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From left to right, the commands are as follows:
Command | Function |
|---|---|
Rendering & Export | |
Render | Exports the scene to an MXS file and renders it using Maxwell Render. |
Export to Studio | Exports the scene to an MXS file and opens it for editing in Maxwell Studio (this button might be greyed out if there's no Studio license available). |
Network Render | Exports the scene to an MXS file and renders it using the Maxwell Network Rendering system. |
Maxwell Fire | Opens or closes the Maxwell Fire window. |
Export MXS | Exports the model to an MXS file. |
MXM Functions | |
Browse for an MXM file | Allows you to browse for an MXM file from the local disk. If Maxwell Render Suite is installed, Maxwell MXED will be used for browsing; select the desired MXM file by double-clicking on it in the browser. Otherwise, a standard file browser dialog will be shown. |
Browse the MXM Gallery | Allows you to browse for an MXM file from the Maxwell Render MXM Gallery. If Maxwell Render Suite is installed, Maxwell MXED will be used in MXM Gallery browsing mode. Otherwise, the plugin will attempt to navigate to the online MXM Gallery website in your default browser. |
MXM Status Report | Shows a list of all materials and the status of their MXM paths. |
Lights | |
Create Area Light | Creates a ready-made square area light of 1m side with an Emitter material type assigned called “Area Light”. |
Create HDRI Light | Creates a ready-made square image-based area light of 1m side with an HDRI Emitter material type assigned called “HDRI Light”. It requires an image to be loaded in the HDRI Emitter slot (otherwise, it will work as an area light). HDR, EXR or MXI formats are recommended as they will look better than LDR images as PNG or JPG. |
Create Omni Light | Creates a ready-made spherical area light with a diameter of 0.1m with an Emitter material type assigned called “Omni Light”. |
Create Spot Light | Creates a ready-made spotlight with a Spotlight material type assigned called “Spot Light”. |
Create Projector Light | Creates a ready-made projector (similar to a film projector) with an Image Projector material type assigned called “Projector Light”. It requires an image to be loaded in the Image File slot of the material (otherwise, the projector gizmo will be visible in the render). |
Create IES Light | Creates a ready-made IES-file-based light with an IES Emitter material type assigned called “IES Light”. It requires an IES or LDT file (photometric file) to be loaded in the IES Emitter slot of the material (otherwise, the projector gizmo will be visible in the render). |
Scene & Camera | |
Scene Manager | Shows the plugin's Scene Manager window. |
Object Properties | Shows the plugin's Object Properties window. |
Select Tool | Provides an eye-dropper for selecting the materials of entities in the model. |
Set DOF, Z-Clip, or Z-Buffer | Prompts for two points in the scene and once chosen, adjusts either the camera's DOF (Depth of Field), Z-Clip Planes, or Z-Buffer distances. |
Set Focal Distance | Prompts for a single point which, once chosen, is used to set the focal distance of the camera. |
Maxwell Grass | Shows the plugin's Maxwell Grass window. |
Maxwell Sea | Shows the plugin's Maxwell Sea window. |
Maxwell Volumetric | Shows the plugin's Maxwell Volumetric window. |
Maxwell Scatter | Shows the plugin's Maxwell Scatter window. |
Insert MXS Reference | Prompts you to choose a Maxwell MXS file, which will then be inserted into the model as an MXS Reference. |
Help & Info | |
Plugin Manual | Opens the plugin's PDF manual page in general documentation site. |
About | Opens the plugin's About box, which contains information about the currently installed plugin. |
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These parameters are divided into four main categories, Materials, Camera, Environment, and Output, each of which is contained in a tab in the Scene Manager. Then, there’s a fifth tab for plugin configuration Options.
3. The Maxwell Fire Window
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When the rendering is finished, the image may be saved by clicking the Save Image button. However, it is usually the case that Maxwell Fire serves as more of a scene - setup tool, with final rendering being done using Maxwell Render itself.
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The commands here allow you to enable the various Maxwell Hide-from flags on a SketchUp entity, to decide how the faces it contains will be separated, and to decide whether or not to you would like to override SketchUp's UVs for the entity. Additionally, there are commands for exporting or rendering just the selected entity.
5. Included Assets
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All versions of the plugin are provided with a set of assets, which may be found in Maxwell's installation directory. These assets are organized into several sub-directories:
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