Thank you, guys.

Dave, the reflection in the fridge (and in other places) had a roughness setting that was ignored in the rendered video. I just wrote the developer about this.

Here's a more complete video. I'll add a piano track and also an alternate version of the living room with the projection screen up:

So, does anyone know of another renderer for animations that can work on a Macbook with Intel Graphics? I'm eager to try alternatives!

Strangely, this time it took 12 hours to render 3 minutes of video, so it was faster than my previous 1-minute test, despite not really having changed anything... Except leaving the A/C on all night to keep the Macbook cool. Does anyone have a 2016 or 2017 13-inch Macbook and LightUp? Wanna run a little benchmark?

EDIT: It's weird, but YouTube has trouble with straight-from-LightUp videos, adding more than a minute of a static image with no motion at the end. I hope this goes away after I edit them with iMovie.

After years using only Lumion, I decided I wanted to be able to create animations on a laptop. Specifically, a 2013 Macbook Air. This thing doesn't even have a discrete GPU, so this rules out almost all renderers available on the market. Since I had some success with LightUp in the past, I started experimenting with it again.

It has not been easy: The Intel graphics in a Macbook Air is a weak insect compared to the NVIDIA GPU I have in my PC. I've had to reduce polygons, reduce materials, and I also made sure all my textures are square powers of 2, just in case. Still, I get lots of bugsplats, but I'm learning to handle it. This feels like learning some dark art. Who in his right mind would try to render an animation on an Air?

Still, here's the first decent video (ground floor only... working upstairs right now). Comments are welcome. It took 7h30m to render @1080p with motion blur.

I'm thinking on getting a 13-inch Macbook Pro. The Intel Iris Pro in the 2017 MBP has 3x the graphics power of the 2013 MBA, according to the Passmark scores (˜1500 vs ˜500). Call me crazy, but I'm intent on being able to work from a 13-inch Macbook. If anyone knows of another animation renderer that can work on my machine, I'm all ears.

I've just spent one hour asking myself why I could not copy-paste from an old SKP file to a new SKP file with a newly imported AutoCAD drawing. I run SketchUp's checkup, GPU-Z, Repaired SketchUp, reinstalled SketchUp... Nothing. Until I remembered these guys send me the AutoCAD drawings in milimeters instead of meters, but I imported it as meters... So the new drawing was gigantic and anything I copy-pasted from the old file was just too tiny to be seen.

Hi. I could not find the answer in the SketchUp help center, not in YouTube, not in the official SketchUp forums.. Nowhere! But I found it after trial and error. So I'll write it here. Maybe I'll rediscover this post myself some years from now, when I've forgotten about it (has happened before):

In SU for Mac, when you first open a model and want to edit a material, you press B to open the Material Editor. Now, press the "Brick" tab and then the house to see the "Colors in model".

Now click on the material in the model to select it, while pressing Cmd. If this is the first time you're going to edit this material in the current session, the "Colors in model" window will automatically scroll itself so the material you selected is visible... Among 20 other similar ones, and only identified by a faint baby blue outline. Strain your eyes a little bit to find it, and double-click on it to enter the edit mode. Yup. So many steps just to be granted the privilege of editing the material. Now, in the current "brick" tab you can only edit the texture. To edit the color, pick any of the other tabs. If you hit "close" you're out of the edit mode. If you don't, you can keep editing other materials by just Cmd + clicking on the scene.

Now, if you have already edited this material before in the current session, and you have already exited Edit mode, the "colors in model" window will not automatically scroll to it and select it... It will just stay where it is. Yup. It's not gonna help you at all to find the material in the window. It won't even place the faint baby blue halo around it. Weirdly, opening Safari, googling "how to get rid of SketchUp" and then returning does help. Now it does scroll to the material and place the faint, ghostly halo around it, so you can double-click to edit it.

You can also do this: Double click on ANY material in the "colors in model" window to enter Edit mode, and THEN use the eyedropper (Cmd + click) to actually select the material you really want to edit.

I'm still not giving up on SketchUp for Mac.

I am glad to confirm that this plugin is still working in SU2017. I just followed DaveR's advice to zip it and change the extension to .rbz.

Thank you!

Hi! Long time no post.

I've been using SketchUp on a Macbook or more than 2 years (I also keep my PC version). There are still things I can't figure out in the Mac version, even after two years of Googling and YouTube searching for answers. Namely, the Material Editor.

I've been searching for, and failed to find, a user manual for the Mac version. I feel stupid for not finding it. Could you guys please point me to a link to it?

Thanks!

Hey, everyone! I just downloaded the book. Thank you for the good memories!

Hey, guys. Long time no post.

As you probably know, my country was severely hit by a M7.8 earthquake a week ago. I'm away from the epicenter, but a lot of people were not that lucky. It's the worst disaster almost anyone can remember in this country.

But we still have to keep building and rebuilding... I just wanted to know if you're aware of any software that can help with seismic design. Down here we use reinforced concrete structures (columns and beams), and we build the walls with bricks.

Thanks in advance.

Hey, guys.

Resurrecting an old thread here. I've been using my 13" Macbook Air for months now, but mostly for piano software. SketchUp use has been limited to only those days when my office was being remodeled. It's been nice -if a bit underpowered- for SketchUp, but that's when compared to my monster Windows PC.

Next month I'm giving this MBA to my brother, and I'm going to the US to get a new one.
Just wondering if Trimble has solved the issues with the retina display, as I'm now tempted to switch to a Pro Retina.

Right now in the refurb store, a 2013 MBA w/Core i7, 8GB RAM and 512GB SSD is the same exact price as a 2013 MBPr x/Core i5, 8GB RAM and 512GB SSD. So they're almost the same machine. The MBA has a slimmer body, but the MBPr has a nicer screen.

I'm a bit concerned about "staingate", the anti-reflective coating peeling off retina MBPs.

Which one would you get right now? On tests, the power difference between the two is negligible. Have you had the chance to compare the two in real life usage?

Thanks, guys. I've also been eying the Microsoft and the Logitech mice. Good to know you guys are happy with them.

Has anyone tried this Kensington mouse?
http://amzn.com/B009VDSRJ8

Hey, guys.

So I bought a Macbook Air and I should have it in about 3 weeks.

Just wanted to know what wireless mice you use with SketchUp on your Macs. I'd prefer to find a Bluetooth mouse that does not require the use of a USB dongle, but I'm open to that possibility.

The Apple Magic Mouse seemed an obvious choice, but a friend who is a Mac+SU guy told me not to buy it.

So, what do you guys use for SketchUp on a Mac? Maybe it's not a mouse, but something different? Can any of you work with just the trackpad?

Maybe you do use the Magic Mouse?

Good to know. I had figured by now it would be multi-threaded.

I just chatted with the Apple people and they can make an adjustment if the price of this refurb goes down in Black Friday, although they said that usually doesn't happen.

Thanks for all your insights. A couple years from now, when the upgrade bug bites, I'll be asking a similar question again. Maybe by then the Air will also have a Retina Screen, SketchUp will have a "double the weight of all onscreen lines" option especially for Retina Screens, and Intel will have a low-voltage integrated GPU with 4x the power especially for Retina.

Hey, Jeff. Thanks for the extra info.

Unfortunately benchmarks don't usually include SketchUp performance in their tests... It would be ideal. iMovie is important for me, tho, as I've found its mp4 output crispier-looking than that of similarly priced editors for Windows.

How do you know the Cinebench score might be more related to SketchUp performance than the other benchmarks?

Hey, guys. Thanks everyone for your feedback.

Please bear in mind I'm not asking about a standard model Air, but about a completely maxed out Air vs. an off-the-shelf Pro.

Some AnandTech tests reveal the 13" Core i7 Air is pretty much on par with the performance of a 13" Core i5 Pro. Some of these tests are a sustained heavy load over several minutes, so I guess the "base clock speed" of each CPU is not that important after all:

More benchmarks here:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7113/2013-macbook-air-core-i5-4250u-vs-core-i7-4650u/2

Performance being almost the same and with the same RAM and Storage space, a refurb i7 Air goes for the same price as a refurb i5 Pro (Or new, if you buy from BH or BB), so I guess it just boils down to which one lends itself to easier SketchUp work, and weather you prefer more battery autonomy and more fps in OpenGL (Air) or sharper photos (Pro). I appreciate the comments about some things being harder to see in SketchUp on a retina display. I also asked Adam (LightUp) and he confirmed that in the Pro the GPU has to work harder to drive all those pixels. (The HD5000 and the Iris are pretty much the same, just with slightly different clock speeds). This tips the scale towards the Air.

Thanks, Mike for the real estate suggestions. I do have a 24" monitor for heavy work, so my focus here is on portability. I can even use my FullHD 90" projection system as a monitor thanks to my AppleTV.

Hi, guys. I'm about to pull the trigger on either a 13" Air or a Retina Pro.

For $1,500 shipped to Miami and including taxes if applicable, I can get either of these right now:

-A 2013 13" Macbook Pro Retina, Core i5 8GB RAM 512GB SSD, new from either BH or Best Buy
-A 2013 13" Macbook Air, Core i7 8GB RAM 512GB SSD, refurb from Apple
Do you think it would be wise to wait till Black Friday to see if I can find either for less?

As you can see, they're almost the same machine. On tests I've seen online, the maxed-out Air w/ Core i7 has a slight advantage in OpenGL, while the Pro even with just the base Core i5 is around 50% faster when exporting from iMovie. (UPDATE: Found other benchmarks that give the Pro a much smaller advantage)

Yes, I'm aware of the limitations. This is not going to be my main work PC, but I'm still going to do some SketchUp work on the Mac when out of the office.

Since the effective real estate on the Pro is 1280x800 (but with 4x the detail) vs 1440x900 on the Air, this means SketchUp icons will look larger on the Pro, while at the same time being sharper, right? Does this means the SketchUp workspace feels a bit more cramped (but more beautiful)?

Does any of you have both? Which one would you prefer for light SketchUp use?

I understand the integrated GPU on the Pro has to work much harder to drive all those extra pixels, so I'm guessing the Air will feel much nimbler in SketchUp use, right?

Another factor is that a refurb Mac has been extra checked for problems, while a new one is a toss up, right?

And before the "get a real computer" starts... I do have one. A monster desktop PC built for Lumion. I just happen to like apps on both sides of the fence.

@jeff hammond said:

have a look here:
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=196062#p196062

Hey, Jeff. Thanks! I had completely forgotten that you can also get good results with straight SketchUp output... And I posted that myself!

Speed is not that important. I also have a monster desktop Windows PC if a project requires it. I just want to model in SketchUp and maybe produce a few pretty pictures.

Hey, guys, long time no post!

Right now, Lumion is my only rendering software, but I can only use it on my custom-built desktop PC. Anything less and Lumion is insufferably slow. So, having discarded the possibility of using a slow Lumion on any kind of lightweight laptop, having been itching for a new Mac for a while, and now needing a laptop for the first time in years, I've decided to order a Macbook Air on Black Friday. I'll be going for the dual-core Core i5 w/ 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. If Apple has some good Black Friday deals, maybe more than that. Maybe even a Retina Macbook Pro.

Being a Windows+Lumion guy, I'm not up-to-date with Mac rendering software for SketchUp, so I want recommendations from Mac users, especially Macbook Air users: What would you use for rendering stills, maybe even animations, on such a system? The models I'll be working on will be much more lightweight than the monster commercial projects I do on my PC. And after 4 years of Lumion, I no longer care about photorealism. I just want a nice sky and nice plants. LumenRT looks good... Has anyone tried that on a MBA? Any other videogame-style rendering solutions for low low-powered Mac?

Yeah, I used to be quite up-to-date with rendering apps and used to try everything, but 4 years of Lumion have taken me out of the loop.

And no, I'm not considering a PC laptop because I already have a powerful PC desktop and I want a Mac to replace my old Mac Mini. (iMovie is quickly becoming my favorite video editor, among other things...)

Video presented to the press on Monday, but I still consider it a WIP because the design is not yet finished. Design by Arch. Ricardo Mortola. 3D by me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD0tLq1lX3w

Funny how during the presentation the leaders of the project had to turn their heads...

Hey, TIG. How about adding some "fuzzy" logic to this? I mean, sometimes you have very similar materials that have only slightly different properties. For example, half a dozen of glasses with only slightly different tints, or slightly different alpha values, and it would be useful to consolidate them.