Common Rendering Questions

and solutions using IRender nXt for SketchUp

These items come up regularly for new, and even experienced rendering users. Take a look for ideas on how to solve them.

1 Highlights and Reflections
2 How can I make my walls appear white?
3 How can I balance the sun, sky and artificial lights?
4 My Transparent Curtain is rendering like glass
5 Reflections in multiple mirrors
6 How can I Render Water and Waterfalls?
7 Low Resolution Renderings
8 How to backlite a box on wall
9 I have Speckled Lines of Light leaking through my walls
10 Can I reduce the amount of aliasing at edges?
11 How can I render a PhotoMatch image
12 Are there limits to the size, resolution, etc.

Highlights and Reflections

I've been using IRender for sometime but have never been able to figure out Highlights and reflection settings.
I've started a ring model and would like to render a shiny metallic gold surface.

See full article: Highlights and Reflections

How can I make my walls appear white?

My walls appear white in SketchUp, but when I render them they are grey White Walls and White Backgrounds are often a challenge.

You can make walls whiter in IRender nXt using a combination of Self Glow and the Brightness Slider .

See full article: White Walls

How can I balance the sun, sky and artificial lights?

There are a few good methods:

Use Lighting Channels to quickly balance the sun, sky and lights after rendering.
Use the Lighting Balance slider to set the desired balance.

See full article: Balancing Sun, Sky and Artificial Lights

My Transparent Curtain is rendering like glass

Recently a user on our forum asked: "I placed a semi-transparent shower curtain in my model, but it rendered like glass. What can I do to fix this?"

This is because IRender nXt, by default, treats all transparent objects in SketchUp as glass which reflects light and distorts objects behind the glass.

Most transparent objects in SketchUp models are glass, so the default is to render them as if they were glass.

You can reduce or eliminate this effect by lowering the Index of Refraction to 1.0

See full article: Transparent Objects

Reflections in multiple mirrors

I just noticed that IRender nXt doesn't seem to know what to do when you are looking at a mirror that points back to a mirror, which looks back to the original mirror. By default, we only process a couple of levels of multiple reflection. You need to change the setting for Reflective Bounces.

See full article: Multiple Reflections from Mirrors

How can I Render Water and Waterfalls?

I am trying to render an image with a pool in it. Can you suggest anything like a preset, download (like with the grass) or tutorial to help me create realistic looking water? Thanks! Also I'd there a way to make the water look like it is falling? Like a waterfall or water feature.

See full article: Water and Waterfalls

Low Resolution Renderings

I just downloaded your free trial and rendered a quick design and it turned out looking good but the file size is 98kb and is really fuzzy when I zoom into picture. I didn’t find any help with this and I am used to most renderings being mb’s so I just wanted to see what I am doing wrong. You can set the desired resolution on the Render Setup Tab.