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Print at Dec 19, 2025, 3:29:40 PM

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

Posted by snmavronis at Jan 21, 2021, 2:00:15 AM

Re: 3D Ceiling Fan (Lighting)
Well I went back to my other method exporting a ball as OBJ setting it as white then importing it as the light placeholder. Then used the stock hanging light ball set as white and material "ball" invisible, with it slightly larger than the imported ball. Next I want to play with the MTL file variables to improve color textures. The kitchen cabinets are gray but the top ones are rendered off color. The render is at G4 best quality.

Ka - material ambient is multiplied by the texture value
Kd - material diffuse is multiplied by the texture value
Ks - material specular is multiplied by the texture value

"Light Ball" MTL file:

newmtl default
illum 0
Ka 1.0 1.0 1.0
Kd 1.0 1.0 1.0
Ks 0.4921875 0.4921875 0.4921875
Ns 63.0

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Steve N Mavronis - Retired PC Tech

Posted by snmavronis at Jan 22, 2021, 2:36:30 AM

Re: 3D Ceiling Fan (Lighting)
New render of our upcoming kitchen remodel. Finally got the lighting looking more natural. Had to add an invisible 20% "fill" light under the ceiling fan globe and turned its lighting down to 5% so it still glows for the effect. Previously for some reason the upper half of the kitchen had a beige cast to it. Now you can see the Planetary Silver wall paint and Stone Grey cabinets.

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Steve N Mavronis - Retired PC Tech

Posted by snmavronis at Jan 22, 2021, 2:45:22 AM

Re: 3D Ceiling Fan (Lighting)
What's with SH3D and ceilings? You can actually see it go darker above the window top elevation to the ceiling. All you get is a light circle.
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Steve N Mavronis - Retired PC Tech

Posted by bdfd at Jan 22, 2021, 6:43:21 AM

Re: 3D Ceiling Fan (Lighting)
Just a little question : where is the extractor hood?

biggrin

.
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Evil progresses when good people do nothing!
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SH3D 7.1 and nothing else - W11 64b in 4K

Posted by snmavronis at Jan 22, 2021, 11:58:22 AM

Re: 3D Ceiling Fan (Lighting)

Just a little question : where is the extractor hood?

biggrin

The over the range microwave has one built in that connects to a duct in the above mini cabinet to ventilate outside. I wondered that too at first until they showed me in the store. We currently have a small countertop microwave and the stove has a range hood.
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Steve N Mavronis - Retired PC Tech

Posted by snmavronis at Jan 22, 2021, 10:21:34 PM

Re: 3D Ceiling Fan (Lighting)
Updated 1/22: Got the lighting looking much better. I added more fill lights (8%) around the room. Now you can see the white ceiling, the Planetary Silver wall paint and Stone Grey cabinets. Plus, I added better backsplash wall ceramic tiles that are Wifey approved LOL. Using Advanced Simple Rendering using Sunflow.

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Steve N Mavronis - Retired PC Tech

Posted by Puybaret at Jan 25, 2021, 9:35:31 AM

Re: 3D Ceiling Fan (Lighting)
Very nice result smile

I think the darker part on the walls above the cabinets could be the shadow coming from top of the hole you designed in the kitchen wall, that we see in the last image.
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Emmanuel Puybaret, Sweet Home 3D creator

Posted by snmavronis at Jan 25, 2021, 11:39:32 AM

Re: 3D Ceiling Fan (Lighting)
Possibly. There is the dining room hanging chandelier light. I just reworked that roomâ€™s lights last night. Itâ€™s all about balance with lighting interactions.
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Steve N Mavronis - Retired PC Tech

Posted by snmavronis at Jan 25, 2021, 12:06:14 PM

Re: 3D Ceiling Fan (Lighting)
Wish I could edit a post. ;)

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Steve N Mavronis - Retired PC Tech

Posted by SeppoV12 at Jan 25, 2021, 5:44:16 PM

Re: 3D Ceiling Fan (Lighting)
The lighting now looks very natural. Has rendering time significantly increased?

Posted by snmavronis at Jan 25, 2021, 6:40:14 PM

Re: 3D Ceiling Fan (Lighting)

The lighting now looks very natural. Has rendering time significantly increased?

Here's another shot pulled back more into the dining room. The render time isn't bad at 1024x768 (reduced to 800x600 here) maybe a minute or two. I have a decent gaming class PC that I built in 2016, specs here: https://pcpartpicker.com/b/96JV3C

I'm still playing with the lighting in the dining room there since the "chandelier" style model isn't a real working light. I have low intensity lights above the 5 lamps and 5 outer fill lights around it to generate wider overall light coverage. It's hard finding any model close to what's in my house sometimes. We have an ugly main ceiling lamp LOL. This one is prettier. That pendant peninsula light (SH3D stock) is close to what we're getting. But I may be able to model this as OBJ inside SH3D. It's an Oron 3-Light Brushed Steel Island Light with White Glass Shades by Hampton Bay.

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Steve N Mavronis - Retired PC Tech

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Dec 19, 2025, 3:29:40 PM