Thea for SketchUp - Available Now!

pepa · 26 Dec 2012, 17:59

Hi nice render, everything works really fast, I tried insert my own proxy. I wanted save the custom model from thea studio, but I cant find a mod.thea format which is needed for inserting the proxy inside SU. So question is if is it possible insert own proxy into SU..?

Frederik · 27 Dec 2012, 08:26

@pepa said:

So question is if is it possible insert own proxy into SU..?

Yes, of course it's possible...
However, the process is a little tedious at the moment, but a new process will be worked on...
Once you get used to the guide below it really isn't that difficult...

The proxy system is primary thought of to be used, when having a very high poly model/component, which can be difficult - if not even impossible - to work with inside SU... (I.e. high poly tree models (eg. Xfrog models) and alike)

The steps are:
1.) Open/import the model you want to use, in the Thea Render Studio.
2.) Adjust all materials making it "render ready".
3.) Group all parts of the model.
4.) Make sure the gizmo of the group is adjusted so it aligns with the X, Y and Z point.
(Use the parallel view in Thea, which makes it much easier to set...)
5.) Click the Model tab and either right-click the part you want to make to a .mod.thea file and select "Automation > Build Preview" or click the "Build All Previews" icon.
6.) In the Thea Browser panel, click the "+" (read: plus sign) and select the "/Models" option from the menu.
By Default Thea4SU will open the "C:\ProgramData\Thea Render\Models" location, but you are able to create folders anywhere you want on your hard drive and browse for it.
(personally I stick to the default location...)
7.) If you want you can right-click in the Browser panel and create a new folder, making it easier for you to control the various models you're going to make.
Double-click the folder where you want the .mod.thea file to be in.
8.) From the Models tab, simply drag the model down to the folder in the Thea Browser panel.

Voila, you're done and you can now use that model as a proxy model in SU using the Thea For SketchUp tool...

pepa · 27 Dec 2012, 09:58

thanks for your detailed instructions. really helpful

rv1974 · 27 Dec 2012, 14:24

@tomasz said:

Thank you for kind comments.

A note for existing users of Thea Studio 64bit version. To use 'Thea for SketchUp' you also have to install the 32bit version of the Studio.

2 questions:
Does this version support X64 architecture?
Is there distributed rendering feature?

marked001 · 27 Dec 2012, 16:04

Is it/will it be possible to use Colimo with Thea for SketchUp?

tomasz · 27 Dec 2012, 20:47

@rv1974 said:

Does this version support X64 architecture?

Only in the Studio. Thea inside SketchUp works in 32bit environment.

@rv1974 said:

Is there distributed rendering feature?

It will be supported on the plugin level soon. It is available in the Studio.

@marked001 said:

Is it/will it be possible to use Colimo with Thea for SketchUp?

It will be possible to export Colimo file straight from the plugin. Please note that this feature will require large quantities of free memory. The more materials one wants to paint after a rendering the more memory is needed. 64bit version of SketchUp would be an excellent companion to Thea.

tomasz · 8 Jan 2013, 10:45

We have just updated the plugin with a fix for Windows XP systems and localized SketchUp versions. There are also some improvements with editing and reseting Thea material back to a default state. We highly recommend you to install the new revision.

jo-ke · 14 Jan 2013, 16:14

This sounds really very good.

I am an old Twilight user. I liked it a lot, but sometimes I got stuck because of the heavyness of the model. Seems to handle it more easy in thea4su!?!

Should I change to thea4su?

tomasz · 14 Jan 2013, 20:11

You can try the demo and play with your models. This way you will quickly discover whether the plugin suits your needs.

With "Thea for SketchUp" you can use provided or create your own libraries of heavy objects like trees, cars and insert them into SketchUp as proxies. This way you will tremendously reduce the size of SketchUp model, while your rendering will be using high quality originals.

Thea Studio works in 64bit environment, so there is no limit of available memory, if you decide to bring your model into the Studio for further improvements.

jo-ke · 15 Jan 2013, 05:19

sounds very good. just downloaded the trial- version.

Is it possible to run thea2su on two machines with the same license like in twilight?

tomasz · 15 Jan 2013, 08:39

@jo-ke said:

Is it possible to run thea2su on two machines with the same license?

A single copy of the program may be installed and used by you, on one machine. You can install the application on up to two more machines, provided that the plugin is not used or executed simultaneously on any machines. If you wish to install the Software or use the Software concurrently on additional machines you must purchase additional licenses.

jo-ke · 15 Jan 2013, 10:21

Ah Ok, so this should work.

at the daytime I work in my office and I continue working at home at my laptop at night.

so one licence would work.

looks good:

sonder · 18 Jan 2013, 07:03

I've been using Kerkythea for the past few years. Will this be a fairly easy transition? I love the results I'm seeing.

Frederik · 18 Jan 2013, 09:26

I'd say yes...
Although Thea Render is far more advanced, the work-flow is more easy to adapt...
Going from Maxwell, VRAY and other render applications is more tough IMO...

Have to admit though, that it's been a loooong time, since I used KT...

jo-ke · 18 Jan 2013, 10:09

The last days I was testing the software and tried to compare it to twilight.

some features I was missing (Or didn't find it)

-total time of rendering
-ability to preset the saving of the render every ten minutes
-couldn't find the export button to Thea Studio

all in all it seems to be a good step to change from twilight to thea.

Is it possible to use displacement in thea?

tomasz · 18 Jan 2013, 15:41

You can save to *.pack.thea from the main rendering window - first "save" icon.
You can do it also from Thea Tool/Tools/Save Thea scene.
Total time of rendering and autosave are not available yet.

@jo-ke said:

Is it possible to use displacement in thea?

Yes, you can use displacement in Thea.

jo-ke · 19 Jan 2013, 09:50

@tomasz said:

Total time of rendering and autosave are not available yet.

Oh thats really bad. Sometimes renders in Twilight take about one or two days and sometimes the PC crashes and everything would be lost, if I didn't have chosen the autosave option.

Is Thea faster then Twilight?

notareal · 19 Jan 2013, 10:46

@jo-ke said:

@tomasz said:

Total time of rendering and autosave are not available yet.

Oh thats really bad. Sometimes renders in Twilight take about one or two days and sometimes the PC crashes and everything would be lost, if I didn't have chosen the autosave option.

Is Thea faster then Twilight?

Keep in mind that Thea4SU is still in beta. Some features are not there yet.

If you have that long renders, perhaps opening a saved scene in Thea studio is the best option, as it does create temp files (A full render buffer that can be loaded and you can continue rendering. It also saves temp image).

If you want to compare TWL to Thea, you can export a scene from TWL as Kerkythea XML and import in to Thea Studio. Some material adjustments may be required as materials are converted by some heuristics.

Anyhow in my experience Thea's render engines are generally faster than similar Kerkythea's engines if similar materials are used. More complexes the scene, more Thea has advantage. But as Thea has more advanced material options and ways to solve difficult light paths, it possible that from same the SU scene, one can create a Thea scene that do render slower - but quality will be different.

bhbarchitects · 28 Feb 2013, 15:19

@notareal said:

@atlastudio said:

Would like to know how to reduce noise if there's any experts reading!

Not sure how materials and scene is set, but I do get a impression that most light comes from the Sun trough a glossy based glass (a real glass that creates caustics) curtain wall.
Some "tricks":

Thin Film based glass (architectural glass) will speed up convergence a lot.

TR2 will render most challenging light paths and materials (naturally with cost of render time)

Super-Sapling set to "High" with TR1/TR2 helps to reduce noise

Use some fill light (a emitter that is not visible to the camera) to boost convergence, if most of the light comes trough glossy based glass.
Note: light components and mesh emitters intersecting nearby mesh may cause noise as well as emitters that has really dense polygon mesh. Make sure that pure white and black are not used, keep diffuse colors in 6-96% range.

Thanks for the tips, have just coughed up and bought it today so looking forward to seeing what i can achieve.