@unknownuser said: Try to simulate the reality will make your nights & days more small than never! True that But if you are having fun and making a living........

Thanks Escape Artist, The point of my query was to try and step in the right direction knowing full well that it would be years before any true proficiency and artistry would "pop". I do not want to go down a road for architectural rendering that experienced users have found to be fruitless. From your experience are there free versions that will let me explore further than the Shaderlight free plugin allows. With Shaderlight free, I can not experiment with interior lighting and the exterior options are extremely limited. The Pro version trial is good for only a couple of weeks and does not give me the couple of months that I would love to play around with. So, is there a plugin that you can recommend for exterior and interior rendering in a free version? Is this asking for too much? Idahoj, Your three suggestions are constructively positive, and I intend to follow up on them. Your preamble is unduly harsh. I did not intend to waste yours or anyone's time with pointless non-questions. I am sorry, if I did. I thought the inclusion of the architectural exterior and interior parameters would have jump started some suggestions. If that was too vague, again, sorry to you and all. I have always had the approach that a journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step, and a really successful journey of a thousand miles starts in the right direction. I am wanting to avoid tramping thru the "weeds and thickets" of rendering only to be told later," There was an better way." So with that said: From your experience, what would you have liked to know as you stepped into the world of rendering? Are there any rendering packages for SU that are equally suited for professional quality architectural exterior (natural lighting) and interior (artificial lighting) rendering? Or are these needs/rendering engines so specifically different that experienced renderers find themselves using different plugins for each of these? Are the different rendering programs "radically" different, or from your experience did you find that there are enough similarities that you didn't have to back track much or invest a ton of time learning a different UI to get similar results? Which rendering plugin(s) for SU would you recommend to a novice renderer? and in just a few words, why? Cheers, and looking forward to your reply

Well, sorry, I am still on an XP desktop and did not even think about the permission things (good to keep in mind though, thanks!). As for the Chippewas - the Addams Family 2 comes to my mind (sorry) [flash=640,376:38bk2fqp]http://www.youtube.com/v/ccj2BH25c0I[/flash:38bk2fqp]

Welcome. @sfto1 said: I also hope to, at some point (maybe even soone) be as helpful to others as many of you have been to me. He he, I have similar hopes - but whoa, these guys are just so damned good! I often wonder how they found the time to model and program scripts so skillfully, when they also seem to always be here ready with the answers to all our problems - I am very concerned that Google/Trimble may be involved with some sort clandestine CAD-monkey cloning program!

I moved this post into the LayOut Discussion because the topic has nothing to do with a bugs in LayOut.