Visible Light Paths

Visible Light Paths

View spot light beams as if shining in a hazy room.

This feature creates a transparent lamp beam with a pattern to emulate light passing through a smoky or foggy room.

You can define a visible light beam on the spot-light creation wizard.

• See: Visible Light Paths

Remote Rendering

Render on another CPU

External Rendering exports the model to a file, and then renders the file in a separate process.

This allows you to make changes to the SketchUp model wihtout having to wait for the rendering to complete

• See: Remote Rendering

Create 3D PDF

Create 3D PDF

Create PDF is a feature to create an interactive 3D PDF Presentation using your model and your Rendered Image.

Both the 3D Model and the Rendered Image are displayed on the first page of the PDF file, with a set of buttons for the user to choose between the two.

How to use it

1. Render your model, and use the Save Image icon on the toolbar to load the Save Image Wizard.
2. Select Create PDF from the bottom of the Wizard.
3. Enter the PDF settings on the next dialog.

• See: Create 3D PDF

Lights Query and Edit Wizard

Query and Edit Lights in Model

The Lights Query and Edit Wizard makes it easy to find, examine, and edit the artificial lights you have placed in your SketchUp Model for rendering with IRender nXt.

This new dialog, available from the Query and Edit Lights in Model button on the Lights Tab of the IRender nXt Options Wizard allows you to select, view, and edit lights in your model.

• See: Lights Query and Edit Wizard

Make Tileable

Make Tileable Wizard

Make Tileable is used to make a material sample repeat properly by either blending or mirroring.

How to use it

1. Assign the material, as you normally do in SketchUp.
2. Righ-Click on the face with the material, and select Make Tileable
3. A dialog displays the material and tiling options. Select the appropriate option for the material.

• See: Make Tileable

Path Tracer

Path Tracer image after 1,500 passes.

nXt Path Tracer is a new rendering engine for IRender nXt.

You can enable the Path Tracer rendering engine on the Render Setup Tab

• Comparison to nXt Packet Mode

nXt Packet Mode processes packets of rays, while nXt Path Tracer processes individual light paths.

Because of some shortcuts, such as Daylight Portals, and other aspects of the rendering process, nXt Packet Mode create a usable image in fewer passes. nXt Path Tracer often requires more passes before the image gets smooth.

• See: Path Tracer

Volumetric Fog

Light in a hazy room

text

• See: Volumetric Fog

nXtRender Batch

nXtRender Batch setup dialog.

Batch Rendering is a rendering mode which exports the model to a file, and then renders the file in a separate process.

It has 3 main uses and benefits.

1. Large Models - Models which are too large to render directly from SketchUp can be rendered in batch mode.
2. Animation - Batch mode is used for animation, because animations need to load and reload the model when there are layer changes, and because animations typically take a long time to render.
3. Network Rendering - The entire folder containing the rendering information and files can be accessed across a network, or copied to a thumb drive or another machine and used to render the model.

• See: nXtRender Batch

Ground Cover

Ground Cover definition wizard

Ground Cover - define Ground Cover for use on the ground or on topiary bushes.

• See: Ground Cover