We have two related new features to share with you this month.

Ground Plane Textures

The first is a new, easy way to put textures on your ground plane for rendering.

You can select any material already in your model, or any SketchUp material, or any IRender nXt material to use as the ground plane material.

For the image below, I created a new material with a sand texture, mirrored it with the Make Tileable Wizard , and set it as the ground plane material.

Sand Material as Ground Plane

• See also: Ground Plane Textures

Sky and Ground Preview

And the other new feature is a way to preview the Sky and Ground without needing to extract and render your complete model.

Sometimes, the SketchUp image, without rendering, placed in front of the Sky and Ground will work very well for your presentations.

(The image below took less than 60 seconds to create, because for many exterior models, you do not need to extract and render the model itself to show it in context.)

SketchUp Model in front of Ground Plane and Sky

• See also: Ground Plane Preview

Other tips:

• Background Wizard
• Realistic Water
• Lighting Video