newbie user to Raylectron

Raylectron (https://Raylectron.com) is a 3D rendering engine for Trimble Sketchup (https://sketchup.com)
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sgregory123
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newbie user to Raylectron

Post by sgregory123 »

Ok, this is probably going to be really easy....but cant seem to find the answer anywhere. When I finish my light model in Raylectron...how do I get it back into sketchup? Im using sketchup pro 8. I followed the tutorial to a t and got my light working...just cant get it back in to my skp file!

thanks
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Re: newbie user to Raylectron

Post by Support »

Well, that's the thing, if you make changes at render time (not in Sketchup), then you'll have to manually enter the same settings in Sketchup.
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sgregory123
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Re: newbie user to Raylectron

Post by sgregory123 »

you mean the lighting settings? Like the brightness / etc? Where do I enter said settings. I have used sketchup for years for other porjects but this is my first time with adding simulated light sources. I am adding a street light as well as illuminating headlights for a vehicle in a night scene.
sgregory123
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Re: newbie user to Raylectron

Post by sgregory123 »

I am still trying to figure out how to get the illumination in my skp scene...It all looks great in Raylectron render; but no matter what materials I edit I cannot get the illumination in sketchup...Im sure i am missing something quite easy but its driving me batty!

I am doing an animated scene depicting a walk through of an outdoor scene at night. Would love the quality of the rendered model during that animation. Is that possible or are the renders just for static scenes?
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Re: newbie user to Raylectron

Post by Support »

The brightness, contrast etc. is only for the render output and you do not set this in Sketchup. If you edit your material settings, then yes, you also need to update those in the Sketchup Raylectron material editor.

But I think what you're trying to do is have the render look in your model? That's not possible, hence the need for a render.

In Sketchup, when you create your street lights (or any lights), simply use the Raylectron material editor (off the Sketchup toolbar of the View/Raylectron menu) to make the light an emitter. It will not do the illumination in your skp scene nor will it do animation.
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sgregory123
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Re: newbie user to Raylectron

Post by sgregory123 »

ok, now I am getting this rendering thing! So its not possible to render and entire scene and do a walk-through then export it to an avi? its more just for still images?

as for the lighting in the scene, guess I will have to figure out something else as changing faces to emitters does not seem to be working....
sgregory123
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Re: newbie user to Raylectron

Post by sgregory123 »

below are the differences I am seeing.
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this is the model view
this is the model view
Capture.JPG (24.04 KiB) Viewed 31597 times
This is the sketchup scene.....
This is the sketchup scene.....
effinger animated3 shaded(1).jpg (510.58 KiB) Viewed 31597 times
sgregory123
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Re: newbie user to Raylectron

Post by sgregory123 »

this is an actual crime scene that I am trying to build and utilize in court. I am trying to get this all built up and pitch to my agency for use as exhibits during trial
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Re: newbie user to Raylectron

Post by Support »

It looks like you may have your light emitter set to 90 degree, I would change that to 180 because it's not a spot light. The glass face of the light fixture for example, should not be glass but the emitter itself for better performance.

There are some who do animation, but basically what they do is render each frames. So if a frame takes 5 min to render, and you need 10 frames per secs, then it'll take a very long time. If you have a top of the line video card, say with 1,000 or more Cuda cores, then some renders can do this in real time.
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sgregory123
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Re: newbie user to Raylectron

Post by sgregory123 »

Im running a GTX 460 as my GPU. Not exactly top of the line but hopefully it wont take me weeks to render this.

so, what would be your suggestion as to how to render this and animate it? Would I just continually export the images from the render program and then use something like movie maker?


I love the quality of this program, just taking a bit of getting used to what i can do here that I cant do in sketchup. Just to clarify, I will never be able to see the illumination in sketchup....just in the rendered version?
sgregory123
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Re: newbie user to Raylectron

Post by sgregory123 »

just in case I am doing something wrong to not see the lighting in sketchup, this is what I have set
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Re: newbie user to Raylectron

Post by Support »

The setting looks correct to me. Now when you click on the Render button and your scene loads in Raylectron, click on Lighting and then select Path Tracing, then select Artificial lights and Direct Illumination, then click on Render. Does the car headlights illuminates correctly?
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sgregory123
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Re: newbie user to Raylectron

Post by sgregory123 »

yeah they do. I just have nothing in my sketchup program
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Re: newbie user to Raylectron

Post by Support »

Here is a video on how this works. But remember, you won't see them in Sketchup itself...
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HowToMakeLightEmitters.wmv
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sgregory123
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Re: newbie user to Raylectron

Post by sgregory123 »

awesome, thats exactly what I have been doing and thats why its been working on the renderer, just not seeing the light source on sketchup. For some reason I thought these two tied into eachother as so I would be able to see the light in the skp file after creating the material via Raylectron.

Now I will just have to figure out the best way to render it all and create my own animation once all my lights are adjusted.

Thanks a ton for your support! Great program!
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Re: newbie user to Raylectron

Post by Support »

I sent you a private message...
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