Quick Sketchup Tutorial

[Gwenda Arguin]

Inthis video tutorial series, Boyan Petrov, 3D artist at Chaos, demonstrates the essential steps to create stunning photorealistic renders and animations for your SketchUp projects with V-Ray. All scenes and assets are available for download to help you practice.

Learn how to take real-time Enscape projects to V-Ray 6. V-Ray reads Enscape materials, lights, and compatible assets, and allows you to build on your work by fine-tuning components or substituting them with hi-res equivalents.

Learn how to add the right clouds for your scene using the procedural clouds in V-Ray Sun & Sky system. Control their type, variety, density, and height, and animate beautiful timelapses for your sun studies.

Use the new scattering tool to quickly and easily add extensive entourage. Add hundreds, thousands, or even millions of Chaos Cosmos models and objects to any surface without encumbering SketchUp or Vision. Control their density, size, and orientation and create realistic terrain for your exterior scenes.

A stock SketchUp install is pretty great, but sometimes you need some extra tools to get the job done. This section will contain reviews of and tutorials for the extensions that can make SketchUp even better!

Importing Google Maps into your SketchUp Models

One of the most powerful tools in SketchUp is its ability to interface with Google Maps and Google Earth. This tutorial will teach you how to import and utility Google geographic data in your models.

Using the SketchUp View and Navigation Tools

Being able to confidently move around in SketchUp can save you hours in the long run. This tutorial will teach you how to use the basic view and navigation tools in SketchUp so you can navigate the 3D space with ease.

Drawing a 3D Doghouse in SketchUp

This SketchUp lesson will give you step by step instruction on how to create a 3D model of a dog house in SketchUp (this example model was suggested by the two canine members of the SketchUp Essentials team).

Modifying 3D Objects with the SketchUp Scale Tool Tutorial

This tutorial deals with the more advanced aspects of the scale tool, like resizing 3D warehouse objects, resizing single faces, and working with mirrored components.

Drawing 3D Shapes and Floor Plans with the SketchUp Push Pull and Offset Tools

This tutorial will teach you how to use the push pull tool to create 3D shapes, as well as walking you through using the push/pull tool in conjunction with the offset tool to quickly create 3D floor plans in SketchUp.

Extruding Shapes Along Paths with the SketchUp Follow Me Tool

The follow me tool is one of the more confusing tools in SketchUp, but it is also one of the most powerful. This tutorial will teach you to use the follow me tool to extrude objects along paths, allowing you to create objects like pipes, cabinet doors, wood base, and many other objects.

This section contains tutorials for using SketchUp to create more advanced models. These lessons are a little more in depth and require a slightly greater understanding of the software than the tutorials above. However, they are step by step and easy to follow, so they are still intended for everyone!

Creating Curved Letters on a Sign Without Plugins

This tutorial will teach you how to create lettering that curves along with the face of a curved surface without having to use any plug-ins.

The Basics of Rendering with Shaderlight

There are many third party plugins for SketchUp intended to help you create realistic renderings. This post will teach you the basics of using Shaderlight to create photorealistic renderings.

A quick note before we get started - while many of the features and functionality covered will apply to both Enscape for Mac and Windows, please refer to our dedicated Enscape for Mac guide if you are on a Mac device and using SketchUp.

Since Enscape uses ray tracing for real-time rendering, it relies heavily on your graphics card (GPU) to quickly render your models. You will therefore need a graphics card powerful enough for Enscape to run. You will need either an AMD or NVIDIA card with at least 4GB of dedicated VRAM (not shared).

To install Enscape, you will need the Enscape Installer. This will be sent to you via email if you have signed up for a free trial, have applied for an educational license, or if you have purchased an Enscape license.

Enscape provides a Help Menu to help you use the plugin. To access it, press the H key or the question mark in the upper right of your Enscape window. Depending on what feature you are using, you will see the appropriate hints and tips displayed.

This is where you can refine the look of your Enscape visualization, be it an image, video, or virtual reality experience. You may find yourself here when you are ready to export a render and want to create a specific look or if you just want to test different settings and see how they impact your visualization.

In Visual Settings, you can set up your camera, environment, and export settings. You can also define specific details, such as render style (white mode, for example), artificial and ambient brightness, and depth of field. You can adjust atmosphere settings, such as sun and night sky brightness, shadow sharpness, change the wind intensity, and much more.

You will see a window showing the selected material on the right and a list of all of your materials in your project on the left. Notice that the Enscape Material Editor accesses the same materials as SketchUp, and Enscape adds some information and functionalities.

You set up and apply a material in SketchUp, but you can edit it in the Enscape Material Editor. Here you can change the color, height (with bump, normal, and displacement maps), and reflections, which control how glossy an object will appear.

You can also import textures to help you set up your materials. There are many sites that provide high-quality free 3D textures, such as Poliigon.com or ambientcg.com. Check out this video tutorial at 19:09 to see how to do this.

Updating and replacing materials from the Enscape Material Library is possible from within the Enscape Material Editor. This helps you quickly view, test, and change materials in your model without having to replace them individually.

The Enscape Asset Library provides more than 3,000 high-quality real-time optimized models for you to enhance your scene with, and that list continues to grow as our 3D artists add more with every release.

To open the Asset Library in the Enscape render window, click the tree icon on the toolbar, or press the l key on your keyboard. This will open an interface that accesses the same Enscape assets as the Asset Library in your design application, even including any custom assets you may have added.

At the top, you will find the search bar and a magnifying glass button to confirm your search. Next to that, we have an infinity sign you can click to filter for the usual categories and your favorite assets and a tag icon to access the various tags and refine your search by.

Now, when exploring your design in Enscape, you can quickly add assets there and then, rather than going back to SketchUp. You can also rotate, scale, and place multiple assets with ease. For more information on this, take a look at our video tutorial.

You can pick a resolution for panoramas in the Visual Settings Output tab.

Panoramas are saved in the Upload Management interface that you can find in SketchUp. This is where you can upload your panoramas to the cloud so that they can be accessed from any device via a browser. You can also copy and share a QR code to allow others to view your panoramas by scanning the QR code.

There are additional options once you log into the Enscape License Center, such as creating a gallery or tour (take a look at this panorama tour that we have created!).

Apart from using Enscape to export images, panoramas, and videos, you can also export independent interactive standalone experiences and share them for free without the end-user requiring a license to view them.

To turn your Enscape visualization into a shareable experience, simply use the Exe button below. There are two types to choose from - the Exe standalone file and the web standalone file. Both are fully VR compatible, meaning that you can quickly create virtual reality experiences.

By clicking the web standalone button, Enscape will immediately begin uploading the Enscape scene to your cloud, where it can be viewed in a browser from anywhere in the world. Share the link with anybody or put it on your website.

If you'd like to share your visualization with someone using a machine that meets our system requirements, you can export an identical copy of Enscape by clicking the Exe standalone button. This will no longer be connected to your design application, so no editing is possible at this point.

To export an Exe standalone file, all it takes is a click of a button. Check out our video tutorial below to see how to customize it with your logo and branding.

This next video guide takes you through the process of setting up a nighttime exterior render for an arch-viz workflow. The simple workflow showcased reveals how you can use a variety of V-Ray lights for great-looking night renders.

This video tutorial now walks through how to set up an interior project for nighttime lighting. The guide will show you some quick examples of how to easily simulate moonlight as well as how to adjust your lighting and colors for maximum realism.

This next tutorial details the basics of materials in V-Ray Next for SketchUp. This simple video demonstrates how to use the Material Library to create, edit and apply various realistic materials, as well as how to edit preset materials and create new materials from scratch.

This quick start tutorial is an introduction to applying Podium materials to SketchUp faces and groups. This tutorial will also introduce you to EditInPlace, a utility for group and component editing. This tutorial can be used with the or can preceed the Quick Start Interior tutorial.

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