IRender nXt Tutorial - Plants

This IRender nXt Tutorial on Plants will show you how to add nXtRender IRender nXt Plants to you SketchUp model.

This can greatly increase the quality of your renderings, without slowing down your SketchUp model with unnecessary geometry.

IRender nXt

IRender nXt contains the a library of more than 500 nXtRender plants.

IRender nXt Plants

SketchUp scene with trees and shrubs.
Same scene rendered with IRender nXt Plants.

IRender nXt Plants are generated from an algorithm which describes the frequency, shape, color and connecting information of the trunk, branches, and leaves. This makes it easy to render the plant with different levels of detail.

Also, provisions are made as to how the plant changes with the changing seasons, and how the plant appears based in its size.

You can create and place predefined plant components in the SketchUp model, which will automatically render as IRender nXt Plants.




Create Plant Components

Create Plant.jpg
  1. Select the Create Plant icon form the IRender nXt toolbar: New plant24.PNG
  2. Select a plant from the AccuRender libraries.


Plant images.jpg


Make any changes to Plant

Tree Editor0.jpg


Generate Plant Image and Place Plant

Tree Editor.jpg

  • Create both Top and Side View - will create a Top View image of the tree which is useful for Top View landscape renderings.
See: Top View Trees for Landscapes
  • Image resolution - quality of the image in SketchUp - this does not effect the quality of the rendering.
  • Shadow mask Resolution -the shadow mask will create shadows in SketchUp
This does not effect the quality of the rendering.
  • Start or Remake
Click this button to remake the image with the new settings
  • Save Tree Image - save the tree and place it in SketchUp.


Settings on SetUp dialog

Plants Tab.jpg

| Nxt 72.png
  • Random Rotation - randomly rotates plants.
  • Random Height - randomly scales plants.
See: Random Plant Settings
  • Season - sets the default season for all plants. (Only applies to AR3 plants, not new nXt plants)


Advanced Settings

Advanced Settings.jpg
  • Tree Rotation - lets you rotate the tree in the image.
(Useful for angled, or non-symmetrical trees)
  • Camera Height - lets you raise or lower the camera for different effects.
  • Top View Tree Height - Height at which Top view image is placed in SketchUp as a percentage of the tree height.
Use 1% in stead of 0% to place it near the ground so it won't interfere with your ground plane.
  • Background mode - this does not effect the final image when saved to SketchUp.
HDRi sky mode and be useful to see how the sky effects the lighting.
  • Illumination factor - alter if tree is too light or too dark.
  • HDRi sky rotation - will effect how the HDRi sky illuminates the tree.
  • Use Defaults - reset to default settings

Selecting Plants

Click Create Plant from the IRender nXt Toolbar.

This will load the nXtRender plant selection wizard.

Choose the plant desired from more than 500 plants included in the nXtRender library.

Defining plant component

After you select a plant, a dialog will display the plant component parameters.

  1. Select the desired height for the plant component.

(You can also scale the component later to create plants pof different sizes.)

  1. Choose the placement parameters:
  • Always Face Camera
  • Criss-cross

Click Add and Place to create and place the plant.
Click Add and Make Another to create this plant, and return to the selection wizard.



Tips and Tricks

  1. Plants do not stop their growth when they interfere with other surfaces - such as walls. Place the plants far enough away from the walls to they do not extend through the wall.


Save or Edit Plant .ArPlant file

Edit Plant

You can edit a plant placed in SketchUp by right clicking on it and selecting Edit Plant


Edit plant.jpg


Edit plant-2.jpg

From the Edit Plant dialog you can make changes to the .ArPlant file using the Tree Editor and either:

  1. Replace the existing plant component with the changes.
  2. use the changes to create a new, similar plant.

Save .ArPlant

You can right click on the component and save the .ArPlant file which defines the plant.

Then this .ArPlant file can be used to create other plants, or used in other nXt compatible products - such as AutoCAD, Rhino, Revit, BricsCAD, etc.

Plant Libraries

There are two approaches to libraries of plants:

Save a SketchUp library of the plant components

When you save a .SKP file of the plant component and load it into anther model, or place it on the 3D Warehouse, any models which use the plant will automatically re-render from the .ApPlant information stored in the component.

Libraries of .ArPlact files

You can right click on the component and save the .ArPlant file which defines the plant.

Then this .ArPlant file can be used to create other plants, or used in other nXt compatible products - such as AutoCAD, Rhino, Revit, BricsCAD, etc.


See Also

External links