Overview

The Best Productivity In Photorealistic Rendering For SketchUp

Version 2 includes many changes including SketchUp 7-8 support, better image quality, and much greater integration with Google SketchUp.

IMSI/Design have released IDX Renditioner v2 which supports both SketchUp 7 and SketchUp 8 for the PC.

Version 2 includes many changes including SketchUp 7 support, better image quality, and much greater integration with Google SketchUp.

That deeper SketchUp integration includes support for materials applied to multi-level nested components and groups as opposed to only supporting materials applied to faces. This is critical for properly supporting Dynamic Components, a powerful new feature of SketchUp 8.

IDX Renditioner Product Benefits

Great productivity. Get a fast ROI from immediate productivity gains. Easy to use, runs in SketchUp, allows for quick previews, and fast multi-threaded renders.

Get started fast

• Easy to learn. The user interface was designed to be SketchUp easy. Does not use advanced rendering jargon. Render settings are driven by presets optimised for different conditions.
• Easy to use. One-button render provides useful results in many cases. Material finishes are selected by drop down. Texture is added by selecting "bumpiness" of an object, and the reflectance can be fine-tuned using a slider...
• Flexible. Any SketchUp component can be made into a light source. Simply right click on a component and select the type of light and bulb.

Get results faster

• Runs inside SketchUp. You don't have to export the model and open it in another application.
• Changes can be made to the model quickly between renders.
• Quick preview renders allow for rapid revision. Using simple preview modes allows for tweaking and perfecting the model, finishes, lighting, and more prior to final presentation renders.
• Multithreading renders are fast. Whether multi-core or multi-CPU machines, two cores can render about 40% faster, while 4 and 8 core machines may cut render times by 70-80%! (Results vary by model and settings.)

Easy to revise

• Simply make changes to your SketchUp model and re-render. Being a plug-in means changes to the model can be done quickly without impacting render settings. No need to export the SketchUp model, open it in another application, re-apply materials and light settings...
• Collaborate in mixed PC and Mac offices. All material and light setup is saved in the model, and both the PC and Mac versions work in the same way so that collaboration is easy.

Presentation quality

• Photorealism combined with great light control can create powerful emotional connections. Supports 16 megapixel images for large print sizes, while quality is outstanding in electronic form as well.

High quality results

• Quality images, large sizes. Supports 16 megapixel images for large print sizes.

Great lighting effects

• Realistic lighting. Use the SketchUp sun, or moon, position for day or night.
• Expressive lighting. Easily add and modify lights to create effects that emphasize elements of the design or create emotional environmental conditions.
• Balanced lighting. Select lighting condition for clear, twilight, cloudy, overcast, full moon, half moon, or no moon. Set sun position, and dim the sun for balanced creative effects.

Materials can be adjusted for precise affects

• Uses SketchUp materials. All SketchUp materials already applied in the model are used, including bonus pack materials and custom materials made from imported .jpg files.
• Apply material finishes from dropdown. A simple dropdown menu allows finishes such as Matte,
• Metal - dull, Metal - polished, Mirror, Plastic, Polished, Varnished, Glow, or Water to be selected.
• The level of reflection of any material finish can be adjusted with a reflectance slider.
• Determine the texture with ease. Select from smooth to very bumpy, and whether you want to reverse the bumps. Renditioner creates a bump map directly from the material so that brick mortar can be inset or extruded, or stone provides a feeling of real depth.

Control the environment

• Match sky to conditions. By selecting a lighting condition (clear, twilight, etc) all background colours are changed to create the right effects. This can also be manually overwritten for precise control.
• Use a background photo for added realism. A background photo with sky, hills, and trees; or showing the ceiling of a trade show, or the background of a theater can all place the model into a very real context.

Powerful
Express your design vision without compromise. Numerous features are streamlined or automated, yet still available as needed.Many advanced features are built in.

• Most effects realised without granular command exposure. Number of light bounces, number and size of samples for bounces are optimized based on three or four render settings for the size of the render, size of the scene, lighting characteristics, and more.
• Quality rendering standards incorporated. Images calculated using ray trace rendering with some conventional progressive radiosity for global illumination with final gathering. Different settings cause changes to level of specular gathering, gathering smoothness, bounce accuracy and much more.
• Expansive light controls. Direction, Sun, or Sky lighting can be dimmed or changed by environment. Artificial lights can be point (omni) lights or spot lights. Spot light cone angle is easily adjusted. All lights directional access set with standard SketchUp controls. All lights have sliding dimmers, quantitative control over lumens, colour selector for light temperature or to simulate light gels. Includes over 30 basic light fixture components, and dozens of bulb types such as incandescent, halogen, fluorescent, sodium, metal halide, and more.
• Curves appear smooth with analytic anti-aliasing. Settings ignore or apply anti-aliasing to greater degrees from preview to presentation levels.

Features

IDX Renditioner includes controls for material finishes, lighting, environments, and more. Default settings are optimised for quality renders right away. Small quick modifications allow for much higher quality renders quickly. Performance and ease-of-use are balanced to provide quality output quickly, and without the need to be a rendering expert. This allows even the rendering and visualisation professional to be highly productive in creating expressions of their design.

Ease of use

• A one-button render often provides quite good results. Simply move the model in SketchUp to get the desired view and select one of the three render modes (Preview, Standard, or Presentation).
• Changing the render size is as easy as dragging the render window to the desired size, or entering pixel values (with proportions constrained or not).
• Changing lighting effects can be as easy as flipping a switch or sliding a dimmer. Truly advanced effects are not difficult compared to other rendering systems either.
• Material finishes are applied simply by selecting the material, right clicking, and selecting desired finish (matte, mirror, polished, etc) from a drop down.

Render modes

• IDX Renditioner has three basic render modes: Preview, Standard, and Presentation.
• Render settings for each button can be set to change the Image Quality and Lighting Accuracy.
• Default settings allow for very quick renders in preview mode, a quite reasonable and useful level of quality in Standard Render mode, and very high levels of quality in Presentation Mode.
• Settings for the Scene Size (Site, Building, Room, Large Object, Small Object, or custom) and
• Lighting Characteristics (Exterior, Interior, or Studio) affect numerous quality controls behind the scenes in order to remove complexity and present the best possible configuration for the appropriate scene.

Lighting controls

• Natural Lighting, coming from the SketchUp sun position, can be turned on, off, or dimmed.
• Natural Lighting and Artificial Lighting can be placed in balance using the Natural Lighting dimmer.
• The Natural Lighting position from the SketchUp sun position can be overridden so that an exact direction and elevation can be used.
• Natural Lighting uses pre-set colour tone mapping based on the Lighting Characteristics selected.
  • Lighting Characteristics include Clear Sky, Hazy, Cloudy, Overcast, Twilight - Clear, Twilight - Hazy, Twilight - Cloudy, Twilight - Overcast, Night - Full Moon, Night - Half Moon, and Night - Overcast.
• Artificial Lighting is applied to SketchUp components.
  • Any SketchUp component can be turned into a light fixture.
  • IDX Renditioner includes more than 30 SketchUp component light fixtures.
• Artificial Lighting can be turned on, off, or dimmed by individual light.
• Spotlight cone angles can be set from narrow to wide on a sliding scale.
• Light types that can be selected include:
  • Point Lights (omni lights) that emit light in all directions.
  • Spotlights that present a cone of light in a direction set using the SketchUp component axis command.
  • More than 60 various bulb types in point or spot configurations and of different wattage settings that include:
    • Incandescent
    • Halogen
    • Flourescent
    • FL - Cool White
    • FL - Full Spectrum
    • FL - Warm
    • Sodium
    • Mercury Vapour
    • Metal Halide
  • Each light type has a preset power and color based upon the wattage selected.
• Any light's intensity can be manually set to a desired value (in lumens).
• The colour of the light emitted can be changed. This is useful in calibrating the light temperature from a bulb type based on the environment, or to simulate coloured gels.

Material controls

• IDX Renditioner uses SketchUp materials. They can be standard materials, bonus pack materials, or materials created from imported images.
• Changes to SketchUp material positions, or material scale are read directly from SketchUp so that what you see comes to life.
• IDX Renditioner also creates a bump-map to add depth to a texture by automatically selecting the dark and light highlights. This activity is hidden from the user.
• The amplitude of bumpiness for a texture is set from perfectly smooth to quite rough using a sliding scale.
• Texture bumps may be reversed so that, for example, the grout on a brick wall can be convex or concave.
• Translucent SketchUp materials are automatically given a degree of transparency based on the level of opacity set in SketchUp. (Note that IDX Renditioner does not yet recognise alpha channel transparency in imported materials or images applied as textures.)
• Every material can have a finish applied to it. Finishes include Glass, Glow, Matte, Metal (dull), Metal (polished), Mirror, Plastic, Polished, and Varnished. The default value for all materials is Matte. The reflectance of any material finish can be adjusted using a reflectance slider.
• Changes to a material bumpiness or finish are shown in a material preview window.

Environments

• Based on the Sun/Moon lighting conditions selected, the background colours are automatically selected to match the lighting.
• Background colours can be overridden for the SketchUp colours.
• Custom colours may be defined. For example in a studio environment perhaps an all-black or all-while background is desirable.
• A photographic image can be used as well. Photographs are rendered at infinity behind the model, and are scaled to the render window size horizontally and vertically.

Productive and powerful

• IDX Renditioner supports multi-threading for multi-core and multi-CPU machines. A dual core CPU machine will see on average a 40% faster render than if a single thread was used. An 8-core machine can see an 80% reduction in time, completing renders 5 times faster than with a single thread. Results vary by system, model complexity, lighting, and finishes applied to materials.
• Achieve your design visualisation faster with great ease of use and intuitive, jargon-free interface.
• Under-the-hood power comes from ray trace rendering with some conventional progressive radiosity for global illumination and final gathering. Different settings cause changes to level of specular gathering, gathering smoothness, bounce accuracy, and much more.

What's New in Version 2

Changes fall into three main areas:

(1) SketchUp support. This version includes support for SketchUp 7 and SketchUp 8.

(2) Quality. We have made numerous changes to improve the overall image quality. Mac users in particular will see some big improvements, and all users will see greater control over the final output.

(3) Ease of use. We have gone much further to support SketchUp files the way you model them. Now you can render what you model instead of having to make model changes specific to your renderer!

SketchUp Support
Version 2 can be installed in SketchUp 6 and/or SketchUp 7. We have gone further than simply installing in SketchUp 7 but have made fundamental changes to support the main features of SketchUp 7, in particular Dynamic Components. See Ease of Use below.

Image Quality
Overall rendering quality is much better with v2 than it was with version 1.0, particularly for Mac users. On the Mac version we have added improved anti-aliasing, corrected the colour temperature of environmental lighting, and lots of smaller adjustments.

On both the PC and Mac versions we have improved our IDX Material Attribute settings and have added a material finish Reflectance Slider. This allows you to select a finish such as Polished or Metal Dull, and fine tune the level of reflectance.

We have also improved the quality of the material preview so that the new overwrites the old providing a view of the difference as changes are made.

We made many other improvements and fixed a number of bugs.

Ease of Use
With the Mac version we have added a material preview to the IDX Material Attributes dialog. This helps you see the impact of your changes before rendering.

With both the PC and Mac versions the material preview now uses multithreading on multicore systems to show those changes more quickly and speed your model preparation.

Improved memory management supports larger files than before.

Deeper SketchUp integration supports a better, faster workflow. You can render what you model, so you don't have to model for your renderer:

• Materials applied to multi-level nested components and groups, as opposed to individual faces, render correctly. Supports Dynamic Components without having to explode them for the material to be applied to the faces. This is critical for SketchUp 7 support, because exploding a dynamic component is an act that breaks the component's intelligence, losing the dynamic aspect.
• Imported Images render as they appear and don't have to be exploded and used as a texture.
• Use either side of faces without concern for "Normal" and "Reverse" sides, and support for different material on both sides.
• Material texture changes made through the SketchUp material window are fully supported. When using the new Combine Textures command in SketchUp 8 the new texture takes on default IDX
• Material attributes for a predictable result.
• SketchUp Styles sky and ground colour changes are properly supported when the SketchUp colours are selected for use in the Environment settings.
• Proper camera position is supported for all views and perspectives. (Note, December 10, 2008: there are some SketchUp 6 models that when rendered in SketchUp 7 may shift the view; typically this can be corrected by updating the scene and style settings in SketchUp 7. We are still trying to identify when and why this happens so please let us know if you see anything.)
• SketchUp sun position can be overridden more easily and accurately when needed, for example when selecting a position for moonlight that differs from an accurate Sun position.

Uses of IDX Renditioner

How can IDX Renditioner be used?
The product bridges the gap between enthusiasts and professional users. SketchUp users that require rendering include:

• Architects -- use SketchUp for conceptual modeling, then use IDX Renditioner to present photorealistic expressions of your design to potential clients. Others in the process may also need the best rendered images to present to planning groups, the community, and others. Customer leave-behinds can be printed in larger formats due to the 16 megapixel maximum image size.
• Architectural Visualisation Professionals - many individuals performing architectural visualisation have very advanced software and advanced skills in creating the best renderings. This tool may allow them to create renderings much faster and at less cost for those clients that have a limited budget. A highly productive low cost renderer like IDX Renditioner can open the market to a broader range of potential clients.
• Interior decorators - prepare renderings for conceptual designs and use a photorealistic rendering to present to potential clients the transformation that's possible and express your vision.
• Lighting design professionals - for presentation to potential clients. Rendered images can convey the expression of your designs and help close the sale. IDX Renditioner performs well with numerous lights in the model, and lets you select the lumens and colour temperature for each light. The large 16 megapixel maximum image size means lighting detail can be seen in printed images that convey the power and emotion that great lighting can produce.
• Art departments for film and theatre -- Art Directors, Production Designers, set designers, and others use SketchUp for a variety of purposes. Photorealistic rendering helps communicate the design vision to all who need a better feel for the final environment.

Why buy IDX Renditioner?

• Be professional - the large 16 Megapixel image sizes allow for larger print-outs for presentation. The full version is much faster due to multithreading which fully utilises your multicore, multiprocessor PC or Mac.
• Create moving photorealistic renderings - faster means more what-ifs, better results, and larger images produce more detail; so apply creative lighting, material finishes, and improve the power of your visual communications.
• Achieve your visualisation goals quickly - we have eliminated almost all the custom modeling required for rendering, so one-button is often enough. No exporting from SketchUp, no exploding components or groups and messing about with faces... Just render, optimise, then get the results you need quickly with high performance multi-threading.
• Receive a quick Return On Investment (ROI) - great results from day 1, with little to learn. "One button" results are often good enough, and great results are achieved with less learning, less effort, in less time.
• Enjoy how much fun it is! - take your SketchUp models to another level. Create realistic or artistic results. Experiment with advanced lighting options. Have fun transforming your models, and watch the renderings unfold before your eyes.!

Screenshots

Requirements

MAC :

• Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard), 10.6 (Snow Leopard), *10.7 (Lion)- Recommend making sure the latest Service Pack of your OS X version is installed. Renditioner will run on 64bit Mac OS X, but it will run as a 32bit application
• Intel Compatible CPU; ~1 GHz processor.
  1 GB RAM.
• 300 MB of available hard-disk space.
• 3D class Video Card with 256 MB of memory or higher, minimum OpenGL 1.4 support. The video card drivers should be up to date. By default Renditioner targets the recommended specification, but has options to target a range of card capabilities.