V – RAY

RENDERING
USING SKETCH -
UP
CAD MANIPULATION

The first things I usually get from a client are the CAD drawings for the project at
hand (a rare few manage to send me the down payment first). These files will be
the baseline for the 3d model to be created and it is very important to set them
right to prevent problems down the road. as you can see below, the original
drawings sent by the architect contains a large amount of information we don’t
need to transfer to SketchUP.

Original CAD drawing

Here are a few things to check and do before moving on to SketchUP

ZOOM EXTENTS

what you see on screen initially is not necessarily all the content inside the files, some parts
might be far away from each other. Zooming extents will let you know if this is the case with
your file and you can act accordingly by moving or deleting parts of it.

CHECK IT SIDEWAYS

I know this sound odd, CAD drawings supposed to be 2d no? but believe me, sometimes
they come more 3d then your 3d model will ever be. most times only site survey contour
lines will spread along the Z axis and some additional information related to that and its OK,
the problem is some draftsman snap to those lines while viewing the plan in 2d top view
never knowing they go up and down the Z line. you really don’t wont to export that to
SketchUP.

The best solution is to use the Flatten command and when it fails (and it will) try to change
the Z and Elevation values for the drawing object from the properties panel. it’s tedious but
well worth the effort. SketchUP has a ruby script that can do that too, but i wouldn’t try it on
complex drawings though.
XREF’S

Check the drawings for xref’s and bind them in if you need them, SketchUP will ignore them
on import unless you do. sometimes Blocks behave the same and you can solve this by
exploding them before export.

HIDE LAYERS

Do not delete information you don’t need, just hide it while you manipulate the file. I usually
hide all the dimension lines, text, hatches, vegetation and basically strive to end up with just
the bare bones of the design. Sometimes I’ll keep furniture layers or Hidden-line layers and
rename them to something descriptive for later use in SketchUP (i can just hide it back there
too).

PURGE, AUDIT AND COPY PASTE IT OUT

After all is hidden and the files is rather clean, I’ll run Purge and Audit to make sure all
unnecessary information is out and errors are fixed. The next step will be to select all and
copy it to be pasted into a new file at the origin location (0,0,0) – this is very importnat.
The original drawings might not be located at the origin, but rather far away from it –
SketchUP doesn’t take it too well if things are far away from (0,0,0). Pasting it all in a new
file takes care of all that, and also make sure you only get what you need in the file.

A Clean CAD drawing

After doing all that is mentioned above, you can safely import the CAD file from within
SketchUP, just make sure to take note of the units used in the drawings and set the same
units in the import properties panel. choosing ‘Preserve drawing origin’ will keep the
imported drawing at it same location relative to (0,0,0) as in the CAD file – if not, it will be
move to the SketchUP origin automatically, which is good if you forgot about copy pasting it
manually like i mentioned above.
SketchUP import settings dialog

ORGANIZE YOUR LAYERS

After the import I’ll make sure it all looks OK and delete almost all the original CAD layers to
prevent clatter in the list. I usually keep the furniture, hidden line-work and vegetation
layers for later use (and hide them most of the time).

CHECK THE LINES

Using color by axis view mode will allow you to examine the line-work and spot potential
problem areas. sometimes lines just look parallel to each and only when you are deep into
the modeling stage you discover issues related to that. Spend some time checking the lines
with this option just to make sure all is well.
Color by Axis view mode

GROUP IT ALL UP

It is good practice to group all the content within a SketchUP model, since layering is only a
visual separation in SketchUP and hidden data can merge with new data if you are not fully
in control of what you do. I would make groups of each plan, elevation and section and
position them in 3d, essentially building a rig or scaffolding from them.

The CAD drawings rig inside SketchUP

Since the modeling of the house is not in the scope of this post I’ll just show some parts and
share some tips related to it. Just add a comment below if you would like me to share some
more information specifically about the modeling.

ADDING SOME HIGH DETAIL

True sharp edges are hard to come by in the real world, almost everything has some kind of
a bevel to it at the edges and this is the part that picks up the light showing a nice highlight.
here you can see a part of the stone cladding on the facade were i modeled the beveled
edges using the SketchyBevel v0.1 script by Chris Phillips. Another script you can use to
round edges is RoundCorner 2.1a by Fredo6.

Stone cladding beveld edges

You can also see, in the image above and below, the modeled shading louvers i created for
the windows along with the wires that suppose to lead them on the way up and down. This
might be considered as overhead for some but as i really like it if i can render some closeup
shots and then this really looks good (though for extreme closeup’s it’s still lacking)
The shading louvers
Detail crop showing the final effect in the render

You can some more layers of detail by adding curtains behind the windows. Here is a quick
video showing how a simple curtain can be modeled in SketchUP using the freehand
tool,FFD (Free Form Modifier) script by Chris Phillips and also the Subdivide &
Smooth script by Dale Martens. I’m also testing screenr.com recording this video so bare with
me please.

IF YOU ARE NOT SURE, GROUP IT!

Don’t just leave things hanging out there in the model file, keep it all in groups &
components. Like i mentioned previously, SketchUP layering system is visual only and must
be backed up by arranging the geometry into groups (that is, if you want to keep control
over any kind of model). I make it a habit to keep all lower level geometry in default layer 0
and only send groups & components to other layers.

Don’t be afraid to create many groups, you can explode and rearrange them later,
separating geometry later is more difficult. I know that all the lines showing in the model
could be a problem if you intend to produce purely SketchUP images, but if it is to be sent
for rendering with V-Ray then that’s not a problem at all.
An exploded view to convey the amount of groups in the model

FACING THE RIGHT DIRECTION

Initial SketchUP model show only 2 colors representing the front and back side of the faces
(the Normal side and the opposite), But once you start adding materials and textures that
visual Que is lost and things can flip on you. Use the monochrome view mode to catch
potential problems and correct using the orient faces command before you find it in 3d
Studio Max.
Monochrome mode view

ADDING TEXTURES

Try to add as much material and textural information in SketchUP as you can, this will save a
lot of time later on. For a project that goes to 3d Studio Max i wouldn’t even care about the
colors i pick and if they represent the actual material in the real world, for me it’s just
material separation since i export the model according to it. For simple planer mapped
objects i would take the time to apply and map the diffuse (color) image so to get it right in
3dsmax later on.
We finished part 1 of this making-of with the view of the complete model ready for export as
you can see in the image below.

Finished model before export

My preferred method of exporting the SketchUP model to 3D Studio Max is using the 3DS file
format. In the 3DS Export Options Geometry tab you can choose the method of transport :
 3DS Export Options Dialog
 Full hierarchy
 By layer
 By material
 Single object
Normally when first exporting the model I would use the by material option. This way I don’t
get Multi/Sub-Object materials in 3dsmax and have better control in choosing and editing
materials. You can still pick each element in the model regardless, the by material export
method doesn’t fuse / weld all the same material geometry together.

For subsequent model updates I would check the Export only current selection after I make
sure only the parts I need to re-export are selected. For this I would sometimes use the
Single object option, just to make things simpler if the new addition only uses one material
for example.

On the first export I also check Generate cameras from pages and I don’t mess with the
material options really. Since I tend to model all things as they are in real life I wouldn’t get
2-sided material faces and wouldn’t have any edges to export too (sometimes it is real easy
and fast to represent rails with just edges, but before export I add thickness to them).

I also do not use the Export texture maps option, I handle this part in 3D Studio Max, though
the assignment and positioning of textures in SketchUP does transfer even without checking
this option (after you apply the texture in max you will see the mapping is the same as it
was in SketchUP if you use the same proportion image).

View of the model in the 3dsmax viewport

I’ve created a new 3dsmax file and imported the 3DS file exported from SketchUP into it
using the default settings. After that I usually run the VRay Scene Converter from the quad
menu just to start with all materials set to V-Ray. I also take the time to pick materials and
assign related geometry to layers such as window glass, pool water, house walls, etc. I don’t
change the material names yet, since i know I’ll probably re-export some parts and would
like them to keep the same material by using the use scene material option when merging
them in. All future imports to the work file will start by importing the 3ds file into a clean
new 3dsmax file first and then merged into the work file. I find this method is keeping me
out of many troubles.

I’ve integrated this render method, as described in the post about Using VRayLightMtl +
VRayDirt for Quick AO Render Checkup, into my work-flow after reading a tutorial by Gus
Capote form Preconstruct in the 101 issue of 3D World Magazine. I love to use this method
while I explore the scene for camera placements and blocking out additional geometry. This
way i keep my focus and don’t bother myself with lighting and materials other then turning
glass elements on / off to see how the scene look with and without it.
Initial AO render

AO render without glass and pool water

I use LWF for almost all my work. You can find a great explanation about this in the following
links :

 Linear workflow ‘reloaded’ by Gijs de Zwart

 Linear workflow in 3DSMax and VRay
I’ll just show how I set it up hare and mention that I burn the 2.2 gamma into the image.
While this is not considered the proper LWF method it works fine for most of what I do.
Preference Settings Gamma and LUT tab
For lighting this scene I use an image created by Valentijn Kint, you can find his great sky
images here. I place this texture in the environment slot of the 3dsmax Environment and
Effects options dialog
The background dusk image

Background image in viewport

I use the image as is, and just offset it so that the bright area will show on the right side of
the image. behind the tree line. I enable view of the background image in the viewport so
that it will be easy to set it up the best way. As a general rule i strive to achieve a wide
range of colors and brightness levels in the background adding to the image impact. This
kind of backlit situation plays rather well with interior lights and i prefer this over pure night
shots.

I’m using a VRayPhysical camera to render this scene, with settings as listed below. I try to
use real camera values since I can relate to that (The ones you can actually dial in on a
 camera). I normally start with pure white for the white balance and change as i need along
the way – for this image i didn’t, all the tone mapping was done in post later.

 Focal Length = 20mm

 Shutter Speed = 1/60
 F-Number = 2.8
 Film Speed (ISO) = 200
 White Balance = 255, 255, 255
 Vertical Shift Correction = On
 Vignetting = Off
Before choosing the final settings for the background image and camera I rendered a set of
10 images, with an override material applied, offsetting the background by 0.1 each time.
Today it’s possible to do with V-Ray RT without any test renders, just change it and see it on
the fly!
10 Background options. Top Right was chosen for final image.
After setting the desired background offset I test the scene using slightly better render
settings with and without the window glass and pool water, and also test it with them but
apply a 100% reflecting materials to those elements to get a feel of how the maximum
reflection looks. I f i need to tweak the background a little to show better reflection too this
is the stage i do it in. After that I quickly tested the scene with glass and water elements
turned on and excluded from the general scene material override.

Window glass and pool water off

Glass & Water with 100% reflections

Initial glass & water materials
I’ll focus now on some of the more dominant materials in the scene, elaborating a little
about the textures and settings i used for the windows glass, pool water, pool tiles, wood
deck, wall plaster and grass.

WINDOW GLASS MATERIAL

Glass
For the glass I’ve set the diffuse slot to pure black. Reflection assigned a falloff map set to
Perpendicular / Parallel and edited the mix curve so that its not pure black and white at the
edges, this way it will never fully reflect or refract. Retraction set to pure white with IOR set
to 1.545 and a standard noise map for bump set to 1% to imitate real life glass distortion.

POOL WATER MATERIAL

Water
The water material is tricky since it’s really a combination of the pool surface and water that
creates the final effect. As the glass the diffuse here is also pure black. Reflection set to RGB
185,185,185 with Fresnel turned on, IOR set to 1.333. Refraction set to RGB 240,240,240
with Fog color of RGB 60,240,225 and a multiplier of 0.02. A a standard noise map assigned
to the bump slot at 8% to recreate the water surface.

POOL TILES

The pool tile is a combination of maps i got from one of the evermotion packs. It uses 3
images for the diffuse, bump and reflection map slots.

Pool tile texture from Evermotion Archexteriors 05

Pool tile settings
WOOD DECKING MATERIAL

For the wood deck I’ve used Arroway’s boards+01 texture form their general texture pack.

Arroway's board+01 textures

Wood deck material settings
GRASS MATERIAL

I picked up this grass material from evermotion forum after a kind user shared it, I can’t
remember who it was though (if you do, please mention this in a comment below). It is a mix
of 3 grass diffuse texture and a grayscale texture for the V-Ray displacement.
Textures used in the grass material

Mix tree for the grass material

BAMBOO LIKE PLANT

I used the advanced painter script to paint grassStrands and assign this material on them to
look more like a bamboo type plant. The effect is great from mid to far camera placement.
Near shots may not look that great with this setup.
Advanced painter grass strands

Bamboo like plant material settings

Inside the house i placed several VRayLights near the ceilings with a little bit of orange in
the color slot. For the pool i decided to go with standard spot lights so i can have more
control over the direction and spread of light inside and outside of the pool. Here are the
settings for both the VRayLights and Spot Lights.
Top view of lights layout
Light settings
The vegetation in this scene is a combination of Onyx, XFrog and Evermotion models placed
either manually or scattered using VRayScatter. The background trees are made out of two
VRayScatter objects, each with a different tree (An onyx custom broad leaf and XFrog
conifer). Both materials were tweaked to use the VRayScatterMap to allow for leaf color
variations between tree instances.
VRayScatter objects
The small areas of shrubs were define by drawing a line shape that was then converted to
poly to become the distribution geometry for the VRayScatter object (the poly object was set
to not render).

Small area defined to scatter shrubs

Render settings are rather simple and actually weren’t optimized that much. You can see
them all in the image below.
V-Ray render settings
The initial render was not a good sight, but i was planning on doing most of the tuning in
post. I’ve done some general color and level corrections and also specific tweaks to the pool
area, window glow and trees in the background until i was feeling good about the
atmosphere. below you can see the initial image, mid process image and final result.

Initial render
Middle of postwork process