Friday, February 28, 2014

SketchUp 2014 was released today!

SketchUp 2014

SketchUp 2014 has been released. This has lots of exciting new features.

To use Render Plus products with SketchUp 2014 you will need to download the latest version.
If your license is current, (purchased withing the past 12 months), it will work with SketchUp 2014.
If your license is more than 12 months old you will need to renew your license.

SketchUp 2014: Overview

Models galore, easier to find and use

SketchUp 2014 1.jpg

SketchUp’s universe of free 3D models is almost infinite; the improvements we’ve made to 3D Warehouse make that universe infinitely more useful. From fully-interactive model previews to an entirely new UI, the changes in 2014 are huge.


BIM classification and interoperability

SketchUp 2014 2.jpg

With SketchUp Pro 2014, you don’t have to sell a kidney or go back to school to start adding elements of BIM (Building Information Modeling) to your models. We added features for classifying objects and exporting files according to some of the industry’s most common BIM standards.


Time-saving tools for documentation

SketchUp 2014 3.jpg

When designing things that you will not be building yourself, it all comes down to the documents. LayOut in SketchUp Pro 2014 takes care of dates, page numbers, and repetitive text so you can focus on what matters: making better drawings.

SketchUp 2014. Now with more oomph

SketchUp 2014 4.jpg

Everyone wants SketchUp to get faster—especially us. That’s why we tweak the code every version to speed things up. This time, we supercharged shadows in big models and made vector rendering in LayOut more than ten times as quick.


Read More

New Versions of Render Plus Apps

SketchUp 2014 includes a new version of Ruby, and required that we update all of our Apps.
You will need to download the latest version of our Apps to use them with SketchUp 2014, and if you license is over 12 months old, you will need to renew your license to use it with SketchUp 2014. We are offering a 20% discount on renewals for SketchUp 2014.

Download new Version

IRender nXt , ArielVision , RPS 3D PDF , RpTools , SpaceDesign and ProjectSketch all have new versions and new downloads for use with SketchUp 2014.

Licenses

If your license is current, (purchased withing the past 12 months), it will work with SketchUp 2014.
(The second two letters of your license must be 'MC or later to work with SketchUp 2014. e.g. IRMCxxxxx, IRMD, ... IRNB, etc.)
If your license is more than 12 months old you will need to renew your license.

Special SketchUp 2014 Renewal Prices

If you renew you license in order to use SketchUp 2014 prior to April 1, 2014, using this link, you will receive a 20% discount on the renewal price.
You can renew it here: Renewals with 20% discount

See also

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

IRender nXt Review

I want to thank everyone who has added a review to the IRender nXt page on the SketchUp Extensions page. I think it helps prospective users to be able to see what others think about a product.

Here is a recent review by Dieter J

I use Render nXt with Sketchup Pro and it not only does the rendering very well, it provides improvement to Sketchup that other wise wouldn't be there. for example changing materials with only the Sketchup material editor becomes laborious if the material is within a grouped object. Much easier to do using the Render nXt material editor. Al and Richard are responsive to providing solutions when problems when I have had some and to adding features that I have requested. They are approachable. For example I was getting borders around rendered images that I had to then crop away. They determined it was the white background image I was using and gave me a link to a graphics editor that allowed a borderless white page to be produced as a jpg file. I asked for a way to save a view so that one could make changes and then always return to that view. Bingo, the new View Wizard was produced, found under the Rendering Tab.

I produce design illustration related to our hot tubs, saunas and thermal solar products. Many of my Sketchup files are huge (some approaching 100MB), because of the detail contained within them. While some of these can take their time to save and complete the rendering process, I never found that Render nXt hangs. If there is a problem it will be Sketchup itself that hiccups. Keep up the good work Al and Richard!

Read More Reviews

Monday, February 24, 2014

Why doesn't turning off a light make my scene darker


The first time I tried out Lighting Channels I was confused that lowering the intensity of a light
didn't make the scene darker. The same effect is true when you add or remove a light from your SketchUp scene.

The cause of this is Automatic Luminance or Photometrics
Automatic Luminance or Photometrics automatically adjusts the overall intensity of your rendering, much like the automatic exposure on a camera.

If you want to adjust Lighting Channels or other items without having Photometrics apply, you can lock the Average Luminance on the Lighting Channels Wizard.

In the latest version of IRender nXt we have changed the default setting, so that the Luminance is locked when you make adjustments to lighting channels.


Lighting channels luminance.jpg

If you decide to unlock it - so that the exposure is recalculated as you modify lights - uncheck this box. Whatever setting you choose will be remembered the next time you use lighting channels.


For more information, see: Lighting Channels

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Help us get a fair review

The SketchUp Extensions page allows SketchUp users to review SketchUp Plugins.

I am in favor of reviews, and use them a lot for travel, etc. However, the only review we got on the IRender nXt page claimed that our software broke his computer and he had to purchase a new one.

(See the review at the end of this Page: IRender nXt )

File:Extension Warehouse.png

I don't know how software can break a computer, and I certainly don't think our SketchUp Plugin had that effect. So it would sure help if there were a few more reviews available on this page.

I am not so brazen as to suggest that you offer us a good review. But how about at least a fair review.

If you have tried a Render Plus SketchUp product, and want to share your experience, please add a review to one of our SketchUp Extension pages:
  
Quickly and easily turn your designs into photorealistic renderings from right inside SketchUp. IRender nXt is the perfect plugin for architects and designers who want to create presentation-quality images of their SketchUp designs
      
ArielVision is a SketchUp plugin that creates photorealistic renderings of your models, from right inside SketchUp. It’s made for designers who want to create beautifully rendered images without the hassle of complex settings.
   
ProjectSketch is a free SketchUp add-on for the selection and placement of Commercial Office Furniture in SketchUp drawings.

RpImageFilters is a free Plugin for SketchUp to apply filters to improve SketchUp images.
RPS 3D PDF The RPS 3D PDF Exporter will take your SketchUp models and turn them into interactive 3D PDF files which you can then post on a web page, or send to clients and which can be read with Adobe Acrobat Reader.
For laying out, editing and manipulating 3D components. and to create Non-Photorealistic Renderings and images from SketchUp models.
RpTreeMaker is a free add-on for SketchUp to create custom Tree Components. The custom trees are stored in SketchUp as 2D- always face camera- trees.
   
RpWallMaker is a free add-on for SketchUp to create wide walls and cut openings.      
Custom reports, parts lists, cut lists, area calculations, etc. from SketchUp models.