HFSS15: Modifying the Lighting

You have the option to emit the following types of light on a design:

• Ambient lighting surrounds the model evenly with light. All objects are lit evenly in every direction by a color of light that you specify.

• Distant lighting directs a ray of light at the model in a direction you specify. By default, two distant light vectors are in effect for every new view window.

To modify the lighting:

1. Click View>Modify Attributes>Lighting.

The Lighting Properties dialog box appears.

2. Select Do Not Use Lighting to turn off ambient and distant lighting.

Clear this option to activate ambient and distant lighting.

3. To surround the model with light, click the Ambient Light Properties color button, and then select a color for the surrounding light from the Color palette.

4. To modify the distant light on a model, do one of the following:

a. Add a new distant light by clicking Add.

b. Copy an existing distant light that you intend to modify by first selecting it in the Distant Light Vectors table, and then clicking Clone.

c. Select a default distant light to modify by selecting it in the Distant Light Vectors table.

5. For the selected distant light vector, specify the vector direction:

a. To modify the direction by specifying Cartesian coordinates, do one of the following:

• Enter the new Cartesian coordinates in the X, Y, and Z boxes.

• Use the Vx, Vy, and Vz sliders to specify the Cartesian coordinates dynamically.

b. To modify the direction by specifying the spherical coordinates, do one of the following:

• Enter the new spherical coordinates in the f and q boxes.

• Use the f and q sliders to specify the spherical coordinates dynamically.

6. To revert to the default ambient and distant light settings, click Reset.

7. Click Save As Default if you want the new lighting settings to be the defaults for all 3D Modeler windows, either in the current project or future projects.

8. Click OK to dismiss the dialog box.

The lighting settings will be saved with the design. New lighting applied to other designs after this point, including new default settings, will not affect these lighting settings.