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I agree.

good suggestion For2went !

I would like to add the wish for a Invisible Material here.
(a material which appears normal in SketchUp but invisible
in Shaderlight)

That’s interesting.  I’m curious now.  What would you use an invisible material for?

hmm, how should I explain this? :-)

The “invisible” option includes a large amount of possibilities. and so stupid this first sounds,
all the options are great.

- One option is that you can work with geometry in the model, which you do not have to turn on or
off within the SketchUp layers, if you do not want to see these. - This can be for example any help(?)geometry.
Or any forgotten geometry, which is on the wrong layer and the expense would be
too great to change this error inside the model. Or you unlock all the leaf in a forest just with
few clicks ...

- Another option is that you can work for example with different materials simultaneously, even if
they are on the same space within the SkUp model which always causes render trouble. Imagine you
have a chessboard but you do not want to see the white squares for to see the wood underneath.
So you switch this material simply to invisible.

- Another option is that you can create an invisible area that receives the shadow of the car, which
stands upon that surface. In Postpro you now can edit your car render with its own shadow on any street
wallpaper which is very cool !!! In Some tools this render material setting is called “shadow catcher”
That would allow you to have a great shadow of a tree on a wall without the tree itself coveres
your camera setup ...

The “invisible” option is a standard option in many renderers.
I’ll show you a few impressions of Artlantis Studio, which is also a render tool.

I hope my explanation makes any sense ;-) anyway, I miss this feature and it would be great to have
it in Shaderlight

Regards

Another supplement relating to “Invisible”

Instead of making a range of presets, this theme could be handled by option settings, which are
disposal all over!!!

The first picture shows the default “normal” material setting.
The second picture could be a Shadow Catcher setting.

One more time: invisibility and shadow settings are very important! even if only at second sight :-))

what do you think?

EGIE - Nov 22, 2014 11:10am

The first picture shows the default “normal” material setting.
The second picture could be a Shadow Catcher setting.

I actually had the same thought after reading your last post.  being able to control whether a material casts or receives a shadow would be very helpful, especially when modelling lights.

For example, when I modeled the Florescent light fixture the other day, placing the IES light below the florescent light tubes caused the light tubes (which in real life would be the source of the light) to case shadows.  I was able to counter this by making the reflective surface behind the tubes into self-illuminating so the shadow isn’t obvious, but this isn’t always possible.

If you have tried to model a lit candle using an image of a flame and a point light, the flame image casts a shadow.  Your suggestion would let you place the point light in the centre of the “flame” without casting that shadow.

Great idea.

Thank You

... Right! - which again is one further option of an “Invisible Feature”
(of course, always in connection with the shadow settings)
By the way, the Shaderlight lights also are existing geometry, which is invisible
in the rendering, but visible in sketchup. I think there is already working such a
material setting (maybe but somehow similar) ...