Defining the View Area to Render

You can render part of a 3D view. You might use this strategy for the following reasons:

• To focus on a particular part of the 3D view.
• To test render appearances for materials applied to model elements.

  See Applying Materials to Elements.

• To reduce the amount of time required to render the image.

  See Rendering Best Practices.

• To reduce the size of the resulting image file.

  See Controlling the Size of the Rendered Image.

When you click Render, Revit renders only the specified part of the building model.

To define the view area to render, use one or more of the following methods:

• Crop region: Open the 3D view, and apply a crop region to define the area to render. See Cropping a View. To check or change the size of the cropped view, select the crop region, and click Modify | Cameras tabCrop panel (Size Crop).
• Render region: Open the Rendering dialog, and click Region. In the 3D view, Revit displays the render region boundary. Select the render region, and use the blue grips to adjust its size. For orthographic views, you can also drag the render region to move its location in the view. If the view uses a crop region, the render region must reside within the crop region boundaries.
• Camera clipping plane: The camera clipping plane defines the depth of the 3D view to render. When you reduce this clipping plane, Revit has fewer model elements to process when producing the rendered image. As a result, the rendering process requires fewer resources, takes less time, and produces a smaller image file. See Modifying the Camera Position in a Perspective 3D View.
• Section box: A crop region and a render region define a 2D portion of a 3D view to render. A section box, however, allows you to define a 3D portion of the view to render. By using a section box, you can omit many model elements from the rendering process, thus reducing the number of calculations and the processing time required. See Change the Extents of a 3D View.
  NoteWhen using a section box, be careful about the parts of the building geometry that you exclude from the view. For example, if a section box excludes an exterior wall for an interior 3D view, sunlight may illuminate the entire room, affecting the rendered image and increasing render time. See Render Performance and Lighting.