SketchUp - Menu and Toolbar
The plugin adds a new Maxwell menu to SketchUp's Plugins menu, and also a new Maxwell toolbar, with commands which duplicate most of those found in the menu. The toolbar looks like this:
Rendering & Export
Command | Function |
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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. |
Network Render | Exports the scene to an MXS file and renders it using the Maxwell Network Rendering system. |
Cloud Render | Exports the scene to an MXS file and packs it with all the textures and files needed to render it; then opens the Maxwell Monitor in Cloud mode and loads the MXS file so it can be sent to render on the cloud machines. Please, notice the Cloud Render is a paid service and the cloud time may be bought in our webshop. Here is more information about rendering in the Cloud: Maxwell Cloud. |
Maxwell Fire | Opens or closes the Maxwell Fire window. |
Export MXS | Exports the model to an MXS file. |
As a matter of course, rendering always involves exporting data from the SketchUp model into the Maxwell format. Depending on which of the above commands is used, an MXS file may be written to the location specified in the Output page, and subsequently, opened in Maxwell Render, Maxwell Studio, or the Maxwell Network Rendering system, as requested.
When the scene is to be rendered in Maxwell Fire, the exported data will be loaded into memory for rendering. It is possible afterwards, to write an MXS file directly from this data, rather than performing a completely new export from the SketchUp model. This may not always be desired, though, and this is the purpose of the MXS Cache Policy option.
Use these functions to export MXS files, rather than File > Export > 3D Model. These functions first synchronize data in the model, before then calling the exporter. If you use File > Export > 3D Model, this synchronization will not take place, potentially causing various issues with your exported MXS files (camera mismatches, outdated materials, etc).
MXM Functions
Command | Function |
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Open MXM file | Allows you to browse for an MXM file from the local disk. |
Open MXM Gallery | Allows you to browse for an MXM file from the Maxwell Render MXM Gallery. |
MXM Status Report | Shows a list of all materials and the status of their MXM paths. |
The MXM browsing functions are basically shortcuts for the following steps:
Creating a new SketchUp material
Editing that material in the Scene Manager
Switching the material to use MXM Mode
Linking the material to the chosen MXM file
These steps are what occurs when an MXM file is chosen, either from the local disk, or the Maxwell MXM Gallery.
Browse for an MXM File
This command starts Maxwell MXED in MXM-browsing mode. To choose an MXM file, double-click its thumbnail in the MXED view panel. When this is done, MXED will close, and the plugin will import the selected MXM file into the scene; a new SketchUp material will be created, and its Maxwell attributes will be set up to reference the chosen MXM file.
Browse the MXM Gallery
Similar to the Browse for an MXM file command, but uses MXED in its MXM Gallery Browser mode, allowing you to search for and download an MXM file from Maxwell's online MXM repository, the MXM Gallery. When you have located the MXM you would like to download, simply click the ‘Import’ button in the search window to import the selected MXM file into the Scene. The file will be downloaded and unzipped to one of three places:
If there’s an alternative path set in Maxwell MXED Preferences > Materials > MXM Gallery > Alternative Folder, the MXM file and textures will always be saved there.
If no alternative folder has been specified in Maxwell MXED, the MXM and its textures will be saved in a folder called “textures” next to the MXS output, which is:
If the SketchUp file has not been saved: <Documents>\Maxwell\output\
If the SketchUp file has been saved and no output folder has been set in the Scene Manager > Output tab: next to the SketchUp file.
If an output folder has been set in the Scene Manager > Output tab: next to the output files.
During this process, all files referenced by the newly-downloaded MXM will be copied to the destination directory, with the paths inside of the MXM file being altered to point to the new file locations, since many MXMs from the MXM Gallery contain paths which will not exist on your machine.
MXM Status Report
Shows a listing of all materials in the scene, along with the status of their MXM links:
MXM files and their directories are shown as hyperlinks; clicking them will open MXM files for editing in Maxwell MXED, or open their location in Windows Explorer or OSX Finder. MXM files that cannot be found are indicated as such.
Light Tools
The plugin offers this small collection of ready-made lights, however, you can create your own lights by assigning light-emitting characters to custom geometry. These are the lights you can create from the toolbar.
Command | Function |
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Area Light | Creates a ready-made square area light of 1m side with an Emitter material type assigned called “Area Light”. |
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. |
Omni Area Light | Creates a ready-made spherical area light with a diameter of 0.1m with an Emitter material type assigned called “Omni Light”. |
Spot Light | Creates a ready-made spotlight with a Spotlight material type assigned called “Spot Light”. |
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). |
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). |
Here is the default look of the different lights once inserted in the scene.
Area Light | HDRI Light | Omni Light | Spot Light | Projector Light | IES Light |
When you click on the button on the toolbar, a new component and material are created with the name of the corresponding light (Area Light, HDRI Light, etc.) and subsequent lights of the same type that are created will generate a new component and material and will append a number at the end of the name.
If you want to change the properties of the lights you have created, you have to do so in the corresponding material where you will find all their properties.
You can easily pick the material from a Light object in the viewport by using the SketchUp's Sample Paint picker:
Or using Maxwell’s material picker:
However, in this case, you have to press Alt key (Command key on Mac) to select materials from inside components or groups, so the cursor will change to this (on Mac the cube will look red instead):
The Area, HDRI and Omni lights admit to being scaled non-uniformly (and can be cut with different shapes if you open the component), however, it is not recommended to do so with the Spot, Projector and IES types as you may get some unexpected results. All of them can be scaled uniformly.
If you want to create an instance of one light, you can just drag the same component from the Components tray. The instanced lights will only create one slider in Multilight as they share the same material and will save some memory.
If you want different lights to be controlled by only one slider in Multilight, you can use the Multilight Group field in the Scene Manager > Material tab > Character section of the material. All the lights sharing the same group will be controlled by one slider in Multilight.
If you create a light object (so its component and material are created) and then you delete all its copies from the scene, the new copies of the light created from the remaining component in the Components tray won’t emit light. It will be needed to create a new light object or reassign the light-emitting material.
Scene & Camera Tools
Command | Function |
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Shows the plugin's Scene Manager window. | |
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. |