Other Features

    1. SU Podium Browser with Light Fixtures, 2D and 3D Plants, Textures and Podium materials

    Podium Browser is part of SU Podium V2.x and gives you access to 850 Podium V2 ready light fixtures, alpha transparent 2D plants and trees, a number of Podium materials, etc. Podium Browser comes installed with SU Podium V2.x and above. Podium Browser is accessed from the SU Podium V2.x icon menu. Podium Browser also has a Paid section, which requires a purchase of another license. The Paid content license will give you access to thousands of more advanced light fixtures, 3D plants and Podium render ready materials. Click here for more detail on Podium Browser.

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    2. Omni Grid V2

    Omni Grid is a plug-in for SU Podium V2 or V2.x Plus that allows you to create a grid of point lights ( omni lights) above or below a planar surface (SketchUp face). By creating a grid of omni lights, Omni Grid creates a relatively even source of light over a wide space. It is best for interior rendering. An better alternative to omni grid for obtaining large area and evenly distributed lighting is LEM or Hidden LEM.

    Omni Grid is a free plug-in and is now an .rbz file that will install from your SketchUp / Preference/ Install Extensions menu. It does not come installed with SU Podium. You do need the .rbz file and then install from within SketchUp. Download it from the Free Bonus Extensions page and read the download and install instructions.

    If installed correctly, OmniGridV2 is a accessed through SketchUp's context sensitive menu. Select a face and right click to obtain the context menu.

    Omni Grid was original created for SU Podium 1.7.x because the old version of Podium had very slow to render, LEM. However, with SU Podium V2 and above, LEM (Light Emitting Materials) is much faster to render than an array of point lights. LEM will also produce a more even distribution of lighting than omni grid. OmniGrid V2 is a grid of point lights therefore the lighting will have bright spots. Many V2 users that used OmniGrid in Podium 1.x, are used to OmniGrid and that is the primary reason why it has been retained in V2.x . Please read about LEM material property in the LEM light section here before using OmniGrid V2.


    Click on download page for Omni Grid V2

    Free Bonus Extensions

    Check the download page for a variety of free SU Podium plug-ins Free Bonus Extensions page

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    3. Podium::render

    A function that will invoke Podium's rendering from a Ruby script or from the Ruby Console is included in V2. The command is Podium::render( :filename => '' ) . Include the file name without extensions between ' and ' if you want the script to render to a specific file name. Podium will append the file name with 0000. If you want a unique file name do not use the ( :filename => '' ).

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    4. Render All

    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 and saves the image in the SU Podium image save folder. This enables you to batch render several scenes in sequence or even create photo-realistic animation especially if you have created the SketchUp scenes using SU Animate. Render All is not included in V2.5.x version but is available from the Free Bonus Extensions page. It will only work in Windows.