Italy
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Circular Light Panel
Hi, I downloaded the library that added the Light Panel, which I use as an LED strip. Now I would need something similar but in a circular form, like how can I create a circular LED, for example, to place it around a bathroom mirror. Thank you.
Netherlands
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Re: Circular Light Panel
I checked and there is no such light in the available lights or light shapes libraries. But this is Sweet Home 3D so you can create your own light! This might seem a little complex for a beginner but you can change any object into a light.
First find the object to change into a light. You can use a thin cylinder that you place behind a round mirror or a tube you find or create to place around the mirror. Obviously the tube is the more realistic choice. Unfortunately you can't create such a tube in Sweet Home 3D but there are other ways. The simplest is to find an existing object that has such a tube as part of it's total form. You can make everything of that object invisible except the tube and export it to an obj/mtl file. Only the tube will be exported and you can import that tube in Sweet Home 3D by dragging the obj file into the 2Dview. Another way is to use Blender to create the tube which is simple too: you start with a predefined torus and adust the parameters for the inner and outer radius until you see the tube you want. You can increase the number of segments to get a smoother tube but that will also increase the kB size of the object and with that the required rendering time for a photo.
That was probably the hard part, the rest is simple work by following the instructions.
So how do you change the tube into a light? For that you need the Furniture Library Editor which allows you to set additional properties that are not supported by the obj/mtl file. In this case the objects extra property is light.
First find out how the light material is named. The obj and mtl files are plain text files you can open with a simple text editor. The obj file contains the definition of the object and the mtl file is the file where materials are defined. In the obj file you will see close to the top what mtl file to use for the materials: the line starting with "mtllib ". That should be the name of the mtl file that was generated when you exported the tube, the same name as the obj file but with the extension ".mtl". Find the line starting with "usemtl ". Open the mtl file and check the line starting with "newmtl ". There should only be one line like that since the tube only has one material. After both "usemtl" in the obj file and after "newmtl" in the mtl file you should see the same name. While you're at it change them to something like "Led". That is the name you need in the next steps and the name you will see as the material name in Sweet Home 3D.
Start the Furniture Library Editor and drag the obj file with the tube into the window. It will create a row for the tube with several properties showing. Double-click on the row (or Ctrl+E when the row is selected) and a dialog window will pop up where you can edit the properties of the tube. Set the category to Lights. To turn the tube into a light you have to set the "lightSourceMaterialName" property. You can find this property in the list with additional properties. If you don't see the "lightSourceMaterialName" in the list edit the preferences of the Furniture Library Editor where you can select which additional properties to show in the list. Click in the field after the name and enter the name you found/changed in the obj and mtl files. Save the properties and save the library with a name like "LedTube" or something like that.
Now import the Furniture Library into your project. After import the led tube will appear in the furniture catalog of Sweet Home 3D. Drag it ito the 2Dview and elevate it so it fits around you mirror. Edit the properties of the Led Tube and set the light intensity at the bottom right to a low value of 5%-10%, maybe even less.
Now create a photo to see your working cirucular led light.
There are other users here on the forum who have a lot more experience with lights than I do, they can give some more tips if the light turns out not exactly like you want.
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Italy
Joined: Jan 24, 2024
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Re: Circular Light Panel
Thank you so, so much!!! I took the base mirror object (ovalMirror), hid the interior, and left only the outline, then followed your guide and turned it into a light. As you can see from the photo, there is a circular light in the mirror.
Netherlands
Joined: Apr 8, 2022
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Re: Circular Light Panel
The image is not visible. How do I upload an image here?
Use an image host where you upload your image and put the link here in a post.
Smart thinking using an existing mirror! Why make it difficult when it can be done easy :D
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Italy
Joined: Jan 24, 2024
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Re: Circular Light Panel
I had placed the image on Drive and made it public, but the link is not visible. If you right-click on the image, it should still take you there. Now I'll reinsert it here.
Germany
Joined: Jan 6, 2024
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Re: Circular Light Panel
Good work done. First I thought that it is not correct that the the diameter of the mirror is greater than the diameter of the light. I googled for mirrors with LED and found that there a models having the light behind the mirror with various designs like diamonds, ovals, pseudo 3D and also a simple one like you.
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