Plotting and Printers not showing

We are having issues with plotters on PCs not automatically appearing in the list of devices. If you cannot see a plotter then you can manually add using these steps:

Click the Windows Start Button in the bottom left hand corner:

start-button

 

in the Search box type

\\GM-PS-N

This will bring up a big list of plotters and printers.
In the top right hand search box type

DST

This filters the list just to the printers and plotters in our print area.

plotter-list

Identify the plotter you want from the list and double click to install it. It is then available to print to from any application.

 

STANDARD-PLOT-DST-CW700-Q1 :: A2/A1/A0 Standard Paper
PREMIUM-PLOT-DST-CW700-Q3 :: A2/A1/A0 240GSM MATT paper
PTYPE4-PLOT-DST-CW700-Q4 :: A2/A1/A0 Tracing Paper
PTYPE5-PLOT-DST-CW700-Q5 :: A2/A1/A0 Textured Paper
PTYPE6-PLOT-DST-CW700-Q6 :: A2/A1/A0 Satin Semi-gloss Paper
PLOT-DST-T1300 :: Sheet Feed Plotter

Oce Colorwave 700 Plotter

We have a new large format / large volume plotter: an Oce Colorwave 700

colorwave700

This machine replaces the HP DesignJet T7100 Plotter.  It is a much faster and higher quality plotter and it allows for printing on various media types.  PRICES HAVE NOT CHANGED

Please note we will be testing and trying out different media types initially – please feel free to give feedback and suggestions on which media you like or would like to see.

To start off with we shall be offering the following media:

Paper Type Queue Name  A2/A1/A0   Roll
Standard
Top Color Paper 120gsm
.
 
STANDARD-PLOT-DST-CW700-Q1 £1 / £2 / £4 R1 + 2
Premium
Top Color Paper 200 gsm
.
PREMIUM-PLOT-DST-CW700-Q3 £2 / £4 / £8 R3
Tracing
Inkjet Tracing Paper 90gsm
.
PTYPE4-PLOT-DST-CW700-Q4 £1 / £2 / £4 R4
Wallpaper
Wallpaper Non-woven 120gsm
.
PTYPE5-PLOT-DST-CW700-Q5 £2 / £4 / £8 R5
Photo Paper
Instant Dry Photo Paper – Satin
.
PTYPE6-PLOT-DST-CW700-Q6 £2 / £4 / £8 R6

You can plot from the Macs – but currently only to the Standard and Premium queues.

We shall leave samples of media types pinned up around the S11 Print area for you to have a look at.

Rendering Good Practice

Rendering, like printing, is one of those tasks that always takes far longer than you expect.  While it is important to have good quality, sharp final images simply dragging all the sliders up to maximum quality is likely to have little visible difference but will significantly increase the time taken – and also the likelihood of the machine crashing altogether.

Think about what you are rendering – turn off layers / objects that you won’t see; there’s no point having complex hinges included in a distant perspective for example.  Similarly, thousands of trees with dense branches,etc are going to kill a render as each twig needs shadow calculations etc. Consider adding people / foliage / rain / etc in Photoshop

For render sizes; the following is a list of image resolutions that will fill A3/A2/A1 sizes:

150 DPI (Sensible)

A3 – 2480 x 1753

A2 – 3507 x 2480

A1 – 4966 x 3507

200 DPI (Ambitious)

A3 – 3307 x 2338

A2 – 4677 x 3307

A1 – 6622 x 4677

300 DPI (At your own risk)

A3 – 4960 x 3507

A2 – 7015 x 4960

A1 – 9933 x 7015

 

Quick Render Speedup / Memory troubleshoot tips

  1. Reduce resolution of final image
  2. Lower the quality of the final render; there are some presets that can be loaded from the top of the Vray Options window:
    General – Preview / Very Low / Low / Medium etc
    (Start low and work up if the image quality is not adequate)
  3. Override materials (see below): Global Switches 

Troubleshooting Rendering / Memory Crashes

Often you can solve problems with render times and crashing jobs by being less pushy with your final images sizes.  Try at least rendering a lower resolution, and if you must then work your way higher.

Vray Settings : Rhino / Vray

The following are recommendations from Chaos; the developers of Vray, for reducing excessive memory usage in Vray for Rhino and Sketchup

  • Geometry – scenes with lots of objects and/or triangle counts require more memory to render. There are several ways to reduce this amount:
    • Adjust the raycaster params in the System rollout (reduce Max. levels , increase Min. leaf size , increase Face/level coefficient , or adjust the Dynamic memory limit.
  • Image buffer – large output resolutions require a significant amount of RAM to store the final image. There are several ways to reduce this amount:
    • Use the Render to V-Ray raw image file option and then use the V-Ray raw image file viewer to convert the resulting file to a different format (see below)
    • Render the image in several different sections and stitch the pieces in Photoshop
  • Image samplers (AA) – the image sampling algorithms of V-Ray require some amount of RAM to hold all the data for the sampled image. This amount can be quite large, depending on the chosen bucket size and sampling rate. To reduce that amount:
    • Reduce the bucket size.
    • Switch to a different image sampler – for example, the Adaptive DMC sampler uses less RAM than the Adaptive subdivision sampler.
  • Global illumination caches – irradiance maps, photon maps and light maps all require additional memory to store them. Each of these has different methods for controlling its memory usage: Rhino scene – Rhino itself stores a lot of information about the scene. V-Ray has no control over that memory, but you can adjust the quality of render meshes to reduce it.
    • For the irradiance map – the memory depends on the number of samples in the map; you can reduce this number by using lower Min/Max rate , and more loose threshold values (higher Colour threshold , higher Normal threshold , lower Distance threshold ).
    • For the photon map – the memory depends on the number of photons stored. You can reduce this number by reducing the Diffuse subdivs for the lights, or by increasing the Max. density .
    • For the light map – increase the Sample size .

Lose the Materials

Lots of materials can add to the complexity and RAM requirements – even if you haven’t explicitly used any materials you might find some imported models might have had them attached.  You can override any materials with a plain colour quite easily in the VRay options window.

  • In the Vray options dialogue box, expand the GLOBAL SWITCHES section
    vrayoverridematerials
  • Tick Override materials
  • Click Override colour and select a colour to use for everything (white or light grey is good)
  • this will eliminate any material related errors / overheads that the file may have had.
  • NOTE: if there is a material that you still really need then you can make an exception for it by going to the Material Editor and for that material Options turn off “Can be Overridden”

 

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Don’t render to Image Buffer – render straight to a VRimg file

This is a big RAM saver; it means you are rendering directly to a file on your hard drive rather than into RAM. The advantage of this method is that the rendered chunks will be streamed to a file (in vrimg file format) and will then released from memory once saved so preventing out of memory errors common to large resolution renders.  If you have to render large resolution images then this technique is very useful.

 

To make use of this option  IN VRAY FOR RHINO AND SKETCHUP

  • In the Vray options dialogue box, expand the OUTPUT sectionvrimg
  • Below Render Output
    • Tick Save Output
    • Save your file – AS VRay-Raw Image File (VRIMG extension)
    • Tick Render to VRImage
    • Set VFB Mode as No Memory
  • Render your model – you’ll see a big red cross in the render window rather than the real image (i.e it isn’t using any memory trying to display the model)
  • When the render is finished then it needs to be converted from Vrimg format to OpenEXR format :  There is a tool for doing this in
     

    •  Start > All Programs > ChaosGroup > V-Ray Advanced for 3ds Max > Tools > VRImg to OpenEXR Converter.
      vrimg-convert
    • Select your VRimg file via the INPUT FILE button > Convert > select a destination for the EXR file
  • Open this EXR file in Photoshop
  • It is quite likely that the file appears lighter than expected – this is due to differences in gamma settings of Vray.  This can be easily altered in Photoshop:
    • Image > Adjustments > Exposure and set Gamma corrections to 0.4545

[divider]To make use of this technique IN 3D STUDIO 

  • Disable all Frame Buffers (Max and V-Ray)
  • browse to the V-Ray:: Frame Buffer rollout in the Render Scene dialog
  • enable Render to V-Ray raw image format and select a folder and filename where to save the output to.
  • When render is done converted the file from vrimg format to OpenEXR format :  There is a tool for doing this in
    •  Start > All Programs > ChaosGroup > V-Ray Advanced for 3ds Max > Tools > VRImg to OpenEXR Converter.
  • Open this EXR file in Photoshop

 

 

Easter Opening and 24 hour opening

Easter

For the Easter two week break covering the period of Saturday 19th March to Monday 4th April we will be operating the following times

S11 First Floor Design Studios and Computer Areas

  • Monday 21st to Thursday 24th March : 8.00AM – Midnight
  • Friday 25th – Sunday 27th March : 9.00AM – Midnight
  • Monday 28th April : Opening at 9.00AM then the studios are 24 hours.
[divider]

Photo Studio – PRE BOOKING REQUIRED

  • Every day except weekends and Good Friday / Easter Monday :10.00 – 4.30
  • Monday 4th April onwards; usual times of 10.00 – 4.30
[divider]

 

Workshop

  • Monday 21st to Thursday 24th March : 12.30 – 4.30 (Full workshop operation)
  • Tuesday 29th March – Friday 1st April : 10.00 – 4.30 (Restricted workshop operation – laser cutting / small tools only):: REVISED – MORNINGS NOW OPEN TOO
  • Monday 4th April onwards; usual times of 9.30 – 4.30 Monday – Friday
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TV Studio – PRE BOOKING REQUIRED

  • Every day except weekends and Good Friday / Easter Monday :9.00 – 4.30
  • Monday 4th April onwards; usual times of 9.00 – 4.30

 

24 Hour Opening

Starting on Monday 28th March until Monday 16th May (inclusive) we will be going 24 hours in the First Floor design studios (as will the Library building).

For out of hours cover we will be employing staff from a company called Reassurance to patrol the area.  As well as performing duties such as refilling paper and plotters and clearing away obvious rubbish they will also be enforcing the following rules:

  • No hot, smelly takeaway food in studios!
  • No alcohol
  • No students on second floor or above
  • Sleeping students will be asked to go home.
  • Students engaging in rowdy / noisy behaviour will be asked to quieten down or leave.

 

 

 

 

Render Farm Provision

We have a BOXX Technologies Render Pro machine – essentially a simple, mini render farm in a box.

RenderPRO-Final

This machine is a 10 core Intel Dual Xeon E5-2660v2 2.2GHz processor and 32GB Ram.  It does nothing else but process render jobs from 3DS Max / Vray / Blender.  

It is part of the Vray for Sketchup / Rhino distributed render system; see

Distributed Rendering for Vray Rhino and Vray Sketchup

But it may also be reserved for single high processing tasks such as Mandelbrot, Blender CPU render, etc.

Epson 4900

Within the photography studio we now have an Epson 4900 for you to use. This wonderful machine sadly led a sheltered life for a while, but with a little tlc she’s back in business and ready to print*

ES_Pro_4900_Front_w.paper_

Features:

  • Sheet based media from A4 up to A2+
  • Paper thickness’ from 0.08 mm – 1.5 mm
  • 12 inks that can reproduce 98% on the Pantone colour range
  • Very good registration for double sided printing

The machine is hooked up to an iMac that has Adobe CC installed and has a colour calibrated screen to help you reproduce your artwork more accurately. To book time on the printer, simply email Robbie on mr22@gre.ac.uk

There will eventually be a small fee to cover the cost of the inks, although this is not in effect at this time.

Top tips!

Whilst the printer will print on any paper type, ink will tend to bleed on non treated paper. Please make sure your paper is inkjet compatible for the best results.

If you which to print double sided and without ink bleed, please ensure your paper is treated on both sides, as 90% of inkjet paper is only treated on one side.

Borderless printing is only achievable on A4 & A3 paper sizes and quality is not guaranteed 3mm from the edge

It is best to use paper larger than you need for double sided printing so that you can print crop/trim marks

Double sided printing is not possible direct from inDesign, it is best to print from a PDF or a Jpeg/PSD file

 

*As mentioned above, a bit a work has has gone into bringing this machine back to life. She is still not printing perfectly with some images having faint lines running through them due to the Light Grey printhead not yet printing up to spec. This will dissipate with use however as these types of machines need to be used regularly to keep in tip top shape. Due to this, we will not be charging for the printers use until this minor fault has corrected itself, all we ask is that you supply your own paper.