FREE Maxwell Render for Sketchup (free version).

jason_maranto

BTW, do not underestimate the value of being able to post to the Maxwell forum (part of the $95 package), there are several benefits:

JD often implements feature requests.
Plugin bug reports are often resolved quickly.
Experienced users help with feedback, tricks, and tips.
Sometimes we get open BETA's of the new plugin long before it's released.

I find it a tremendously useful asset, and almost worth the $95 alone to have direct access to the plugin developer.

Best,
Jason.

mark151

I'm gonna do a newbie question:
Can anyone tell me how to set a colored glass in Maxwell Render Plugin (Free version)?

I've got in SU a window done with red set with 50% opacity, but if i select Glass attributes in Maxwell plugin material settings it becomes dark (black) in the rendered view...

jason_maranto

@mark151 said:

I'm gonna do a newbie question:
Can anyone tell me how to set a colored glass in Maxwell Render Plugin (Free version)?

I've got in SU a window done with red set with 50% opacity, but if i select Glass attributes in Maxwell plugin material settings it becomes dark (black) in the rendered view...

Glass (and all dielectric materials like water and SSS) require a SketchUp solid object (with the real world thickness of the pane of glass) to work properly -- to see if the object you are applying the material to is a solid use the entity info palette.

Another thing to keep in mind is glass (and all dielectric materials including water and SSS) will create refraction and caustics and these refraction and caustic effects while being very pretty do take longer to render, and depending on the lighting situation sometimes much longer.

As such for windows (particularly if you are only using a single polygon) it is faster if you use the AGS character or if you want a bit more fine tuning control simply use a low opacity Sketchup material (5-85% opacity) set to the default automatic character type (in Maxwell) to a low roughness (0-20%).

Best,
Jason.

valerostudio

Does the latest Suite plugin for SketchUp have Fire inside of SU also? Or do you need to own both the Suite and the free plugin as a way to internally setup materials and lighting?

jason_maranto

@valerostudio said:

Does the latest Suite plugin for SketchUp have Fire inside of SU also? Or do you need to own both the Suite and the free plugin as a way to internally setup materials and lighting?

Yes the Maxwell Render Suite version of the SketchUp plugin has everything the "stand-alone" versions do(and alot more user options besides)... basically if you know how to use either of the stand-alone versions you will be able to move up to the full Suite at any time without any problems whatsoever.

The idea is the stand-alone plugins are really developed and updated at the same time as the Maxwell Render Suite version because at the core of them they are really the same thing.

Best,
Jason.

valerostudio

So the latest plug-in for SU that comes with the 2.6 Suite has Fire inside of SU?

jason_maranto

@valerostudio said:

So the latest plug-in for SU that comes with the 2.6 Suite has Fire inside of SU?

Yes, and it also will allow exporting of scenes to MXS file format, Maxwell Studio, Maxwell Core Render App (production render engine, render channels, and multilight), and Maxwell Network Render (assuming you have render nodes to use)... each of those options are fully 64-bit capable (assuming you are on a 64-bit OS) because unlike FIRE they are fully outside of SketchUp's process.

Also because the Maxwell Render Suite supports Python Bindings for MXS files you can also do animations (assuming you can Python script) and various other useful functions.

Best,
Jason.

valerostudio

Any chance that they are going to run a sale promo soon as they have done in the past?

jason_maranto

Right now they are doing a promo for 5 free render nodes -- meaning you can render on 6 machines (networked together) at the same time.

For the future, I couldn't say but I don't doubt at some point they will... but it may be some time.

Best,
Jason.

jason_maranto

They are also running a contest/drawing for a free license right now:
http://www.facebook.com/notes/maxwell-render-the-light-simulator/help-us-to-reach-4000-materials/10150304759818740

They do things like this periodically for contests elsewhere too.

Best,
Jason.

Rich O Brien

I installed this today and got a Get SilverLight window. I clicked it and was told I have the latest SilverLight.

My question is what have I done to my PC that is preventing SilverLight from starting.

jason_maranto

Does the plugin not run properly within SketchUp now?

In the Silverlight configuration dialog (Start>All Programs>Microsoft Silverlight) the only thing I see special is the last tab (Application Storage)should have Enable Application Storage turned on and the plugin should be listed.

Best,
Jason.

Rich O Brien

No, I just get the Get SilverLight box.

I know it's a system fault I just can't track it down.

jason_maranto

Are you running the latest version of IE? It could be there is a patch, I remember a few along the way...

Sorry I'm not more help here -- Silverlight is something I've not bothered to look at deeply since I'm a devotee of SVG from way back... I see Silverlight as the latest pretender to the throne

Best,
Jason.

jason_maranto

Here's another contest and another chance to win a free license:

(www.maxwellrender.com)

Best,
Jason.

valerostudio

Actually here is a contest here http://www.maxwellrender.com/index.php/home/maxwell_for_sketchup/competition

jason_maranto

@unknownuser said:

No, I just get the Get SilverLight box.

I know it's a system fault I just can't track it down.

Hey Rich,

Did you ever get the Silverlight issue resolved?

Best,
Jason.

jeff hammond

hey Jason.. maybe you can help me out with this problem..

i'm setting up a render and this test is showing the facets of the curved surfaces.. it's not a huge deal at 800px but i'm worried about how it would look if i buy the plugin and make larger images..

am i missing a setting somewhere? or any advice on preventing it?
thanks

click pic -> bigger

Rich O Brien

Not yet, but I've nCleaner installed on my machine and I think it's causing the problem.

jason_maranto

@unknownuser said:

i'm setting up a render and this test is showing the facets of the curved surfaces.. it's not a huge deal at 800px but i'm worried about how it would look if i buy the plugin and make larger images..

am i missing a setting somewhere? or any advice on preventing it?
thanks

I see other areas where that is not happening so I would begin by assuming that the edges there have been hidden but not smoothed within SketchUp -- Select all the entities then context click and choose from the menu "Soften/Smooth Edges"... in the dialog make sure "smooth normals" is checked and that the angle is sufficient to smooth the edges in question.

In addition, in the future I would use more segments per curve for anything going through Maxwell -- Maxwell loves high-poly detail and the more segments the smoother things will be. This is particularly true for anything that will get a dielectric (water/glass) or SSS material... in fact when doing glass vases and whatnot I will use circles with a minimum of 180 sides (but often 360 sides) because "normal smoothing" is just a low-poly visual trick that does not work for smoothing profiles, refraction, and caustics.

When I was working on this model I used the BezierSpline Plugin which allows you to set as many segments as you need after you've defined the curve. BTW that model will render fine within this Maxwell plugin and it is very high poly so no need to worry about that (SketchUp may complain but that is a separate issue).

Best,
Jason.