Here is the rendering from the bump map and color overlay.

There are no 3D bumps in the model rendered - only the flat images.

(Note: there are two materials in the model - the colors are placed on the front of the face, and the bump map is placed on the back.)

Notice how the bump map effect gives a 3D effect by brightening the image where the sun strikes the bumps, and darkening it away from the sun.

We are just finishing up a new capability to create Bump Maps from SketchUp geometry.

Here is a SketchUp model, a bump map created and a color image created.

(Since bump maps only define depth - white is closer - black is further, the alpha color image can be combined to product both depth and coloring.)

These bump maps might be useful to let SketchUp models use bump maps of windows and other building details which take a lot of geometry.

We are hoping to use them for rocks, stone, etc., but can't find any good models to test them with. Has anyone had any luck creating SketchUp models of rocks, stone, or other organic items which would work well as a bump map?

Thanks,

We will make sure we get the name for Layer0 (Calque0) from the layer list itself.

If the trees are originally placed in layer XY, and then included in a group or component which is then placed in layer AB, then AB must be turned on in order to see anything in the component, and both XY and AB must be turned on to see the trees.

However if the original layer XY way Layer0, then items inside groups or components which were originally drawn in Layer0 will be visible even if Layer0 is no longer on. (Assuming that the layer for the component instance or group is on.)

We had a user last week whose components weren't showing up when she exported them to our renderer. It turns out that the geometry in the components was draw in Layer0, but the component itself was in a different layer.

She had turned Layer0 off. However in SketchUp turning Layer0 off only turns it off for top level geometry, but not for geometry in groups or components. So the geometry in Layer0 in her components was visible in SketchUp, but not after we exported it.

Turning any other layer off turns it off for the top level and also inside of groups or components.

I can see why this was done (since most geometry is drawn in Layer0 before it is placed in a component.) However, you can imagine how this caught us by surprise when exporting geometry.

1. Has anyone else ever notice this behavior?

2. In the foreign versions (assuming we every get some for version 6) does Layer0 have the same name or a different name? (Right now are checking for Layer0 by name, but we may need to check for it in some different way if the name can change in translated versions.)

And, I may be wrong - they may have moved it or we may have forgotten where it is, or maybe we didn;t download what we thought we were downloading.

We may have downloaded "Adobe Acrobat 8.0" thinking it was the same as "Adobe Acrobat 3D - Version 8". I'll have Rich check again to make sure he downloaded the wrong program.

@krisidious said:

to remove functionality is pretty big thing to me... you have to know people use it. that's why it's there. to update and remove is a strange thing. I have ever tried though. what program are you using?

(Added later)

After further research, we think we did get confused and download the wrong product.

We will try again and report back later.

I hadn't considered anything that serious. I was supposing that Adobe hadn't taken the time to port to SU 6?

You used to be able to open .SKP files in Adobe Acrobat 3D to create interactive 3D PDFs.

We downloaded the latest version of Adobe Acrobat today to test something out and we couldn't find any support for SketchUp. Also, then mention of .SKP files seems to have disappeared from their help system.

Is anyone using Adobe Acrobat to create interactive 3D from SKP? And, if so, are you aware of any changes?

Is there a way in Ruby to determine which of multiple section places are active?

If you are looking for the new version of rps_texturewrite.rb, see this thread:

http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=97&t=1089&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

It's interesting how you can forget things.

I needed a ruby script to extract a texture file from a SketchUp texture. So I started searching around and found this thread.

http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=115&t=1087

But SURPRISE! It turns to to be a script that I wrote and sent to Didier for distribution. (rps_texturewrite.rb)

I was looking for a script to extract a single texture, so I modified rps_texturewrite.rb to extract the texture from a selected face (or other entity),
and ask you where you want to save it.

When you load it (or put it in the plugins folder), it adds two commands to the plugins menu:

Export Textures- this saves all the raster images for textures in your model to a folder called 'texture_test' in your temporary folder.

Export Selected Texture - This exports the first texture it finds in the current selection and asks you where to put it.

(I put this here instead of the ruby forum because people may want to extract textures from materials without getting involved in ruby scripts)

[EDIT Aug 30, 2012 - replaced rps_texturewrite.rb with a version which works better]

rps_texturewrite.rb

It's interesting how you can forget things.

I needed a ruby script to extract a texture file from a SketchUp texture. So I started searching around and found this thread. But SURPRISE! It turns to to be a script that I wrote and sent to Didier for distribution. (rps_texturewrite.rb)

I was looking for a script to extract a single texture, so I will modify this one to extract the texture from a selected face, and ask you where you want to save it. Then I will upload the new script.

Nice work!

Can you post the .SKP file?

Or send it to al.hart AT renderplus DOT com?

I would like to try IRender Nxt's new indirect lighting algorithm with it.

Thanks,

There are 5 ways to get lights for IRender.

1. The lights in the SketchUp Architectural and Landscape components library just work.

2. There is a make lamp icon, which lets you create a point light, spot light, rectangular light or linear light of any desired color, size and intensity. There are components which you then place in your model, or in other components.

3. There is a make light fixture wizard which lets you create table lamps or floor lamps with varying shades or stands

4. There are a number of "IRender Ready" light fixtures stored in the 3D Warehouse. These have had IRender lamps added and other geometry made translucent, or non-shadow generating, so that are ready too use as lamps.

See the IRender Ready collection: http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/cldetails?mid=10f5873e0c3b6efd90f6e146a99d7860

Also, see the Lights Tutorial for IRender: http://forums.renderplus.com/wiki/index.php?title=IRender_Tutorial_-_Lights

Al Hart

AccuRender is developing a new version, called AccuRender nXt, and we are in the midst of integrating it into IRender.

This should be faster, should handle larger models, should make better images, and should handle indirect lighting (Radiosity) better.

See: http://forums.renderplus.com/wiki/index.php?title=AccuRender_nXt for more information.

Al Hart

@unknownuser said:

that the GI25i (26?) version adds the moving sun and saving each animation transition as separate movies. Awesome job!

One minor quibble - when the sun starts going down, how do I get the lights to come up? If the sun is on, the lights don't work even if the sun has "set".[/QUOTE]

@mwilliams said:

I needed that a couple of weeks ago. I am so pumped to have that feature! this program has been worth it. It is so good to have a software company that responds to users requests and is continuously upgrading![/QUOTE]

One of the problems with speeding out these upgrades is that we sometimes put out a version with a mistake. We are currently in that mode. Some of the versions this week do not not render textures on reversed faces properly.

We will get it fixed, and we do keep old versions around on the FTP site if someone runs into a particular problem. However, I appreciate your patience in working with a group which might (and usually does) make a mistake once in a while. It is very hard to implement something as complex as AccuRender into something as complex as SketchUp.

To add to our "woes" or "joy", we are just starting to implement the "NXT" version of AccuRender. See: http://nxt.accurender.com/ We are hoping that this will be several times faster, will make better renderings and will bring us additional new features!

(Regarding the lights - Set the light intensity on the Light setup tab to 3000% or 6000% or so so they have a better ratio to the sunlight. Another thing we need to fix)

Al hart

RPS 3D PDF works only with .SKP files.

We have had requests from other CAD software to provide a similar capability, and have send them some price quotes. But, so far, no takers.

@alpro said:

Al, does RPS 3D PDF work only with SU or can other 3D modeling be converted to interactive PDF?

Mike

Al Hart

There is a web page of RPS 3D PDF Client samples at:

http://forums.renderplus.com/wiki/index.php?title=RPS_3D_PDF_Samples

There are mostly trial version samples, because the trial version has a search key which makes them easy to find with Google:

http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&q=%22Render+Plus%22+%22Created+with+the+trial+version%22&btnG=Google+Search

If you have posted and "commercial" version Interactive 3D PDF's, please let me know so we can include a link to those as well.

Al Hart

A new version of RPS 3D PDF - Version 2.0 has been released.

You can download it from the download area: http://www.renderplus.com/pdf/download.htm Downloads

This version uses a new method create the PDF background, and now supports a much larger variety of fonts and sizes. Also, this version allows you to create batch files to automate the creation of 3D PDFs.

Note: If you purchased RPS 3D PDF prior to Jan 1, 2007 you will need to upgrade your license to use the new version.

See: http://forums.renderplus.com/wiki/index.php?title=RPS_3D_PDF_Version_2.0 for more details.

Notes

The name of the executable has change from rpr2pdf.exe to skp_to_3d_pdf.exe. If you have any shortcuts pointing to the old executable, you should change them.

Upgrades

If you purchased RPS 3D PDF prior to Jan 1, 2007 you will need to upgrade your license to use the new version.

Also, there is a new 30 day free trial for the new version, so if you have already used up your trial of the previous version, you can download the new version and try it out.

See: http://www.renderplus.com/pdf/upgrades.htm Upgrades - to order upgrades.

al Hart

Many people are using RPS 3D PDF quite successfully.

But there are some known problems:

1. Model size models of 15 to 20 meg with about 100,000 faces and/or models which contain large background images or large texture images can create a problem.

2. We do not process edge lines as well as we would like to.

3. A couple of people this week were unable to use the software because of some missing DLL's

4. Some changes between SketchUp page views - such as layer changes are not processed by the PDF file.

If you are having problems with a particular SKP file, send it to Censored to protect your privacy and we will take a look.

Al Hart