Creating Replace Me Components

Shaderlight Pro users can create your own Replace Me components. Select any component in your scene and using the Replace Me Creator tool, you can select any SketchUp model file to replace that component when it is rendered in Shaderlight.

Making a component a Replace Me component

Any SketchUp Component can be made into a Replace Me component

•	Select a component that you want to replace

SUreplaceMeSimpleSkyscraper

A simple model of a skyscraper

•	Select Plugins->Shaderlight for SketchUp->Replace Me Creator

•	The name of the selected component will show in the Replace Me Creator window

macReplaceMeCreatorBlank

•	Click the Browse button and select a SketchUp model file (.skp) that will replace the component when rendered

macReplaceMeCreator

•	Click Start Render. The contents of the SketchUp model file will render in the place of your Replace Me component

SUreplaceMeRenderedSkyscraper

Empire State Building replaces the simple component in the Shaderlight render

Note: If the source model can't be found when Shaderlight tries to render it, the original Replace Me component will be used instead

Positioning a Replace Me component

To make sure that detailed models render in the same place as the Replace Me component you must be careful about how you save the detailed component SketchUp file and be careful about the position of the Replace Me component axis.

The origin of the main axes in the source SketchUp model file (where the red, green and blue lines meet) will be placed at the location of the Replace Me component axes when it is rendered.

SUreplaceMePlacingAxes

The component axes are set when you create a component (using the Set Component Axes button in the Create Component window).

If you want to change the location of the axes on a Replace Me component, ⌘ click the selected component and choose Change Axes from the context menu.

SUreplaceMeChangingAxes

For the SketchUp model file (that will rendered instead of the Replace Me component in Shaderlight), make sure that the model is correctly positioned around the default axes.