Visualizer for SketchUp

pbacot · 11 Mar 2016, 00:20

I think Pilou means a sort of billboard backdrop. His example seems to also show lighting objects which, of course don't apply. Far easier to add the background image in PS or GIMP, because in SU you are dependent on the sun lighting the backdrop and the limits of image resolution.

Attached is an example using Oli's tree line texture backdrop, as a billboard object in SketchUp.

pbacot · 11 Mar 2016, 00:22

glowing personality

youemailme · 17 Mar 2016, 19:43

@willanie said:

Hi beacharch

This approach assumes you have already installed Sketchup2015 or Sketchup2014 and Visualizer.

After installing Sketchup2016
dont start Sketchup2016 yet and go to folder
/Library/Application Support/

If there isn't one already create this folder hierarchy(exactly matching upper and lowercase)
/Library/Application Support/Sketchup 2016/Sketchup/Plugins

from /Library/Application Support/Sketchup 2015/Sketchup/Plugins
copy these two items(one is a folder the other is a ruby file)
ImaginationVisualizer
ImaginationVisualizer.rb
paste them into
/Library/Application Support/Sketchup 2016/Sketchup/Plugins

Now launch Sketchup2016 you should see Visualizer under the Extensions pull-down.
If Visualizer doesn't show up in the Extensions pull-down
click on
Sketchup->Preferences->Extensions
you should see Visualizer with an unchecked toggle box ... check that toggle on
close the preferences window

and Bob's your uncle Visualizer running in Sketchup2016
(you may have to relaunch Sketchup)

OK, I'm confused! I finally found the ImaginationVisualizer folder and .rb file, though they were in a folder "plugins" in C:. I can't for the life of me figure out what you're referring to by the folder "/Library/Application Support". Where is this to be found? I tried pasting the above folder and .rb into the plugins folder in SU 2016, but when I start SU, I get the following load error:

Error Loading File ImaginationVisualizer/iv_localization
Could not find included file 'ImaginationVisualizer/iv_localization'
Error Loading File ImaginationVisualizer.rb
Error: #<NoMethodError: undefined method TRANSLATE' for ImgTecVis:Module> C:/Users/SHD/AppData/Roaming/SketchUp/SketchUp 2016/SketchUp/Plugins/ImaginationVisualizer.rb:20:in module:ImgTecVis'
C:/Users/SHD/AppData/Roaming/SketchUp/SketchUp 2016/SketchUp/Plugins/ImaginationVisualizer.rb:14:in `<top (required)>'
Error Loading File ImaginationVisualizer/iv_initialize
Could not find included file 'ImaginationVisualizer/iv_initialize'
Error Loading File ImaginationVisualizer/iv_menus
Could not find included file 'ImaginationVisualizer/iv_menus'

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks

willanie · 17 Mar 2016, 19:56

Hi youemailme,

Take a look at this post on the sketchup forums
user john_drivenupthewall has provided a way to do it from the sketchup ruby console.

(forums.sketchup.com)

driven · 17 Mar 2016, 20:05

That's a mac way, I'd have to modify it for PC's and to do that I'd need to add some ruby...

john

willanie · 17 Mar 2016, 21:47

Yes you are right john, unfortunately I read youemailme's post too quickly and thought they were installing on a Mac not windows PC platform.

youemailme your "quoted" section is referring to installing on a Mac.
Please read pilou's post that explains how to do it on Windows
here
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=80%26amp;t=57758%26amp;start=60#p581313

youemailme · 17 Mar 2016, 22:12

@willanie said:

Yes you are right john, unfortunately I read youemailme's post too quickly and thought they were installing on a Mac not windows PC platform.

youemailme your "quoted" section is referring to installing on a Mac.
Please read pilou's post that explains how to do it on Windows
here
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=80%26amp;t=57758%26amp;start=60#p581313

Thanks John & willanie. My bad for not indicating I'm on PC, and got your post just in time as I was just about to start figuring out how to cut and paste the ruby stuff. Now I understand why I couldn't make sense of "library" etc.

I originally started with Pilou's directions, and couldn't make a lot of sense of it since his computer is French & I had to figure out that "program data" is not "program files", but "app data" on mine.

It also mystified me why I couldn't find either the visualizer folder or file within SU 2015, anywhere in either program files or app data. FINALLY, I found them not in users>(my computer), but in ALL USERS, where there's a sketchup folder as well. Having found them, I hoped it would be as simple as copying and pasting it into the same location in 2016. No luck. Went through the steps again and realized 2016 didn't have a folder named plugins, so created that and moved the visualizer stuff. Now Pilou's comment about needing to create a plugins folder made sense. Thought for sure that would work, but now I get a load error message again:

Error Loading File ImaginationVisualizer/iv_localization
Could not find included file 'ImaginationVisualizer/iv_localization'
Error Loading File ImaginationVisualizer.rb
Error: #<NoMethodError: undefined method TRANSLATE' for ImgTecVis:Module> C:/ProgramData/SketchUp/SketchUp 2016/SketchUp/Plugins/ImaginationVisualizer.rb:20:in module:ImgTecVis'
C:/ProgramData/SketchUp/SketchUp 2016/SketchUp/Plugins/ImaginationVisualizer.rb:14:in `<top (required)>'

However, now I find visualizer in window>preferences>extensions, and it's checked. But it still doesn't show under extensions in SU. Any ideas?

youemailme · 17 Mar 2016, 22:20

Success! For some reason, when I copied and pasted the ImaginationVisualizer folder and .rb, the pasted folder didn't contain all the files and folders in the origin location. So I copied the contents of the origin folder and pasted them into the destination folder, which included the iv_localization file that the load error kept citing. Well, there went THIS day! Thanks again for your help.....

ZahariStoyanov · 27 Mar 2016, 09:57

@willanie said:

Hi pilou,

Im pretty sure the original request was related to layering with an alpha channel but until the person chimes back it remains a mystery.

Your diagram is very neat. What software do you use to make such illustrations ... sketchup?

Also the cast shadow toggle is an interesting hidden gem in Visualizer which can be used to emit light from geometry in a limited fashion. It can take quite a while to render a noise free image. Here is a test image.

Dude, I've been wondering how to create light sources for quite a while now Thanks for the tip!

ct200224 · 13 Jul 2016, 03:28

Hey, I'm having a lot of trouble locating Visualizer plugins on my SketchUp.... It doesn't seem to be showing up at all. Here's a picture of my plugins folder in SketchUp 2015 with Visualizer installed:

at path /Users/[yourname]/Library/Application Support/SketchUp 2015/SketchUp
SketchUp 2016 folder (w/o visualizer, duh):

at path /Users/[yourname]/Library/Application Support/SketchUp 2016/SketchUp
Can someone help me at least locate the file?

Maybe someone could just upload the files so that I can manually download them? Please?

driven · 14 Jul 2016, 10:34

@ct200224 said:

Hey, I'm having a lot of trouble locating Visualizer plugins on my SketchUp.... It doesn't seem to be showing up at all.

if you run this in 'Ruby Console' it will move a copy for you into the v16 User/Library...

If you read through the thread, you should have seen that the v15 path is for the HD/Library...

v15_folder = "/Library/Application Support/SketchUp 2015/SketchUp/Plugins/ImaginationVisualizer"
v15_extension = v15_folder + '.rb'

v16_folder = File.expand_path("~") + v15_folder.sub('5', '6')
v16_extension = v16_folder + '.rb'

command = 'ditto ' + v15_folder.inspect + ' ' + v16_folder.inspect + ' && ' + \
'ditto ' + v15_extension.inspect + ' ' + v16_extension.inspect

system(command)

john

Fred*1 · 18 Jul 2016, 09:14

Hello

I'm still trying to install Visualizer 1.3 on a Mac running El Capitan 10.11.5 with SketchUp v. 16.1.1451

Can anyone give me step-by-step instructions? Or point me to some?

Thanks!

driven · 18 Jul 2016, 19:52

Visualizer will not install in SketchUp v16 without tricking it to do so...

temporarily renaming SketchUp 2016 folder in Finder to SketchUp 2015 will allow the download to make the the v15 files...

once downloaded, change the name back and run the ruby code posted in the post above...

john

Fred*1 · 19 Jul 2016, 13:46

Thanks, driven, for this help. I find, though, that I don't have a folder called "SketchUp 2016" on my Mac. Do you mean in the applications?

I had SU 8 until now and recently upgraded to SU 2016, in case that makes a difference.

Fred*1 · 19 Jul 2016, 13:51

Quick clarification: the folder SketchUp is in on my Mac is just called "SketchUp".

driven · 20 Jul 2016, 19:58

Applications/SketchUp 2016 is the one I refer too...

john

Fred*1 · 21 Jul 2016, 15:21

Got it. Thanks!

I was able to install it. Thanks for your help!

willanie · 21 Jul 2016, 15:50

Hi Fred,

Just so its clear, because I didnt think it was possible. You managed(with John's help) to get Visualizer installed on a Mac with only Sketchup2016 installed.

Fred*1 · 22 Jul 2016, 05:49

Hi willanie

Yes, that's correct, and I was glad to see that Visualizer works fairly quickly on my MacBook Pro Retina 13" 2014, with 2.8 GHz Intel Core i5 and 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 RAM.

ste7ana · 29 Jul 2016, 13:42

Does anyone know if there is a 32bit Visualizer version available? Thanks