Yes - it is in the latest version of IRender nXt.

We are still waiting for some client feedback - e.g. what additional lights or mirrors they would like.

The trees are useful even without IRender nXt, since they make 2D trees with shadows in SketchUp, You can try the trees here:

IRender Ready Trees

Also, Rich has added the .exe to convert the 3D warehouse models to SU 6 or SU7 (as needed). (I see in another thread that some people are converting to SU 8 just so they can still use many SU8 only 3D Warehouse models)

Also, we are adding the same 3D Warehouse browsing feature to SpaceDesign, for use by people who want to make it easy for people to download other collections into SketchUp.

@unknownuser said:

When you import a model, all it's sub-components are marked as "internal" and hidden by default in SU.

I see there is an internal? to check for an internal component in Ruby.

Is there any way to mark a component being used as a sub-component as internal when I am creating a component with ruby?

@tig said:

The Outliner is a far more efficient way of finding nested components/groups, right clicking over the selected item in the Outliner offers all of the usual context-menu items.
Using View > Component Edit > Hide rest of model etc lets you see what's what too...
A little better component naming would be helpful too

Thanks TIG - A client grabbed this from the 3D warehouse and marked the whole thing as a light - which was making way too many individual light sources. (Not just the rice paper, but also all of the hardware in the light)

I told him he should re-insert the rice paper as a single surface, (it is 26 separate surfaces in the 3D Warehouse model), and then make it into a single light for faster processing. But without the outliner, (which I did not think to use), or the expand function, it was hard to see just what was going on.

Thanks ThomThom. I guess I can learn something new every day.

Is this "expand" thing new, or have I just missed it for the past few years. (I thought the Components window always showed all the sub-components as well)

I see that the recursive message cam because I clicked on a component while I was already editing the same component.

But at least I can find Component #41 now - which is what I was trying to locate.

Thanks again...

I am having trouble with the component in the attached model.

Only one Component appears in the SketchUp Components in Model window.

When I try to drill into the component, I see other components - such as Component #39 in the Entity Info Window.

When I Click on the main Component in the Component Window, I get the message "Cannot Create a recursively defined model or component"

I presume the component probably is recursive.

Is there an easy way to find it or fix it?
(Fix Model from the statistics window did not help)

light-600.skp

We were just getting ready to release a new feature which automatically displays and downloads just certain items from the 3D warehouse. We were downloading the SU 7 versions since they worked for both SU 7 and SU 8. Fortunately, Rich caught this change just before we released it.

We wound up using Definition.load_from_url for people who have SU 8, but for SU 6 and SU 7, we download the SU 8 .skp and convert it to SU 6 using a standalone .exe, and then load the SU 6 version as a component. This is much slower than load_from_url, but at least it works for SU 6 and SU 7 users.

We have uploaded a number of models to the 3D warehouse lately. After uploading them from SketchUp 8, we were able to download them in either SketchUp 7 or SketchUp 8 format. Today, about midnight GMT, the SketchUp 7 options were dropped. (We we're planning to upload models which users of either SketchUp 7 or SketchUp 8 could use)

See: http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=fb839f03779ea3774a200f5f1797d729&prevstart=0

Also, I am pretty sure this model (uploaded by SketchUp) was available for multiple versions yesterday:

Error 404 (Not Found)!!1

(sketchup.google.com)

Is Trimble trying to save disk space?

@martin-art said:

Nice work on the renders, loving all of the different styles. Liking the Ghostbusters apartment, although through a telescope would scare the living daylights out of you.

This is the model rendered at day and night in Shaderlight, although I am thinking now of green lights and UFO's so watch this space.

Nice work Martin.

I put these images on the SketchUpRendering site. Let me know if you decide to change them.

@solo said:

Whoah!! is this a room in a space ship?

I think the whole idea of a loft and a telescope would inspire the imagination of the the viewer, and could cause some non-realistic "photo-realistic" images - such as the large bright moons, and the bright colorful stars.

Here's another attempt with lots of stars and a reflective floor.

Some light is coming from the ceiling, and some light from those bright stars.

I also had to remove one of the semi-transparent window things.

(rendered with IRender nXt)

@roger said:

I did not use a rendering engine. All were Post Production modifications of your render done in PhotoShop.

AHA! You photo shop guys are amazing!

@roger said:

[attachment=0:kp2w2k8m]<!-- ia0 -->telescope_room.jpg<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment:kp2w2k8m]
Here is how I would visualize that scene. Keep in mind you could never have a view like that unless the moon was about 10 times closer and then the tidal forces on earth would be wreaking all kinds of havoc.

Do you want to mention which rendering engine you used so I can put the result on SketchUpRendering.com?

@chedda said:

A couple of things stand out, the harvest moon has an orange glow, the scene does not. Also the window frames do not meet the wall. The shadows are not really that realistic either. Being a loft and the fact you are looking up to me means that you wouldn't really see the top of the trees either. I've never use IRender nXt it looks like it renders fast is there anyway to increase the quality ?

Thanks for taking a look and for your comments. (I am always amazed how artistic people can see things that I do not see when they view a rendering.)

I just wanted to get a quick version out - hopefully to inspire some other people to render it with their own favorite rendering engine.

IRender nXt is a multi-pass renderer - meaning that the longer you let it render the better it gets. The image below was rendered for 500 passes and about an hour. To get better and better resolution of the shadows I could let in render overnight.

I liked the trees - so lets assume our loft is in a valley near a hill.

I could have placed the background on an actual surface - further outside the window - and then made it a light. I will do that for my next version.
Even better would have been an actual HDRi sky - which would have then used all the actual objects in the sky as light sources. But it is always a challenge to find a good night sky as an HDRi.

Also, I made the window itself the light source - which means that the shadows are all coming from the point of the window. Using the moon as a light source would make them more realistic.

First try with IRender nXt

Placed a background image outside the window, made the telescope body reflective and made the window itself a light source.

Rachel from Shaderlight has placed a model on the 3D Warehouse for us to use to make rendering samples using various rendering products for inclusion in the Sample Renderings section of SketchUpRendering.com: Loft with Telescope

It is OK to change materials, add a background, add lights, and make other rendering settings – but do not add to or change other geometry.

Render it with your favorite rendering package, post the results here, and I will place them on SketchUpRendering.com. Check out the Sample Renderings section to see what people have done with the previous models.

Besides seeing samples of various rendering packages, the purpose of this thread and/or the SketchUpRendering.com site, where we will post these images, is to show SketchUp users the value of using add-on rendering packages to improve the quality and value of SketchUp models and images for internal or client presentations.

Also, check out these previous Sample Rendering Threads to see what people have done with the previous models: Interior, Water, and Exterior at Night.

@troyhome said:

Thank you, Al- this will help tremendously!
One thing i should note about the script is that when i do run it to export all materials, it appears as though something happens- as though there might be a window hiding that shows a save location or somethings- but then there is nothing. All i mean is- i wonder if the materials are saving to some hidden location?
Oh well- i like the .skm approach- thanks again!

In the newest version, I added a display of the file names of all textures saved, which will appear in the Ruby Console. That should help:

e.g.

Writing: c:\tmp/texture_test/F0.jpg

I got the same errors when trying to use rps_texturewrite.rb.

I fixed it and uploaded a new version into the first post in this thread.

Here is the code which makes this work.

If points to the center of the first item in the selection set,
then uses SketchUp zoom to selection to do the zoom.

It zooms to the third, desired, image in the post previous to this one.

	def zoom_selection	
		# zoom to selection by rotating camera first
		model = Sketchup.active_model
		
		entity = model.selection[0]
		if (!entity)
			do_error("Nothing selected")
			return
		end#if
		
	    view = model.active_view
	    camera = view.camera
	    eye = camera.eye
		target = camera.target
		up = camera.up
		target = entity.bounds.center
		camera.set(eye, target, up) # point to selection
		view.zoom(model.selection) # then zoom
	end#def

@tig said:

Don't you want to 'align the view to face' [or similar] first, before using 'zoom-selection'... BUT of course if the object[s] selected are 3d, then which face is going to be chosen for that alignment ???

Here is one method.

This is the original view with Susan selected.

If I use SketchUp Zoom to Selection, the camera is moved left and the selection is no longer visible.

However, if I first point the camera at the selection and then zoom to selection it works pretty well.

So, for the function I want I just need to move the target of the camera to the center of the selection before using Zoom to Selection

[These quotes are from a private message which was sent to me]

@unknownuser said:

@unknownuser said:

The right solution will point the camera at the selected object, without moving the eye itself, and then adjust the FOV so that the selected object is zoomed in on from the same camera position as the original view. We can write it and post it here on SketchUcation. But if someone else has already written it, it would save us some time.

Are you sure that's what you want?

I don't want to change the guy's FOV at all, it stays changed, then he has to reset it to get back to what he uses.

I just want to zoom to the selection w/o changing the FOV and then back the eye out a little.

I wonder why Zoom to Selection does not do this already?

But it is a good idea. You should be able to move the camera along a line from the eye to the target, and you should be able to calculate just how far to move it by measuring the selected object in the current view.

On the other hand, I don't mind changing the FOV as much as you do, as long as the user is smart enough to use view previous to return.

Perhaps we can make that an option.

I got to thinking that perhaps the problem with the current zoom to selection was that it was preserving my Front View, so I changed to a non-named view by rotating a bit. Still when I selected an object, (the rectangle), on the left wall and right clicked to "Zoom Extents", it still moved the camera to the left rather than moving it towards the selected object and placed the camera on the wrong side of the wall.