With SketchUp’s Shadows feature, you can make your model cast a basic shadow or see how the sun casts shadows on or around a geolocated model.
When you’re casting real-world shadows, SketchUp’s calculations are based on the following:
SketchUp Make is available from Windows 7 to Windows 10 and the latest Mac OSX 10.12 and up. Is there a better alternative? There are better options for 3D sculpting and design, but for the more technical aspect, both Maya and Blender can’t compare to SketchUp in this aspect. We still have SketchUp Make 2017 available for free download here. Be sure to download Make, not Pro, for the free version. Microsoft money. This can be used on Mac or Windows OS for personal projects. It includes 30 days of Pro, after which the Pro features will turn off and you'll have the free Make version.
- The model’s latitude and longitude
- The model’s cardinal orientation (north, south, east or west; see Adjusting the Drawing Axes for details about how the drawing axes are aligned to the cardinal directions)
- The selected time zone
Tip: The Shadows feature can give you only a general idea of how the sun and shadows will look at a specific location. The time is not adjusted for daylight saving time. If the model is geolocated in an area where time zone lines zigzag rather dramatically, the time zone may be off by an hour or longer.
Tip: Before you can cast real-world shadows in a model, your model must be geolocated. To geolocate your model in SketchUp Pro 2017, you can import terrain using the Add Location tool. Or to add a location manually in any version of SketchUp, select Window > Model Info, select the Geo-location option in the sidebar on the left, click Set Manual Location, and enter a latitude and longitude in the dialog box that appears. After you model is geolocated, SketchUp knows (roughly) how the sun will shine on your model.
By default, shadows are turned off, because they can use a lot of your computer’s processing ability. To turn on shadows and see shadows at different times of day, follow these steps:
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- Select View > Shadows. This enables the Shadows feature.
- Select Window > Shadows to open the Shadow Settings dialog boxOpen the Shadows panel in the Default Tray, where you can control how the shadows appear. (Alternately, you can display the Shadows toolbar; Customizing Your Workspace explains how to show and hide toolbars.)
- To select the time of day, drag the Time slider along the timeline or enter a time in the Time box.
- To select a month and day, drag the Date slider or enter a date in the Date box.
In the following figure, you see the how the shadows change from 7:00 a.m. (top) to 3:30 p.m. (bottom).
Beyond the basic shadow settings outlined in the preceding steps list, you can customize a few more shadow attributes in the Shadow Settings dialog box:
- The Display Shadows button in the upper left toggles the shadow display on and off.
- The Time Zone drop-down list enables you to choose a new time zone. If your model is geolocated, this time zone should be accurate, but you can check that it’s correct or change it if you like.
- The Light slider controls the light’s intensity. This option effectively lightens and darkens illuminated surfaces.
- The Dark slider controls the shadow’s intensity. With this option, you can lighten or darken areas under shade or shadows.
- When the Use Sun for Shading checkbox is selected, SketchUp’s simulated sun shades parts of your model even if shadows are toggled off.
- The On Faces checkbox enables faces to cast shadows on other faces. This feature gobbles up your graphics card’s processing power, so you might try deselecting this option if you want to display shadows but the feature is causing a performance problem.
- When the On Ground checkbox is selected, your geometry can cast shadows on the ground plane.
- The From Edges checkbox controls whether edges that are not associated with a face cast a shadow. By default, this option is deselected.
Check out this blog post for more information on how to control shading in your SketchUp models.
Tip: Have a transparent face that isn't casting shadows? When the material applied to a face has an opacity of less than 70%, the face stops casting shadows. If you want a transparent face to cast shadows, edit the material's Opacity setting to 70% or higher.
This is a quick tutorial on how to install SketchUp Make 2016 on Linux. For those who may not know, SketchUp Make 2016 (Formerly known as Google SketchUp) is a very popular, CAD style, 3D modeling program for applications such as architectural, interior design, civil and mechanical engineering, film, and video game design.
SketchUp Features
- Create 3D models of buildings, furniture, interiors, landscapes, and more.
- Customize the SketchUp interface to reflect the way you work.
- Share 3D models as walkthrough animations, scenes, or printouts, with realistic light and shadows. You can even print a model on a 3D printer.
- Import files from other 3D modeling programs or tools, or export your SketchUp file for use with other popular modeling and image-editing software.
Key Changes / Improvements to SketchUp Make 2016
- Improved the performance of Stamp and Drape and other operations where geometry is intersected.
- Improved the performance of undoing changes to geometry.
- Fixed a crash that could occur when importing an image into a model that had a corrupt image (0x0 size).
- Improved the performance of erasing entities within groups in large models.
- Fixed a crash that could occur when auto-folding certain geometry.
- See complete list of updates
How to install Google SketchUp Make 2016 on Ubuntu 16.04 using Wine
- Install latest Wine
- Run following command
- Change the Windows version to Windows 7 under Applications
- Click Libraries tab > add ‘riched20’ as a new library
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- Right-click on the exe and click ‘Open with Wine Windows Program Loader‘
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- Follow the installation wizard to complete the installation
- Right-click on Sketch 2016 launcher > Click properties> add ‘/DisableRubyAPI’ at the end of the command field
- Now download “mfc100u.dll” library > copy it to system32 wine folder.
You can enable hidden folders under Nautilus with following key combination “ctrl+H”.
- Go to home folder > navigate to .wine/drive_c/windows/system32/ and copy it there.
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- Launch SketchUp Make 2016