SU Podium Help

SU Podium Help
Contents
Where to get Support ...................................................................................................... 2
Watch the Video Tutorials ............................................................................................... 2
Installation and loading SU Podium ................................................................................ 2
Brief description of SU Podium ....................................................................................... 6
Getting Started ................................................................................................................ 7
UI Items - Resolution, Settings and Preview ................................................................... 9
Sample Tutorial - applying reflections and creating lights ............................................. 12
Display Podium's UI by picking Show from the Podium pull down menu. .............. 12
How to create an Omni Light - low cost lighting ............................................................ 15
Creating Spot Lights the Podium Light System using Version 1.7.3 ............................. 17
Creating Spot Lights - the old way ................................................................................ 20
Blurred Reflections ........................................................................................................ 22
Settings ......................................................................................................................... 22
Podium Wizard .............................................................................................................. 23
Soft Shadows ................................................................................................................ 26
Render All scenes ......................................................................................................... 27
Clay Rendering ............................................................................................................. 29
Render speed ................................................................................................................ 30
Two Point Perspective................................................................................................... 30
Sky Background colors.................................................................................................. 30
Light Fixtures Library ..................................................................................................... 30
2D alpha transparent Plants and Trees ......................................................................... 31
High Resolution Texture libraries .................................................................................. 31
Omni Grid ...................................................................................................................... 32
Link to Registered User Area ........................................................................................ 32
Link to Tips and FAQ..................................................................................................... 32

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SU Podium Help

Where to get Support

The following Help pages will guide you through Installation and using and applying SU
Podium. Please take a moment and read through the Installation chapter if you are having
difficulty with the install. If you are having trouble finding your serial number, please take a look
at the FAQ section of this web site. There is a detailed description of how to find your serial
number. In addition, you can get support from the following areas:

• The SU Podium Forum - an active Forum with two or three experts online almost any
time.
• E-mail support Please e-mail us with any question, any time. You should get a reply
within 24 hours. Usually, much faster.
• Upload your models. If you are having problems rendering your models, feel free to
upload them to our box.net account. Make sure you send and e-mail to us to let us know
you have uploaded a model. Upload your model here - Upload to Box.net
• FAQ section - a Robust FAQ section with details of how to find your serial number,
Windows 64 answers, lighting, reflection, and a dynamic tip section updated monthly.

Watch the Video Tutorials

Perhaps the fastest way to learn how to apply the features of SU Podium is to watch the updated
video tutorials. Click here to examine the video tutorials.

Installation and loading SU Podium

To Install for Windows
1. Download the SU Podium Setup.exe file. Double click on SU Podium Setup.exe. This begins
the installation process. (If for some reason, your firewall will not let you download .exe files,
please contact us and we will send you a zip file.

2. During the installation you will be asked where to install SU Podium.

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SketchUp 6 users - select the default location if this is where the SketchUp program files are
located. If not, use the browse button to find the folder that SketchUp Pro is located. You should
install Podium in \Program Files\Google\Google SketchUp 6\. Do not install in the \Plugins
folder.

SketchUp 7 and 7.1 users - select the default location if this is where the SketchUp program
files are located. If the default location is for SketchUp 6, simple change the number 6 to 7
instead of using the browse button. You should install Podium in \Program Files\Google\Google
SketchUp 7\. Do not install in the \Plugins folder.

Windows 64 OS users!!. Please note SketchUp is located in the \Program files (x86) directory.
You will most likely need to install Podium in this location: \program files (x86)\google\google
sketchup (6 or7)\

Note - do not try to install Podium in the Plugins folder. The install program will do that for you
and create a folder for Podium.

3. The Next screen applies only to full version users. This screen will not appear if you are using
a evaluation version of Podium.

The Single User and Multi-User on one computer option is for customers who have Multi User
Windows accounts on one computer. If you have one computer that is used by several people
with separate accounts, use the Multi User option. You will be prompted for a Serial number
immediately after clicking on the Next button.

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To start SU Podium in SketchUp

Restart SketchUp. You can access Podium from the SketchUp Plugins pull down menu. Pick the
Show option from the Podium menu to display the Podium interface.

Enter your serial number (full version)

If you purchased the full version, when you start Podium for the first time, you will be required
to enter your SU Podium serial number that comes with your purchase. If you purchased Podium
as a download product, you should have received an e-mail with your serial number. If you have
not received a serial number with your purchase, please contact support@cadalog-inc.com and
one will be sent to you.

Register User area

If you have not already created an account on www.suplguins.com Registered User area, It will
be a good idea to do so. The Registered User area will give you access to the free Light Fixture
libraries, the Plants&Trees plug-in, bonus textures and also provides a place where you can
download Podium again. This site also has important utility plug-ins for Podium such as Podium
Tools and Podium Wizard. The Registered User area is open for all users, include customers who
are using the evaluation version. However, the Light Fixture and Plants&Trees plug-ins can only
be used by paid customers. To register, click here.

Uninstall

It's best to use Podium's uninstall program to uninstall Podium completely. Alternatively, you
can uninstall Podium using Windows Control Panel (Windows 7 and Vista users - Program and
Features, XP users - Add or Remove Programs). To uninstall, use the Windows Start key and
select All Programs. Then select Podium from the list of Windows Programs. From the Podium
menu, pick Uninstall. Then browse Windows for the Podium folder. When you find it, click on
unins000.exe. Vista users - you will need to opens Windows explorer and to the Podium folder
typically located //Google SketchUp 6 (or 7)//plugins//podium. Then pick unins000.exe to
completely uninstall Podium.

Install problems

The most common problem encountered after installing Podium on Windows is not being able to
find Podium from the Plugins menu inside SketchUp. If you cannot find Podium from the
Plugins menu, it has not been installed correctly. The most common reason for this is that
Podium was installed in the wrong folder. The recommended solution is to Uninstall Podium as
instructed above. Then reinstall it. Make sure SketchUp is closed when you reinstall Podium.
Pay careful attention to what folder Podium gets installed. It must be installed in the Google
SketchUp 6 or Google SketchUp 7 folder. Do not install it in the Plugins folder. (Windows 64
OS users note that SketchUp is installed in the Program files (x86) folder.)

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Installation and loading SU Podium On Mac

Versions

Podium 1.7.x are the latest version of Podium. These supports multi-threading so they are the
fastest version of Podium. However, you must have MAC OS X 10.5(Leopard) or greater for
Podium 1.7Mac to run. Furthermore, your computer must be an Intel based Mac Pro. Therefore
we are making Podium 1.5 available to customers who still are using Mac OSX 10.4 (Tiger)
and/or use PowerPC based Macs. The installation of both versions are similar. They both will
install for SketchUp 6 and SketchUp 7 automatically. However, there are important differences
in the location of the program files.

Installing Podium 1.7.x

Close SketchUp. The SU Podium 1.7.x Mac version download file is a zip archive which can be
easily expanded using Mac OS X's built-in tools or programs like Stuff-It. Once expanded, it
contains a Mac OS X "Installer Package" or a .pkg file. Double-clicking on the package will
launch "Installer" and walk you through the Podium installation. After installing, open
SketchUp, click on Podium from the Plugins menu and enter your serial number (full user).
SU Podium will be installed at the following location: Home Directory (commonly know as
Users>your computer name) -\library\application support\podium\. The files installed in the
podium folder are podium_load.rb and podium.bundle.
Further, an additional two files are installed as aliases so that SketchUp will know were to find
Podium. There are installed in the Home Directory - \library\application support\google\google
sketchup (6 or 7)\plugins\
The Preset and Texture files are stored in this location: Home Directory -\Documents\Podium\.
Furthermore, the serial number is stored in this location: Home Directory -
\library\preferences\com.googlesketchup.plist

Installing Podium 1.5

The SU Podium 1.5 Mac version download file is a zip archive which can be easily expanded
using Mac OS X's built-in tools such as Stuff-It. Once expanded, it contains a Mac OS X
"Installer Package". Double-clicking on the package will launch "Installer" and walk you through
the Podium installation.
SU Podium will be installed at the following location: Macintosh HD -->\Library\Application
Support\Google SketchUp 6 or 7\SketchUp\plugins\ Within that folder, it will install two things:
The folder Podium.suplugin and the file podium_load.rb Texture folder is located at:
\Library\Application Support\Google SketchUp 6\SketchUp\plugins\Podium.suplugin\textures.
Podium Presets are locates: \Library\Application Support\Google SketchUp 6\ SketchUp\
plugins\Podium.suplugin\Contents\Resources\Presets

Why doesn't Podium install on my Mac?

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Did you have trouble installing SU Podium 1.7.X on your Mac. Does the installation seem to
stop and let you get no further than picking your Destination Drive? Chances are File Vault has
been enabled and this stops the Podium installation.

To find out if File Vault is enabled on your Mac OSX system, Choose System Preferences and
click Security. Click on the File Vault option. Is it enabled? If it is, SU Podium will not install
on your computer. There are a couple of simple ways to get around File Vault. One would be to
disable it but if your company will not let you do that, the second option is to use Pacifist from
CharlesSoft.

Please click here to read about how to install SU Podium with File Vault enabled.

Brief description of SU Podium

SU Podium is a photo-realistic rendering software program that works entirely as a plug-in to
Google SketchUp Pro or Google SketchUp, 6 or 7, Windows or Mac..We will be referring to SU
Podium as Podium in this help page.

Podium works entirely inside SketchUp and uses SketchUp's surfaces, textures, groups, views,
background color and shadows to produce a photo-realistic image. If you are already familiar
with SketchUp you will notice that Podium does not require you to learn a lot of complicated
rendering techniques to create photo-realistic renderings.

The SketchUp model that you see on your screen will be what is rendered in the final
image.What you see on your screen will be referred to as the render scene.If you want to change
the angle of a scene or get a closer shot of your model, use SketchUp's zoom, pan or rotate
commands to change the render scene. You can apply the standard SketchUp textures and colors
to surfaces and get an effective rendered image. Download additional high resolution texture
images from the Registered User page on the www.suplugins.com web site.

You can also apply SketchUp's background colors and shadows to obtain to change lighting.

The final image that is created by Podium is a bitmap and can be saved as a JPEG or PNG file as
well as a higher resolution HDR file. By default, the rendered image file is saved to the
\Plugins\Podium folder on Windows and ~\documents\podium\ folder on the Mac. You can
change the folder where you want to save the output image file from the Settings menu.

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You can change the resolution size of the rendered image by picking the Arrow icon in the
Podium dialog box and then picking Render Size. In the free, evaluation version, there are only
two render sizes available.

Getting Started
To display Podium's user interface, pick Podium from the SketchUp Plug-in menu and pick
Show. This will display the Podium user interface.The main options that are displayed are:
Render, Stop and Save and an Arrow Icon, Preset settings, the slider bar to apply lighting to a
face, and a slider bar to apply reflection to a face. In addition, Podium 1.7 has a check box for
blurred and check box for preview.

Click on the Arrow Icon in the Podium dialog box and you will see another pop out menu.
Information about Render Size, Render All scenes, settings are discussed in the UI Items chapter.

Try a quick render to test your computer

Let's try a quick render to make sure that your hardware is working and Podium was installed
correctly. Download this model. This model has several Podium properties in it including,
reflections, bump maps, alpha transparent plants and omni lights. This model is the model that is
used in the video tutorial page. Download this model to your desktop and then open it in
SketchUp 6 or 7 (or 7.1). Once it is open, go the Podium UI and click on Arrow Icon. From the
Render Size option pick the pixel size of 800 X 600. Then click on the render button from the
main SU Podium user interface. The rendering should take about two to four minutes depending

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on your computer's memory and processor.

How Podium works

1. Select any surface or face in your SketchUp model by clicking on it.

2. While the surface is highlighted, pick a value for reflection by moving the Reflect slide bar in
the Podium UI.

3. Paint a texture or color to the surface you previously selected.

4. Render it and examine the Preview image.

5. Click on the Preview image to obtain a larger resolution of the rendered image.

Podium will create renderings of your SketchUp scene by simulating the reflection of light on
each SketchUp face. By default, Podium applies Sky Light to the scene and supports Global
Illumination. By applying reflection to faces, you can create photo-realistic images that reflect
the sky, the sun, artificial lights and other faces in the model. You will get more realism by
applying textures or colors to faces. Podium 1.7 introduces blurred reflections which is not
turned on by default. Read the section on Blurred Reflections before applying it.

You can also change daylight environment to night or evening environment by changing
SketchUp's background color (found in SketchUp's Style menu). For example, you can create an
evening like effect by choosing a dark background color in SketchUp.

You can create different day light effects by using SketchUp shadows. When you turn SketchUp
shadows on, Podium recognizes the position of SketchUp's sun and the sun becomes a source of
light. You can control the brightness of the sun using the Dark slider in SketchUp's Shadow
setting dialog box. Using the sun is also an effective way to light up the interior of a room by
using Windows. Adjust the position of the sun by using SketchUp's Location data (in Model
Info) and by using the time of day and month in the Shadow dialog box.

Podium also provides "artificial" lighting in the form Light Emitting Surfaces and Omni lights
(or point lights) which will provide further realism to your image especially interiors.

The Light slider bar controls how much light is applied to a face or a group. When Light is
applied directly to a face, the face becomes an LEM type light. The face will emit light. It is the
easiest way to create artificial light. For example, you may want to create the effect of a
fluorescent light illuminating a room. Create a face on the ceiling, select the face, then moving
the Light slide bar to the right. When rendered, the face will displayed as a source of light. When
Light is applied to a face, it is referred to as Light Emitting Material or LEM. An LEM will emit
light in one direction. It is very simple way to create artificial light BUT LEMs are the slowest to
render. So be careful how many faces you turn into LEMs. The more you have, the slow the
rendering will become.

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Light can also be applied to SketchUp groups to create Omni Lights or point lights. Omni lights
simulate a light bulb where light is emitted in all directions. These types of lights render much
faster than LEMs. Further,omni lights emit light in all directions. Omni light groups can be tiny
specs and these groups can be placed into light fixtures to create realistic interior lighting. Please
examine the Registered User area of www.suplugins.com and download and install the
comprehensive light fixture libraries. The light fixture libraries is a SketchUp plugins that allows
you to drag and drop hundreds of lights into SketchUp. Each light fixture has omni lights in them
so will automatically be rendered with light. If you only evaluating Podium, you can not access
these libraries but you can download some a free sample light fixture plug-in to try out.

To get an understanding of how Podium works, we have provided written beginning tutorials and
video tutorials.

Click here to view the Video Tutorials.

Podium-Interior is a SketchUp model of a simple room design. When you finish with this basic
tutorial, please take a look at the omni-light tutorial and also read about spot lights.

Note: Podium employs Global Illumination (GI) and Ray tracing to create photo-realistic images.
Ray tracing simulates the path of a ray of light as it would be absorbed or reflected by various
SketchUp surfaces. GI is an algorithm that takes into account not only the light which comes
directly from a light source like Sky Light or the Sun, but also subsequent cases in which light
rays from the same source are reflected by other surfaces in the scene (indirect illumination).For
more information about Ray tracing and GI, please read about it in Wikipedia.org

UI Items - Resolution, Settings and

Preview
Podium has a simple user interface as described in the Getting Started section. The main dialog
box displays Light and Reflect slide bars and a Preview button. The are a few other options in
the user interface that should be explained before proceeding to the tutorials.

Preset xml settings.

At the top of the main Podium user interface, is a list of Preset .xml settings.

Presets Presets will load optional setting templates and use these "templates" to give different
rendering effects. There are many setting variables that are not exposed in Podium's UI. Some
variables are Ambient Lighting, Irradiance Gradients, Trace Refractions, etc. Exposing all these
variables would clutter the user interface and defeat Podium's goal of making rendering simple
and easy. Several optional settings that take advantage of several of the hidden variables in
Podium. We made these available through Podium's main UI. Use the default setting if you do
not care to experiment with the Presets. The default setting has been tweaked to get a

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combination of good performance and quality.

Here is a brief description of some of the Presets:

Default The standard render preset. This should produce good, reliable results for all
types of scene. It account for all situations. Render time is fastest.

Quality. This preset will product the highest quality rendering in a reasonable amount of
time. It is slower than default.

Noisy Settings. This is the highest quality and slowest preset. This sues a method of
progressive refinement to an image. It is particularly useful for exterior views and for
getting rid of moire effects in small resolution images. Render quality is extremely high
when allowed to render for a long period of time. It is an unbiased setting meaning the
raytracing will not stop until you tell it to. The higher the resolution, the longer the time
required. The image can be saved at any stage during the process. Good results can be
obtained in with 150 passes but even this will take several hours.

old15.This preset renders the image to the same standard, and speed as version 1.5 for
those die-hard 1.5 lovers

Blurry Optimized setting for blurry reflections.

There are more Preset .xml files in the Registered User area as well as in the Forums.

Render Size

Click on the Arrow head icon in the main Podium user interface. This will reveal Render Size,
Settings and Help options.

There are several render size options in the full version including new 16:9 aspect ration sizes.
Commercial version of Podium supports rendered image sizes (JPG, PNG and HDR) of
230X150, 640X480, 1024X768, 2048X1536, 3076X2304, 4076X3304, Wide screen resolutions
of 852X480, 1600X900, 1920X1080, viewport resolution and 2X Viewport resolutions. The
evaluation version only provides 230 X 150 (Preview) and 500 X 500. In all other respects, the
free, non-expiring, evaluation version is the same as the full version.

Settings

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The Settings menu is where you can control the speed vs quality and jaggy vs smooth settings. It
is also where you can pick between JPG and PNG output formats and what folder you want your
image files to be saved to. Settings is discussed in more detail in the Settings sections of this help
desk.

Preview

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When Preview is on, Podium will display a Preview of the rendering as it is occurring. The
default Preview image size is 230 X 150. When you pick a larger image size such as 640 X 480,
the Preview will only display a small portion of your rendering as it is occurring. You can
Preview the entire image size by clicking inside the Preview image area. This action will display
a new window which shows a static image of the rendering. Click on the larger window to make
it disappear.

Sample Tutorial - applying reflections

and creating lights
Download Podium Interior Sketchup file here

Podium-Interior model is a simple model of a room.The goal of this exercise is to experiment

with Light effect to create a new source of direct light and use reflection to simulate a mirror.
Outside Sky Light will also influence the interior lighting. Turning Shadows on and off will
show how sunlight can brighten an interior.

Texture has already been applied to this model. SketchUp's background color has also been
changed to a darker gray. Shadow settings are turned off. You can examine what materials are
being used in the model by going to the SketchUp material browser and selecting the In Model
tab.

Also,notice that two components are being used. One is a face-me type people component.The
other is of a 3D bench.If you Zoom out of the current view you can see that the model is of a
room with three walls, a roof and a floor. Outside the structure there is a surface with Ashlar
Stone texture to represent the ground.

The facing wall has a white surface that will represent a mirror.

Display Podium's UI by picking Show from the Podium pull down menu.

Let's use the Render size of of 230 X 150 for the Preview.

Add Reflection and Light to surfaces

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For this example, let's add reflection to the following surfaces, a. the mirror(this is the
rectangular surface on the facing wall that has Ghost White texture), b. the floor

Apply Podium reflections as follows:

Mirror: Select the mirror surface and while it is highlighted, use the Reflect slide bar in Podium's
UI to add a reflection value of 100 for the mirror.This is the maximum reflection value.

Floor: Select the floor surface and while it is highlighted, use the Reflect slide bar in Podium's
UI to add a reflection value of 20 for the floor.

We are also going to add a new light source in the room to the rectangle on the ceiling to
simulate a fluorescent light.

Select the rectangular surface on the ceiling and while it is highlighted, use the Light slide bar in
Podium's UI to add a Light value of 25 for the fluorescent light. This is a LEM type light. It's
very simple to create but LEMs are slower to render than Omni type lights discussed in the next
section.

Render the Scene

Zoom,pan and rotate in SketchUp so that the room, mirror, portion of the light and a portion of
the outside is visible on your computer screen. This will be the render scene.

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Then click the Render button in the Podium interface. (Make sure the preview button is
checked).

Podium goes through several iterations and you will notice messages on the Podium interface
like Shooting Photons, Building Mesh, Ray tracing,Anti-aliasing.

When the messages have stopped and you have clear image, what you see is a preview size of
your rendered image. Save this file.It will be saved with a date-stamp to the \SketchUp (6 or
7)\Plugins\Podium folder. (On the Mac, it will be saved in the Home Directory-
\Documents\Podium folder.)

You can change the location of where the image is saved by using the Settings menu.

Your preview image should look like this:

As you can see it is small but renders fast. Try changing the resolution size to 852 X 480
and render it again.

Want more light in the room?

Increase the Light value for the fluorescent light by select the surface and moving the Light
slider bar to the left.

You can also increase light by changing SketchUp's background color to a lighter color or by
changing the color and opacity of the window texture.

Notice how the mirror is reflecting the face-me component's front view (as you would expect a

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face me component to behave). Try using a much larger resolution. Notice how the rendering
speed slows down.

You have now been exposed to some of the fundamentals of SU Podium's features. The other
major feature left to explain are Omni Lights, Bump Maps, Soft Shadows, Blurred Reflection,
Spot Lights and Render All scenes.

How to create an Omni Light - low cost

lighting
Omni Light is a feature that allows you to create an independent light source from SketchUp
groups. Omni Light acts like a light bulb and emits light in all directions. Omni Light is different
from applying Light value to one surface as we did in Tutorial 1. Omni Light allows you to
assign a Light value to an entire group. That group becomes a source of light that emits light in
all directions. When you render the scene the Omni Light group will disappear and only the light
it is creating will appear in your rendered image.

You can use Omni Light to create the effect of a light bulb that lights up the entire room or use it
in a light fixture that shine up a small area.

Omni lights will render much more quickly than LEM type lighting so it maybe the preferred
type of artificial lighting.

Note: If you have purchased Podium, you can register at the Suplugins.com site and have access
to the Registered User page. This page has an extensive library of light fixtures that have pre-
defined omni lights applied. Use this library freely to make effective interior light sources. Even
if you only have the evaluation version of Podium, you can download several sample light
fixtures from the Registered User page.

Omni Light Tutorial

Download Podium Omni Light Sketchup file here

You will notice a red cube in the middle of the model. This cube is a SketchUp group. The group
was assigned a Light value by Podium and has become an Omni Light object.

Render the scene using the Render button in Podium's UI.

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Notice how the red light spills out from the circular wall only at the gaps of the wall. Also, notice
how the Omni Light object or geometry has disappeared from the rendered image. If you rotate
the angle of your view and expose the bottom of the ceiling of the roof and then render, you will
see that the omni light is reflected up to the ceiling and to the opposite wall.

As an experiment lets change the color of this Omni Light. Select the cube (do not edit the group
but just select the whole group by clicking once anywhere on the cube). The cube group is
highlighted. Go the Material Browser and pick green from the Colors option. Drag the paint
bucket to the cube and drop the green color on the group. Now render the scene. You should
have a green light glowing.

How to create an Omni Light

1. Create a SketchUp group from a shape.

2. Add a light value to the group. Make sure you have selected the group. Then go to Podium's
UI and add a Light value to the selected group.

3. Add a color to the group (Optional). To get a colored light effect, add color to the group. You
must add color to the group and not to the individual faces of the group.

You can tell if the group was assigned a color if you highlight the group, right click, pick on
Entity Info. You should see an Entity Info. dialog box that says "Group" and a color in the color
box. If you see no color in the Group Entity Info, the group was not assigned a color.

It's not essential that color is added to the group to get an omni light. If no color is added, the
omni light will appear as a "white" light.

4. Render the scene.

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Creating your own light fixtures.

You can create your own light fixtures with omni lights by completely enclosing an omni light
group with geometry and then opening one portion of the enclosure so light can escape out in
one direction.

For a simple example, create an omni light cube as described above. Turn this cube into a group.
Make sure you assign a Light value to the omni light. Now create a larger tube shape. Place the
omni light group within the tube so that it is completely enclosed. Then open one end of the tube
so that the omni light is completely enclosed except for one end. Render the scene and
experiment with colors.

Video tutorials on Omni lighting

For a more detailed video tutorial on Omni Light, see the Lighting Tutorial. Click Here for the
Lighting Tutorial

Another video tutorial about LEMs and Omni lights is here

Tips #4, #14, #19 in the Tips section are also helpful. Click here

Creating Spot Lights the Podium Light

System using Version 1.7.3
SU Podium 1.7.3's new feature is the Podium Light System. The Podium Light System allows
for an easy way to create spot light and omni lights. It also adds a soft shadow area to the spot
lights and provides an intuitive way to place omni lights.

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Podium 1.7.3 Spot light (Click on the image to view a larger resolution)

Steps to use the Podium Light System for SU Podium 1.7.3

Note: Podium Light System is for Version 1.7.3. If you are using Podium V2 Beta, make sure you
download the Podium Light System for V2 from the the V2 Beta web site.

To use the Podium Light System for SU Podium 1.7.3, first download and install SU
Podium 1.7.3 from the Registered User area if you have not installed it already.

Next, access the Podium Light System from the SketchUp Plugins menu. When you do
this you will see a red dot displayed in SketchUp.

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Press your Control key and you will see a Heads Up Display menu like the image above.

Next, with the Control key held down, left mouse click on omni or spot to choose the
type of lighting. The default lighting is omni which is shown by @typelight:1. This will
change to @typelight:2 if you click on spot.

Drag your left mouse cursor in the power rectangle to increase or decrease light power.

Creating Spot Lights with PLS

o After clicking on spot, release the Control key. A red dot is displayed in
SketchUp. Move your cursor and click on a face or an inference point (such as an
intersection or end point)
o Drag the cross hairs in a perpendicular direction away from the first inference
point. Find a second point and click in space. This can also be an inference point.
This will be position for the spot light group.
o Next, click on a face that will reflect the spot light beam. This will determine the
direction the spot light beam will be emitted.
o Render. You will notice a circular spot light with soft shadow edges will be
created on the face that was selected.
o Edit. You can increase or decrease the spot light power by selecting the spot light
group and moving the light slider in the Podium dialog box. You can also move
the position of spot light using the SketchUp move tool.
o Beam angle. There is no beam angle control on the Podium Light System for
1.7.3 spot lights. (If you need beam angle or width control, you will need to use
the PLS for Version 2 Beta). However, you can control the size of the spot light
light by selecting the spot light group and using the Scale tool in SketchUp.
Scaling the spot light group will change the diameter of the spot light light. Some
examples are shown below.

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Creating Omni Lights with PLS

• After clicking on omni, release the Control key. A red dot is displayed in SketchUp.
Move your cursor and click on a face or an inference point (such as an intersection or end
point)
• Drag the cross hairs in a perpendicular direction away from the first inference point. Find
a second point and click in space. This can also be an inference point.
• Render.
• Edit. You can increase or decrease the omni light power by selecting the omni light group
and moving the light slider in the Podium dialog box. You can also move the position of
omni light using the SketchUp move tool.

Creating Spot Lights - the old way

There is a much easier way of creating spot lights in Version 1.7.3 using the Podium Light
System. However, the older way is still useful and can give you size controls that does not exist
in the Podium Light System.

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If you already have a firm understanding of Podium lighting, especially Omni lights, here is
something to experiment with. Spotlights take more time to set up, just as omnis take more time
to set up than LEMs.

Spotlights can be used to manipulate light falloff. The falloff is determined by the length of the
line drawn out from the group. In the above images, you see a “scallop” effect
is achieved.

Download the Spotlight_test_scene.skp for some examples of spotlights. Click Here to

download.Then assign light attributes to each spotlight group and then render.

To create a spotlight:

1. Start by making a group as if you were making an omni light but, do not give the group
a light value.

2. From the center of the group, draw an edge (line) extending away from the group. In
this example the line was 2 meters.
3. Combine in a group the entities created in steps 1 and 2.

4. Give the group from step 3 a light value.

5. Render to see the spotlight effect.

In the two images at the top of the page, you see one image with spotlight groups and another

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image with renderedspotlights. Download the Spotlight_test_scene.skp for some examples of

spotlights. Download here.

Assign light values to each spotlight group and render the model with Podium. This will give
you some idea of how spotlights work.

Blurred Reflections
Blurred Reflection option allows you to assign blurred reflections to a face or faces. With
Podium's "normal" reflections, faces will directly reflect the surrounding environment, Podium
lights, geometry and textures. If you apply blurred reflections to a face, the reflections will be
subtle and less "glossy" than normal reflections.

Blurry reflections are applied the same way that "normal" reflections are applied. First check the
blurred reflections box on the Podium UI. Then select the face or faces to add reflections to.
While the faces are highlighted, use the reflect slide bar to choose the amount of reflection.

To understand more about Blurred reflection please read What's New in Podium 1.7
or watch the What's New in 1.7 Video

Settings

The Settings menu can help you increase or decrease the speed or quality of the render
depending on what options you choose. The Settings menu also allows you to decide where you
want to save your rendered image files and what file type to save images to. The settings user

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interface is accessed by clicking on the Arrow icon in Podium main user interface. The preceding
menu will allow you to pick Settings which will bring up the Settings user interface.The Settings
interface is divided into two sections. The top Render section is for controlling the speed and
smoothness of the rendered image. The bottom section is for the output file.

Render Settings

Podium provides two types of render settings that will affect how fast or at what quality the
rendering will be done.

Speed/ Quality slider bar controls how many ray tracing passes will be conducted during the
rendering. If you are looking for "quick and dirty" results, push the slider bar toward Speed.

Another slider bar controls the jaggy vs smoothness of the rendered image. An often used term
for controlling how smooth or jaggy an image should look is called anti-aliasing. Generally rule
of thumb for these two controls is you will get more speed and less quality the further you move
the slider bars left. But speed and quality will also depend on the resolution size. You will also
notice a considerable drop in the speed of rendering the further right you take the slider bars.

Note: A good practice is to first render the image at higher speeds, lower quality and smaller
resolutions to examine things like reflection, lighting and the textures you are working with.
Once you are happy with these things, render the image at higher resolutions and higher quality
and smoothness settings.

Output Settings. You can use the output settings to save the rendered image files in a folder of
your choice. You can also choose JPG, PNG or HDR from the Output options. DR file type is
new to Podium 1.6. High dynamic range (HDR) renderings allow you to render a greater range
of reflection and light detail than JPG or PNG files would produce.

Podium Wizard

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SU Podium 1.7.x includes Podium Wizard and Podium Tools utilities (Reset). These two
utilities are installed and displayed in the Podium 1.7 menu.

Podium Wizard for Podium 1.7.x

The Podium Wizard has two functions. One is to check the SketchUp model for the number of
Podium reflective faces, lights (LEM) and omni lights. This function will give you an idea of the
amount of computing power Podium needs to create a rendered image. The higher the number of
lights (LEM), reflective faces and omni lights the model has, the longer it will take to render.

The second function in the Podium Wizard is to check for textures that will not render. If you
have imported texture images in your model that have no extensions or unaccepted file
extensions such as .pdf or .eps, the Podium Wizard will display an error message. The image
below is an example of the error message and the analysis of the model.

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Podium 1.7( and above) also includes an error detection program that runs after the rendering
process is completed. If there are any textures that potentially will not render, an error message is
displayed within the Podium dialog box. The image below is how the message will appear.

The message is "errors detected. run wizard.". If you see this error after rendering, it will be a
good idea to run the Podium Wizard.

Correcting problem materials (imported textures)

After running Podium Wizard and getting an error message regarding materials with "wrong
format texture" or "no extension texture", it will be important to make name corrections to the
problem materials (imported textures) or deleting them from the SketchUp model. Renaming the
materials so they have correct extensions is not necessarily a simple task. Deleting the problem
materials is a lot easier although will have an impact on how your rendered image will look.

To correct material problems, the first thing to do is to purge your model of unused materials.
This will have a positive effect of deleting unneeded materials and potentially make your model
smaller. To purge, open your SketchUp Material Browser. For Windows users, click on the In

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Model icon and click the Arrow icon. Then select Purge Unused. For Mac users, from the List
pull down menu, pick Purge Unused.

The next task is to either delete problem materials or rename them so Podium will render them.
In most cases, Podium Wizard will give you a "wrong format textures" when imported texture (s)
is not a bit mapped graphic format. Accepted formats are .jpg, .png and .gif. Vector graphic
formats such as .pdf and .eps are treated as errors. The Wizard will give you a "no extension
texture" message when there are no file extensions to your JPEG, GIF or PNG file.

You can easily delete SketchUp materials by using the SketchUp Material Browser and selecting
and then deleting or removing the "problem" material. However, deleting a material may have an
impact on the look and feel of your rendered image. The other option is to add an extension to
the material, in the case that an extension is missing, or renaming the material, in the case that
the imported texture is a .pdf or .eps file. There are various ways renaming your imported
textures. The easiest method is finding the original imported image in your Windows or Mac
computer, rename it so it has a .jpg, gif or .png extensions and then re-importing the image as a
texture. However, if the case is that the imported texture is embedded in the model and you can
not access the original imported texture, you will need to save the texture as an image from
SketchUp's material browser to a folder on your computer. After saving the file, rename it with a
.jpg, .gif or .png extension. When you have either renamed or deleted the "problem" material, run
the Podium Wizard again to see if it has recognized the corrections. Then render your model
again.

Reset

The Reset menu has two sub menus: Reset Model and Reset Coordinates. Reset Model is the
same function as Podium_Tools.rbs. It will reset all faces and groups so that reflections and
lights in the entire model are deleted (no SketchUp geometry is deleted). Reset Coordinates is a
way to reset Podium's dialog box display coordinates. Sometimes if you are using a two monitor
setup and have Podium running on your extended monitor and then go back to a single monitor
setup, you will need to Reset Coordinates so that the Podium dialog box displays in it's original
position on a single monitor.

Soft Shadows

In Podium 1.7.1 and above you can render beautiful soft sun shadows effectively. Please click
here to read about it.

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Render All scenes

Render All Scenes is a feature that allows you to render all the SketchUp scenes in a model in
sequence. When invoked, Render All, renders each scene. To save time, only the first scene's
geometry is processed. Each subsequent scene's camera view is then rendered. One draw back to
this method is that object animations can not be created with Render All. You are limited to
camera animations. Render All saves each rendered scene's JPG image to a designated folder.
When it is complete, you can take all the images that were rendered and use Windows or Mac
programs like Movie Maker or Quick Time Pro to create a video animation. The idea is that each
scene in SketchUp is like a frame in a movie. When each scene is rendered with Render All, each
JPG image can be used as a frame. When "stitched" together with Movie Maker or Quick Time,

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a walk-thru video animation is created. With 1.7.2's improved Render All function, the process is
quite simple.

In SU Podium 1.7.2 Windows, Render All has been improved or rather "fixed" for the Windows
version. Render All for Podium Mac version has worked all along so this update to 1.7.2 may not
be as beneficial but if you are a Mac user and plan to do large animations with hundreds of
scenes at high resolution, 1.7.2 would be the better choice. With this version, Render All works
as it was original designed to. That is, when Render All is invoked, all scenes in the model will
be rendered. With previous versions, Render All would quit working after a small number of
scenes were rendered. Using 1.7.2 and Render All, it is possible to create animations where the
camera moves through the model as in a walk-thru or fly-thru animation. There are several steps
to creating the final animation but the most important step, Render All, works without having to
resort to patching various models and scenes together.

There is one important item to note. To get good results, exposed faces in your SketchUp model
should be front side AND have either textures or colors on them. You will get less than perfect
animations if you do not follow this rule.

Please take a look at the following two videos. The first one is of a photo-realistic walk-thru
rendering using SU Podium's Render All to generate the images and Windows Live Movie
Maker to create the video. The same thing can be done in QuickTime Pro for the Mac.

The second video is an explanation of how to use Render All in SU Podium 1.7.2. This video
tutorial is applicable to both Windows and Mac users. However the last one-third of the video is
dedicated on how to create video frames in Windows Live Movie Maker. To see a details
explanation on how to create video frames and videos from still images in QuickTime Pro for the
Mac, click here.

Click on the image above to see a complete photo-realistic animation video using Render All

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Click on the image above to see a tutorial on how to use RenderAll and create videos from still
images

Click on this link to read about how to use QuickTime Pro to convert still images to a
video.

Clay Rendering

You can get clay rendering effect such as the image above by using the Color by Layer feature in
SketchUp. Pick the Layer feature from SketchUp's Window pull-down menu. From the Layers

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menu, select the right Arrow icon.

Then Render using Podium. You will obtain a clay rendering effect on material with opacity of
100.

Render speed
You will notice that the more faces you have in your SketchUp model, the slower the speed for
Podium to render it.The greater the render size, the slower the speed. Curved surfaces in
SketchUp are comprised of many flat or planar faces and will take longer to render. Using LEM
as lights will dramatically slow down the rendering process so it's a good idea to use LEMs
careful.

Podium 1.6/ 1.7 takes advantage of multi-core processors so you will get greater speeds the more
micro-processor cores your computer supports. For example a dual core PC or Mac should get
twice the rendering speeds of Podium 1.5. Quad and Eight core computers will get even much
faster speeds. The speeds are increased in the raytracing and anti-aliasing portion of Podium's
rendering process. The process geometry, mesh building phases of the rendering are not effected
by multi-core process power.

Two Point Perspective

You can render images from SketchUp two point perspectives.

Sky Background colors.

If SketchUp Sky is on, no matter what color you have set the SketchUp Sky, the rendered image
will display a blue tint for the SketchUp Sky. Turn Sky off if you do not like this effect and
instead use your background color for the sky color. Many users

Light Fixtures Library

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When you create an account in the Registered User area of www.suplugins.com, you can
download and install a drag and drop, light fixture library of over 250 fixtures that have omni
lights built in. Dropping light fixtures into your SketchUp model can simplify setting up lighting
for your rendering. The light fixture library includes hundreds of manufacturer specified light
fixtures. The light fixture library is categorized into 5 categories - ceiling, floor, street, table, and
wall. There are both Windows and Mac versions of the light fixture library so be careful which
download option you choose. The download file is a zip file. Unzip the file and double click on
either the .exe (Windows) or .pkg (Mac) file. Since omni lights are already placed in the light
fixtures, rendering the model with light fixtures, is simple. You must have the full version of
Podium for the Light Fixture Library to install. If you are using the free, eval. version, download
the Light and Plants Sample program.

2D alpha transparent Plants and Trees

The Plants and Trees component library is comprised of hundreds of 2D alpha transparency
images for use with Podium 1.6 and 1.7. The plugin is a drag and drop library of hundreds of
tress, plants and shrubs. The plugin includes a library of Ozbreed plant clipmaps created by
Ozbreed plants by Enviro Graphic. (www.envirographic.com). The components are "Podium
render-ready" meaning they are face-me components that can be dragged and dropped into your
SketchUp model. Podium will recognize the transparent backgrounds and render them
beautifully. Download the Plants and Trees library from the Registered User area of
www.suplugins.com. You will need to have a full version of Podium for the Plants and Trees
program to install.

High Resolution Texture libraries

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Although Podium works well with SketchUp standard textures, rendered images will look even
more realistic if you import high resolution textures into your model. Podium customers can
download a free texture libraries from the Registered User area of dozens of high resolution
texture images featuring wood, glass, water, floors, cloth, tiles, concrete, ground cover, etc.
There are two forms of the texture libraries. One is an installation file that installs textures into
your Sketchup Material folder. The other are ZIP files of hundreds of .jpg images. Create your
own texture folder and unzip the contents of the zip file to this folder. To use the texture images,
import them in SketchUp as textures.

Omni Grid
Omni Grid is a ruby based program that will create a grid pattern of omni lights in your model.
The goal is to create a uniform source of lights without using LEMs or without over-populating
your model with omni lights. The way you apply Omni Grid is simple. Select a face or several
co-planar faces (such as a ceiling, wall or floor), select the grid distance and click OK. Omni
Grid is available from the Registered User area on www.suplugins.com. Installation instructions
are posted on this page as well.

Click here to see the Omni Grid video tutorial

Link to Registered User Area

Link to Tips and FAQ

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