Something like an "Xref" in CAD?

@l i am said:

Have a look at this (one click rendering)

https://www.fluidinteractive.com/products/sketchup-extensions/ambientocclusion/#buy

I have this one as well. Super easy to use and great results.

@rich o brien said:

Blender is free. Supports .DAE imports which SketchUp does and its EEVEE and Cycles render engines are on par with the big commercial apps.

Also look at the wonderful SketchUp importer for Blender here...
https://github.com/RedHaloStudio/Sketchup_Importer/releases

It work very well. Seems to keep the scale of SU objects and imports their material.

Also look at Simlab Composer. Their is a free version (can be used for ANY purpose) that renders up to 1080 res or the Pro version (starts at $108/yr) with no render size limitations.

@sketch3d.de said:

already posted above.

Yep, saw that. Just pointing out that the higher end multi-core ones ARE the ones with the best single thread scores.

@sketch3d.de said:

@gus r said:

1. Latest i7 or i9 Intel CPU. The more threads the better.

"for SU modeling operations, the single-thread perfomance of the CPU is relevant only"

Those ARE the ones with the best single-thread performance.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

The 13th gen i5 13500 does seem to be the best bang for your buck as it is pretty much on par with an Apple M2 in single-thread performance. The i5 still has 14 cores and 20 threads.

Sorry I missed your reply, yes, 1.3.4 was what I used.

Just tried it on my end with SU Pro 22.0.354 and all seems to be working.

@majid said:

I think one may challenge themselves to learn Blender in 30 days. It won't be that deep but will lighten the mental pressure and fear.
The interface of V.3x has changed and is more friendly. I also had the background knowledge of 3Ds Max and compared to it, the blender is at the same level of easiness/difficulty except for lack of an up to date help.

This AND you have to stay on it and keep using it. This is my problem, I just don't stick with it.

Great model by the way!

I wish that one that was in my house would have been worth saving and re-purposing to a buffet table or something. Can't wait to see the finished model!

Great start! Had to move one of those out of my house when we moved in 20 years ago. Took 2 people to even move it.

Is this what you are looking for? Seems that there is a plug-in for Paint.net (free).

https://forums.getpaint.net/topic/110247-quadrilateral-correction-v131-dec-16-2021/

If not, my bad.

LOL, great model and thanks for sharing. Here's a "quick and dirty" from Simlab. Just dropped in a light and hit render.

That's too bad because that one works very well on my end.

@blood said:

I have Sketchup 2021 Pro and installed house builder as described in the above post using the extension manager. It appears to be installed, but says unsigned and in the program the tool bar for it is missing. Not sure if the unsigned has anything to do with it. This is my first time using Sketchup. Any assistance would be appreciated.

Just gave it a try on my 2021 Pro version and it seems to be working on my end. Showing unsigned for me as well.

@rich o brien said:

If you want direct .skkp import to Blender I recommend this...

https://github.com/RedHaloStudio/Sketchup_Importer/releases

...which has good support for camera locations, groups and all things unique to SketchUp.

Wow, the few I've tried with that works very well. Thanks!

@kevm said:

Hello I have searched a lot today to understand why these plugins no longer worked overnight.

Just tried Curviloft on my PC and it works just fine. Did he say that existing installs would stop working?

@juju said:

It's worth it to remember that the thermal paste on the CPU & GPU doesn't last forever, it's a good idea to change it every couple of years (3 years if you don't encounter problems in between).

And maybe look at this time of getting an upgraded CPU heatsink and fan. There seems to be plenty of space in that box for a larger heatsink and fan.

Very cool, I can't wait to give it a try. Thanks for the find.

@pmolson said:

That seems reasonable.

My machine is a bit more robust and came in at 6500 bucks.
The lumion files I work with are very large and complex so I need the Horsepower.
If it was just SU I could get by with a friendlier priced unit.

Ah, that makes sense then. Yeah, you'd need it. The cost of doing business.

@pmolson said:

get ready for a bit of sticker shock ...

Was pricing out a new work box as I think I am due new boxes in July ('23 budget) and prices seem OK. Just 2 of us in this sub-department and I always budget $5k for 2 boxes. I paid about $2k for 2 8th gen i7, 32 gb ram, 1 tb m.2 and RTX 2080. So this is not that bad for 4 years later and less than $200 more each.

When I get new units we refurb the old ones and move them to shop offices. It's more power than they need so they never over use them. Usually get 8 years out of a box before we completely recycle.