Batch render command?

[DiditzZz]

Is there a feature for batch render? So we create lots of scenes inside SketchUp and have VfSU render all those in order. I made this a wish list of mine because of the instability of opening multiple SketchUp instances and have those render at once (3ds MAX and Vray for it could do that). Before sleep, test render each scene to make sure everything's okay and then hit "batch render" button and then go to sleep! Voila!

Tell me what you think!

[andybot_cg]

Yes, you can quite easily do a batch render using the animation option. Set the frame rate to 1, and disable scene transitions in SU. The one major thing to note is that any changes in geometry from one scene to the next will not be recognized (for example if you turn off a layer in one scene, it will still be on in the rendering if it is on in the first frame...)

[DiditzZz]

Cool! I shall try that now.

Anyways yeah, I figure if changes in geometry is not recognized between scenes that means its the same with V-Ray Toys ruby from Thomthom. Have several scenes where I want to render it portrait, so had to separate another skp files for that purpose.

[dkendig]

It probably wouldn't be too hard to script together something to load a list of scenes and kick off renders.

[andybot_cg]

rendering multiple scenes works quite fine from Sketchup. You can specify in SU which ones to include and which ones to exclude. It would be nice to have a way to specify if each scene geometry should be exported separately (for example the ability to have layers on or off between different scenes.) Not sure if it's possible though with the way SU animation works. Right now just one mesh is exported so no changes between scenes.

[dkendig]

I was referring to skp files (model files, scene files), I forgot that SketchUp has something called "scenes".

[andybot_cg]

oooh - so were you thinking load multiple skp files in a batch!? Now that would be something!

[dkendig]

right, I'm sure it's not that complicated. https://developers.google.com/sketch...chup#open_file and I believe VfSExport.render() is the command we use to kick off a render. It's in the toolbar code somewhere, I'd have to look. I'm sure someone could write a little script that just called open_file on skp files one after the other, and kicks off a render. You would need to set up each skp file so it's ready to go as soon as it's opened, but that shouldn't be a problem.

[thomthom]

Problem comes when you have multiple scenes you want to render with different camera settings. As it is now there is one global camera setting - where as it should (logically) be one for each Page/Scene in SketchUp.

[DiditzZz]

Yep that is what the thread was about, since I have had multiple scenes that needs to be rendered portrait, landscape, and some unique aspect ratios. So I guess the batch render thingy needs to come from VfSU development, I think.

[dkendig]

right, that's why I was suggesting someone throw together a little script to load a series of skp files that are all set to go.

[andybot_cg]

Is there a way to tie into SU's "camera tools" where different scenes can have different aspect ratios. If there were a way to transfer exposure settings that would be slick, but not sure there's an interface in the SU API for that.

[dkendig]

we don't update anything between scenes within one skp file, other than the camera I believe.

[DiditzZz]

Yes, you can quite easily do a batch render using the animation option. Set the frame rate to 1, and disable scene transitions in SU. The one major thing to note is that any changes in geometry from one scene to the next will not be recognized (for example if you turn off a layer in one scene, it will still be on in the rendering if it is on in the first frame...)

Hey andy, tried the batch render on SU's animation, didn't work. I saw "view 1" rendering and I left it to render when I sleep. The next morning, the last view (view 7) is rendered and the rest from 1 to 6 aren't saved.

Don't know if it's just my mistake in the setting, or is it a new bug.

[andybot_cg]

ouch, sorry man. Has happened to me before too. Make sure you check the box for "include frame number" otherwise it keeps writing to the same autosave file.