Renderers

Rendering Terms SUWiki glossary of rendering terminology as it applies to SketchUp. CGI - Knowledge also has good, general definitions and examples of rendering terms.

• AmbientOcclusion Lite FluidInteractive, Inc - One-click visualization. Fee - Windows, Mac

• ArielVision Fee

• Bloom Unit Cloud-computing rendering, allowing live views and collaborative changes. Fee - Windows, Mac soon

• Brighter3D Free beta - Windows

• Carravaggio Fee

• Corona Renderer beta testing beginning 15-11-10

• FluidRay Fee - Windows

• IRender nXt & nXtRender Render Plus - Fully integrated rendering packages. Cloud rendering available. Able to render proxy substitutes placed in main SketchUp model. Renders outside of the SketchUp environment, taking advantage of full computaional abilities of your computer. Fee - Windows

• LightUp Enhances SU rendering by control lighting effects. - lux measurements for lighting design and landscaping, Web viewer too. Able to render proxy substitutes placed in main SketchUp model. Fee - Windows, Mac

• LumenRT e-on - Renderer which can create a fully interactive, photo-realistic animation and 3D executable viewer to share design. Fee - Windows, Mac

• Maxwell for SketchUp An extension rendering inside of the SketchUp environment. Free, fee - Windows, Mac

• OctaneRender Suite of VR products to capture, render and stream scenes. SketchUp plugin for intergration. Fee - Windows, Mac, Linux

• Podium Fee - Windows, Mac - manual The Essentials: Rendering With Podium V2

• Render[IN] - Real-time radiosity engine. beta - Windows, Mac

• Raylectron Fee. - Windows

• Renditioner Free and Fee - Windows, Mac

• Shaderlight ArtVPS - Interactive, photorealistic rendering, cloud rendering ability and Cloud Rendering Mobile Viewer. Able to render proxy substitutes placed in main SketchUp model. An extension working outside of the SketchUp environment, taking advantage of full computational abilities of your computer. - Free, Fee - Windows, Mac

• SimLab Composer Imports/Exports many formats and has integrated rendering and animation editions.

• SketchAir Render with SiTex Graphics Air. Free, Fee - Windows, Linux

• SketchFX Lite FluidInteractive, Inc - Piranesi-like results (non-photorealistic)

• SketchFX Pro

• Thea for SketchUp Thea Render - Integrated plugin. Fee - Windows, Mac

• Twilight Render Fee - Windows

• Visualizer Imagination Technologies Group - Minimal renderer that only uses the SketchUp sun as a light source. Free - Windows, Mac

  • • Official support ended in May 2015. But this plugin can still be installed in SketchUp 2016 by moving a file and folder from the SketchUp 2015 installation

      • Windows

        • Go to: C:\ProgramData\SketchUp\SketchUp 2015\SketchUp\Plugins

        • Copy folder named "ImaginationVisualizer" folder and "ImaginationVisualizer.rb" file.

        • Paste into: C:\ProgramData\SketchUp\SketchUp 2016\SketchUp\Plugins

        • Open SketchUp 2016. If the Visualizer icon did not load, go to the Window menu, then Preferences. In the Extension tab, just check the box beside Visualizer and the icon will appear, as well as the Extension menu entry.

      • Mac

• • • • • Copy the folder and file from: Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/SketchUp 2015/SketchUp/Plugins

        • Paste into: home/Library/Application Support/SketchUp 2016/SketchUp/Plugins (You can find the library folder under the Go menu in Finder, hold down the Option key after you click on the Go menu and the Library folder will appear in the menu.)

• • • VSE_VisualizerSceneExporter LesterP - Visualizer for SketchUp Scene Exporter add on.

• V-Ray Fee

  • • Fix Your Plugins Required DLLs may need to be added to system folders.

    • Probes thomthom - Plugin tools for inspecting normals and UV mapping.

    • Remove_CG_material.rb Matt666 - V-Ray specific material plugin.

    • SketchUcation forum V-Ray sub-forum.

    • VRay for SketchUp Manual

    • VRay: The Complete Guide

    • V-Ray Tools² thomthom - A suite of plugin tools addressing issues with a floating license on a network (by making V-Ray load on demand), material and camera tools. Several functions useful for general use by people without V-Ray.

Tip: V-Ray greatly increases SU's start-up time. Only load V-Ray when needed, and after SketchUp loads. Use Thomthom's V-Ray Tools² allows you to load V-Ray after SU has actually opened or the Sketchucation Plugins manager. Also use SketchUp 2015 or 2016 64-bit editions as they are large address aware - able to working faster with models using large image files.

Other presentation options

• 3DPaintBrush Geometric Ltd - Near photo-realistic images and animation. Imports SKPs, GE integration. - Fee - Windows

• Artlantis Fee

  • • TIP: To get a good ATL file, it is often best to explode all the components and groups in your SKP model and then check for reversed faces, prior to exporting to ATL or saving the model for ATL to import. Not doing so often results into missing geometry or messed up materials in the ATL scene.

• AutoDesk

  • • 3DMax Fee

    • Maya Fee

• BlendUp SketchUp to Blender converter. Fee - Windows, Mac

• Cheetah 3D Modeler/renderer. Fee - Mac

• fryrender SU plugin. Fee - Windows 32 and 64-bit

• Bunkerspeed Shot SU plugin. Fee - Windows, Mac

• FluidRay RT Real-time, global illumination renderer. Free beta - Windows, Mac

• Indigo SKIndigo, the SKP exporter. Fee - Windows, Mac, Linux

• Kerkythea Free - SU2KT exporter - Windows, Mac, Linux

  • camera2K T. Marek - Exports SketchUp camera positions to Kerkythea.

• KeyShot Exporter to KeyShot 6. Other exporters available to KeyShot 4 and 5. Fee - Windows, Mac

• LightWave 3D Fee - SketchUp to LightWave book, Ready...Set...Render!

• Lumion Free, Fee - Windows

• LuxRender Open source

  • SmallLuxGPU Testbed for the renderer LuxRender. Free

  • su2slg exvion - Plugin for SmallLuxGPU

• MachStudio Pro Fee - exporter - Windows

• Maxwell Render Fee - forum - Windows, Mac, Linux

  • The stand-alone program works outside of the SketchUp environment, taking advantage of full computation resources - unlike the SketchUp extension version. Though now SketchUp 2015 supports 64-bit.

  • MXM Reporter A plugin to help with material assignment.

• Mitsuba Accepts COLLADA, DAE imports. Free - Linux, Windows, Mac

• NuGraf Photo-real renderer of all major 3D file formats. Includes PolyTrans, which converts 3D files to other formats. Fee -Windows

• OctaneRender Suite of VR products to capture, render and stream scenes. Imports OBJ. SketchUp plugin for intergration available. Fee - Windows, Mac, Linux

• Photoshop

  • • Importing SketchUp Models into Photoshop SketchUp Skill Builder video.

    • nDo2 Photoshop rendering plugin. Import 2D SketchUp scene into Photoshop and render there. Fee - Windows

    • SketchUp and Photoshop SketchUpArtists tutorials.

• Piranesi Non-photorealistic - Fee

• PovRay Free - Windows, Mac su2pov exporter

• RENDERLights 3D Render Ltd - Virtual reality software supporting rendering effects. Windows

• Raylectron Offers stereo vision renderings and rendering farm management - among other things. Free (watermarked), Fee - Windows

• Silo Modeler/renderer. Fee - Windows, Mac

• Shapespark Real-time web-based visualizations with physically accurate lighting. WebVR ready for virtual tours. Fee - Windows

• Sunflow Exporter Didier Bur - Sunflow is a free renderer.

• SUWalk Walk-, fly-thru rendered animation. Fee - Windows

• Thea Render Also has an integrated plugin. Fee - Windows, Mac, Linux

• Twinmotion Manipulate models in 3D. Compatible with all 3D BIM modelers, like SketchUp. From Abvent, developer of Artlantis. Twinmotion will have longer rendering time for more photoreal output while Artlantis shots for quick output with good-enough render. Fee - Windows

• Vue Specializes in natural, 3D scenery - Windows, Mac

  • Camera2Vue Alex Jenyon - Export SketchUp camera views to E-on's Vue.

  • SketchUp to Vue Exporter Plugin for SketchUp 7 and later which exports Sketchup models, sun direction, and cameras into Vue format. Fee - Windows, Mac

• Yafaray Free | su2yafray exvion - Plugin for Yafaray

Materials and Textures

WeLoveViz Architectural materials optimized for rendering. Free

• • Evermotion Rendering tutorials on several different programs, material downloads (some HDRI images in the Exclusive section), etc.

  • How to choose a renderer for SketchUp Video guide on choosing a renderer courtesy of Render Plus | Model

  • Rendering terms SUWiki glossary

  • Rendering tutorials SUWiki tutorials

  • ScriptSpot It started as a small script archive. Currently ScriptSpot mainly contains rendering tutorials.

Relevant Plugins

• SketchUp Rendering Render Plus - Site dedicated to making better renderings in SketchUp.

• Align Camera Light Al Hart - Snap a light component to the camera to help align a camera light for rendering.

• ColladaMaya, ColladaMax translator Import COLLADA format models into Maya and 3dsMax.

• GlobalMaterialChange TIG - globally changes materials in model or a selection.

• Goldilocks v.2 AdamB - Helps to determine texture density and geometry analysis to help determine adequate detail for rendered scenes.

• Grey Scale Jim Foltz - SketchUp render style

• GroupByTexture RickW - Groups faces by texture for export to other 3D software.

• layerbymaterial T. Bertschinger - located in the Selection - Layer section - Moves faces to layers based on the assigned material.

• Material Tools thomthom - Collection of material control tools to manage material usage.

• MXM Reporter vodkamartini - Reads material attributes assigned by the Maxwell renderer plugin.

• Originate Component Axes TIG - Moves the component origin of any component in the model to the world origin.

• podium_texture+bumpmap TIG

• Podium to LightUp convertor AdamB - Converts the Podium material and light source settings to a LightUp format.

• Raylectron_Texture_Exporter Raylectron - Exports model textures to a directory. Free - Windows

• Remove_CG_material.rb Matt666 - V-Ray specific material plugin, but others may need it too.

• Skatter Sends entourage models directly to rendering engines, bypassing SketchUp, help keeping SketchUp file lightweight. Fee

• SketchUV Dale Martens - Multi-function UV tool which can export and import UVs using third-party UV mapping software. Fee - Windows, Mac

• SU2KT Tomasz Marek - SketchUp Exporter to Kerkythea. Exports materials to a folder.

• UV Mapping

  • • Probes thomthom - Tools for inspecting normals and UV mapping.

    • SketchUV Dale Martens (Whaat) - The Pro version of UVTools - Fee

    • UV Toolkit² thomthom - Suite of UV mapping tools.

    • UVTools Dale Martens (Whaat) - A SketchUp plugin for simple image mapping. Free

• Very fast texture writer Didier Bur and others - Exports all of the model's materials (including any unused ones) as individual image files (jpg, etc.) into the model's folder.

High definition backgrounds for ray trace renderings

YouTube tutorials on working with HDRi files in SketchUp.

• accustudio Exchange downloads. Free

• Evermotion Fee

• HDRI-Hub Downloads, tips and tutorials. Free and Fee

• HDRi Pack 1 | HDRi Pack 2 | HDRi Pack 3 zbyg - deviantART.com downloads. More - including HDRi tutorials

• HDRI-Skies 360° sky maps. Free and Fee

• sIBL Archive hdrlabs Free and Fee

• hdrmaps.com Free and Fee

• panoramic skies SketchUp Sage listing for skyboxes, UV mapping

Converting programs

• Luminance HDR Capable of converting HDRi to a jpg with less color depth. Free. Windows

  • • try clicking on the small image previews on Luminance HDR. It will auto tonemap your 32-bit image with some presets (the previews are the presets):

    • click the one you like the most

    • change resolution on the left panel

    • hit tonemap for new resolution

    • save image as jpg

• Picturenaut Capable of converting HDRi to a jpg with less color depth. Free, donation-ware. Windows, Mac

IES files are light parameters that can be used in many renderers. The files can come from manufacturers or you can make them up.

• GE Light*Beams App for GE directional reflector lamps with a complete database of IES files. Other IES files.

• IES Generator Create your own IES light profile. IES file previewer available for download too. tutorial Free - Windows

• IES files Derek Jenson - A 3D artist shares his favorite files.

• Render Plus rendered the 30 sample IES lights - which come with most renderers - in SketchUp scenes.