How to add lights(Not the HDRI) in keyshot?

[feelstuff]

Any guys who know how to add extra lights beyond HDRI? Just like V-ray to create a light?Or create the model-light first in my rhino and then open it in keyshot to set it as self-luminous? but if that how to make it invisible? Thanks a lot !

[PhilippeV8]

I think you have to add an object (plane or small cube or sphere etc etc) and set its material type to "emissive".  Then open up the "advanced" list just below the intensity slider and disable "visible to camera".

Make sure in the settings tab you got "detailed indirect illumination" turned ON !

[Dylan]

I think PhilippeV8 is right. The good news is that the emissive light object method is incredibly simple to do, literally a few seconds to add and setup.

[DMerz III]

Emissive is best used for "glowing" shapes and parts vs lighting a scene. If you're looking for 'physical' or 'local' lighting via geometry, try the Area Light Diffuse or Pin Light Diffuse materials instead of emissive. It takes some getting used to, sometimes they're too bright (you'll need to make sure you have the correct scene units set under the Edit tab.)

Also, if you go to the Lights section in materials, I start with one of the Neutral Area Lights 6000 lumen, good starting point, and you can quickly adjust the power and turn off visible to camera just like you would with the emissive.

[richardfunnell]

David that's some really good advice, and we also support IES profiles which gives you much more interesting (and physically accurate!) lighting.
You can see an example of these in action here: http://www.derekjenson.com/3d-blog/ies-light-profiles

I tend to not change the Scene Units, instead you can simply use Lumens or Lux (Lumens per sq meter) as your power definition.
The Watts used in KeyShot are NOT electrical watts, or how we use watts IRL, so this tends to confuse people and completely blow out the lighting in a scene. Dries may be able to chime in a bit with more info on this

+1 for not using the emissive material for lights, that original post made before the advanced local lights in KeyShot.

[DMerz III]

  Ah yes, IES lights, the next frontier for us. Thanks for the link Richard! I know we've talked about them before, and we're still getting the hang of how to use them for studio type lighting. I see them used a lot for interior work. But after Tim Feher's workshop, I've got some ideas on how we can use them.

[DriesV]

...
The Watts used in KeyShot are NOT electrical watts, or how we use watts IRL, so this tends to confuse people and completely blow out the lighting in a scene. Dries may be able to chime in a bit with more info on this
...

Yes, Watt in Keyhot is not a unit of electrical power. It is a unit of radiant flux.  1 Watt of radiant flux corresponds to 683 Lumen of luminous flux (for light with a wavelength of 555 nm to be exact).
The area lights in the material library used to be specified at 100W, or 68.300 Lumen, which is a truly tremendous amount of light.
All light materials in the library (except for the Modular IES lights, which have measured data and thus are accurate representations of real lights) have been specified at 6000 Lumen in KeyShot 6. This is a much more sensible starting point for many lighting situations.

As Richard already did, I would generally advise to use Lumen or Lux as units for physical lights. Lux can be a great option when dealing with light panels.

Dries

[DMerz III]

Great to know, this makes much more sense now.

[HaroldL]

...
The Watts used in KeyShot are NOT electrical watts, or how we use watts IRL, so this tends to confuse people and completely blow out the lighting in a scene. Dries may be able to chime in a bit with more info on this
...

Yes, Watt in Keyhot is not a unit of electrical power. It is a unit of radiant flux.  1 Watt of radiant flux corresponds to 683 Lumen of luminous flux (for light with a wavelength of 555 nm to be exact).
The area lights in the material library used to be specified at 100W, or 68.300 Lumen, which is a truly tremendous amount of light.
All light materials in the library (except for the Modular IES lights, which have measured data and thus are accurate representations of real lights) have been specified at 6000 Lumen in KeyShot 6. This is a much more sensible starting point for many lighting situations.

As Richard already did, I would generally advise to use Lumen or Lux as units for physical lights. Lux can be a great option when dealing with light panels.

Dries

It would be nice if this kind of in-depth info was in the User Manual. I always feel like something is missing when reading it.