NprTools

[BTM]

Sorry I haven't been able to scan the sketchy lines %(#808080)[(still )]. i've had issues with a few things, including finding out which surface I drew the cleaner-looking diagonal lines on ( I've tried a few different places...).
Oh, and on the NprTools wiki, it says 'diagonals not available' for the thin lines, but I did post them
http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/download/file.php?id=26739
http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/download/file.php?id=26740
lastly, I can't use it because i don't have a sketchup enabled windows computer lying around. Still, I can't find the demo download link on the downloads page If it's there, I guess I'm not looking hard enough

...Also, anyone have any sketchy shadow examples? I just want to see how they work.

[Al Hart]

@unknownuser said:

I can't use it because i don't have a sketchup enabled windows computer lying around.

We did start on the Mac version last week, but it will be a little while before it is ready.

[Al Hart]

@richcat said:

Al
It seems to be conflicting with Rptools

NprTools is checking the trial days for RpTools instead of the new trial days for NprTools.

There is no easy fix.

I'll post a new version tomorrow for people who already have RpTools installed.

Sorry,

Al

[Al Hart]

@unknownuser said:

I can't find the demo download link on the downloads page If it's there, I guess I'm not looking hard enough

I just added the NprTools checkbox to the download form.
(You can download all products even if you don't check them off)

And it is on the page you get after filling out the form.

In either case, click Refresh if you can't see it.

[Al Hart]

@richcat said:

Al
It seems to be conflicting with Rptools, I'll try and see if it makes any difference by removing Rptools.

People with RpTools installed may be having a problem with NprTools.
(Uninstalling RpTools doesn't help)

We will post a new version on Wednesday.

[Al Hart]

@richcat said:

I was able to quickly try out soft shadows but even though I selected launch when complete, had to go searching for the image produced in "My Documents\NprTools\SoftShadows"

I had a similar problem launching images on my Vista machine, but I thought I had it fixed.

See This Thread

Try a couple of things for me.

1. In the Ruby console, store the full path of a png image in a variable s1, using

s1 = 'c:/path.../image.png', or
s1 = 'c:\path...\image.png' (with single quote marks, you do not have to escape the back slashes)

Then type in: UI.openURL(s1)

This should launch the image.

s1 = 'C;\docs\NprTools\SoftShadows\Shadows-k.png'
C;\docs\NprTools\SoftShadows\Shadows-k.png
UI.openURL(s1)
true

(every other response here is the outut from Ruby.)

Also see what is returned by UI.openURL (true means that it thinks it worked)

2. If it doesn't launch the image, then navigate to the .PNG file in Windows Explorer, and right click on it. See what verbs are displayed and what the default verb is.

If Open is in this list, and if the default verb (in my case Edit), launches the image then it should work.

3. If UI.openURL does launch the image, then type in:

$nprtools.launch_file(s1)

and see what happens.

[richcat]

Al I'm on XP Pro
Tried the ruby code above and it opened with both versions followed by UI.openURL(s1)and $nprtools.launch_file(s1)also worked.

If I double left click image it opens in image viewer, If I right click I get the menu as below.

---

[Al Hart]

@richcat said:

Al I'm on XP Pro
Tried the ruby code above and it opened with both versions followed by UI.openURL(s1)and $nprtools.launch_file(s1)also worked.

If I double left click image it opens in image viewer, If I right click I get the menu as below.

Thanks for the help richcat.

Hopefully NprTools will launch the images properly for you when you get the new version.

[Al Hart]

@unknownuser said:

SOn the NprTools wiki, it says 'diagonals not available' for the thin lines, but I did post them

...Also, anyone have any sketchy shadow examples? I just want to see how they work.

Thanks,

I added the diagonal patterns to todays release.
(It will go our as soon as Rich gets back from feeding himself)

Here is a Sketchy Shadow example with the diagonal thin lines.
(I rotated the house a little so we wouldn't have to see the same old boring model again. )

---

[Al Hart]

We put out a new version - ID13npr - which fixes the problems with RpTools preventing the trial version and adds the two missing thin line textures for Sketchy Shadows.

[Al Hart]

We put out a new version - ID13npr - which fixes the problems with RpTools preventing the trial version and adds the two missing thin line textures for Sketchy Shadows.

[richcat]

Thanks Al that did the trick with the trial period.

[Al Hart]

@richcat said:

Thanks Al that did the trick with the trial period.

Great - when you get a chance to test "Sketchy Shadows", post an image (like your bench) for others to see.

Others - If you have some images or comments to share please post them here.

For example, people have liked the idea of color shadows - but every time I try them they look awful.

Another tip - I used the SketchUp Vegetation material for Sketchy Shadows (Sketchy Shadows ignores the color of the pattern) it worked great. Try a few things like this and let us know what you get.

[Pixero]

Any chance to get colored soft shadow without sketchy lines?

[Al Hart]

@unknownuser said:

I installed NprTools but it's not showing under the Plugins menu, I tried a restart with no improvement. do i have to remove irender nxt first?

Make sure NprTools_loader.rb is in your SketchUp/Plugins folder. If not then the install did not work properly.

If it is there, start the SketchUp Ruby console (Windows/Ruby Console), and enter:

load 'NprTools.rb'

and send me the results.

[Al Hart]

@pixero said:

Any chance to get colored soft shadow without sketchy lines?

Yes - make a "textured" material in SketchUp, where the texture is actually a solid black color.

Select the new Material in SketchUp and use the first radio button - "Current Material"

---

[thomthom]

I had time to play around with it. Here's the current results along with some comments and questions;

Curves surfaces seem be make shadows that doesn't fit seamlessly together. I understand that could be difficult, but is there possible to improve it? What I find odd is when shadow cast from a curved surface onto a flat surface isn't seamless, as you can see in the side view for instance.

I've set the shadow to 100% opacity, and my custom shadow texture (very nice feature btw) is 100% black. Yet, it looks a bit washed out.

Is there a way to set the output resolution?

How do you save the shadow images? When I click Ok, Picasa opens up and display the image. But I don't know how to save it. (So face I've right-clicked and chosen copy from Picasa preview.

What control the size of the shadow pattern when you use a custom material? I doesn't seem to change when I set the Pattern Scale factor, nor when I set the texture's width/height. (That is, unless I though both properties, then something changes. But I don't know which one is the determining factor.)

[Al Hart]

@unknownuser said:

At 07:33 AM 5/15/2009
Hi Al,
Really neat stuff, wish I had more hours to try these. Question - in a bit of reverse logic, do you have anything to make Revit images "Sketchy"?
Thanks.

We have ported our SketchUp rendering engine - IRender nXt - to Revit. But we have not added any Sketchy Stuff to it yet.

We plan to add some of he Sketchy Shadow stuff to the nXt engine, and when we do it will work for Revit.

SketchUp has 3 "Sketchy" things

• Sketchy Edges
• Sketchy Patterns, and
• Sketchy Watermarks.

We added Sketchy Shadows because SketchUp did not do it.

However, adding Sketchy stuff to the nXt renderer will let us apply similar shadow techniques to interior lighting.

We plan to add Sketchy Watermarks to the nXt renderer. (This makes images Sketchy by applying a watermark to the entire image)

And the Sketchy Patterns can already be used with the nXt renderer already.

It is more of a challenge for us to figure out how to do Sketchy Edges in the rendering engine. But we do plan to take a look at it, and then might be able to add it to Revit.

Al

[sorgesu]

Al, Congratulations on the release of NPR Tools. This is a wonderful and useful addtion to the SketchUp Modeling arsenal. I can't wait to see all the great looking output that I am expecting, using this great tool.

[Al Hart]

@thomthom said:

I had time to play around with it. Here's the current results along with some comments and questions;

@unknownuser said:

Curves surfaces seem be make shadows that doesn't fit seamlessly together. I understand that could be difficult, but is there possible to improve it? What I find odd is when shadow cast from a curved surface onto a flat surface isn't seamless, as you can see in the side view for instance.

Take a look at the folder: My Documents\NprTools\TemporaryImages - that is where we store the temporary images which are later combined for the final image. We make the shadow pattern by placing the shadow texture on every surface in your model. This causes the pattern itself look strange on some surfaces.

We did this because some people want the shadow pattern to alter based on the plane of the surface where the shadow appears.

We plan to offer another option where the shadow mask is applied as a watermark. In this case the patter will be the same wherever it is cast, and will not get smaller in the distance. But it will make more regular shadows for some applications.

@unknownuser said:

I've set the shadow to 100% opacity, and my custom shadow texture (very nice feature btw) is 100% black. Yet, it looks a bit washed out.

The angle patterns which we provide are already a bit grey. So the shadow can't get much darker than the pattern used to create it.

I do run the patterns through a "histogram filter" to darken them, but if you want even darker shadows, you may need to create darker patterns.

@unknownuser said:

Is there a way to set the output resolution?

Currently we use the resolution of the SketchUp screen.

We could add a multiplication factor (1.5X, 2X, etc.), or specify a resolution like SketchUp does when saving 2D images. (We use the SketchUp 2D image saving routine for saving the images which we later process.)

@unknownuser said:

How do you save the shadow images? When I click Ok, Picasa opens up and display the image. But I don't know how to save it. (So face I've right-clicked and chosen copy from Picasa preview.

The images are all saved in My Documents/NprTools before your image editing software loads them.

There are several sub folders: SkethyShadows, SoftShadows, SoftEdges, etc.

@unknownuser said:

What control the size of the shadow pattern when you use a custom material? I doesn't seem to change when I set the Pattern Scale factor, nor when I set the texture's width/height. (That is, unless I though both properties, then something changes. But I don't know which one is the determining factor.)

When you use an existing SketchUp material for the pattern, we use the size defined in the SketchUp material editor.

I will try to override this with the scale factor. Bot for now you need to change the SketchUp Material size yourself.