale_length = 0.001

Note: changing the scale and units of the scene is only necessary if you wish to work with objects at their true dimensions. If you just want to render your scene quickly, you may omit any adjustment.

6.1. If you zoom out, and the view cuts the imported parts, you may have to adjust the view clip values.

Hit N to show the auxiliary panel; go to the View section and set the End to a large value, for example, 1E6 mm or 1000 m.

6.2. If you wish, also adjust the size of the grid; go to Overlays, then Guides, and set the Scale of the grid to 0.001.

7. Fix the rotation of the objects.

When imported, objects may appear rotated around one of the axes, for example, 90 degrees around the X axis. Hit N to show the auxiliary panel; select an object, go to the Transform section and set the Rotation to 0° in each field. Do this for every object.

This can be automated by a small script that just sets the rotation of each imported body to zero, with the exception of the objects inside the fixed_objs tuple. This can be useful if you are importing objects into an existing scene where other objects are already in their right positions.

fixed_objs = ('Camera', 'Cube', 'Light')

for obj in bpy.data.objects:
    if any(s for s in fixed_objs if s in obj.name):
        print('%s %s  [[No change]]' % (obj.name, obj.rotation_euler))
        continue
    else:
        obj.rotation_euler = (0, 0, 0)
        print('%s %s  ... rotated' % (obj.name, obj.rotation_euler))

Assembly created in FreeCAD imported into Blender; the model was rotated and the units for the scene were adjusted to match the imported objects.

Prepare the camera of the scene

8. Set the camera in the right position.

Adjust the viewport to look at the model in the desired orientation, then hit Ctrl+Alt+0 (numerical pad), or use the menu View → Align View → Align Active Camera to View.

8.1. If you don't see anything in the camera view, you may need to adjust the clipping. Selecting the camera in the Outliner, go to the Properties panel, then Object Data, then Lens, then set the Clip End to a large value, for example, 1E3 mm or 1000 m.

bpy.context.object.data.clip_end = 1e+03

If you can see the object through the camera view, now you can quickly render the model by pressing F12, which will open the Image Editor with the result. Press Esc to exit, and return to the 3D Viewport.

First render of the assembly in Blender, with the camera with correct clipping but no lighting

You can toggle between camera view and the 3D viewport by pressing 0 in the numerical pad; pressing F12 will render the camera view in any moment.

8.2. If the camera looks very small in the 3D viewport, go to the Properties panel, then Object Data, then Viewport Display, and set a larger value for the Size, for example, 20 mm. Also activate the Limits checkbox to see the clipping distance of the camera.

bpy.context.object.data.display_size = 20
bpy.context.object.data.show_limits = True

Prepare the lighting of the scene

9. Select the light in the Outliner, go to the Properties panel, then Object Data, then press on Sun, and set the Strength to 5.0.

bpy.context.object.data.type = 'SUN'
bpy.context.object.data.energy = 5

This will turn the light into a Sun lamp. This type of lamp emits an infinite number of parallel light rays that all arrive to the scene with a fixed angle.

You may position the Sun lamp anywhere on the viewport above your model so that you define the direction of the rays of light. For a Sun lamp it doesn't matter how close or far you place the lamp, only the direction of the rays, which are defined by the rotation of the Light object.

bpy.context.active_object.location = (150, 100, 100)
bpy.context.active_object.rotation_euler = (0.6, 0.05, 1.88)

Press F12 again to see a preliminary render of the model.

Render of the assembly in Blender with a Sun lamp added that emits parallel light rays with a fixed angle

More setup: floor, global lighting, reflections, and soft shadows

10. Add a floor plane. Press Shift+A then choose Mesh, Plane, and give it dimensions about 10 times larger than your model. This mesh object will serve as a floor plane or table top on which the model is standing. Also move the plane a bit down so that it does not intersect the model; -1 mm below the object is enough.

bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_plane_add(size=1500, view_align=False, enter_editmode=False, location=(0, 0, -1))

11. Set the world illumination. In the Properties panel go to World, and set Color to a light blue-gray value, RGB (0.358, 0.512, 0.527), and set the Strength to 0.3.

12. Set reflections and shadows. The EEVEE renderer of Blender produces fast renders by deactivating most effects initially. In order to obtain better images, some options need to be made active.

Go to the Properties panel, then Render, and check Screen Space Reflections. In the Shadows section, also check Soft Shadows.

bpy.context.scene.eevee.use_ssr = True
bpy.context.scene.eevee.use_soft_shadows = True

Set the materials of the objects

13. Turn the Python Console panel into a Shader Editor panel (Shift+F3).

13.1. Select the ground plane, go to the Properties panel, then Material, and click on New. In the Shader Editor a Principled BSDF node should appear. Give it a beige Base Color RGB (0.318, 0.267, 0.187), turn the Metallic slider to 0.000, and the Roughness to 1.000.

Principled BSDF shader used in Blender to simulate a variety of materials ranging from shiny metals to rough and opaque solids.

13.2. Select each of the parts of the model, and adjust the respective Principled BSDF material node. For metallic parts, turn the Metallic property all the way to 1.000. Adjust the value of Roughness to be between 0.2 and 0.7. The closer to 0.000 the Roughness is, the more reflective (mirror-like) it will appear.

For non metals, like plastics, wood and textiles, set the Metallic slider all the way to 0.000, and adjust the value of Roughness to between 0.4 and 1.0.

In general, metals are naturally smooth and therefore their roughness value is small, making them very reflective (shiny). Other materials are microscopically rough, and therefore do not reflect as much light, making them opaque.

14. Test different combinations of materials until they look acceptable. Press Z and then 8 (numerical pad) to enter Rendered mode; in this mode, the EEVEE renderer shows in real time in the 3D viewport how the final image will look like. Use Z to open the pie menu and switch back to Solid mode (Z 6), or go to LookDev mode (Z 2), a mode which adds different types of lighting to the scene to test the appearance of the materials.

Press F12 to render the view through the camera and check the quality of the image.

Rendering and saving

12. If your model looks reasonable well with the EEVEE renderer you can already save the image by going to Image → Save As or pressing Shift+S in the Image Editor.

Rendered assembly produced with Blender EEVEE; all materials use the Principled BSDF shader; only one sun lamp is used, with some ambient background light

13. If you want to improve the quality of the image, try the Cycles renderer.

Go to the Properties panel, then Render, and for Render Engine select Cycles. With the Cycles renderer, Blender will refine the image gradually until a number of iterations have passed. Every time the viewport changes the recalculation restarts.

bpy.context.scene.render.engine = 'CYCLES'

Press F12 to render the final view through the camera. Depending on your graphics card (GPU) the image should take several more seconds, or minutes, to render with Cycles than with EEVEE, but the quality of the image should be better.

14. When you are satisfied with the quality of the image, go to Image → Save As or press Shift+S.

Rendered assembly produced with Blender Cycles; all options, materials, and lights that were used with EEVEE were kept for use with Cycles

Importing plugin

Creating the intermediate Wavefront mesh (.obj) and then importing it into Blender will work in most situations. However, there is also the option of importing the FreeCAD file (.FCStd) directly into Blender by means of a plugin.

• io_import_fcstd.py, original version for Blender 2.79
• FreeCAD .FCStd importer for Blender 2.80

This is a Blender plugin; for it to work, Blender needs to be able to import FreeCAD as a module from the Python Console.

import FreeCAD

This is only possible if both Blender and FreeCAD are compiled against the same pythonX.Y (major and minor) version. For example, if Blender is compiled against Python 3.7, FreeCAD must be compiled against a Python 3.7 version as well. If FreeCAD is compiled against another version, for example, Python 2.7.15 or Python 3.6.7, the plugin will not work. The micro version number (third number) does not matter, that is, the plugin should work if one software is compiled against Python 3.7.5 and the other against Python 3.7.8.

In addition, the FreeCAD precompiled Python module, FreeCAD.so on Linux and FreeCAD.pyd on Windows, should be in the Python path used by Blender to import modules. This path can be set up in different ways, depending on the operating system and Python distribution.

In Blender you can see all paths searched by inspecting the sys.path variable. The FreeCAD module should be found in any of those directories.

import sys
print(sys.path)

• A copy or symbolic link inside one of those directories could be created pointing to the FreeCAD module.

ln -s /usr/lib/freecad/lib/FreeCAD.so $HOME/.config/blender/2.80/scripts/addons

ln -s /usr/lib/freecad/lib/FreeCAD.so $HOME/.local/lib/python3.7/site-packages

• Another possibility is adding the module directly into the path inside Blender.

import sys
sys.path.append("/usr/lib/freecad/lib/FreeCAD.so")

Final notes

EEVEE is not a physically accurate renderer, however its main strength is that it is a real time renderer so it is able to produce quick images directly in the 3D viewport. In many cases, these images have enough quality for final production which means it's possible to obtain a good result in a very short time.

On the other hand, Cycles is a true raytracing renderer which means it is more accurate at calculating light paths in a scene in order to produce a photorealistic result. Cycles is still the recommended renderer when the best quality is desired.

In many cases, the scene prepared with EEVEE can be used immediately without change in Cycles in order to produce a better rendering. However, in cases were complex light interactions are desired (reflections, refractions, volumetric light, and caustics) EEVEE is limited, and requires some tricks and options to work around some of these limitations.

Obtaining good results is highly dependent on the rendering options, the materials, and the lighting. The Principled BSDF material shader is a generic solution that works well for many cases, however, to produce trully photorealistic results, the use of texture maps and normal maps, along with careful lighting of the scene is still very important.

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