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Print at Dec 19, 2025, 10:32:10 AM

Posted by snmavronis at Jan 18, 2021, 3:35:04 PM

3D Ceiling Fan (Lighting)
I'm modeling my house and although there is a similar fan design in SH3D it does not have a light option built-in. I can't seem to add lights around it without making the globe look black in areas. Is there a free model compatible with SH3D of a ceiling fan similar to this that lights? If not a globe light fan, a separate cluster of lights might be acceptable but I prefer a 4-bladed fan. I've been looking all over the place.

Or any tips for properly lighting the stock SH3D fan without looking fake would be appreciated. I wish it's ball was translucent so I could put a single light inside.

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Steve N Mavronis - Retired PC Tech

Posted by Mike53 at Jan 18, 2021, 9:20:05 PM

Re: 3D Ceiling Fan (Lighting)
Something like this

fan and lamps are from sh3d library
File here

Posted by SeppoV12 at Jan 18, 2021, 9:26:51 PM

Re: 3D Ceiling Fan (Lighting)
Quick and dirty solution:
- make ceiling fan ball material (CeilingFan6900_4_4) invisible
- replace ball with transparent ball (same place and dimensions)

Transparent balls can be found from SketcUp 3D Warehouse and they seem to be problematic but here are one result:

My test file here:

Mike was quicker but I send this any way..

Seppo

Posted by snmavronis at Jan 18, 2021, 9:43:05 PM

Re: 3D Ceiling Fan (Lighting)
Thank you guys! I'll check this out. :)
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Steve N Mavronis - Retired PC Tech

Posted by snmavronis at Jan 19, 2021, 2:07:33 AM

Re: 3D Ceiling Fan (Lighting)
Hmm... Can't get rid of that black hole chrome ball effect and any brighter than 25% washes out the fan blades. After studying what you guys did, I simply made the fan's light globe invisible and added the SH3D pendant hanging ball with it's ceiling cable invisible. I haven't tried different renderers yet. What's the best to use?

This is to visualize our kitchen remodel to be scheduled soon, but I'm working on modeling my whole townhouse.
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Steve N Mavronis - Retired PC Tech

Posted by SeppoV12 at Jan 19, 2021, 3:27:27 PM

Re: 3D Ceiling Fan (Lighting)
Yafaray is my favourite render, usually it handles lighting better but is also slower in some cases.
I still have problems with that same 'black hole chrome ball effect', I try something new.

Posted by Puybaret at Jan 19, 2021, 3:51:25 PM

Re: 3D Ceiling Fan (Lighting)
As explained in this thread, you could try to set illum to 0 for the material CeilingFan6900_4_4 in the MTL file of the fan that you use.
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Emmanuel Puybaret, Sweet Home 3D creator

Posted by snmavronis at Jan 20, 2021, 11:21:13 PM

Re: 3D Ceiling Fan (Lighting)
I read parts of that thread about using illum=0 although with an exported ball pendant lamp and Kd 1.0 1.0 1.0 for white in the MTL. I get this effect at least with a white-ish light ball in the "original" pendant ball lamp. I got this result but now that I'm re-reading Puybaret's suggesting again I should go back and export the fan model itself! What I did was easy but too many steps and no glow effect. Let me test this again your way since I misread it slightly. ;)

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Steve N Mavronis - Retired PC Tech

Posted by snmavronis at Jan 20, 2021, 11:22:30 PM

Re: 3D Ceiling Fan (Lighting)
Oh before I forget how to I set the Global illumination path? Is that a separate plug-in?
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Steve N Mavronis - Retired PC Tech

Posted by snmavronis at Jan 21, 2021, 12:06:25 AM

Re: 3D Ceiling Fan (Lighting)
Editing the MTL file of the exported ceiling fan directly gave me this undesired result - only downward lighting. I'm not sure what the other default parameters are in the CeilingFan6900_4_4 section:

newmtl CeilingFan6900_4_4
illum 0
Ka 1.0 0.964706 0.815686
Kd 1.0 1.0 1.0
Ks 1.0 1.0 1.0
Ns 128.0

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Steve N Mavronis - Retired PC Tech

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Dec 19, 2025, 10:32:10 AM