Given below, are the details of some best rendering software and plugins for SketchUp.

VRAY

It is an easy-to-use plugin that supports SketchUp. Vray can produce stunning photo-realistic renderings out of SketchUp, VRAY. Inside VRay, there is a material editor as well as other useful tools which can be applied to generate pro-quality images and animations.

VRAY can operate in SketchUp free of cost with some powerful options and settings. Vray can transform your 3D visualization process to the next level.

JointPushPull

JointPushPull refers to a useful modeling plugin that includes 6 particular tools for transforming your model perfectly digital. The tools range from joint, round, vector, normal, extrude, and follow. If you have applied these tools in a perfect manner, they will reduce your modeling time significantly.

CurviLoft

CurviLoft is a useful SketchUp plugin that can be used for developing curvilinear models. There are 3 tools inside CurviLoft loft spline, loft along the path, and skinning. In fact, the tool has a similar functionality as the “follow me” tool instead of a simple extrusion along with a path feature. With this features, CurviLoft can associate two diverse shapes along a path. The plugin is best suitable for organic modeling.

Podium

Podium is the best substitute for vray that is compatible with SketchUp. With this powerful rendering and animation software for SketchUp, it is possible to generate beautiful and photorealistic rendering of your sketchup model.

Purge All

Purge All is a user-friendly and indispensible plugin that can maintain your model clean and organized in SketchUp by purging leftover Components, Layers, Materials and Styles. There exist an optional closing Report that provides numbers, or a Log file cataloging the names of the purged items This plugin is more powerful and accurate as compared to SketchUp?s default purging tools.

Twilight Render

It belongs to free rendering plugin that will provide you clean and correct image output and a good library of materials. It can easily convert any sketchup scene into photo-realistic images. Twilight Render is ideal for materials creation, lighting, environment, post-production, animation, and batch rendering. There are wide range of photo-realistic render settings like ray tracing, photon mapping, path tracing, bi-directional path tracing, metropolis light transport, clay/depth/alpha mask and more. It is free to use and compatible with sketchup.

Article Source: Easy Render

The post Top 6 Rendering plugins and software for SketchUp appeared first on SketchUpFamily.

SketchUp is useful right from the initial phases of the design to the completion of the project. We’ve compiled some of the best plugins will have a detailed discussion about them and their uses in 3d Modelling.

How to Install Sketchup Plugins

Once you’ve downloaded a .RBZ file from the innerwebs save it to where SketchUp can find it. By default, that location is your Sketchup/Tools folder. In older versions of SketchUp you’ll need to use your Sketchup/Plugins folder.

After your file is in that folder, close and restart Sketchup.

When you reopen SketchUp your plugin will initialize. Depending on the plugin, using its functions may vary.

Edge Tools

ThomThom’s handy palette of edge-related tools saves you time in multiple ways, enabling quick simplification of imported DWG site plans, the ability to split a face into multiple planes, and – most significantly – highlighting of imperfections so you can clean up your model in a flash of seconds.

Simplify Contours Tool

This Plugin allows you to select the topographic lines (Contours) and simplify them as much as you want/need. If you’re original topographic lines were splines in AutoCAD this is definitely a must, for your model.

Purge All

Purges’ your model of unused Components, Layers, Tags, Materials and Styles: its dialog makes each type optional: there is also an optional closing Report showing numbers, or a Log file also listing the names of the purged items.

Clean Up

A superb plugin to remove unnecessary coplanar edges and clean up imported geometry. This SketchUp extension can also be used to:

Fix duplicate component definition names (when in model scope)

• Purge unused items
• Erase hidden geometry

Angular Dimension

Angular dimension helps you measure the right angle. his tool comes under the features of marking dimensions in SketchUp. Whenever you need to mark a distance and angle in your model, linear dimension and angular dimension prove to be very useful.

Section Cut Face

If you are looking for a plugin to create your section slices in SketchUp you are in the right place. This plugin will create a group of the section cut you select and fill it up automatically.

Sketchy FFD

It is an exclusive SketchUp extension that includes a control cage to an object facilitating the mesh to be operated through control points.

QuadFace Tools

It’s an organic Modelling extension that allows you to create organic shapes. What it does is smooth out geometry to make it look more organic. The reason this is important is that it works best with shapes that are made out of quads, or 4 sided pieces of geometry.

LSS Matrix

It is an extension of Sketchup, which allows advanced copying of groups and component instances.

Mirror

This extension helps to select objects by picking 1/2/3 points to define a point/line/plane: then choose to Keep/Delete the original objects.

Fredo6: Bezier Spline

This extension draws a variety of Polylines, Bezier, and Spline curves, all in 3D. Version 2.1a fixes issues related to icon size.

Weld

Weld allows you to join multiple connected edges, curves, and arcs.

Selection Toys

Selection Toys is a set of commands to manipulate selections. Filter out particular geometry based on edge, faces, groups, and components. An extensive suite of tools that allows you to customize your toolbar as you wish using the UI Settings using Tools > Selection Toys > UI Settings.

Curviloft

Curviloft is a script dedicated to Loft and Skinning, that is, the generation of surfaces from contours. Loft by Spline joins separate contours, open or closed, by smooth splines. Loft along Path joins contours, along a given rail curve. Skinning creates surfaces bounded by 4 or 3 contiguous contours.

Soap and Bubble

The free plugin gives modelers the ability to easily create a multi-faceted face inside of a closed group of three or more lines. It’s as simple as selecting the lines, starting up the plugin, telling it how many faces you want the new face to have, and then sit back to watch it work its magic. The plugin also lets to inflate or deflate the new face after it has been created.

FredoScale

FredoScale is a plugin for Sketchup, Programmed by Fredo6, for Interactively applying a number of geometric transformations, such as Scaling, Tapering, Stretching, Plane Shear, Twisting, Bending, and Rotation.

With FredoScale one can orientate the selection box around a set of objects and interactively apply a number of geometric transformations, such as Scaling, Tapering, Stretching, Plane Shear, Twisting, Bending, and Rotation. By extension, some transformations can be done without a selection box.

Random Push Pull

Randomly Push Pull faces to a min and max value

CLF Shape Bender

Create a shape to bend. It must be a group or a component. Then select a single horizontal (red axis) line to use as the base for bending. Then select the curve that the shape will bend to match. Wait for it to think, then it will show a grid and preview of where your object is going to transform to. Press the Up-Arrow key to toggle the orientation of the bend.

Access the plugin via Plugins > Chris Fullmer Tools > Shape Bender, or there is a Shape Bender toolbar.

Multiple Offsets

As you start working with more advanced shapes in SketchUp, sometimes you need the ability to offset multiple faces at once, or the ability to offset edges multiple times with the same tool. This plugin allows you the ability to do both of these things.

Joint Push or Pull

Joint Push Pull is an extension from Fredo6 that contains a number of tools to expand the face extrusion functions in SketchUp. Practically, this means that you can now push pull multiple and curved surfaces within SketchUp. In addition, tools like Vector Push Pull allow you to extrude the footprint of a curved surface into a flat shape, and more!

Conclusion

The tools and plugins listed above are only the ones we believe are the most important or interesting to know for any user who wants to get started. One thing is for sure: For whatever project is there in hand there’s a SketchUp tool that can solve it in a highly efficient way.

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