SketchUp - Version History

Owned by Systems Next Limit (Unlicensed)
Last updated: 29 Apr, 2024 by Next Limit
7 min read

Version v5.2.4 - 29 Apr 2024

COMPATIBILITY:

  • Added support for SketchUp 2024

 

Version v5.2.3 - 06 Mar 2023

COMPATIBILITY:

  • Added support for SketchUp 2023

FIXES:

  • Updated the library file libeay32.dll in Maxwell Render installation.

 

Version v5.2.2 - 24 Feb 2022

COMPATIBILITY:

  • Added support for SketchUp 2022

 

Version v5.2.1 - 06 Jul 2021

COMPATIBILITY:

  • Built for Maxwell Render 5.2.1.49

IMPROVEMENTS:

  • The gizmo of the Spot, Projector and IES lights are now a bit different so the origin of the light coincides with the apex of the spot cone, the projector pyramid or the first disc of the IES gizmo (it was not like that before).

  • The HDRI, Projector and IES lights are now created with a sample file assigned by default so they work right away.

  • Maxwell Render denoiser "Feature Influence" parameter default value is now 0.25 so it better preserves the texture details.

FIXES:

  • The default preview scene was missing; it now shows the right one.

 

Version 5.2.0 - 09 Mar 2021

COMPATIBILITY:

  • Built for Maxwell Render 5.2.0.45.

  • Added support for SketchUp 2021.

IMPROVEMENTS:

  • New Denoiser implementation in Maxwell Render. Only one pass is needed, the denoiser information is now stored in the mxi file as another channel, better memory management for the denoising process, and more consistency in general.

  • New Denoiser options in the Scene Manager > Output tab > Denoiser section:

    • New Tiling option with maximum tile size option.

    • New fine-tuning options: Color Influence 1 and 2, Feature Influence, Final Pass, Filter Radius and Firefly Remover options. Check this link for more information: denoiser documentation page.

    • Denoiser output path has been removed as now it is treated as another channel, the denoised image is saved with the main output name + _denoiser.

  • New vector toolbar icons that now adapt to Hi-DPI screens.

 

Version 5.1.2 - 17 Jul 2020

FIXES:

  • The plugin was not working recognizing bundle licenses as valid ones.

 

Version 5.1.1 - 16 Jul 2020

COMPATIBILITY: 

  • Built for Maxwell Render 5.1.1.33

 

Version 5.1.0 - 13 May 2020

COMPATIBILITY:

  • Built for Maxwell Render 5.1.0.29.

 

Version 5.0.2 - 06 Feb 2020

COMPATIBILITY:

  • Built for Maxwell Render version 5.0.2.21

  • Added support for SketchUp 2020

IMPROVEMENTS:

  • Added Check for Updates functionality.

  • Added the check for updates option, Cloud Render and some missing light entities in the Maxwell menu.

  • Now, when a new light object is created from the toolbar, the Scene Manager opens in the Materials tab so you can modify its properties.

  • Now the instances of the Maxwell lights components (when dragging from the components list) also have the same emitter material applied and they actually work as instances (changes in their material affect all the instances).

FIXES:

  • Fire now stops instead of restarting when the scene is exported to Maxwell, Studio, Cloud, Network or to a file.

  • Importing assets from the 3D warehouse could crash SketchUp when the plugin was installed; in most of the cases this will work fine now but the fix is not 100% error-free (In any case, Trimble suggests the following: "Generally it is advisable to download components from the Warehouse into a separate blank file before you add them to your main project file. That gives you an opportunity to examine them to make sure they are OK. Also, you can get rid of unneeded geometry, materials, and layers before adding all that stuff to your main file." You can do this from Window > Model Info > Statistics > Purge Unused and Fix Problems. If it still crashes with Maxwell extension active, you can disable it, import and purge, save the file and import in the main scene; then it will work in Maxwell.

  • The plugin on Mac added one extra black material to the material list when adding the first Maxwell light from the toolbar.

  • The DOF tool didn't update fstop or shutter camera values.



Version 5.0.1 - 20 Nov 2019

COMPATIBILITY

  • Built with Maxwell 5.0.1.16 SDK

FIXES

  • The installer for MacOS sometimes didn't ask for write permission in Finder.

  • Improved notarization for MacOS Catalina.

  • Some context menu features were missing (UV Coordinates, MXS Reference,...)

  • Hide from Scene (main hide flag) was missing from the Object Properties panel.

CHANGES

  • Updated the links to the new documentation in the toolbar and Fire window.

KNOWN ISSUES

  • SketchUp updated 3D warehouse to 2.0. Importing objects from it may crash SketchUp.

  • Importing a material from the online gallery may add an additional black material on the Mac version.

Version 5.0.0 - 30 Oct 2019

Compatibility

  • Windows: Windows 7 (Until January 2020, when Microsoft will stop supporting it) and Windows 10 both with 64 bit SO (x64).

  • MacOs: MacOS 10.12 (Sierra), 10.13 (High Sierra), 10.14 (Mojave) and 10.15 (Catalina)

  • Dropped support for MacOS 10.11 (El Capitan) as it's not supported by SketchUp.

New features

  • New GUI Fire window design.

  • New Maxwell 5 icons.

  • New Maxwell Cloud feature.

  • Added support for Multilight Groups in emitters.

  • Added Multi-GPU selection in Scene Manager > Output tab > Engine panel when selected GPU as Engine.

  • Added new Light Creation tools in the main Toolbar to ease the light creation; these tools include the creation of:

    • Area rectangular emitters

    • HDRI emitters

    • Omni emitters

    • Spot emitters

    • Image projectors

    • IES emitter
      NOTE: It is not recommended to scale spots, projectors or IES emitter non-uniformly as the results can be odd. There's no problem in scaling them uniformly.

Changes

  • Moved Hide features from the right-click context menu to Object Properties panel when an object is selected.





Version 4.2.4 - 14 Jan 2020

  • Added support for MacOS Catalina (10.15). The software has been "notarized".

  • There are no changes on Windows so the version number has not been modified (it is kept as 4.2.3).

Version 4.2.3 - 27 Aug 2019

  • Added support for SketchUp 2019.2 (On Mac, we suggest to use this version of the plugin with SketchUp 2019.2 or later and using the previous version (4.2.2) if you are using older versions of SketchUp 2019; if you are using SketchUp 2018, 2017, 2016 or 2015, you can use 4.2.3 without problems).

  • Known issues: on El Capitan (MacOS 10.11), if you are using SU 2019.1 or older, which is not supported by Trimble, you may get a crash if you launch Fire; once you launch a render or choose a folder to save the output it won't happen anymore. We decided to keep it like that as it's not very likely the users have that combination of OS and SketchUp.

Version 4.2.2 - 10 Apr 2019

  • Added support for SketchUp 2019

Version 4.2.1 - 21 Feb 2018

  • Update to Maxwell 4.2.0.3.

Version 4.2.0 - 09 Feb 2018

  • Update to Maxwell 4.2.0.2.

  • Add Triangle ID channel.

Version 4.1.8 - 27 Nov 2017

  • Add support for SketchUp 2018

Version 4.1.7 - 27 Jul 2017

  • Update to Maxwell 4.1.1.1.

  • Change Grass default blade type to Flat.

  • Add missing "Grow toward Y" Grass parameter.

Version 4.1.2 - 19 Jun 2017

  • Update to Maxwell 4.1.0.4.

Version 4.1.1 - 08 Jun 2017

  • Update to Maxwell 4.1.0.3.

  • Change installers to include embedded Maxwell installer.

  • Change plugin to use central Maxwell installation.

  • Add support for Altus Denoiser.

  • Allow negative threads value.

Version 4.0.6 - 12 Feb 2017 

  • Update to Maxwell 4.0.0.18.

Version 4.0.5 - 17 Dec 2016

  • Update to Maxwell 4.0.0.12.

Version 4.0.3 - 28 Nov 2016

  • Update to Maxwell 4.0.0.11.

  • Add support for SketchUp 2017.

Version 4.0.1 - 02 Nov 2016

  • Update to Maxwell 4.0.0.8.





Notes marked with [RS] reflect aspects which only apply to the Maxwell Render Suite plugin for SketchUp (i.e. not included in the Standalone plugin SA). In Maxwell 4 this distinction does not exist anymore; all versions are full-featured.

Version 3.2.5 - 03 Feb 2016 

  • Update to Maxwell 3.2.1.2 binaries.

Version 3.2.4 - 28 Jan 2016

  • Update to Maxwell 3.2.1.1 binaries.

  • Improve mxm/gallery import error reporting.

  • License activator is now started as admin.

  • Installer .app was not signed correctly.

Version 3.2.3 - 27 Nov 2015

  • Add support for SketchUp 2016.

Version 3.2.2 - 05 Nov 2015

  • Update to Maxwell Render 3.1.1 binaries.

  • Image Projector material Character was not working

Version 3.2.1 - 27 Oct 2015

  • Update to Maxwell Render 3.1.1 binaries.

  • Image Projector material Character was not working

Version 3.2.0 - 02 Oct 2015 

  • Apple changed something in El Capitan, causing calls to update the export progress bar to take far longer than the export itself. This build avoids making those calls when running on El Capitan, so it will export as fast as normal, but there will be no feedback indicating the export progress.

Version 3.1.6 - 30 Sep 2015

  • Update to Maxwell 3.2.0.0 RC1 libs.

Version 3.1.3 - 20 Apr 2015

  • Update to Maxwell Render 3.1.1 binaries.

  • Image Projector material Character was not working

Version 3.1.1 - 21 Feb 2015

  • Update to Maxwell 3.1.1 binaries

  • Extra Sampling feature was not working from the plugin

Version 3.1.0 - 20 Jan 2015

  • Update to Maxwell 3.1.0 (RC1) binaries

Version 3.0.995 - 09 Dec 2014

  • Update (Win only, OSX is still on version 3.0.994) to fix crash on SU2013

Version 3.0.994 - 01 Dec 2014

  • Update to Maxwell 3.0.99.4.

Version 3.0.993 - 26 Nov 2014

  • Now supporting SketchUp 2015 (64-bit only)

  • Add Spotlight Emitter Character

  • Add Camera Response

  • Add Exposure Presets

  • Add Floating Shadows (FIRE)

  • Add Floating Reflections (FIRE)

  • Add White Point

  • Add Tint

  • Add Render Zone

  • Add Global Displacement/Dispersion flags

  • Add Hide to Camera in Shadow Ch. [RS]

  • Add Release License function [RS]

Version 3.0.15 - 05 Sep 2014

  • Switched to the Maxwell Render 3.0.1.3 SDK.

  • Added a new Maxwell Scatter feature.

  • Added Maxwell Sea Wind Speed parameter.

  • Added material Shadow & Matte switches.

  • Improved installer logic on Windows.

Important Note

  • Maxwell 3.0.1.3 is crashing with MXS References containing instances; this also affects MXS References used in the plugin, as well as the new Maxwell Scatter feature, which operates in terms of MXS References. The workaround is to disable instances when exporting an MXS intended to be used for referencing (which is not generally a bad idea, regardless). Since the Standalone plugin has no option for disabling instances, the workaround there is to fully explode the SKP model.

Version 3.0.11 - 04 May 2014

  • Fixed text encoding issues on SketchUp 2014.

  • Maxwell FIRE links now open in a new browser.

Version 3.0.10

  • Performance improvements in material/texture handling.

  • Fixed an issue with the Windows installer.

  • Fixed encoding issues under SketchUp 2014.

  • Fixed an issue with Material ID being set to grey. [RS]

Version 3.0.5

  • Updated to use Maxwell 3.0.1 binaries.

  • Metal Character now supports alpha clipping.

  • MX::Settings.bind_node_to was not passed correctly. [RS]

Version 3.0.4

  • Added support for SketchUp 2014.

  • Implemented a new unified installer for OSX.

  • Added Density parameter for Noise 3D Volumetric.

  • Referenced MXM & MXS files are now included in Pack & Go. [RS] 

  •  Image Based Environment offset was using radians.

  • Volumetric was setting the wrong Density parameter.

  • Switching Volumetric to Noise 3D and back caused an error.

Version 3.0.1

  • Added Material ID color material parameter. [RS]

  • Added enable/disable switch for Object ID color. [RS]

  • Changed installer tech on Windows, unifying all versions.

  • Displacement maps were not included in Pack & Go. [RS]

  • Camera Lens Type was not updating with Scene changes.

  • Grass was not rendering in the absence of Maxwell Render Suite.

  • Maxwell FIRE could crash when using the Draft engine on OSX.

  • Path-fixing in MXM Gallery downloads could fail in some cases.

  • Zero-thickness Maxwell Sea & Volumetric are now auto-corrected.

Version 3.0.0

Scene Manager

  • Added new Opaque Character.

  • Added new Transparent Character.

  • Added new Translucent Character.

  • Added new AGS (now Assistant-based) Character.

  • Added new Metal (now Assistant-based) Character.

  • Added new Car Paint (now Assistant-based) Character.

  • Added new Image Projector Character.

  • Added Texture Mirroring parameters.

  • Added Texture Rotation parameter.

  • Added Texture Hue parameter.

  • Added Camera Lens type parameter.

  • Added Custom Sun Type and Color parameters.

  • Added Sun Radius Factor parameter.

Object Properties Window (new)

  • Object Opacity.

  • Boolean parameter.

  • Object ID color. [RS]

  • Post-export normals smoothing.

  • Render-time Subdivision.

Maxwell Sea Window (new)

  • Produces a sea surface generated using RealFlow technology.

Maxwell Volumetric Window (new)

  • Produces a Constant Field or Noise 3D procedural volumetric.