FIX BATCH REXPORT VIEWS

Enscape Host Applications Enscape for SketchUp
1

For several years now, batch rendering has been unable to preserve SketchUp views.
The FOVs are different as soon as batch rendering is used.
It is UNBEARABLE and INCOMPREHENSIBLE that this problem has never been fixed.
I am forced to render views one by one because batch rendering is unusable. When there are dozens of views to render, that’s dozens of minutes wasted…
Enscape is a tool used by professionals, and problems that have been reported for five+ years have never been fixed.
Meanwhile, we constantly see new features that no one ever asked for and whose usefulness is highly questionable.

Stop implementing Veras and other nonsense. Fix the problems.

2

+1

3

Thanks for raising this, and I understand the frustration. I want to explain what is happening today and why, and then discuss a possible way forward.

At the moment, camera properties such as FOV, projection mode, depth of field, exposure, etc. exist in two places:

  • On the SketchUp side, as part of the SketchUp scene.
  • On the Enscape side, inside Visual Settings.

The current logic works like this:

  • If Synchronize Views is enabled, Enscape overrides its own values and uses whatever is defined in the SketchUp scene.
  • If Synchronize Views is disabled, Enscape uses its own Visual Settings values instead.

However, batch rendering behaves differently. During batch rendering, Enscape always uses the Visual Settings camera values, regardless of whether Synchronize Views is enabled or not. The original idea behind this was to make batch renders reproducible and consistent, based purely on Enscape’s view and the attached Visual Settings.

That said, I fully agree that this breaks an important workflow when SketchUp scenes are used to define precise camera framing. In those cases, batch rendering does not respect the intent of the SketchUp views, which is exactly the problem you are describing.

In theory, the most flexible solution would be to allow per-scene control over whether SketchUp or Enscape camera settings should win, and store that preference with the SketchUp scene. The downside is added UI and behavioral complexity. For example:

  • How long should a scene “own” the camera settings?
  • If you activate a scene, then freely move the camera, are you still bound to that scene?
  • If you later want to change FOV or projection in Enscape, do you first need to detach from the SketchUp scene?

These are solvable, but they introduce edge cases that need careful handling.

Taking a step back, the core question is this:
Is there value in allowing SketchUp and Enscape to have different camera properties for the same scene?

From what we see, this is largely a preference question. Some users want SketchUp to be the source of truth, others prefer Enscape’s camera settings. Forcing one model globally reduces flexibility.

This raises an important question. For batch rendering, would setting camera properties directly in Enscape be an alternative workflow for you? If that is the case, then one option is to make this behavior explicit rather than implicit. For example, we could add a clear, informative UI message in the batch rendering dialog stating that batch rendering always uses Enscape camera values.

A more pragmatic option would be to add a clear option for batch rendering that explicitly respects SketchUp camera properties for all scenes. This would directly address your issue without introducing per-scene complexity.

I would be very interested to hear your thoughts on whether making the current behavior explicit or adding an option would best fit your workflow.

4

@Mehmet_Gunduz thank you for your clear and thoughtful explanation. My preference would be for a batch-rendering option that explicitly and consistently respects the SketchUp camera properties across all scenes.

Designing is often a lengthy process, and I prefer to take the necessary time until everything aligns properly. As I believe you will understand, it is therefore important that the remainder of the workflow remains as cost-effective as possible.

I hope this clarifies my position.

5

I guess the most simple solution would be:

Add an Option in the Enscape Settings like “Use SketchUp (or any other Software supported by Enscape) Camera Settings in Batch Rendering” - then, when starting a batch rendering process, Enscape would overwrite its own camera settings with the settings from the actual SketchUp scene, including sun settings.

So it would be something like:

  1. First you select the scenes you want in the batch
  2. Start Batch Render
  3. Switch to Scene X
  4. Get the SketchUp Camera/Scene Settings and overwrite Enscape´s camera settings
  5. Render
  6. Starting over from step 3 until all selected scenes have been rendered
  7. End Batch

I bet this would make life a lot easier for all because i am pretty sure users think that the SketchUp camera/scene settings are that what counts.

It cannot be a big problem to add this function to Enscape.