The 10 best rendering software and plugins for SketchUp

These days, there’s plenty to like about the little 3D modelling program. As SketchUp was introduced from the last decade, it totally transformed the world of 3D Modelling. This transitional journey was not an easy one. Its rise to competent modelling program has been aided by its compatibility with some of the most powerful plugins and pieces of rendering software the market offers.

Whether the user is a beginner or an engineering student or a tech savvy rendering artist. SketchUp has something to offer. The user-friendly nature of these amazing plugins lends themselves to be easily approached by beginners, and fun to master for professionals.

Presenting the 10 best user-friendly plugins to transform 3d Modelling program to visualization powerhouse.

VRAY

Everyone whose set foot inside a design studio knows what VRAY is. As technology advances, so does V-Rays ability to produce the most mind-bending visualizations, renderings, and animations possible with ones and zeros.

V-Ray comes equipped with a plugin that interfaces directly with SketchUp. It certainly comes with a learning curve, but those willing to put in the time are rewarded with the ability to do just about anything with a rendering. With V-Ray, SketchUp is instantly transformed into a rendering tool professional can be proud to utilize.

Allura GPU for SketchUp

The rendering plugin utilizes the power of your system GPU to accelerate renderings and is a GPU based rendering plugin for SketchUp. Allura GPU uses the video GPU to create amazing rendering image with high speed and excellent overall rendering experience.

Allura GPU for SketchUp is powered by NVIDIA Iray which gives it all the qualities of an excellent SketchUp renderer. This software uses computing light paths with simple settings that are automatic. It is one of the best software to render SketchUp on the market.

In addition, some its features include indirect illumination, colour bleeding, reflections, refractions, soft shadows, blurry reflections, reflective and refractive caustics, and volume scattering; users just need to edit the materials and click render for amazing results.

Ariel Vision

This software gives a realistic rendering of objects and models inside SketchUp. It creates wonderfully rendered images without using complex settings which is ideal for designers. The plugin is powerful yet maintains a clean and easy user interface.

Ariel Vision has many unique features that include one-click rendering with great results from pre-defined settings, seamless integration with SketchUp full Reflection, and transparency controls for more realistic materials.

Twilight Render

Twilight Render is a visualization tool for professionals and hobbyists alike. In fact, that’s exactly how it’s marketed, and with good reason. It presents the user-friendly interface SketchUp users appreciate, with a powerful rendering engine that can produce photorealistic images for even the greenest of amateurs.

Twilight Render isn’t the most feature-rich rendering program in the world, but it provides just enough in terms of quality and speed to find plenty to like here. For people who are just getting their visualization foundation underneath them, it’s an absolute slam dunk and one that won’t cost them much to get up and running.

Keyshot

Keyshot utilizes real-time rendering in a way that allows you to see the results of a rendered scene as you’re working on it. That means the user can tweak textures, lighting, camera, and even massing and instantaneously view the rendering.

IRender nXt

IRender nXt is a powerful plugin that creates photorealistic renderings directly inside Trimble SketchUp. The plugin easily turns designs and models into superior images. This is an ideal tool for architects exhibiting their building plans. This software is ideal to render SketchUp files.

This software is also ideal for landscape designers and set designers needing quality images to showcase their designs by optimizing users’ workflow by saving settings inside the SketchUp model which allows users to post-render updates without beginning over.

Raylectron

With Raylectron users can edit how the model should be with various lighting settings, from sun, sky, and other settings. The X-ray vision feature enables the user to view interior render without removing the exterior.

Brighter 3D

Brighter 3D is another exclusive SketchUp plugin to try out. It works within SketchUp’s already user-friendly interface, and has enough in terms of options and flexibility that experienced users will love. It supports a variety of different lighting models, including artificial and HDR.

Twilight Render

Twilight Render is a visualization tool for professionals and hobbyists alike. It allows the user-friendly interface that SketchUp Users appreciate.

Shaderlight

This software gives a different more realistic rendering for SketchUp with lots of options via various modes and tools which simplifies the work model. Shaderlight creates a unique fusion with its uses, where the user has the option to choose between progressive rendering and single shot rendering.