Sketchup -- light sources?

[mpooley]

I notice that you can add light sources to a drawing but i cant find any help describing how to use them.

I would like to add them to a kitchen i am designing - do they only work if you export to a raytracing app?

thanks

Mike

 

[SketchUp Guru]

SketchUp only has the sun as a native light source. You can add other light sources for rendering applications. For example, SU2KT3, the exporter to Kerkythea has some light source components that you install in your model in SketchUp. They don't do anything until you render in Kerkythea though. There are a couple of applications, Podium and Light Up are two, that also allow you to add light sources. their output is displayed in the SketchUp viewport but you can't really edit the model with the various lights displayed. You have to go back to normal operating mode and then run the render again after editing.

There are of course other rendering applications that do the same sorts of things. I like Kerkythea because it is free.