SketchUp Overview

What do I need to know to use the plugin?

The Maxwell for SketchUp plugin has been designed to work in as simple a manner as possible. Wherever appropriate, unnecessary items have been optimized away, leaving what is intended to be a very simple and straightforward, yet complete, interface to Maxwell Render from within SketchUp. After reading this overview, you may wish to continue on to the Quick Start.

The list of items used to build Maxwell scenes and render them is very short; in fact, there are only five:

1. The Maxwell Menu & Toolbar

The plugin adds a new Maxwell menu to SketchUp's Plugins menu, as well as a new Maxwell toolbar:

The Render Suite plugin's toolbar adds commands related to the writing of MXS files

Most of the provided commands are common to both the menu and the toolbar :

Command	SA	RS	Function
Rendering & Export
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.
Maxwell Fire			Opens or closes the Maxwell Fire window.
Export MXS			Exports the model to an MXS file.
MXM Functions
Browse for an MXM file			Allows you to browse for an MXM file from the local disk. If Maxwell Render Suite is installed, Maxwell MXED will be used for browsing; select the desired MXM file by double-clicking on it in the browser. Otherwise, a standard file browser dialog will be shown.
Browse the MXM Gallery			Allows you to browse for an MXM file from the Maxwell Render MXM Gallery. If Maxwell Render Suite is installed, Maxwell MXED will be used in MXM Gallery browsing mode. Otherwise, the plugin will attempt to navigate to the online MXM Gallery website in your default browser.
MXM Status Report			Shows a list of all materials and the status of their MXM paths.
Scene & Camera
Scene Manager			Shows the plugin's Scene Manager 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.
Help & Info
Plugin Manual			Opens the plugin's PDF manual.
Maxwell Manual			Opens the Maxwell Render manual. If Maxwell Render Suite is not installed, attempts to show online help.
About			Opens the plugin's About box, which contains information about the currently-installed plugin.

2. The Scene Manager Window

The Maxwell Scene Manager window is the single central point of access to all Maxwell-related scene parameters.

These parameters are divided into four main categories, Materials, Camera, Environment, and Output, each of which is contained in a tab in the Scene Manager.

3. The Maxwell Fire Window

In the Standalone plugin, all rendering is done using the Maxwell Fire window:

By default (see Start Maxwell Fire in Plugin Options) the SketchUp model will automatically be transferred (a.k.a. exported) into Maxwell’s format, and the rendering will be started:

When the rendering is finished, the image may be saved by clicking the Save Image button. Though this is also the case in the Render Suite plugin, it is usually the case that Maxwell Fire serves as more of a scene-setup tool, with final rendering being done using Maxwell Render itself.

4. The Maxwell Context Menu

In the context (i.e. right-click) menu for SketchUp entities, you will find a Maxwell item:

The commands here allow you to enable the various Maxwell Hide-from flags on a SketchUp entity, to decide how the faces it contains will be separated, and to decide whether or not to you would like to override SketchUp's UVs for the entity. Additionally, there are commands for exporting or rendering just the selected entity.

5. Included Assets

 All versions of the plugin are provided with a set of assets, which may be found in the plugin's res directory, which is located inside of the plugin's maxwell folder. These assets are organized into several sub-directories: