Could be good for those of us who work at home. Mount a monitor on it and we could stay in bed & work. Replace the bedside table with a beer fridge and it would be a great 'office'.

Check this out: http://steampunkworkshop.com/keyboard.shtml.
Must be nice to have time for a hobby.

Regards, Ross

Didier's script isn't supporting textures at this time. Hopefully it will someday. (SunFlow does but as noted above Didier's efforts in his plugin development are hindered by a lack of documentation on SunFlow). I don't know if there are any other routes to getting a textured model into SunFlow. I haven't looked around the SunFlow site or Forum enough to find out.

If your model has colours they will work fine. I attach an example render. The model is from the FormFont Exchange. After exporting from SketchUp I edited the scene file so the glass and hydraulic rams would look shiny.

The render times for the above image was about 15 minutes. The 'clay' ones above were just two or three minutes. Adding the HDR lighting & then the glossy effect added more time. The glossy one probably took 20 minutes.

If you visit the gallery at the SunFlow site you'll see the program is quite capable. Hopefully Didier's script can, in due course, develop to take more advantage of it.

Regards, Ross

In the following thread in the Render Gallery I have posted some experiments using Didier's script + SunFlow...

http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=82&t=3480

Regards, Ross

In this thread Didier Bur released the latest version of the SketchUp-to-Sunflow plugin that he has been developing: http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=2780

Not being familiar with the Sunflow rendering system, and learning that it was free, I thought I would check it out...

One interesting thing about SunFlow is it is Java-based therefore it can be used on a Windows machine, on a Mac, or on a Linux box.

It wasn't hard to install either SunFlow or the SketchUp plugin. I made a quick test scene in SketchUp. It features just a bunch of boxy forms and a pickup truck component originally posted on the old forums by Brandon. I exploded all components and painted everything a tan colour. Using the plugin was quite straightforward. There are several options and then you just export the scene. The created file is then opened in SunFlow and the render button clicked. It progressively renders in front of your eyes.

The first image shows my test model rendered using the 'Ambient Occlusion' option lit only by a sky. The watermark is something I added afterwards. The rendering engine doesn't add any and you can render at whatever resolution you want:

The image below shows a closer view. For it the sky was turned off. Didier's plugin automatically substitutes in some directional lighting to suit the SketchUp sun location. Shadows match whatever setup you had in sketchup. I found the Plug-in + SunFlow produces such 'clay' renders with no fuss and with consistency. I did not have to tweak any lighting at all:

The Plug-in creates a scene file that is utilized by SunFlow. The features Dider has been able to include in the Plug-in to date are a small subset of what are in theory possible. The constraint on Didier is that almost no documentation on SunFlow exists so, to date at least, the feature set is limited. In looking around the SunFlow site I learned it will support HDR probe lighting. I decided to try my hand at editing the plugin-generated scene file. I found it quite easy to replace the sun with an HDR probe I had of a beach, and let all the scene lighting be generated via that probe. It worked! I surprised how well --- again there was NO tweaking at all. Just a cut & paste edit of the code and hit the render button. Below is the result -- you can see the HDR image as a backdrop:

Next, encouraged by my easy success with the HDR probe I decided to try editing the scene file further. What I did was change the file's shader definition so all my tan material would be glossy. Here's the result:

I'm quite pleased with the results of my first experiments with SunFlow. I think with some support Didier's plugin + SunFlow will develop into a great cross-platform rendering solution. Currently it lacks the materials support it needs. Hopefully with some encouragement Didier can get that part working similar to Podium.

Regards, Ross

Just my two cents: Please don't delete stuff unless really necessary. With stuff removed it just makes this thread a disjointed waste of time. The question about legality was a good one but I think the replies have shown it wasn't a valid issue with the Wii/iTunes setup.

Regards, Ross

Here's Apple's pages about the iPhone. I want one too. I like the feature that it is WiFi compatible so if you have a wireless network the iphone can have high-speed Internet connectivity too. A cool way to keep up with postings on these forums while I sit in a deck chair enjoying a cool breeze.

Regards, Ross

I can picture Mayor Mike driving a Chameleon Trike.

Maggy -- I realize this is a little odd but maybe you can try using the Navigator with your toes. The buttons on it could be ignored. I haven't tried it myself but I imagine it wouldn't be that hard to get used to. (Maybe I will try it one of these days, my toes are like fingers anyways ).

One setting I've found critically important for me is to check the "dominant" option. I find the use far more intuitive when it is checked.

Regards, Ross

I agree Alan. I do think it is worth a try for Meggy and Dylan. It could make things easier. Meggy might even find it works okay with the limited mobility of her left hand.

Alan & Coen -- the real question is do you think it could be useful to people like Meggy & Dylan who currently do all their SketchUpping with one hand?

Juju -- Given you are having trouble obtaining one I'd be happy to give you one of mine. Contact me by PM and we can discuss how I can to get it to you.

Dylan & Maggy -- The Space Navigator is intended to be held in one hand while the other uses the mouse. The hand holding the puck would not need a lot of mobility but it would require good motor control as the device is sensitive. I really don't know how useful they would be if you want to switch one hand between it and a pointing device. I suppose it might work and be helpful in the context of having only the use of one hand. I agree it is well worth trying it to see.

Regards, Ross

have both a Space Navigator and the smaller Space Traveller. They are compatible with SU on my Windows XP system. I don't know if they work with Mac OSX. I keep the Space Navigator on my desk plugged in but don't actually use it much. I should.

Regards, Ross

I thought I'd add a link to the SunFlow site...
http://sunflow.sourceforge.net/
Check out the Gallery!

For those unfamiliar with it, Sunflow is a free rendering system. Because it is java-based it can be used by windows users, mac users, and linux users. It supports multithreading so you can put those new multiple-core procesors to work.

Here is the SunFlow FAQ's: http://home.comcast.net/~gamma-ray/sf/sunflow-faq.htm
Note that it gives instructions on how to make a shortcut to open the application from your desktop.

Also be sure to see Didier's instructions found in his download.

Thanks Didier for your generous work to make this renderer an option for the sketchup community.

Regards, Ross (Didier Fan)

Thanks Darrel for all your hard work creating this script.
I hope Santa brings you something nice.

Regards, Ross

This is from 'Chilly Beach' (It's like the Canadian version of South Park)

Regards, Ross

Granted - you can emit light from your fingers. Push them into a light socket and you'll see it is true.

I wish blue cheese wasn't blue as I'm not fond of blue food products (except blueberries).

Collin -- can you try making a very brief animation (small file size) that you can upload as an example of the problem you are seeing. It might help clarify your problem. Maybe someone will know how to help.

Regards, Ross

Modelhead -- When this same topic came up earlier in the Google's SU forums (The thread is here) the article talked about how the system could use electricity to run the motor as a compressor or switched over so the compressed air could generate electricity. In that other thread I wrote about how maybe a variation on the systems could be developed to generate electricity from the tides. I was thinking about Canada's huge tides on our Bay of Fundy area near where I live.

edit- sorry this thread no longer exists on the old Google SketchUp Forum.

The article above and other articles about it suggest that the refilling costs will likely be about $2. I presume that pays for the energy used to run a compressor and probably for the amortized capital costs of equipping existing gas stations with the necessary equipment + their overhead & profit. That $2 also suggests this whole concept is much more energy efficient than one based on conventional internal combustion engines. If it costs $2 for a quick-fill at a commercial fueling station, then it is likely it would require less than $2 worth of electricity at home using the slow refueling option of just plugging it in and letting the small on-board compressor refill it.