Raylectron deletes images from my SU model when rendering

Raylectron (https://Raylectron.com) is a 3D rendering engine for Trimble Sketchup (https://sketchup.com)
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jonaskvale
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Raylectron deletes images from my SU model when rendering

Post by jonaskvale »

I'm really frustrated with this - I'm trying to use Raylectron to do some smartphone renders I have designed, and the png images I have imported into my SU model only sometimes show up in the renders. Almost always, when I click to Render from the Raylectron toolbar, it deletes the images in the actual sketchup model, and then proceeds to render without them showing up. Even if the images don't disappear from my SU model, they still won't render most of the time. I can't find any issues like this online. Why can't I render my models with the images??
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Re: Raylectron deletes images from my SU model when rendering

Post by Support »

Which version are you using? is it possible for you to PM the model or any other model that I can test and see why this is happening?
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jonaskvale
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Re: Raylectron deletes images from my SU model when rendering

Post by jonaskvale »

I just freshly installed the latest version, and I'm using the latest sketchup. I'll link my model on Google Drive here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-WP2p ... sp=sharing

Also keep in mind that this model isn't quite done, but I just wanted to see about how it would look when rendered, and my problem kept happening.
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Re: Raylectron deletes images from my SU model when rendering

Post by Support »

ok let me give it a try and see what happen and fix it. I'll get right back to you...
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Re: Raylectron deletes images from my SU model when rendering

Post by jonaskvale »

Awesome! Thanks
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Re: Raylectron deletes images from my SU model when rendering

Post by Support »

ok, the problem is, that picture is glued to the face it's on, so it occupy the same exact space. So draw a rectangle the same as that picture and delete the face, this will make a hole on the black surface under the picture. Now it will come out properly in Raylectron. Convert that image to an Emitter so it looks like a light.
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Re: Raylectron deletes images from my SU model when rendering

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Here is one we did a while back ago to give you an idea...
iPhone.png
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jonaskvale
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Re: Raylectron deletes images from my SU model when rendering

Post by jonaskvale »

The problem is - that for the home buttons and the camera pngs that the rest of the image is transparency, so I could delete the surface of the rectangle, but then you could see underneath the camera and home buttons into the model.
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Re: Raylectron deletes images from my SU model when rendering

Post by Support »

ok, then unglue the picture and move it up away from the black face so it doesn't touch it. Best way is to edit the picture and make a black background and save it again as non-transparent, then load it again in Sketchup and Explode it so it is part of the black face so there is no more 2 faces but only one.
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Re: Raylectron deletes images from my SU model when rendering

Post by Support »

For the arrows, the best is to draw them on the black face and paint the shape. For the display, you can cut out the black area because the picture has nothing transparent in it.
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Re: Raylectron deletes images from my SU model when rendering

Post by jonaskvale »

How do you explode it to make it part of the black face? I'm confused.
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Re: Raylectron deletes images from my SU model when rendering

Post by Support »

Here is what I did, I traced the picture, deleted it, then paint the shape, no more double face on top of each other...
2015-05-30_142110.png
2015-05-30_142110.png (126.51 KiB) Viewed 29444 times
2015-05-30_142245.png
2015-05-30_142245.png (76.72 KiB) Viewed 29444 times
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Re: Raylectron deletes images from my SU model when rendering

Post by Support »

>How do you explode it to make it part of the black face? I'm confused.

When you right click on the picture, you can explode it, and because the back face is already exploded, both faces will simply merge. You don't have to do that, just trace the icons at the bottom like I did, and cut out the black area for the display picture and you're all set.
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Re: Raylectron deletes images from my SU model when rendering

Post by jonaskvale »

Hmm tracing the icons seemed time consuming, so I tried exploding the image but it just disappeared...
I wish this would be a little like iRendernXt, where it automatically imported images into the render as they were placed in sketchup, no extra tweaking needed. But that engine costs almost $300...
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Re: Raylectron deletes images from my SU model when rendering

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Here is your model back, with the cut out and the tracing of the icons so you can see what I did. It rendered fine in Raylectron in just a few minutes. All I did is convert the display picture to an Emitter, did the same with the white icons, set shine=20 to the black area and also to the gray casing, used Light/Env as light source in Illumination, changed the environment map from the default to "Photo studio with umbrella" and that's it, here's how it turned out...
wp2render2.png
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Re: Raylectron deletes images from my SU model when rendering

Post by jonaskvale »

Ok I think I see. Thanks!
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Re: Raylectron deletes images from my SU model when rendering

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> I wish this would be a little like iRendernXt, where it automatically imported images into the render as they were placed in sketchup, no extra tweaking needed. But that engine costs almost $300...

You were simply lucky it worked. In real life, when there are 2 faces occupying the same space, no render can detect which comes first, for example, a point in 3D space at 10,20,30 and another on top of it at 10,20,30, which one is suppose to be the visible one? it depend on randomness.
Tracing the icons took me 30 seconds using the line tool.

Beside, it's never a good idea to have 2 faces occupying the same space because a render engine like Raylectron uses the geometry for proper illumination and if the geometry is not how it would be in real life, the render will not look real as well. The phone actually has a LCD display covered by a glass, they are touching to your eyes, but if you look with a microscope, you'll see they are not touching in the sense that they occupy the same space. Anything in real life that touch something still have a spacing between, even if very small, and that's important for correct rendering. In Sketchup however, when something touch something else, they merge. And often you can see in Sketchup when rotating that a face changes colors, that's called z-fighting because even Sketchup can not determine which face to display.
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Re: Raylectron deletes images from my SU model when rendering

Post by jonaskvale »

I've made several renders with iRender using png images, and never had a problem...
It allows pngs and other objects to occupy the same space, in my experience. (I used the 30 day trial).
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Re: Raylectron deletes images from my SU model when rendering

Post by Support »

It could be because it loads the triangles last for images and it makes them the first to query. Nonetheless, it's simply wrong to have 2 faces occupying the same space because there are unnecessary triangles the engine has to process. it's always best to delete faces that are not exposed. Images loads fine in Raylectron, even transparent png, it just doesn't like the 2 faces in the same space.
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