Rendering in Sketchup 2017

For all the users of Twilight Render (V1 & V2), to ask questions and get started
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Gary9450
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Joined: Mon Dec 30, 2019 11:08 pm

Rendering in Sketchup 2017

Post by Gary9450 » Mon Dec 30, 2019 11:17 pm

I use Sketchup 2017 to create house models. When I use Twilight Render v.2 to render, the black outlines in the models disappear in the rendering process. I desperately need those outlines, so is there any adjustments I can make in T.R. v2 to make those lines show up?

Fletch
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Re: Rendering in Sketchup 2017

Post by Fletch » Tue Dec 31, 2019 10:31 am

Subject: Lines dont show
Chris wrote: Mon May 13, 2019 6:25 pm There is no problem (likely). Twilight Render is a "photorealistic" renderer, which means it attempts to render things as close to a real physical object as possible. Since SketchUp's lines aren't "real", they aren't rendered.

There are ways to produce a non-photorealistic render that includes SketchUp's linework. The easiest way is to use Twilight Render's overlay feature which overlays the SketchUp image with the final render. You can learn about it here: https://www.twilightrender.com/index.ph ... te-overlay. It does require Twilight Render Pro, however.

The other method is to use "edge lines". In SketchUp, open the Twilight Render Material Editor and choose the material where you want your lines to appear. Click the "Advanced" drop down and check the box marked "Enable Edge Lines". By default, all the lines are enabled. But you can choose to only render lines on certain "creases" by changing what's called the "Hard Edge Angle". At 0, all lines are rendered. As you increase that to 90 degrees, it requires a sharper and sharper crease for the line to be drawn. You can play with that to reach the desired look.

Otherwise, it is possible to create an overlay effect in an external image editor (Photoshop, GIMP) by combining the render and an export of the SketchUp image.

Gary9450
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Dec 30, 2019 11:08 pm

Re: Rendering in Sketchup 2017

Post by Gary9450 » Wed Jan 01, 2020 9:53 pm

Fletch,

I thank you for the explanation. Maybe I should have told you I am using the free version of Twilight Render v2. Even with following your directions I could get the lines to appear in a correct way: at first, it seemed like lines would only appear on materials separate from other materials. If they were connected in any way, the lines disappeared. I spent considerable time trying different settings, but nothing worked. And for some unknown reason, all lines now appear in the renders but as very thick lines (even though I set all controls back to default or closed Sketchup & reopened). Taking the render into Affinity Designer and applying an overlay of the edge lines worked perfectly, but I was really hoping to complete everything inside Sketchup without an external graphic editor. Many thanks, though, for the help you have provided!

Fletch
Posts: 12897
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Re: Rendering in Sketchup 2017

Post by Fletch » Sat Jan 04, 2020 1:04 am

Gary9450 wrote: Wed Jan 01, 2020 9:53 pm
Taking the render into Affinity Designer and applying an overlay of the edge lines worked perfectly, but I was really hoping to complete everything inside Sketchup without an external graphic editor. Many thanks, though, for the help you have provided!
We offer Pro version for doing overlays in SketchUp for this precise reason, to help pros sell their designs to clients and skipping the external graphic editor.

There are, again, multiple ways to get the lines to appear, and it sounds like, as a beginner, you will need to give yourself some time to learn to use them to your best advantage.

Understand that the lines SU displays are directly related to the display size used, so increase render resolution to make lines smaller. Lines in SU only appear thicker as "profile" edges. (What we used to call in the architectural rendering field "spatial edges" - because they were at the edge of geometry and had "space" behind them.

Sketchup's Styles dialog is where you define size of line thickness for profiles and edges. Seek help from SketchUp to learn to create the style of edges you desire.

If you are creating edges using edge lines function in the material editor of Twilght Render, you will need to make sure you actually create the geometry in such as way your material will display the edges. To coplaner surfaces sharing an edge will not display the edge line, you will need to model an edge.

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