Sketchup F. Models

Vray for SketchUp 3.6 Released

2018-11-02T00:51:00.002-07:00

Chaos Group has released V-Ray 3.6 for SketchUp, the latest update to their professional rendering plugin. Built on Chaos Group’s industry-leading technology, V-Ray 3.6 for SketchUp simplifies the design process for architects and designers, offering photorealistic visuals and easy-to-use controls from concept to construction.

Powerful GPU & new hybrid rendering

The speed improvements long associated with the GPU are now even easier to access, including added support for aerial perspective, displacement, subsurface scattering, and matte/shadows. The addition of a new GPU + CPU hybrid rendering mode will also maximize all existing hardware for NVIDIA CUDA users, ensuring that designers can use any and all computing power, whenever they need it.

Viewport rendering (VPR)
Users are no longer limited to the frame buffer, as they can now render live directly in the SketchUp viewport. With new Viewport rendering, users can easily select and render multiple regions at once, quickly blending between V-Ray render and the SketchUp model using their +/- hotkeys to control opacity.

User interface

Building on V-Ray 3 for SketchUp’s massive UI overhaul, the new, smarter UI is now cleaner and easier to navigate, with better support for 4K monitors. Other UI updates include:

File manager – All scene files can now be managed in one place using the first file manager for SketchUp. Users can set file paths, create scene archives, and keep track of assets like textures, IES files, and proxy objects, bringing a convenient organization tool to their design and visualization process.
New V-Ray color picker – Simple, yet powerful, the new color picker allows users to select color values in Screen sRGB (0–255) or Rendering (0.0–1.0) color space, enabling even more accurate color selections.
Better viewport materials – V-Ray materials will now display more accurately in the SketchUp viewport, so users know what they’ll get when it’s time to render.

Additional new tools and improvements include:

Adaptive Lights – For scenes with many lights, the new Adaptive Lights mode can help cut render times by up to 700%.
Sunlight studies – Create sunlight & shadow studies with SketchUp sun animation.
Fog – Add depth to scenes with realistic 3D fog and light scattering effects.
V-Ray Scene import – Import and render V-Ray scenes (.vrscene) from other applications such as 3ds Max, Rhino, and Revit.
Animated proxy objects – Easily add pre-animated 3D objects like walking people and trees blowing in the wind as animated V-Ray proxies.
Proxy previews – Control the look of V-Ray proxies in the SketchUp viewport. Select from Whole mesh, Bounding box, Point (Origin), and a new low poly Proxy preview mode.
New texture maps – Fine-tune the look of a scene with new gradient, color temperature and procedural noise texture maps.
2D Displacement – Quickly add surface detail without extra modeling using optimized 2D displacement. Perfect for architectural materials like brick and stone.
Improved denoising – V-Ray Denoiser is now easier to set up and you can refine settings even after you render.
VRscans materials – Now compatible with real world scanned materials from VRscans, a subscription service that provides access to a library of over 600+ photorealistic, drag-and-drop materials.

Pricing/Availability

V-Ray 3.6 for SketchUp is a free update for all V-Ray 3.x for SketchUp customers. Login at chaosgroup.com to download. For a free trial or pricing information, please visit the V-Ray for SketchUp product page. V-Ray 3.6 for SketchUp is available for Windows & Mac OS, and is compatible with SketchUp versions 8–2018.

About Chaos Group

Chaos Group is a worldwide leader in computer graphics technology, helping artists and designers create photorealistic imagery and animation for design, television and feature films. Chaos Group specializes in physically-based rendering and simulation software used daily by top design studios, architectural firms, advertising agencies and visual effects companies around the globe. Today, the company's research and development in cloud rendering, material scanning and virtual reality is shaping the future of creative storytelling and digital design. Founded in 1997, Chaos Group is privately owned with offices in Sofia, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Seoul and Tokyo. For more information, visit: chaosgroup.com.

by Rich O'Brien

https://sketchucation.com/all-news/2023-vray-for-sketchup-3-6-released

Multiple Profiles, One Follow Me

2018-11-01T01:03:00.001-07:00

I have a confession. I love Follow Me. Don't let Push/Pull know, but I think that Follow Me may be my favorite modification tool in SketchUp. Push/Pull is great and all, but when I have to sweep a molding profile around a room, or round-off the corner of a table, it's clear that Follow Me is my tool of choice.

While Follow Me and I have a great relationship, there are times that things get... tense. For example, if I want to take a bunch of shapes and have them all follow the same path. Follow Me will do it for me, but it does so begrudgingly. I can get all of the shapes to follow the path, but it ends up being more work than I like... A lot of selecting, path picking, then Follow Me, then picking the profile... Then I have to do the whole thing all over again for the next shape. It makes me wish I could just keep it simple. Just me and Follow Me and a single click to get the geometry I need.

Well, for the good of my relationship with Follow Me, I present this Skill Builder. Learn how multiple profiles can follow the same path with a single click. This may be the thing that you need to get closer to Follow Me.

Just don't tell Push/Pull.

By Aaron Dietzen

https://blog.sketchup.com/article/multiple-profiles-one-follow-me

Lumion LiveSync for SketchUp

2018-10-30T14:06:00.000-07:00

Lumion 8.3 was released today as a free upgrade from Lumion 8. At the core of the release is the new Lumion LiveSync for SketchUp and the improved LiveSync for Revit.

LiveSync is an exciting new feature for architects and designers in SketchUp. Seeing a real-time render as you work is nothing short of astonishing.

See the building while you build it!

Lumion LiveSync lets architects and designers immediately set up a live, real-time visualization of their SketchUp or Revit model in Lumion’s beautiful, lifelike environment. Instantly, they’ll see their model in Lumion’s fully featured landscape with highly detailed materials, photorealistic lighting and shadows, and objects from a massive content library.

Lumion 8.3 also enables faster 3D rendering workflows. As architects and designers continue to develop and change their models in SketchUp and Revit, they can simultaneously prepare their renders in Lumion and save their scene for future development or quick rendering.

The new LiveSync in Lumion 8.3 includes:

Point-of-view synchronization between SketchUp/Revit and Lumion
The ability to add and save Lumion’s beautiful materials to a LiveSync project
Real-time materials synchronization and visualization
Automatic model importing into Lumion (no need to separately import a model)

Try Lumion 8.3

The LiveSync plugins for SketchUp and Revit are free for everyone and available on the Lumion website or the Autodesk App Store.

More information: Lumion.com
Lumion 8.3 can be purchased via Lumion.com.
Check out: https://lumion.com/what-s-new.html for the new Lumion 8.3 features and media.
Hardware specifications / system requirements: https://lumion.com/system-requirements.html

About Lumion: Lumion empowers architects to transform their CAD designs into strikingly beautiful renders in seconds. Whether you model in SketchUp, Revit, 3ds Max, Rhino or many others, Lumion instantly breathes life into your designs with realistic trees, stylish effects, and thousands of objects and materials from our content library. No training required, and after just 15 minutes, you can learn to create jaw-dropping images, videos and 360 panoramas with lightning-fast speeds.

About ACT-3D B.V.: Founded in January 2001, Dutch development powerhouse Act-3D B.V. creates user-friendly real-time 3D visualization software. Lumion, MyLumion, Act-3D, Hyperlight, Pureglass, OmniShadow and Speedray Reflections are registered trademarks of Act-3D B.V. in The Netherlands.

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