1. Su Podium 2.6

From:Podium 1.5 customers - download your free Podium 1.6 beta from theRegistered User PageCreate a new account if you do not have a user name or password. You must have a Podium 1.5 serial number for 1.6 beta to work.

Be aware that when you install Podium 1.6 Beta, it will replace your Podium 1.5 program files. To restore to Podium 1.5, download Podium 1.5 from the Registered User page and install again.What's New in Version 1.6 BetaMulti-threading support means faster rendering, Alpha Transparency support, Plants and Trees Library, Render All renders all SketchUp scenes in a batch (or tries to)1.6 beta is faster.much faster. Because Podium 1.6 now supports multi-threading, your dual or quad processors will be used during the raytracing and anti-aliasing process of the rendering. This will lead to two to three times speed increase in rendering times compared to version 1.5. The speed increases depends a lot on the number of processors your computer has and the size of the image resolution.

Generally the higher the image resolution, the greater the speed difference from Podium 1.5. Cadalog, Inc. Tests have seen speed differences of two to four times. However, be aware that Geometry Process, Mesh building, Photon mapping do not support multi-threading so initially when you start the render, it may not seem that the rendering is going any faster than 1.5. Once the raytracing and anti-aliasing process starts, you will notice the speed difference.Alpha Transparency. PNG images that have backgrounds that are alpha transparency are now supported in Podium. These images can be placed in SketchUp and will render with transparent backgrounds.

There is no need for clip maps anymore.Free Plants and Trees Library. Cadalog, Inc. Has create a drag and drop plug-in for SketchUp which is comprised of dozens of components of plants, trees and shrubs.

This is a web dialog based plug-in which simply allows you to drag and drop the various trees and plants. Each plant and tree image is contained in a face me component. Please download from the Registered User page. Download file size is 230 mb.Render all scenes- batch rendering of scenes When you choose Render all scenes from the Podium menu and then click Render, Podium will render each scene in the SketchUp model. Podium only renders the scenes with a camera view. The idea behind Render all scenes is that you can use a tool like SU Animate to create a SketchUp walk thru animation. Once you have all the scenes of your SketchUp animation, Podium will render each scene and save each finished image (JPG or PNG).

You can then take all the rendered images and use a program like Microsoft's Movie Maker to create a rendered animation video.One problem is that depending on the resolution size you have chosen, your computer's processors, how much memory you have or a number of other variables, if you have more than 30 scenes, chances are Podium will stop rendering and even crash your SketchUp session. We have found that you may need to setup all your scenes, let Podium render as many as it can, then delete the scenes that were already rendered and start the rendering process over again. We are curious to hear your reaction to this Render all feature. It's definitely a work-in-progress but it can be very useful.Known Problems and Issues:Default Preset is brighter The default.xml preset in Podium 16 Beta produces brighter images than in 1.5. Default is the fastest preset in Podium 1.6 Beta. The additional brightness is not a bug but the way the default preset was designed.

It produces particularly brighter images when you use omni lights. If you prefer the Podium 1.5 default settings, use old15.xml. We welcome your comments regarding Presets in the Beta forum.Render all scenes - Does not always complete rendering every scene in the model.

You may need to delete the scenes that are successfully rendered and start again.Presets.The default preset is the fastest preset in terms of rendering speed. However, you may notice more brightness with the new default preset.

This may require adjusting your original Podium 1.5 settings. Check the Beta forum for updates with presets and feedback.Windows only at this time. We are working on the Mac version of this Podium 1.6 Beta. We hope to have it released in a week or two.Join the Podium 1.6 Beta forumThe Podium 1.6 Beta forum is listed as a category in the Forum. It is listed simply as 'Beta'.

It requires a password to enter. The password is 'ilovepodium'. Please only join this Forum if you have install Podium 1.6 and are using it.

You must have purchase Podium to be able to use Podium 1.6.Podium 1.6 Windows Beta Download.

New features in SU Podium V2.5+:. V2.5.x's major new feature is the result of months of R&D to employ a C method of processing scenes which make the overall Podium processing scenes in SketchUp up to ten times faster. In larger models, you will notice even more speed gains. In fact, V2.5.x is up to 50% faster than the blazing speeds of V2.5. What is processing scenes and why should I care? Please read below. Panoramic VR is now supported in SU Podium V2.5.1 and above.

This is a new feature that only comes with the introduction of V2.5.x. Please read about Panoramic VR. V2.5.x solves many of the texture mapping distortion in a rendered image such as distorted textures on flipped components. Also, it is able to process.tif files and has much fewer 'unknown symbol' messages. Also, the problems with materials that has names like 'h' or 'm' are gone. V2.5.x has a better Tools, Analyse method, helping you to quickly identify problems. PIE has a new DOF feature and now supports HDR images.

Section Tools has been included in the SketchUp 2016, 2017, 2018 64 bit versions. V2.5.x - SketchUp 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 users please read about what's brand new in SU Podium V2.5.x. All other SU Podium V2 Plus features are retained.

For a summary of V2 Plus features in addition to the new items in V2.5 Plus,. V2.5.x supports SketchUp 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and V2.5.1 is for 2014 Win/ Mac, 64/ 32 bit.

Su Podium 2.6

If you are using SketchUp 8, please use V2 Plus. V2 Plus will continue to be available for SketchUp 8 and SketchUp 2013. Processing Scenes - Super fast C methodSU Podium V2.5.x Plus employs a significantly improved Podium Exporter that is written in C.Previous versions used a very efficient ruby code to export SketchUp geometry, textures, camera and sun position to Podium's raytracing engine. However, the C Podium Exporter can export geometry and materials to the raytracing engine much faster. In many cases 10 times faster.

In fact, V2.5.x is 50% faster than V2.5. As you know, with large models, processing and parsing scenes can often be the longest stage in the entire rendering process. So for large models, the speed difference can be several minutes or more in rendering time. Tools Analyse has been updated:Analyse Tools has been updated in V2.5 Plus with additional options providing more information about your model and how to fix problems.As you can see in the adjacent image, there are many new items reported in Analyse. Now there is a summary section for Alerts which provide information why Podium may be crashing or is not rendering as expected. The list of materials now links with both the SketchUp Materials Editor and the Podium Materials Property.

In other words, when you click on one of the listed materials in the Analyse Report the particular material is linked to SketchUp's Material Editor and Podium Material Properties UI so you can make edits quickly. Rendering Sections included in SU 2016, SU 2017, SU 2018,SU 2019 64 bit versionsAn oft requested feature for SU Podium has been to support SketchUp sections. SketchUp sections simulate section cuts by hiding parts of the model that are behind the SketchUp section plane. But SketchUp does not actually trim or cut the faces from the model, to make sections as you might see in a solid modeling 3D program. SketchUp section feature does not remove geometry behind the section plane. Therefore Podium's rendering engine can not distinguish between what is in front or behind (hidden) the SketchUp section plane.To deal with this, Cadalog has a has a new section tool plug-in for SU Podium V2.5 Plus users, that cuts and removes the SketchUp geometry that is behind the section plane.

To ensure that you do not lose geometry from your original model, the SU Podium Section Tool first makes a copy of your model and renames to a unique name. Then the tool creates a new face where the section plane is and removes the geometry that is behind the section plane. The result is a real physical section which you can then render with SU Podium.Section Tool is now installed with V2.5 Plus for SketchUp 64 bit.

This is because SketchUp 64 bit has improvements in memory management and Section Tools works well. However, we have not included Section Tools in the older SketchUp 32 bit because it will often crash due to lack of memory. Turn off shadow casting on a per-material basis:Cast Shadows is a new material property accessible via a checkbox at the bottom of the materials dialog:There may be times that you do not want a specific material to cast a shadow.

One example shown below is Podium Browser's background clouds. At times the cloud background image needs to be scaled up to produce a realistic effect. But this will cause the cloud background image to cast a shadow over much of the scene.

In this case, you may want to turn off the material property, cast shadows.