Author: Charlotte Lee

It may take you a few goes and some experimentation to get there, but once you do you’ll be delighted. These tips will help you get where you want to be faster.

•         A high-resolution texture map helps you create a more realistic glassy surface
•         The Fresnel effect is adjustable too, again giving you a more realistic look because it drives the way the glass reflects and refracts light at different angles
•         A slight bump map gives you a subtler subtle texture to add even more realism to your glass materials and objects

Introducing Elmtec  

So now you know how to make glass in V-Ray with SketchUp. Get it right and the results are mind-blowingly good, contributing to dazzling presentations, faster customer approval of your ideas, and designs that are more than practical, they’re also beautiful and realistic. Like all things SketchUp, the V-Ray extension is fun to use and a delight to play with. Once you’ve got glass creation under your belt, your designs become even more exciting, inspiring, and professional.  

Are you ready to give it a go? Elmtec is your trusted digital distribution partner. We have more than a quarter of a century’s experience serving the digital design community, and we’re known and loved for being one of the leading distributors of professional hardware and software. Your purchase is backed by highly qualified specialists whose product knowledge, industry experience and support are second to none. Take a look at the free vs pro versions of SketchUp here.

Once you’ve installed SketchUp Studio, you’ll want to activate your licence. We’ll take you through the activation process in detail, so you know for sure you’re entering the right licence information. If you have any problems we’ll troubleshoot them for you, so you can fix them fast. It’s our job to deliver a smooth, seamless licence activation experience for everyone. We’ll also reveal the many benefits of activating a SketchUp Studio licence, which unlocks premium features, delivers product updates, and gives you access to a wealth of brilliant learning and support resources.

SketchUp Studio is more than a design tool. It also delivers the features you need for seamless, integrated collaboration and communication, both of which can make all the difference between a smooth, efficient project and one that takes more time and effort than you expected.  The tools enable the perfect level of collaboration with everyone involved, from team members and clients to every other stakeholder along the way.

 This level of highly effective communication means the workflow is beautifully streamlined. Real-time collaboration, instant feedback, cloud storage, and shared view links make everything super-easy, giving users the level of quality project coordination needed for a successful and enjoyable design project every time.

SketchUp Studio is more than a design tool. It also delivers the features you need for seamless, integrated collaboration and communication, both of which can make all the difference between a smooth, efficient project and one that takes more time and effort than you expected.  The tools enable the perfect level of collaboration with everyone involved, from team members and clients to every other stakeholder along the way.

 This level of highly effective communication means the workflow is beautifully streamlined. Real-time collaboration, instant feedback, cloud storage, and shared view links make everything super-easy, giving users the level of quality project coordination needed for a successful and enjoyable design project every time.

Next, let’s take a look at how to set up and install the software. As a beginner you’ll want to carefully follow the instructions from the software source to get it right first time. Luckily it’s usually a simple process, one you’ll have followed before when installing tools to your computer. The Elmtec team provides support and resources to help you successfully install and set up the software we provide. You can rely on us. 

There are some best practices to follow around learning 3d architecture software for beginners, to help you make the most of the opportunity. Start simple to grow your confidence fast. Begin with the most basic tutorials then practice what you’ve learned and how to do it until you’re fully fluent. Then you’ll be ready to take your knowledge to the next stage without getting frustrated or lost. 

Don’t forget to save your work frequently and back up your files so you can’t lose it. And take full advantage of every opportunity to collaborate with people who already use the software, since collaboration and communication are key to success – and to making the whole thing more enjoyable. 

Choose software that includes plenty of resources for learning and improving your skills and you’ll have even more fun while getting to grips with it. We can help with that too, since Elmtec provides such a huge collection of resources for learning including online tutorials, training courses, and friendly user forums. We also recommend books, manuals, and workshops.

SketchUp is brilliant at importing 3D models from Google Earth, very useful when designing for a real-world location because it is so accurate. It gives you such a good 3D representation of buildings and the things surrounding them. The building itself is correct, as is the size and shape of the land it sits on, the terrain, trees, roads and everything else. 

Next, here’s a handy step-by-step guide to importing 3D models into SketchUp:

• Open Google Earth 
• Find the building you want to import into SketchUp
• Use the navigation tools to place the camera so you’ve got a really good view of the building
• Go to the menu bar then File > Save > Save Place As
• Choose the file format.kmz
• Save the file 
• Open SketchUp 
• Go to File > Import
• Choose the .kmz file extension from the drop-down menu of file types 
• Choose your saved .kmz file 
• Click Import
• Your imported 3D model is inside SketchUp, ready to work with 

Next in our guide about how to export Google Earth to SketchUp, how do you use imported models in your SketchUp projects? 

SketchUp puts the imported image on a layer of its own, which means it’s easy to turn on and off. You might want to scale it up or down for your project using the scale tool. It’s a simple task. 

Now you can use the imported model as a realistic reference to make your own 3D model of the building or simply use it as an inspiring starting point for creativity. As you can tell it’s a great way to save time and effort making things from scratch. 

There are some best practices to get to grips with when working with imported models in SketchUp. Always keep the imported model on a separate layer of its own, so you can turn it on and off easily. The scale tool is the simplest way to resize the model to suit your project. You can make the model simpler therefore easier to work on by stripping out all the unnecessary elements. This reduces the file size. It’s a good idea to group the imported model to make it easier to work with, splitting it into components. And you can have fun using materials and textures, both of which will make your work unique and add excitement to the finished design.

Is there more than one kind of photorealistic rendering software? It’s a yes. There are three sorts of 3d rendering tools to choose from, each with its own focus.    

Photorealistic rendering software gives you extremely realistic images and animations. Simulating real-world lighting and materials to perfection, this kind of rendering is mostly used by architects, product designers, and advertising agencies. 

Non-photorealistic rendering software is the best choice when you want to be more artistic, is used by designers working in animation, gaming and film. Paint with it, draw with it and much more – it lets you use all sorts of expressive styles.  

Real-time rendering software is perfect for making interactive and immersive visualisations in real time. Think video games, virtual and augmented reality, and the impressive walk-throughs used by architects.