Are you asking about how to get these things (glass and water, for example) to look right in a SketchUp image? Or are you going to use a rendering plugin like Kerkythea, Vray, Maxwell, etc? Those are very, very different questions.

If it is just a SketchUp image, then to I don't think there is a point in asking for it to look "right", just how to make it look good. And good is subjective. So for a SketchUp image, I say use a single surface for water or a pane of glass and just adjust the transparency (different than translucency) until you like how it looks. The SketchUp image is, afterall, a conceptual representation, not intended to be realistic.

If you are going to use a rendering plugin, then you'll need to go looking in the appropriate forum, either here or one specific to the rendering plugin.

My guess is that your glass material settings are not correct. Do you have the VRfSU materials? If so, try importing one of the standard glass materials replacing any glass materials you've made. If that doesn't work, then let's see a screen shot of your IR map and light cache settings.

Even with 1.49.01 I have had problems with image textures. You can test to see if this is the case in your Vray Material Editor: render a preview of each material that has an image for a map. If it has problems with one of the materials, that's your source. If it renders all of them, then you've at least ruled out that problem.

What is the face count in your model? I don't suppose you could post the model (or at least a screen shot of the model)...

hey, prismcnd. Looking good, so far. I have three comments:

1. Because the spacing of the pilasters does not appear to be uniform (page 04), I would suggest distinguishing the major and minor verticals. I could see two ways of doing it. The first would be to make the smaller pilaster not have a capital. That way it would read as the odd-one out. That would help some, but doesn't completely address that you still would have uneven spacing. So, you could emphasize the door and both windows with a large pilaster on each end, then small ones in between with or without a capital.
2. On the arched windows, it seems odd that the trim is the same profile on the verticals as over the arch. It could read as two pilasters and an arch if you made the vertical profile different and have a little more bulk, maybe even have the inset panel like the large pilasters.
3. The length of the valence could use to be broken up, in my opinion. Maybe dental work or some expression of brackets?
   Finally, a suggestion unrelated to the design: the trim could be rendered to look a little more white and less gray. The cream color (at least on my screen) on pages 09 and 10 look good. Good luck!

I think either the sandbox tools or thomthom's Bitmap To Mesh plugin: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=31339

However, are you going to render this? If so, then I'd opt for a bump or displacement map and not model it at all, frankly.

thomthom, do you have a cabinet you could use? What about putting some cabinet doors on a bookshelf?

I have a computer hooked up to my TV so I can watch HULU and some of the shows that the networks have but only on their own website. New internet ready TV? Yes. Freedom to connect to anywhere on the internet? NO! I'm waiting until I move (just bought my first house!) and then see if I can run the equipment out of a closet in the living room to the TV.

I have duct tape on SO MANY of those annoying LEDs! Can't stand them! I've been known to base my decision to buy an item based on those evil lights.

Hey, yeahright.

Very interesting discussion you started. Thanks.

What's your intended use? You mention employ-ability, so you are looking at software packages to learn as career skills, right? There's another dimension to "why sketchup?" if you have a particular use in mind. Some people have mentioned architecture, archviz, interior design, set design, exhibit design; there's game design people on this forum, too, and I'm sure many, many other professions. However, there are many people here that can point out all the shortcomings of SketchUp right along with its strengths. That's where you need to know WHAT you are using it for.

Organic shapes? Don't use SketchUp.
Maybe you need BIM or parametric features, so something like Revit, Bentley GC, or CATIA.
Are you doing fabrication? Maybe SolidWorks.
Are you going to do character animation? Maya, Blender, or something with character rigging... now I'm getting into territory I know very little about.

So, what profession are you in? I have a philosophy that one should use the right tool for the job. I use SketchUp, Rhino, AutoCAD, and Revit all the time and often work between programs depending on the project or the task. I think one should learn the concepts behind modeling, rendering, scripting, etc. so it is that much easier to learn a new tool when you need it.

Mandar,

Why do you need a plugin to place a camera? I think that that is almost definitely going to be the source of your problem. Pick your view and then create a SU scene. That IS placing a camera, so you don't need a plugin to place it.

My guess is that the camera the plugin creates isn't using the focal length and/or aspect ratio of the view you are looking at in SU. So when you go into Kerkythea and use that plugin's camera, you don't see what you saw before. Just use the camera that the SU scene creates and the views in SU and Kerkythea should match.

I'm with Pilou: SketchUp is just plain intuitive. Blender on the other hand, which is also free, and arguably more versatile, if very difficult to use--at least from my limited experiences with it over the years. And then there is the visualization aspect: SketchUp is immediately legible. With it's real-time shadows, simple toon style, and easy export to reasonably high-res, antialiased images, you don't need to spend a lot of time learning to render in order to communicate conceptual ideas.

Intuitive.
Excellent visualization.

For me, those are the two biggest reasons.

To clarify, by
@unknownuser said:

realistic drafting
, are you asking for rendering plugins? There are a number of threads discussing all the various rendering plugins. You could start with this one:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=3220
on which I posted a spreadsheet (that needs updating and more information) to start to compare features. Here is the most recent version:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=3220&start=45#p332219

Hope that helps a little.

I decided to improve my renderings by taking photographs of projects I like and using them as the basis of a model and renderings. I hope you will give me feedback, including comments, critiques, and reasonable suggestions for future models/renderings.

There are so many options, it's easy to overlook any particular one.

I think you are looking for this: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=322&t=25028&p=216267&hilit=+batch+render+vray#p223947

There is a checkbox in the save image area that appends sequential numbers. If you have everything else set up correctly (which is also covered in the above thread), it should render one image per scene and save them with YourFileName0000.png, YourFileName0001.png, ...

Hope that helps!

Hi, ng0200731.

Sorry that you are having trouble with your lighting. It looks from your most recent render you are starting to get something that starts to work. Do you know how to edit the properties of a light? As for the reflection of the "black" walls, do you know how to adjust the reflection of a material?

If you aren't familiar with either of these, then I'd suggest starting with the manual: http://www.vray.com/vray_for_sketchup/manual/. This is how I learned the basics.

Can you be more specific about what you are trying to achieve? Then maybe people can help more.

@unknownuser said:

I don't understand how that's possible, I found it a bit hard to adjust the model within sketchup but if i only had the 2d shapes in AC I would be totally lost

Essentially all you are doing is "cutting off" the thickness from one piece, right? So if you know which edges attach to each other (a simple intersection, two walls for example, will be a pair), then you need to cut off 2mm (or whatever) from one side of the pair. If you use a plugin that labels matching edges, then you just offset/stretch/whatever the edge in each pair.

Of course nothing is that simple with a real project, so there will be roofs, floors, complex intersections, etc. But with the labels, things go pretty quickly with just a little practice.

On a related note, I used to have this problem all the time. One big time saver that I found was to shorten the unfolding process. There are a number of very good plugins on this site for unfolding, but what I liked to use is called Pepakura, http://www.tamasoft.co.jp/pepakura-en/. It unfolds your model and tries to keep as many edges together. You can add labels to the edges, too. Then I would edit it in Autocad and make adjustments for thickness. Also, if these are primarily exterior models, you can use single-ply museum board (essentially a thick paper), score it (with a laser cutter) and fold it. Pepakura can add tabs to loose edges so you'd have something to glue.

Just a thought.

EDIT: I just found the Waybe plugin for SketchUp. The full version is $80USD for the educational license. More expensive than Pepakura, but right in SketchUp. Then there is the Flattery plugin, which is free. Still won't help you with the thickness issue, but may save time before so you have more to adjust for thickness.

What's the best way to set up a wiki, do you think?

If it isn't the irradiance map, then it is the light cache. From the VRay Documentation (for Max, but should apply):

"Similar to the photon map, you can get "light leaks" with the light cache around very thin surfaces with substantially different illumination on both sides. Currently there is no way to avoid this, except to avoid having very thin objects; also the effect can be reduced by decreasing the Sample size and/or the filtering."

I generally find that for my Light Cache, I use a Sample Size of 0.02 is fine, but may go down to 0.01. And I use a Filter set to Nearest with Samples set to 10 for a final rendering. Also make sure your Light Cache is set to Adaptive sampling.

There was a thread awhile ago that lists all (most?) of the rendering apps for SU. I started a spreadsheet there that I had hoped would be edited by all that lists the rendering apps, their features, strengths, and weaknesses. Here's a link to that thread: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=3220&hilit=renderers&start=45 Anybody interested in helping me make this spreadsheet more useful and complete?

I second everything Solo listed. Those are THE best components right now.