SketchUp - FAQs

Top 5 FAQ

1. How do I set up lighting?

2. Can I use my license on more than one computer?

You can reactivate your license up to 2 times on different computers (unlimited times on the same computer)- by simply repeating the license activation process on the new machine as described here.

3. I am having trouble saving my rendered image.

Whenever there is an image available to save, the Maxwell Fire window's Save Image button will be enabled (it is the fourth one in the following image, with a blue 'disk' icon):

Clicking this button will bring up the Save Image dialog box. To save your image, it is necessary to enter the file name you wish to use, optionally including an extension indicating the type of image to save (i.e. image.jpg, image.png, etc). The available formats are:

.bmp
.tga|.targa
.jpg|.jpeg
.png
.tif|.tiff
.jp2
.ppm
.pbm
.pgm

If no extension is specified, the image will be saved as .png.

4. Why is SketchUp is crashing when I try to render in Maxwell Fire?

If SketchUp crashes when you try to render in Maxwell Fire, it is likely that you have run out of memory. This can be checked by using Task Manager on Windows, and Activity Monitor on OSX. Likely causes for such crashes include very large models, the use of very large textures (especially HDRIs in Image Based Environment), and the application of Maxwell Grass to large planes.

If you experience a crash which does not seem related to memory, first ensure that you are using an up-to-date plugin. The current version is always available for download here. Otherwise, it will be necessary for the development team to investigate. To do that, we will need a copy of your SketchUp file, along with any related files (textures, etc) that it references. Once you have gathered these materials, you should log into your https://portal.nextlimit.account and file a support ticket.

5. How do I render an animation using Maxwell for SketchUp?

The Maxwell | SketchUp plugin can be used to produce animations, provided that you have a way of creating multiple scenes in your SketchUp file, where each corresponds to a frame in the animation. There are 3rd-party animation plugins for SketchUp which produce animations this way. If you have such a file, when you export an MXS, each Scene will be exported as an individual camera; this is just how the export works. When that is the case, you can render an animation from your exported MXS by scripting Maxwell Render. This script makes Maxwell render all the cameras of an MXS file in sequence, one after the other. Here is an example script that does this:

// This script loops through a set of cameras, specified by name and
// index. It must be customized to fit the characteristics of the given
// MXS file. As set up, it expects to find the MXS filled with cameras
// whose names begin with 'Scene '. This base name is stored below
// in the 'baseName' variable. It expects the scene numbers to begin
// at 1 and to end at 3, with these limits being stored below in the
// 'firstFrame' and 'lastFrame' variables. It will loop through the frame
// range looking for cameras which fit the pattern 'Scene 1', rendering
// each one as it is found.

var firstFrame = 1;
var lastFrame = 3;
var baseName = "Scene ";

// internal vars & events

var isRendering = 0;
var currentFrame = firstFrame;
var outputFolder = FileManager.getFileFolder(Scene.mxsPath);
RenderEvents["renderFinished()"].connect(renderHasFinished);

// render loop

while (currentFrame <= lastFrame)
{
  renderCamera(currentFrame);
  while(1)
  {
    if(isRendering == 0)
    {
        break;
    }
  }
  currentFrame++;
}

// functions

function renderCamera(frameNumber)
{
  var sceneName = baseName + frameNumber;
  Mxi.setActiveCamera(sceneName);
  if (Mxi.activeCameraName != sceneName)
  {
    Maxwell.print("The MXS contains no camera named '" + sceneName + "'!");
  }
  else
  {
    Maxwell.print("rendering Scene: " + sceneName);
    Scene.setMxiPath(outputFolder +  "\" + sceneName + ".mxi");
    Scene.setImagePath(outputFolder + "\" + sceneName + ".png");    
    isRendering = 1;
    Maxwell.startRender();
  }
}

function renderHasFinished()
{
  isRendering = 0;
  Maxwell.print("Render finished!!");
}

To use this script, you would either save it as an .ms (Maxwell Script) file, and load that file into Maxwell Render, or you directly copy, paste, and run it, directly in the Maxwell Render Script panel.

Alternatively, you can use this script from PyMaxwell (create_mxs_sequence_from_camera_list.py), to generate a single mxs file from each of the cameras included in a particular mxs file. This way you can create batch job to render them on the Network System.

Maxwell Documentation