Maxwell - New User general questions

jjent

Hi - I'm a new Maxwell user, using the free version for the free Sketchup 8 platform.

I'm teaching myself how to use the program via Youtube videos, google, forums, etc and have a few questions that I can't seem to find the answers to using the above methods.

I have a pretty detailed SU model (15 MB) and want to create some interior and exterior renderings. First, can I even achieve this with such a big file and the free Maxwell version with the draft engine/dpi limit? If all of the materials are simply a generic grey or "clay" and I use sun/emitters, will it even be possible to get a decent image?
Likewise, I was reading elsewhere that trying to do an interior scene with emitters AND turning the sun on is too much for the draft engine and you won't get good results (noise, bad quality, super long render time). True?
Let's say I want to set up a scene that is fairly zoomed in, meaning the vast bulk of my 15 MB worth of model is out of view. Will it speed up my render time/up my quality if I delete everything out of view?
My model was made in SU 8 before I installed Maxwell. The components are all a generic white material. Will it affect my render time/quality if I simply leave all the materials as generic SU materials, or is it worth my time to go through and change just "white" to "slightly off white, plaster, semigloss, etc"? Basically, do generic SU materials slow down Maxwell?

Even if you only have an answer to one of my above questions, any and all info is appreciated!

tktechie

If you haven't found answers elsewhere so far, I believe I can answer the last two. I am also somewhat of a beginner with Maxwell, but have been messing around with it for several hours a week for the last six months.

3: Because Maxwell is a "physically correct" render engine, it looks at all the surfaces in your model that light could bounce off of, even the ones behind the camera, or in a separate section of your model. Eliminating unnecessary geometry would speed up your render time. Of course you could just hide the geometry in a layer which is off and make sure Maxwell is set to not render "Hidden Layers". That setting can be found in the Maxwell Scene Manager window, on the "Output" tab (file folder icon).

4: So long as your default/SU materials are not "full saturated" materials, you shouldn't need to change them. Maxwell does not do well with these types of surfaces and colours, such as pure white (RGB 255.255.255, 0.0.255, etc.) because they do not exist in real life. They tend to cause noise or 'fairies' in the final render. I'm not saying that you need to change each surface, just go into your materials editor in SU and change the model materials. (I have a MAC, and for me that means the colour window and the 'brick' tab. I'm not sure how editing SU materials is accomplished on a Windows machine.)

Hope these brief explanations help out!

neets

@jjent said:

Hi - I'm a new Maxwell user, using the free version for the free Sketchup 8 platform.

I'm teaching myself how to use the program via Youtube videos, google, forums, etc and have a few questions that I can't seem to find the answers to using the above methods.

I have a pretty detailed SU model (15 MB) and want to create some interior and exterior renderings. First, can I even achieve this with such a big file and the free Maxwell version with the draft engine/dpi limit? If all of the materials are simply a generic grey or "clay" and I use sun/emitters, will it even be possible to get a decent image?

Likewise, I was reading elsewhere that trying to do an interior scene with emitters AND turning the sun on is too much for the draft engine and you won't get good results (noise, bad quality, super long render time). True?

Great answers have already been provided for 3 & 4. So I'll try to help you with 1 & 2!

Maxwell Fire does not provide high resolution renders but it is possible to get a decent, noise-free render if you use only clay finishes. It will also render fine using physical environment.
Using emitters full stop in Maxwell Fire will produce A LOT of noise. This engine is quite sub-standard when it comes to the quality of output - I would strongly recommend upgrading to the SU plugin.

Anita