SketchUp - Output

The Output panel provides settings which control the various non-physical aspects of how the image will be rendered in Maxwell.

File Output (RS)

These parameters, which only appear in the Render Suite plugin, control where output MXS and image files are written.

Parameter

Function

Name

The name entered here will be used to name the various output files generated by Maxwell: the output MXS, MXI, and image files. If no Name is specified, then the name of the current SketchUp document will be used. If the SketchUp document has not yet been saved, the output will be named Untitled. Additionally, several macros may be used to dynamically build the output name:

Macro	Value
%skp	The SKP file name, e.g. Untitled
%scene	The SketchUp Scene name, e.g. Top
%date	Date in YYYYmmdd format, e.g. 20120111
%time	Time in HHMMSS format, e.g. 132238
%Y	Year, in 4-digits, e.g. 2012
%m	Month, from 01 to 12
%b	Month name, abbreviated, e.g. Jan
%B	Month name, e.g. January
%d	Day, from 01 to 31
%H	Hour, from 00 to 23
%M	Minute, from 00 to 59
%S	Second, from 00 to 59

So for example, setting the output name to %skp-%scene might result in an output name of Untitled-Top.mxs.The format of the output image is determined by the value selected in the drop-down on the right.

Folder

The output will be written into the folder specified here. If no Folder is specified, output will be written at the same location as the current SketchUp document. If the SketchUp document has not yet been saved, output will be saved in the [user's documents]/Maxwell/output folder, located in the current user's Documents directory.

The SketchUp plugin API provides no folder browser. This means that in order to select a folder here, you must actually choose a file inside the desired folder – the plugin will take the chosen file path, extract the folder part, and use that. On Windows, the plugin does provide a folder browser here, when the Options > User Interface > File Browsers option is set to Custom.

Mode

The Mode parameter controls the plugin's behavior in exporting MXS files when the target file already exists. By default, the plugin will prompt you to indicate whether or not you wish to overwrite the existing file. Optionally, by setting the Mode parameter appropriately, you can choose to always overwrite, and thereby avoid the overwrite prompt, or to have the plugin scan the target folder and generate a new, unique output name. When this last option is chosen, an incrementing four-digit number will be appended to the specified Name, i.e. Untitled.mxs will become Untitled_0001.mxs, Untitled_0002.mxs, and so on.

Export

The Export sub-panel contains parameters pertaining to the plugin's behavior during MXS export. Its content depends upon the running plugin version.

Parameter	SA	RS	Function
Pack & Go			When this option is enabled, the plugin will copy all files referenced by the output MXS into a textures directory, located in the output folder. Additionally, all file paths contained in the MXS file will be transformed into relative paths, in order that an MXS file may more easily be moved from machine to machine.
Use Instances			When this option is enabled, the plugin will attempt to replace any possible Components and Groups with Maxwell Instances in the output. This can result in drastically reduced memory requirements, as well as greatly improved export performance. This option is always enabled in the Standalone plugin, since there exists no reason to disable it.
Face Materials			Where SketchUp supports different front and back materials for faces, Maxwell does not. Therefore, as the model is being exported, the plugin first attempts to find a face's front material and to then build a Maxwell material for the face using this SketchUp material. If the face has no front material, the plugin will check to see if it has a back material, and if it does, then that material will be used. Setting this option to Use Front Only will cause the plugin to disregard back materials entirely.
Hidden Layers			By default, the plugin will not render geometry located on layers which are hidden in SketchUp. Setting Hidden Layers to Render disables this check, such that all geometry contained in the scene will be exported, regardless of the visibility state of its layer. This can be useful in cases where high-resolution geometry has been placed on a hidden layer for the express purpose of keeping SketchUp more responsive.
Auto MXM			When this option is enabled, the plugin will attempt to match SketchUp material names with the names of MXM files found in any of the Search Paths specified in the Options panel (standard Maxwell installation directories will also be searched). When a match is found, the MXM file will be used in the MXS.
Proxies			When this option is enabled, the plugin will attempt to replace Component Definitions with the suffix _proxy in their name with definitions whose names match, but without the _proxy suffix. This allows for export-time replacement of low-poly geometry with hidden high-poly geometry For example, assume that a Component is shown in the viewport, and the Definition for this Component is named 'airplane_proxy'. During export, the plugin will search for a different Definition in the document named 'airplane'. If such a definition is found, then any occurrence of 'airplane_proxy' will be replaced with the geometry contained in the 'airplane' Definition during export.

Engine (RS)

The Engine sub-panel contains settings which control various aspects of Maxwell Render itself, and therefore does not appear in the Standalone plugin (SA).

Parameter	Function
Stop Time	This value controls the amount of time, in minutes, that Maxwell Render will continue calculating the output image. Generally, for single frames, this should be left at a very high value, with Maxwell being stopped manually only when the image has reached the desired level of quality.
Sampling Level	This value controls the Sampling Level at which Maxwell Render will stop the calculation. Generally, this should be left at a high value to prevent Maxwell stopping before the image is finished. For unattended batch rendering, however, it is useful to set this to the lowest acceptable value for the scene in question. This will provide a time-independent method for rendering multiple frames to a common quality level.
Threads	This value controls the number of Threads that Maxwell Render will use. While named Threads, this usually means how many CPU cores will be used by Maxwell Render. When Threads is set to 0, Maxwell will auto-detect and leverage all available resources.
Multilight	This drop-down controls whether Maxwell's Multilight feature will be enabled during rendering. There are two Multilight modes available: Intensity and Color + Intensity. Note that the use of Multilight will greatly increase the memory required to render the scene, since separate output buffers must be maintained for each emitter contained in the scene. The Color + Intensity option multiplies this requirement even further.
Command Line	Anything entered here will be added to the command-line used to start Maxwell Render. By default, it contains the -d flag, which causes Maxwell Render to start in GUI mode, and the -p:low flag, which causes it to run in low-priority mode. There are many other command-line flags available, and you can get the current list by opening a command prompt, navigating to the Maxwell directory, and typing maxwell /?.

Materials

The Materials sub-panel is used to specify Override and Default MXM files. If an Override MXM is specified, it will be used instead of any materials otherwise defined in the scene, with the exception of emitters. This is useful for running quick light studies. If a Default MXM is specified, it will be used in place of the standard light-grey diffuse default material (i.e. the material used for objects which have no explicit material).

Channels (RS)

The Channels sub-panel is used to enable, disable, and configure various Channels in Maxwell Render, and therefore does not appear in the Standalone plugin (SA). When the Render channel is activated, it is possible to render one of the following: Diffuse, Reflections, or Diffuse + Reflections. Additional channels may be enabled or disabled as desired; for each one that is enabled, an additional corresponding image will be generated at the output location. ZBuffer Min. and ZBuffer Max. may be set interactively using the Set DOF, Z-Clip, or Z-Buffer Tool; to do so, press CTRL /Option(Win/OSX) while selecting points with the tool.

Tone Mapping

These parameters control the Color Space, Burn, Gamma, and Sharpness values used by Maxwell Render as it calculates the output image.

Simulens

This sub-panel is used to enable, disable, and configure the various Simulens tutorial effects which are available in Maxwell Render.

Render Layers (RS)

This sub-panel, which appears only in the Render Suite plugin, is used to control whether the Illumination, Reflection, and Refraction layers will be rendered.