SketchUp Options

The Options panel contains settings which apply on a global basis; they are not related to any particular SketchUp model.

General

This section contains options which are not otherwise related to any particular concept or function.

Parameter	SA	RS	Function
Undo Limit			This controls the maximum number of Undo and Redo steps which will be allowed in each of the other Scene Manager panels.
Update Check			By default, the plugin checks for new releases when the Maxwell Fire window is first opened. Optionally, you may elect to have the plugin check for the availability of both release and beta builds, to check for release builds only, or to disable update checking entirely.
MXS Cache Policy			This determines the behavior of MXS Export when Maxwell Fire is active. If set to Use Cache, MXS files will be written using data currently held in Maxwell Fire. If set to Invalidate, a fresh export will be performed. If set to Prompt, the plugin will ask which method to use. It is usually when using Export to Studio that it may be necessary to invalidate the data, since its having been rendered in Maxwell Fire can sometimes result in objects appearing in odd positions in Maxwell Studio.
Start Maxwell Fire			By default, when the Maxwell Fire window is opened, the SketchUp model is immediately exported to the Maxwell format, and rendering is begun. This option is provided in case you would prefer to initiate the process manually.

Materials

These options control the runtime behavior of the plugin's Material Editor.

Parameter	Function
Refresh Previews	This controls whether or not the plugin's material editor responds in real-time to material parameter changes. When set to Automatically, the preview will be rendered immediately, whenever the material is altered. When set to Manually, it will be necessary to click the Render Preview button to render a new preview for the material.
Preview Threads	This controls how many processor threads are used by the material preview render-engine.

Search Paths

Search Paths are used when the plugin cannot find texture, MXM, and other files at their specified location. These paths are also used by the Auto MXM feature. In addition to the paths specified here, there are several standard paths which will always be searched; typically, this would include several of the folders contained in your Maxwell installation folder.

The Path Search Depth parameter controls how many sub-directories will be searched for each specified Search Path.

User Interface

These options control how the user interface itself is built, and how it behaves.

Parameter	Function
Frame Rate	The user interface is implemented using Microsoft Silverlight; Silverlight renders using a certain frame-rate, which you can control using this parameter. Higher frame rates result in smoother user-interface animations.
Color Scheme	It is possible to customize the color scheme of the Scene Manager user-interface. Clicking the Edit button will bring up a floating sub-dialog which provides color pickers for each different element class used in the interface. Custom color schemes may also be read from and written to file using the Color Scheme Edit dialog.
File Browsers	This option determines whether the plugin will use SketchUp's file-browsing functions or ones specifically called from the host operating system. This option is only used on Windows.

Diagnostics

Ruby Echo and JavaScript Echo are used to enable message-tracing in the plugin during runtime. In general, these features will only be used by customer support to assist in diagnosing any possible issues which may arise with the plugin's behavior. These options should never be enabled during normal use, as they may cause the general performance of the plugin to be significantly degraded.