Architectural_Design_with_SketchUp

Chapter 5 Rendering in SketchUp
Therefore, a good rule is to use the minimum number of faces when you model any
object—especially when it is barely visible, such as in the case of a guy wire. To do this, you
can preset the number of segments when you create a circle or a polygon by entering the
number right after you start the tool.
The result of this approach can be seen in Figure 5.23, where the guy wire has been
modeled using a triangle as a cross section.
Figure 5.23: Rendering with guy wire modeled as extruded triangle
Now let’s look at the second case: If you want to show the lines in the tension structure in your
rendering, you have two options—the first one depends on your rendering software, however.
When you use your rendering software to assign a material to the faces that make up
the tension fabric, look for a material feature called something like “Show Edge Lines.” If
this feature is available, the rendering software can actually render edges as a line (or even,
in some cases, using a different material). If this feature is not available, a good approach is
to overlay a rendered view with an edge-only view exported from SketchUp.
To do this, switch to hidden-line view in SketchUp (go to View k Face Style k
Hidden Line) and turn off all shadows. Then export the view from within SketchUp.
Before exporting, adjust any line properties in the Styles window to your liking.
Also, do a rendering of the same view (make sure the image size in pixels is
exactly the same) and export it as well. You can now take these two images into
Photoshop (or any other graphics software) and combine them using a layer arrangement
similar to the image shown here.
For this example, I also used a feathered white paintbrush to reduce the impact
of the lines in some areas. The result of the combination now looks like Figure 5.24.
A further effect related to faces can be seen in Figure 5.25. Whenever you render a
tessellated surface (like the fabric in this model), the polygons that make up the shape will
render as flat shapes. As a result, the surface may not appear smooth in the rendering. This
can often be solved with yet another material-related setting.
When you apply a material to the fabric in your rendering software, look for a feature
called Hard Edge Angle. This may also be available in the general rendering settings. Similar
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