Entry into rendering

Helmi

Hey all,

i'm quite used to sketchup for a while now. I primarly do part design for 3d printing and a bit of woodwork. I will also approach some machine construction design prior to building my next 3d printer with sketchup.

I've never dealed with rendering so far (well i did some 10 or 15 years ago with povray but that doesn't count i guess) but i'd like to jump into that topic to create some nice images from parts i design. I had a first look around and found that there must be a endless amount of renderers for sketchup and i have no clue where to begin.

Can anyone point me to a good location where to start? I'm ready to read tutorials or comparison articles or just try out some good renderers if there are any that would fit as a starting product? I'm willing to pay money for a renderer even though i thought there should be a usable one that doesn't cost 500$ or more?

Thanks for helping,

Frank

mitcorb

Hi, Helmi:
I thought there was a list of render applications compiled here, but I did not find it after several minutes.
Let me name a few in no particular order and certainly not comprehensive, and you can check them for details, including pricing:
LightUp, LumenRT, Kerkythea, Thea, Twilight, Shaderlight, Raylectron. These support Sketchup files in various ways.

Now, maybe someone can give a link that goes back to a more extensive list?

pilou

Here the list but you must scroll page

pilou

Not sure there is the very easy Render[IN] inside
Ah yes it was at the 5 th page

For me the more funny and easy is Lumion but in free Max (1280 x 720p) and a very little logo watermarked

[flash=560,315:1ajv9sw7]http://www.youtube.com/v/pYHVVtdeCas[/flash:1ajv9sw7]

Helmi

Wow, Lumion is quite impressive But i guess it's way too expensive for me and as i'm not doing architectural stuff so far it would be way too much too probably

I'll have a look at all other stuff but i'd still like to see some definitive recommendations prior to complete lists containing all possible renderers

Thanks so much!

pilou

@unknownuser said:

t i'd still like to see some definitive recommendations prior

Depending also if you want a specialized Sketchup or a stand alone!
And one use GPU or just the CPU (or both)
A gaz engine or a truely easy
A biased or unbiased
Real time or not
Still image or animation
etc...
Good luck because there are a lot of on the market!

You have a cool one but it's a Special world
Blender But it's free!

[flash=560,315:3r0iu557]http://www.youtube.com/v/__Q9L4vumac[/flash:3r0iu557]
[flash=560,315:3r0iu557]http://www.youtube.com/v/UTwXG3K4l2g[/flash:3r0iu557]

Helmi

Hi,

yeah i know there's much on the market and all i have is the goal to have neat results - don't think i need a realtime one and don't even know what everything else means

One more thing: I'm on an iMac (ATI Radeon HD4850) so no special new, brilliant GPU Power is available but some CPU though (i7, 2.8Ghz). Also the Renderer shouldn't be Windows only - that wouldn't help much.

For the beginning i guess the easy one would be better than the multifunctional diggin-deep-into-it engine. Animation also isn't that important for the beginning. Maybe later.

I know blender but i also know why i like to use sketchup most A sketchup integrated solution would be nice i think.

Lemoyne Architect

I use Maxwell on my Mac setup: http://www.maxwellrender.com/index.php/maxwell_for_google_sketchup

Best part - it's free! And integrated into SketchUp, so you don't have to port it to another program. If it isn't rendering the way you want, stop the render, make your adjustments in SU, and press the render button again.

I also use VRay, but Maxwell can give me a quick render without a lot of work when I want to show a progress image.