Information on the IRender nXt Latest Release. Information on the IRender nXt Releases.

New version posted - OL23 - December 23, 2015

In this version we:

• Fixed Edge lines to render in the SketchUp Edge Line Color
• Added Cast Shadows as an option for Edge Lines.
• Fixed AutoSave, which wasn't working when the Options dialog was pinned.
• Removed duplicate Ground Plane check box from the Sky tab, and fixed the enable control logic.
• Changed the appearance of the tack when the dialog is not pinned.

New version posted - OL09 - December 9, 2015

In this version we:

• Fixed the Special Options tab to appear again.
• Fixed an error being thrown when All Edge lines was selected.

New version posted - OL07 - December 7, 2015

In this version we:

• Fixed a bug that was keeping materials from being edited from the render window.

New version posted - OL01 - December 1, 2015

In this version we:

• Fixed ruby file for SketchUp 2016 to automatically check extension to appear.
• Introduced new collapsible Options dialog.
• Added a pin to the Options dialog so that it could stay active in SketchUp after starting a rendering.
• Added a Search box to the Options dialog.

New version posted - OI24 - September 24, 2015

In this version we:

• Fixed a bug for Rob, ProjectMatrix, to save walls in AppData instead of Program Files.

New version posted - OI17 - September 17, 2015

In this version we:

• Fixed a regression where lights were not working due to a change in the light color attribute.
• Fixed RPCs to render with a watermark if the ArchVision dashboard was not licensed.

New version posted - OH31 - August 31, 2015

In this version we:

• Fixed the ArchVision DashBoard check to run before the extract starts, so batch files don't get left open.
• Check for bad HDRi downloads on the disk, and moved the MediaFire HDRi download paths to our FTP site.

New version posted - OH21 - August 21, 2015

In this version we:

• Added a check to ask the user to load the ArchVision DashBoard if the ArchVision is not currently licensed.

New version posted - OH11 - August 11, 2015

In this version we:

• Fixed a problem with saving a new license number and authcode, when validated from the Trial Version dialog.

New version posted - OG24 - July 24, 2015

In this version we:

• Changed our RPC logic to work correctly with the latest posted ArchVision RPC Plugin.
• Added logic to ignore the word Trial in the authcode field during validation.
• Started using the Active Section plane for SketchUp 2014 and 2015

New version posted - OG06 - July 2, 2015

In this version we:

• Made the automatic creation of the .rpcs file for RPCs an option, and put the routine that does that in a try/catch loop, in case it causes any problems for users.

New version posted - OG02 - July 2, 2015

In this version we:

• Fixed a regression for RPC components, where the RPC DLLs were being omitted from the install

New version posted - OG01 - July 1, 2015

In this version we:

• Added support for the new ArchVison plugin RPC components
• Added ways to save ArPlants more easliy, as a right-click choice and as a button on the Edit Plant dialog.
• Started having the SketchUp version appear in the rendering statistics.

New version posted - OF12 - June 12, 2015

In this version we:

• Fixed a problem a 'soft edges' error reported on certain surfaces.

New version posted - OD22 - April 22, 2015

In this version we:

• Fixed a problem with Materials which used Texture Displacement, suck as grass textures. (toolkit 0354 - distrubuted and toolkit 0353)
• Fixed text position on the Section Plane option section
• Move Image Size limit to the IRender2 tab

New version posted - OC20 - March 30, 2015

In this version we:

• Fixed the Edit function on the Select Material dialog

New version posted - OC13 - March 13, 2015

In this version we:

• Fixed Spot lights and Beam lights, whish were throwing errors
• implemented 352 toolkit

New version posted - OC09 - March 9, 2015

In this version we:

• Improved rendering time, implemented 0351 nXt toolkit
• Fixed RPCs to display as monocolor images in SketchUp, per request from ArchVision.
• Made Presets the first Option Dialog tab again

New version posted - OB19 - February 19, 2015

In this version we:

• Fixed some problems with RPC objects and 3D PDF files
• Removed a RPC licensing message that would interrupt batch rendering

New version posted - OB17 - February 17, 2015

In this version we:

• Added new Plants Option tab for RpTReeMaker plants.
• Internal: Fixed a problem occurring when both ArielVision and IRender nXt were loaded at the same tine. Now using NOSAVE_EXTERN_NO_RESET for certain globals

New version posted - OB03 - February 3, 2015

In this version we:

• Added new Option tab, Render2, to display other advanced rendering settings.
• Added a feature to set all or some TreeMaker plants to render as simple 2D Images. All plants may be set using a new button on the new Render2 tab. Individual plants can be set using the right click edit, Edit Plant.
• Fixed a regression where transparent images, like 2D tree images, where not rendering correctly.
• Fixed a problem where where very large batch files, over 2GB, could not be read

New version posted - OA28 - January 28, 2015

In this version we:

• Fixed the Save ArPlant choice under Edit Plant.

New version posted - OA27 - January 27, 2015

In this version we:

• Added the Option/Styles tab and the new Auto Reflection dialog

New version posted - NJ29 - October 29, 2014

In this version we:

• 1. Added support for SketchUp 2015, 64 bit

New version posted - NJ15 - October 15, 2014

In this version we:

• Fixed a problem loading Material Styles in SketchUp 2014. Material Attributes were not getting read correctly. Needed "each_line".

New version posted - NI30 - September 30, 2014

In this version we:

• Added VS2008 redist to the install for the Advanced material Editor
• Fixed a regression in RPC placement.
• Fixed the Change View function in the rendering window, which had stopped working.

New version posted - NI26 - September 26, 2014

In this version we:

• Fixed a regression in the Advanced Material Editor which was no longer working in the NI19 version.
• Fixed Create Material which was not longer working due to a rps_trace statement for a entity_material.name that was not defined

New version posted - NI19 - September 19, 2014

In this version we:

• Added the ability to find a Render.ini file, just for reading the License and Authcode, if there is one placed in the ProgramData folder. This will allow people to use that file location to authorize everyone who use a machine, such as in a computer lab.
• Fixed the Trial period, which apparently was no longer expiring.

New version posted - NH06 - August 6, 2014

In this version we:

• Fixed a problem with still shot animations with a clipping plane was used.

New version posted - NH05 - August 5, 2014

In this version we:

• Fixed a problem placing RPC objects when the name of the RPC object contained a character which could not be used in a file name, such as a "/".
• Added an option to the Layer Wizard to save "In Position" Planar HDRi images in their original resolution.

New version posted - NG16b - July 23, 2014

In this version we:

• Fixed a regression which kept the TreeMaker tool from working.

New version posted - NG16 - July 16, 2014

In this version we:

• Fixed a problem where the nXt Libraries were not automatically being located after installing them.
• Fixed a few problems with the Select and Place material dialog, where the Add and Edit funcions were not working properly.
• Added a new Add and Edit choice to the Library and SketchUp material lists on the Select and Place material dialog.
• Improved the Install to notice better in SKP 2014 was installed on the machine and added a routine to remove the AppData ruby files if it was now being installed into ProgramData

New version posted - NF27 - June 27, 2014

In this version we:

• Fixed a problem editing some materials in SketchUp 2014. Ruby material.count functionality had changed.

New version posted - NF05 - June 5, 2014

In this version we:

• Fixed the 3D PDF dialog, from the Save PDF dialog on the Render Window
• Fixed the install to not allow installation of Plugin file into Program Files for SketchUp 2014
• Added more text to the licensing debug message for GetPrivateProfileString results

New version posted - NE20 - May 20, 2014

In this version we:

• Added a link to the license dialog to the support dialog, so that we could get some debug output to help determine why license numbers and authcodes are not being read from the disk correctly.

New version posted - NE05 - May 5, 2014

In this version we:

• Started installing into Program Files again, so that there is just one install location and to avoid non-ascii file path problems.
• We now save the plugin ruby files into ProgramData for SU 2104, if there is no Plugins folder found in the User AppData folder.
• We now always reset the Registry location after a reinstall.

New version posted - ND07 - April 7, 2014

In this version we:

• Fixed a new bug where too many material files were being saved for a rendering with textured materials, slowing down the rendering.

New version posted - ND02 - April 2, 2014

In this version we:

• Fixed ArchVison RPCs, which were were not working at all anymore after a new ArchVision Dashboard was updated.

New version posted - NC13 - March 13, 2014

In this version we:

• Fixed the Sample File download links that had broken when the 2014 Warehouse was updated
• Fixed the install to install both the old redist and the new redist for VS2005.

New version posted - NC05 - March 5, 2014

In this version we:

• Fixed the install routine to work with SketchUp 2014
• Change the version number to 6.0
• Fixed a problem with material textures with non-ascii texture file names which appeared in SketchUp 2014
• Fixed a problem editing materils in the rendering windows, when the materials had special characters in the material name

New version posted - NB06 - February 6, 2014

In this version we:

• Added a new template for creating Ornamental Grasses in the Tree Editor
• Improved the installer to make it easier to re-install into different versions of SketchUp.

New version posted - NA28 - January 28, 2014

In this version we:

• Fixed a bug that was keeping the last version posted, NA27, from rendering on a 32 bit machine.

New version posted - NA27 - January 27, 2014

In this version we:

• Added a new View Wizard to load and save views for rendering. See: https://www.renderplus.com/wp2/wk/View_Wizard.htm

ML13 - December 13, 2013

In this version we:

• Fixed a regression in the last release where the AccuRender plants were no longer working.

MJ30 - October 30, 2013

In this version we:

• Application is now entirely installed in a sub-folder of the SketchUp plugins folder named "RPS_IRender_nxt".
• Changed get_computer_name_from_registry() to always return an uppercase computer name, in case lowercase computer names were causing problems.

MI20 - September 20, 2013

In this version we:

• We now allow you to change the name of a material in the model by right-clicking on it in the Select Material to Place or Edit dialog.

MI18 - September 18, 2013

In this version we:

• Add a new toolbar function to load and save Material Styles.
• Add the Replace Material option to the Select material to Place or Edit dialog, for quickly changing materials in the model.

MH26 - August 26, 2013

In this version we:

• Started saving the License information in an ini file in the user's AppData folder..

ME17 - May 17, 2013

In this version we:

• Fixes a bug in the Place Lamp dialog which was introduced in the ME16 version.

ME16 - May 16, 2013

In this version we:

• Simply changed the install to look for the SketchUp 2013 location in the registry.

MD17b - April 17, 2013

Same day post (b):

• Fixed a ruby bug that was keeping models containing Images from rendering.

MD17 - April 17, 2013

In this version we:

• Added the option to use settings from other rendering programs, "Off" by default, to fix a problem where we were getting the wrong reflection for an material on an object.

MC19 - March 19, 2013

In this version we:

• Fixed a bug in Export to 3D PDF, where textures on some materials were upside-down in the 3D PDF model.

MC18 - March 18, 2013

In this version we:

• Fixed a bug where textures on materials were not working in 3D PDF files saved from the rendering window Save dialog.

MC08 - March 8, 2013

In this version we:

• Fixed a bug where an error was occuring during a check for object properties on meshes
• Internal - improved the checking routine for nXtRender licenses

MC01 - March 1, 2013

In this version we:

• Fixed a bug where the Select Materials dialog was taking a very long tome to extract the thumbnail for some materials. (large jpg files)
• Fixed the Lights Edit/Query dialog to get the list of lights in a model without having to click on Refresh.
• Fixed the license dialog to properly notice the latest license number entered after a renewal.
• Fixed thumbnail image display for the current selection on the Warehouse tab on the Render Ready Components dialog.

MB18 - February 18, 2013

In this version we:

• Fixed a regression in the MB12 version, where the sun position was not being set properly.

MB12 - February 12, 2013

• • We pulled this version since the Sun was not working at all...

In this version we:

• Remove the Renewal Reminder, since it was appearing every time that RpTools was loaded, even if the user had checked "Do not show this reminder again".
• Fixed a memory leak in the Background Image Editor, when using the Perspective option for background images.
• Fixed the install to look for both nXtRender and IRender when checking the registry for license compatibility.

LL12 - December 12, 2012

In this version we:

• Added a fix Auto Save for Images, to make sure the save does not occur until the rendering is truly complete, to eliminate stray lines that were appearing appearing on the image.
• Fixed the install to stop installing MFC DLLs that were no longer necessary for bin_nXt applications.

LL05 - December 5, 2012

• Changed the vesion number to 5.0

LK21 - November 21, 2012

• Fixed the 3D PDF routine, which is available from the Copy dialog in the Render Window.
• Fixed all AR3 Material and Plant Library functions to correct the problem where using the AR3 libraries was interfering with placing RPC objects or rendering.

"Fix Errors" dialog to display when saving a SketchUp model.

• Fixed a bug in the Select Material to Place or Edit dialog, which crashed for some materials which had unexpected characters in the texture thumbnail file name.

LK07 - November 7, 2012

In this version we:

• Fixed the installer, which was bogging down Windows, as a result of the installation of the Win32API.so in the plugins folder.
• Fixed a bug where IRenderBatch.exe could not be found properly, after placing one of the AccuRender AR3 plants in the model.

LK05 - November 5, 2012

In this version we:

• Improved the installer logic to do a better job of recognizing 64 bit machines, to make sure the proper DLLs were installed and registered.
• Fixed a bug in the Select Material to Place or Edit dialog, which crashed for some materials which had an unexpected character, like an asterisk "*", in the texture file name.

LK02 - November 2, 2012

In this version we:

• Fixed rotation for HDRi Skies in the Layer Wizard. This was causing a bug Splat for some skies.

LJ17 - October 17, 2012

In this version we:

• Fixed the Advanced material Editor, which was broken in release LJ11, when we fixed a problem where we were interfering with another plugin.

LJ12 - October 12, 2012

In this version we:

• Fixed the Material Color Channel dialog, which was broken when we switched to sizable dialogs

LJ11 - October 11, 2012

• Various improvements to the Render Ready dialog
• Fixed a problem that was interfering with other plugins loading properly

LJ03 - October 3, 2012

• Fixed the Use Criss-Cross for 2D RPC objects toggle, which wasn't working after we moved it from the Support dialog to the Options/Special tab
• Fixed the Save Batch Folder function on the Options/More tab to also work from the Rendering Window.

LJ01 - October 1, 2012

• Added a fix for users having trouble with the Save Model as Alpha Image function, which was keeping some models from rendering.
• Fixed the Open Sample Models toolbar function to convert the downloaded models to SketchUp versions 6 or 7 if necessary.
• Added a Save Batch Folder function to the Options/More tab for quickly zipping batch folders to send to support, or copy to a remote machine.

LI27 - September 27, 2012

This is a beta version for some new features that we are testing. In this version we:

• Add a new tool to download Render Ready components from the 3D Warehouse. In this initial version we posted several lights, mirrors,and trees to see how this will work for you. We're hoping to get some suggestions as to what other type of components would be helpful to have easily available.
• Restored the Restart Rendering button to the toolbar, to quickly restart a rendering, only sending the changes for Materials and Rendering Options. This function does not resave or reload the geometry used in the rendering engine, so changes which affect the geometry, such as Light Properties, Daylight Portals, Changes to textured materials, New Materials placed on faces, etc. will not be applied.
• Started making our dialogs truly resizable. This will help users who use large fonts and have had trouble seeing all of the controls on a dialog in the past, as well as allow you to make a dialog smaller, especially while using it to place items in the drawing.

• Made improvements to the Light Edit/Query dialog, to make it easier to locate and edit lights in the model.
• Combined the Lamps and Mirrors dialog, along with the new 3D Warehouse tool, into a single modeless resizable tab dialog. This is now a single toolbar button for creating and placing these components.

LH30 - August 30, 2012

In this version we:

• Fixed a bug which caused SketchUp to close when using the Lights Query/Edit dialog in a model containing surfaces with many faces
• Added double-clicking to the Lights Query/Edit dialog, to quickly select or edit lights
• Improved the speed of selecting and zooming to the highlighted lights from the list
• Added the capability to the Lights Query/Edit dialog to be able to zoom to lights nested in Groups and Components
• Added the capability to the Lights Query/Edit dialog to be able to edit the Light Intensity Override setting for Groups and Components containing lights
• Fixed round ceiling lights, placed with the default lighting channel (0), to be placed in lighting channel 3, Ceiling Lights.

LH29 - August 29, 2012

This version was not officially posted

• Fixed a bug which caused SketchUp to close when using the Lights Query/Edit dialog in a model containing surfaces with many faces
• Added the capability to the Lights Query/Edit dialog to be able to zoom to lights nested in Groups and Components
• Added the capability to the Lights Query/Edit dialog to be able to edit the Light Intensity Override setting for Groups and Components containing lights

LH24 - August 24, 2012

In this version we:

• Fixed bug when setting Large Render Size
• Fixed bug when using checkbox to turn off lighting channels
• Fixed typos on the Lights Query dialog

LH17 - August 17, 2012

In this version we:

• Fixed bug when setting Large Render Size
• Fixed big when using checkbox to turn off lighting channels

LH14 - August 14, 2012

• Fixed a regression where Custom Render Sizes no longer worked
• Moved the RPC Criss-Cross setting to the Options/Special tab
• Fixed a bug that was keeping some models from rendering, when we queried the light settings location
• Made the Lights Query/Edit dialog use a Report List Control
• Added a new hi-res standard rendering size
• Changed light balance default to 60 and added it to ArielVision

LH09 - August 9, 2012

In this version we:

• Fixed a bug where the rendering was not working when an object was set to be used both as a Light and as a Daylight Portal.
• Added a tool to the Options Light tab, "Query and Find Lights in Model", to identify and help to locate all of the lights in a model.

LH08 - August 8, 2012

In this version we:

• Fixed the appearance of some imported nXt Materials for the SketchUp Material dialog.
• Fixed a bug where some nXt Materials were changing color in SketchUp when a drawing was reloaded.
• Added an easier way to download and use the old AR3 material libraries.

LG24 - July 24, 2012

• Fixed a broken link to the Help page on the About dialog.
• Fixed a few regression which appeared in the last release, such as
  • End render dialog always appearing even if switched off
  • Rendering dialog was not remembering it's last size and position

LG19 - July 19, 2012

• Added a new sample model for Lighting Channels and Reflections
• Added the ability to store Background images in the SketchUp model, for portability. This feature can be enabled on the Options/Backgound tab.
• Added function to download HDRi sky for sample models
• Fixed some bugs with FindFile

LG09 - July 9, 2012

• Added a Sample Drawing dialog for new users to download models which demonstrate various rendering solutions, such as:
  • Exterior rendering
  • Interior rendering using Lighting Channels
  • Realistic Water rendering
• Added "Automatically include all Lighting Channels" check box.
• Increased precision of Lighting Channel intensities to 4 decimal places.
• Fixed the "Cannot determine My Documents folder" error.
• Fixed a bug where a glow material could not be used for a mesh which contained no real faces.

LF26 - June 26, 2012

• Fixed regression where edited materials with textures from old drawings were not rendering properly.

LE29 - May 29, 2012

• Fixed error thrown during loading of AccuRender nXt library trees.

LE11 - May 11, 2012

• Fixed rendering of images, where images had been rotated around the x or y axis.
• Remade thumbnails for AccuRender nXt Library materials on the Select Material dialog, to look more like the rendered material.
• Fixed rendering of some AccuRender nXt Library materials which were not correctly using the material color.

LE08 - May 8, 2012

• Added a better Progress dialog and better error checking for HDRi download routine.
• Removed a ruby file called class_test.rb that was causing a problem for a user.

LD24 - April 24, 2012

• Fixed an bug getting the HDRi thumbnail image for the Image Layer Wizard dialog.
• Fixed selection of the HDRi Sky preset, when selected from the "Settings before Rendering" dialog

LD23 - April 23, 2012

• Fixed an bug where a new material could not be created and assigned to a face which had the default SketchUp material on both sides.

LD18 - April 18, 2012

• Fixed materials placed from the nXt Library to display in SketchUp with the same material color as the AccuRender Material color if possible. This was changed to allow dark tinted glass to both appear in SketchUp and render in the same dark color. The proper way to change the color of material created from an AccuRender material, such as a nXt Library material, is to edit the color on our Material Editor dialog, and then use the new Remake SketchUp Material button to cretae a new texture image for the SketchUp material. That way, we can change both the SketchUp material color and the corresponding AccuRender material.
• Fixed a problem with 3D PDF, where faces with the same material on both the front and the back were only displaying the front side, even if "Export 2-sided Faces" was checked.
• Fixed a problem where some Advanced Materials made using the Blend mode on the Material Tree, such as the Ceramic Tiles, were not rendering at the same scale and posion that they were displayed in SketchUp.
• Fixed a problem with old drawings which had materials created with AccuRender AR3 materials that were no longer being read correctly.
• Removed the option to use nXtRender during the 30 day Trial period, now that ArielVision, the new replacement for nXtRender, can be downloaded. To try ArielVision, download it separately and install it. Both IRender Xt and ArielVision can both be installed and run in SketchUp at the same time.
• We also improved the install by using a new redist for Visual Studio 2008 which does not leave files in the root folder, Fixing the logic to register the ArMaterial Thumbnail DLL after the .NET framework that it needs has been installed.
• We removed the Close button on the Render window from the tab stops for the window, to help prevent the window from being accidentally closed before completing and/or saving the rendering.

LC13 - March 13, 2012

• Removed the option to remake the SketchUp material texture after using the Advanced Editor for a material. This was causing problems with some advanced materials. We will add this again after further testing

LC09 - March 9, 2012

• Edit Materials - Added an option to remake the SketchUp material texture after using the Advanced Editor for a material. This will let you see the latest changed made in the Advanced Editor.
• Edit Materials - We now only let you edit one material at a time using the right click edit within SketchUp, to fix a problem where material changes were not working correctly when other materials were changed.
• Edit Materials - We added Edit Material as new optional toolbar button which will still bring up the entire list of Materials in the model.
• Image Layers Wizard - is now a button on the toolbar, instead of a tab on the Options dialog, so that is it accessible with only one click.
• Image Layers Wizard - We fixed a bug where changes in opacity were not working from the Image Layers Wizard.
• Image Layers Wizard - We now preview the foreground opacity in the Image Layers Wizard, and added an Apply button to apply the foreground changes to the rendered image.
• Image Layers Wizard - We now apply brightness and contrast to the model image when viewed from within SketchUp.
• Options/More/Support/Folders dialog - We added a button to let you specify or change the location of the AccuRender nXt Libraries on your disk.

LC02 - March 2, 2012

• Fixed a regression where we were changing the size of a textured material when using the Edit Material dialog.

LB29 - February 29, 2012

• Fixed synchronization between the option tabs to show correct HDRi sky, background and foreground images after a new image is loaded.
• Added a check box to the More option tab to set Low Priority for the rendering process.
• Removed the choice for making Lamp Beams visible in the rendering, since it had not been implemented.
• Fixed the Date Taken Exif data field to show the correct date for JPG files saved from the rendering window.

LB27 - February 27, 2012

• Fixed a problem with Z-Fighting in 3D PDF. Duplicate faces were being added for some surfaces, when materials were assigned to the reverse sides of surfaces.

LB24 - February 24, 2012

• Use same Studio Brightness and other settings in Animations as in a regular preview rendering.
• Fix slider bar for HDRi rotations.

LB22 - February 22, 2012

• Added "Create from Position" to the Background tab of Image Layer Wizard, to create a new background image or HDRi image using the current position and distortion of the background image.
• Added the latest updates for the Create 3D PDF function.

LB20 - February 20, 2012

• Fixed Animations to be able to use the same Average Luminance that is shown on the Lighting Channels dialog when viewed from the Render Window. We added a check box, "Use for Animation", on that dialog that will allow you to preview and set the Average Illumination before starting an animation.
• Added a prompt before creating a new Background Image from the current HDRi sky and view, and changed the location where we store that image file, so that this function will work from within SketchUp.

LB17 - February 17, 2012

• Fixed refraction for Planar HDRi backrounds
• Add a function to create a background image from current HDRi view to the Image Layers Wizard.
• Fixed a couple of regressions in the 3D PDF routine, regarding 24 bit jpeg textures, incorrect surface normals,and U3D quality and resolution.
• Added images to the Select Trial Version dialog to help confusion over which version to purchase.

LB10 - February 10, 2012

• Added new Preset button to the Presets tab to make it easier for new users to use HDRi backgrounds.
• Fixed the 3D PDF routine to make files that work with Acrobat Reader version 10.1.2 without generating an error message.

LB07 - February 7, 2012

• Fixed HDRi previews that were appearing upside down when remade from the Layers dialog, using fast Image

LB03 - February 3, 2012

• Fixed HDRi previews that were appearing upside down
• Fixed the Layers Wizard - Foreground images were being positioned incorrectly and Blur was being applied to the model image
• Allow the Layers Wizard to be opened from the Background tab, even if there is no image selected yet.

LA31 - January 31, 2012

• Add accurate preview of HDRi image rotation to the HDRi Options tab
• Add Layers Wizard to allow dynamic alignment of the HDRi background, Background Image and the Foreground image.
• Added blur to foreground and background image filters (Layer Wizard).
• Implement latest AccuRender Toolkit release 284, which includes an optimized version of the Image Editor.

LA03 - January 3, 2012

• Added setting to set offset for images from underlying plane
• Added a fix for missing faces in 3D PDF
• Fixed "Bump" appearing in material dialog from Batch

KL16 - December 16, 2011

• Fixed a regression in 3D PDF material mapping in the KL14 version, no materials or textures were being applied in the U3D model.
• Added more information about existing licensed dialogs to the license dialog Replace Unused Computer function:

You are allowed 1 validations and already have 1 computers validated. Please invalidate an additional computer and try again.

KL14 - December 14, 2011

• Implement Animation Farm (Beta)
• Added Texture Scale to Material Editor to allow quick scale change from there. This is currently only available from within SketchUp, not from the rendering window Material Editor.
• Fixed leaves to display in nXt Pant Editor OpenGL view
• Stop allowing Groundcover as a choice for a new plant in nXtPlant Editor, or ArPlants as a choice for creating a Groundcover.
• Make Camera Light a virtual light, not a light based on a SketchUp component, to fix a problem with Bug Splats when creating that Camera Light component
• Fixed broken spin controls for Attenuation, Dispersion, and Saturation settings on Material Editor/Trans tab
• Fixed: GroundPlane color or material was being used as the default color.
• Fixed: ArMaterials textures were being saved as squares.
• Fixed: Preview button in the 3D PDF dialog was throwing an error if Camera Constraints were enabled.

KK30 - November 30, 2011

• Fixed the nXt Plant dialog to work after using the Load and SaveAs menu choices
• Fixed Enable Check Box for Sky lighting channel
• Fixed Color box on Material Channels dialog
• Fixed Hidden lights to not cast shadows, so they are truly hidden in the rendering
• Fixed: 3D PDF Lower Left logo was incorrect size in preview dialog window
• Fixed Camera Lights to be hidden, and set to be used, when created
• Fixed regression for automatic headlamp, used for models with absolutely no illumination
• Added a warning to the install if a license is not eligible for the new version

KK18 - November 18, 2011

• Added 'Synch SketchUp Materials' to make is easy to reuse Materials, using Loand Save buttons on the Options/More tab.
• Fixed rendering of distorted textures projected onto surfaces. Added "Special Surface Texture Processing" option to Support dialog Settings tab to enable this.
• Fixed HDRi tab Preview function to show newly selected HDRi image.
• Fixed HDRi tab Preview 'Return to Select' button not always working.
• Fixed Bug Splats occurring when closing SketchUp, if "Show material editor Preview" was checked.
• Fixed the View buttons on the 'Make Tileable' to use the default program selected to "open" images..

KK04 - November 4, 2011

• Fixed material bug for some nested faces where we were not getting the reverse transformation correctly.
• allow lower case license numbers when checking and validating license numbers
• Stop displaying "IRender Lite" any where

KK02 - November 2, 2011

• Fixed regression on Select Material dialog which caused SketchUp materials to not be selected and placed.

KK01 - November 1, 2011

• Fixed Treemaker plant rotation and scale problems.
• Checked for additional bad characters in texture file names. (e.g. *)
• Fixed animation bug when saving each scene change as a separate movie.

KJ25 - October 25, 2011

• Quietly Switched to using QuickPDF library for 3D PDF

KJ19 - October 19, 2011

• Don't allow object properties for IRender Lamp
• Fixed regression where faces could not be selected for edits such as "Edit Object Properties", if the face had no Material Texture.

KJ18 - October 18, 2011

• Fixed regression where transparency no longer worked with background images, if background reflection was disabled

KJ17 - October 17, 2011

• Fixed Background Image position through glass, if Reflection and Distortion were both turned off.

KJ13 - October 13, 2011

• Fixed changes applied to Background Image Brightness and Position after the rendering had been viewed in Native Image Format
• Added a dialog for browsing for the nXt Material Libraries location.
• Fixed Browse folder location when saving images from the rendering window.
• Fixed color of nXt ArMaterial Library grasses in SketchUp material texture

KJ10 - October 10, 2011

• Added a check box to lighting channels to quickly turn them on and off without losing the slider settings.
• Added a right click edit for making tileable textures in SketchUp
• Add Brightness and Contrast for rendered foreground image to Background Wizard .

KI30 - September 30, 2011

• Fixed transparency for windows in the Background Wizard when run from within SketchUp.
• Add Perspective Distortion mode to the Background Wizard

KI29 - September 29, 2011

• Fixed a problem where the new Background Wizard was causing bug splats when run from within SketchUp.\
• Fixed a problem with auto-horizon for backgrounds

KI27 - September 27, 2011

• Added Background Image Preview/Position button to the Options/Background tab from within SketchUp
• Added Distort Image transforming for background images for adjusting perspective
• Added a Make Tileable tool to the Material Texture dialog, to create repeatable texture images more easily.

KI02b - September 14, 2011

• New Install only. Fixed regression to broken nXtPlantEditor. Cannot use 271 toolkit version, won't load plant, includeded 261 toolkit version plant .exes in install

KI02 - September 2, 2011

• Fixed tiled nXt Materials with one very large scale, such as exterior siding
• Add a dynamic visual editor for positioning background images

KH24 - August 24, 2011

• Fixed scale for tiled nXt Materials, such as CMU and Brick materials
• Dropped the Manual Background option, since background images are now working correctly.
• Fixed Scale factor for Background Images.
• Fixed Rotation setting for Cylindrical and Spherical Background Images.
• Fixed Reflection for Planar HDRi Background Images.
• Improved enabling for some controls on the Background tab, and dropped Opaque from the IRenderBatch dialog.
• Added Import Panoramic Image Conversion function to the HDRi sky tab.

KH19 - August 19, 2011

• The logic to add people who use trial versions to the database was not working properly.

KH16 - August 16, 2011

• Changed version number to 4.0
• Add Codec choices for Animations
• Show transition between section planes in Animation Scenes
• Show Sun Shadow transitions between Animation scenes
• Fixed License dialog access from Plugins menu

KG22 - July 22, 2011

• Fixed a regression in rendering RPC objects, texture images were not being found
• Added a couple more search paths for finding of the RPC Content manager

KG15 - July 15, 2011

• Fixed a bug that was causing the rendering engine to crash on some machines.
• Add the ability to save and reload views from the rendering window, using our new OpenGL display window.

KG06 - July 6, 2011

• Fixed regression with AR3 material, which were no longer being applied during the rendering
• Fixed selection of an HDRi sky to also set sky type to HDRi

KG05 - July 5, 2011

• Fixed Auto Image. Image being saved was too bright

KF28 - June 28, 2011

• Fixed material color for edge lines and faces using the default material
• Added View Rotate Toolbar button for changing the view in the render window

KF06 - June 6, 2011

• Fixed registry location regression with AccuRender nXt Library Trees and AR3 trees with the 64 bit Renderer

KF02 - June 2, 2011

• Fixed Image AutoSave to save files in IRender Documents folder, not RPS 3D PDF folder
• Fixed Image AutoSave to save files before starting the next pass

KE31 - May 31, 2011

• Fixed registry location problem with AccuRender nXt Library Trees with the 64 bit Renderer

KE27 - May 27, 2011

• Added Volumetric Fog
• Added Dispersion to solid , transparent objects
• Fixed autosave files to save JPEG comments

• Fixed bug where the nXt tab would not load in IRender Batch
• Fixed bug where the number of seconds was stopping a rendering even if "no limit" was set.

• Added locking of Automatic Luminance to allow lighting channel changes without automatic adjustments in scene brightness.
  See: Automatic Luminance
• New features for ArielVision - See: ArielVision Features

KE26 - 5/26/2011

• Fixed Self Glow
• Fixed Rendering Images in Components to only create a single material

KD27 - 4/27/2011

We fixed the following in Export to 3D PDF:

• License Button removed from 3D PDF dialog. Authorization is not needed for 3D PDF from IRender nXt
• Fixed incorrect calculation of Logo height and U3D position when using metric units.
• Included files needed for the PDF Preview to work

KD25 - 4/25/2011

We fixed the following in Export to 3D PDF:

• We now use correct the FOV for 3D PDF views.
• Fixed a font bug that was causing 3D PDF to fail.
• We improved calculation of the the rotation spin center.

KD22 - 4/22/2011

• A fix for not finding RPC Content Manager files, after a new installation of the RPC Content Manager.
• Various bug fixes for the new RPS 3D PDF interface.

KD18 4/18/2011

• Fixed Trial Mode message for 3D PDF for nXt
• Removed option to save PDFs for U3D or HTML files

KD13 4/13/2011

• Fixed persistence of options on the Save Rendered Image dialog
• Use last settings when creating a new 3D PDF
• Fixed display of Thumbnails on the Select Material to Place or Edit dialog

KD11 4/11/2011

• New save image wizard after rendering - See: Saving Rendered Image
• New Interactive 3D PDF Output for presentations - See: Create PDF
• Added check box to set sun, sky or ground without showing current state in SketchUp.
• Changed some factory defaults to match high dynamic:
  • Set Studio Brightness to false always (it was true for high dynamic lighting)
  • Turned on Sky illuminates if off and Sky reflected if off for default.
  • Interior lighting is off for defaults

KC23 - 3/23/2011

• Allow saving of Alpha PNG Files for Animation
• Make all animation single image files when no transition is set
• Fixed bug where Planar HDRi was not working
• Fixed bug where cylinder backgrounds were not working
• Added a third slider to lighting channels to allow more fine tuning with up-down arrows (1, .1, and .01)
• Fixed bug where .HDR and .PNG files were not being shown when browsing for background images
• Fixed a bug in RpTreeMaker, where the images for the SketchUp components were not correct

KC11 - 3/11/2011

• Fixed Foreground Image tab "Use Edge Lines for Foreground" option

KC04 - 3/4/2011

• Fixed Foreground Image tab 'Apply' button to apply changes to the rendered image without having to re-render

KC02 - 3/2/2011

• Added Image Filters - Sharpen, Smooth your image, or apply other filters.
• Fixed bug where lighting channel was not being set properly for new lamps.
• Added up-down sliders to the brightness control -
• Fixed unintended Colorization of textured materials when using the Material Editor
• Fixed errant Display of 'Beta' in stable version on Trial period dialog

KB09 - 2/9/2011

• Fixed black line at top of Render Window.

KB07 - 2/7/2011

• Fixed a problem when using the Reset button on the Tone Operator dialog, when not editing a nXtImage.

KB04 - 2/4/2011

• Fixed a problem with animations when running on a 64 bit machine.

We also removed most of the toolbar buttons on the animation rendering dialog that should not be used when animations are rendering. We left the Options button on the toolbar, but even it should not be used to change options during an animation, only to query the settings.

KB03 - 2/3/2011

• Fixed a problem with RPC object rendering when running on a 64 bit machine.

We also added a checkbox to the support dialog, to switch to 32 bit rendering if you encounter another issue with the 64 bit batch renderer.

KA28 - Jan 28, 2011

• Combined Post Processing and the nXt Image Editor into a single interface. See Image Editor
• Fixed a problem with the "Add to Model" button in the Select Material to Place or Edit dialog
• Fixed the install to warn the user if a reboot is necessary after the install

JL29 Beta - Dev 29, 2010

• Fixed a regression where Animations no longer worked, due to the batch folder not being set properly.

JL27 Beta - Dev 27, 2010

• Fixed a problem where Import Changes from the Batch Renderer was coming up too often.
• Fixed a bug where rendering was restarting twice if initialized with render button on Setup dialog in the batch renderer.

JL16 Beta - Dev 16, 2010

• Fixed some bugs in the Brightness slider and Tone Operator
• Fixed some bugs in HDRi background images
• Added HDRi conversion brightness parameters.
• Fixed a bug with the Material Texture Tab Bump control.

JL08 Beta - Dec 8, 2010

• Added Material Channels to change the colors of materials after rendering
• Added Planar HDRi Backgrounds
• Added Contrast to the Tone Operator
• Fixed bug when creating Arroway and other texture Set materials
• Fix bug where lamp colors were displaying as black on lamp wizard.

JK01 - November 1, 2010

• Fixed bug when trying to render models with images.
• Fixed problem loading trees from the library and creating new trees
• Fixed scaling of plants to match scaling of Components in SketchUp
• Added nXt plants to the 3D warehouse

JJ20 - October 20, 2010

• NxtImageEditor wasn't working in the last release
• NxtPlantEditor wasn't working in the last release
• Fix for 2D RPC objects
• Fix for animations where scenes contained hidden layers
• RpTreeMaker wasn't working for Plants loaded from the RPS Plant Libray

JJ15 - October 15, 2010

• Alpha Channels objects supported in Path Tracer
• Fixed problem using Caustics with Packet rendering mode.
• Fix problem where the close button on setup or stop rendering button is starting a rendering again.

JJ06 - 10/6/2010

• Forced all rendering sizes to be an even number of pixels
• Fix a bug when rendering with "indexed" .PNG files.
• Batch Settings wizard allows you to create a new folder when browsing folders.
• Fixed dialogs referring to ArImage to use nXtImage
• added a new option to Auto Image to save both nXt and JPG format at the end of the rendering

Version JI28 - Sep 28, 2010

• Added Lighting Channels dialog to rendering window.
• Added NXt Path Tracer rendering engine option.
• Added Linear Lights
• Added feature to adjust background to match horizon
• Fixed bug where colored mirrors were not marked as metallic.
• Fixed bug when extracting edge lines for foreground overlay while rendering to a different size.
• Fixed autosave to save .nXtImage files when desired.

• Fixed a bug when an image returns a nil value for the image name.

Apr 13, 2010 - JD13 - Stable and Beta release

• Now read Lumens properly from models saved with old versions
• Fixed bug with material on two sided faces in groups (when all faces in the group were the same material).
• Fixed Image Autosave to correctly save ArImage files for the nXt Image Editor.
• Fixed regression where Options/nXt tab was not appearing in version IC29.
• Added Autosave to the Image Setup Tab to save images while rendering.
• Fixed a ruby bug when UV coordinates for material textures are not real numbers.

Mar 10, 2010 - JC10 - Beta release

• Create SketchUp material to match .ArMaterial when loading library materials
• Added setting for Sun Highlight
• Improved Check for Updates on Startup dialog to show current version and versions available.
• Added the ability to replace an unused computer with a new one.
• Added value boxes to sliders for manual input of values.
• Added ability to resume a stopped rendering. See: Resume Rendering
• Added No Light Source Reflections material property

Feb 25, 2010 - JB25 - Stable and Beta release

• Fixed rendered display for 2D RPC objects that were rotated.

Feb 23, 2010 - JB23 - Stable and Beta release

• Fixed Material Editor when returning from editing a material Leaf.
• Stop material editor from colorizing SketchUp material when color is not changed.

Feb 22, 2010 - JB22 - Stable and Beta release

• Add export to nXt Image Format

Feb 18, 2010 - JB18 - Beta release

Added Light Channels for Material with Illumination Added Progess Bar for export to nXt Image Format

Feb 15, 2010 - JB15 - Beta release

Add export to nXt Image Format

Feb 5, 2010 - JB05 - Stable and Beta release

• New Version 3.0 release
• New 30-day trial for Version 3.0
• Automatic Rendering of Arroway Low Res Materials from .SKP library
• Browse Button for setting Focal Length
• Fixed problems with Auto Bump
• Fixed the Default Material tab when re-editing materials. Properties for the new Default material were not being applied.

Jan 26 - JA26 - Beta release

• Fixed problems with nXt Ground Plane and nXt Default Materials in the Material Editor
• Enabled the Default Material tab when editing materials from the Render Window.

Jan 22, 2010 - JA22 - Stable and Beta release

• New Plant and Material libraries. About 3,000 new materials and 40 RpTreeMaker plants.

To use the new libraries you will have to download and install them.

See: IRender nXt Libraries

Other changes

• Better Wizard for loading materials from the IRender nXt Libraries .
• Created new Material Libraries with more about 3,000 materials.
• Added 100 Arroway Textures to Material Libraries
• Changed word Shininess to Sharpness for blurry reflections
• New Texture Set Wizard for creating materials from multiple image maps.
• Fixed bug where lighting presets were not being loaded properly with a saved model
• Fixed Advanced Material Editor save file error, when launched from Render dialog

• Fixed tabs for the Material Wizard not displaying for some users
• Fixed Texture Bump control values not sticking when toggling between bump types
• Added button for User Libraries to the Load Material from Library dialog

• Edit Material Dialog - The same dialog is now used for editing materials while in SketchUp and from the Rendering window.
• Edit Material Preview - To make editing materials a faster and more stable operation, we have temporarily removed the preview window on the edit dialog. For now, you can still see the rendering preview by clicking in the advanced button.
• Edit Material List - We added a list control to the edit Material dialog, to allow editing of several materials without having to locate the materials in the drawing. This list is not shown by default, and can be turned off if it takes too long to populate when a drawing has a large number of materials. Different icons are used in the list to indicate glow, transparency, daylighting, and reflection on each material in the list. Materials that have never been edited are shown as a simple square.
• Edit Material Defaults - The Default Material buttons are now displayed on a tab that only is available when creating a new material.

2009 and earlier

• See: Older Versions Previous Years

See also

• IRender nXt