Rendering Tip - Improve Rendering Speed
The Setup Options dialog includes several options that can be used to manage rendering speed. Whenever circumstances necessitate completing renderings as quickly as possible, use the following list as a guide to help minimize the time needed to complete renderings of your SketchUp models.
Contents
SketchUp Scenes
Organizing a SketchUp model is important for any models that will be used to make renderings. Excluding any part of the model that is not visible and doesn't influence the lighting and/or reflection solution can significantly reduce rendering time.
Render Plants as 3D Components or 2D Images
Setup Options - Plants tab.
Whenever a plant is not a prominent part of the scene, 2D images render much faster than their 3D components.
Ground Cover
Limiting the area where ground cover is applied reduces rendering times.
See: GroundCover
Image Size
Setup Options - Render tab.
Large renderings take longer to complete than smaller ones. Remember that a 2000 x 2000 pixel rendering has a total pixel count four-times that of a 1000 x 1000 pixel rendering.
Before setting a size for the rendering, consider the intended use. For example, smaller renderings will display faster on your website. Whenever the primary concern for completing renderings is time, don't underestimate the advantage of a smaller image size.
Lights
SketchUp - Layers Tray
It's a good practice to organize groups of light fixtures using SketchUp layers. When a specific light or groups of lights are not included in the light solution for the rendering, turn the SketchUp layers off to render faster.
Lights Processed per Pass
Setup Options - Render tab.
Processing fewer lights during each rendering makes each pass render faster. Make sure however that a sufficient number of passes is specified to solve all of the lights in the model. Keep in mind as well that the lighting solution improves with each successive pass, so lighting from each source will benefit from multiple passes.
Process light bulbs on invisible layers
Setup Options - Lights tab.
If you are using SketchUp layers to manage and in some cases minimize the number of lights processed for the current scene, make sure that this option is disabled (unchecked).
Other Settings
Use Auto Daylight Portals
Setup Options - Presets tab.
Auto Daylight Portals is a rendering method that solves sun and sky lighting through openings (the sun through a window, for example) with fewer passes.
Use Indirect Lighting (reflected light)
Setup Options - Lights tab.
This option sets reflected light bounces, the maximum value is 4. The number of reflected light bounces does affect rendering speed, fewer bounces will render faster.
CPU Management
Setup Options - More tab.
Number of Threads to use for rendering may degrade the performance of other running applications however using all available CPU cores does improve rendering performance.