Product Reviews

Since its takeover by Google and the launch of the 3D Warehouse, SketchUp has become a bit of a 3D phenomenon. While its capabilities have been greatly enhanced by plug-ins, out of the box SketchUp still doesn't do photoreal rendering, relying instead on a more sketchy presentation.

IDX renditioner is a plug-in that changes all that - it aims to give one-click photorealistic rendering, from within SketchUp. This circumvents the rigmarole of having to export from SketchUp in a certain file format, import into a 3D program, re-setup the lights, fix broken materials and so on. IDX Renditioner announces its presence by posting a small palette of nine buttons containing three render levels (Preview, Standard and Presentation), Save image, Light Attributes, Environment, Image Size (which can be up to 16 megapixels), Render Settings and Help. One-click rendering is promised, and that is, by and large, what you get.

Since IDX Renditioner takes SketchUp's sun position as its primary light source, you can use that to light your render, and it uses all materials as supplied in the SketchUpmodel. You can, however, take it further than that. In SketchUp's Component browser you'll see a new tab - IDX Renditioner lights.

The application takes a novel approach to implementing lights, since SketchUp doesn't have a native light type. Basically, anything that's a component in SketchUp can be made into a light source - the 'lights' in the component browser are really only geometry.

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If you right-click on a component, you'll see two new items at the bottom of the drop-down menu - IDX Renditioner Material and IDX Renditioner Light Attributes. This then allows you to set the characteristics for the light type: point or spot (area and linear lights are not yet supported).

You also get a comprehensive list of light types - halogen, metal halide, mercury vapour and so on - all with their power output and colour temperatures set. You can drag one of the supplied lights from the Component browser, but you could just as easily design your own geometry, turn it into a component and assign light attributes to it.

Exterior lighting conditions can also be set, from Clear Sky, Hazy, Cloudy, Overcast, then the same options for twilight and finally Full moon and Half Moon.

IDX Renditioner takes the bitmaps supplied in SketchUp as the basis for its materials. Right-clicking an object and choosing IDX Renditioner Material brings up the materials dialog, where you can assign a surface type to the material - Glow, Matt, Plastic, Varnished, Polished, Metal (dull), Metal (polished), Mirror, Glass and Water (the latter adds ripples to a surface). Bump mapping is available separately for each finish and uses the SketchUp bitmap. One thing missing, however, is a materials preview - you have to render to see your results. It's all very straightforward, but some users may prefer a little more control.

Since IDX Renditioner uses global illumination and final gathering in presentation renders, the quality of the light can be quite beguiling, with realistic shading drop-off in the shadows. The renderer is also multi-threaded, and used all eight processors in a Mac Pro. One thing that needs to be addressed, however, is animation: there isn't any. The ability to have a photo-real animation in perfect sync with its SketchUp counterpart would be quite something.

IDX Renditioner aimed to make rendering SketchUp models simple, and they've mostly succeeded with the task. The current exchange rate also makes it pretty good value for money.