They can also be used in a scene to create dramatic lighting effects, as they are useful for creating an obvious falloff from light to dark. Practical uses for spot lights include store displays, desk lamps, street lights or stage lighting. The width of the cone can also determine whether the light is hard or soft. By changing how wide the cone angle is, you can control how much of your scene is actually illuminated. A spot light is a cone of light which emits light from a single point in one direction (Image 1). Spot LightĪ spot light is fairly self-explanatory it functions similarly to a spot light in real life and provides a very direct source of light. The number and intensity of your light sources will impact the performance greatly, especially if the lights overlap. How smoothly your project runs comes down to a combination of your hardware, the size of your project, and the number of lights. All of the lights can be placed with the easy 2-Click System even if you’ve never placed an Enscape light before, you can learn it in seconds! It is important to note that while Enscape has a good performance impact in relation to lights, real-time rendering can’t process an unlimited number of light sources. Let’s take a closer look at the five different SketchUp light fixtures.

In addition to lights, this window also allows you to add sound sources and proxies to your model. Once you successfully add a light to your project, you will be able to fine-tune various settings for the individual lights and light rendering in this window. There are five different lights you can put in SketchUp via the Enscape Objects window: Let’s get started! Types of Light Source in SketchUp He recently also wrote a similar post for Revit users.

This post will demonstrate best practices for SketchUp lighting configuration, providing an overview of the light sources and lighting options available via the Enscape Objects window in SketchUp: spot light, sphere light, rectangular light, disk light and linear light.įor a more focused, but equally illuminating discussion of lighting techniques in SketchUp, take a look at Dan Stine’s blog post on the topic.

All lights are not equal, and it is not surprising that many users are in the dark about which light best suits their needs. Lighting is crucial to creating not only realistic scenes, but also to leaving a lasting impression and conveying a certain feeling. How do you elevate your model, and create an experience the viewer will never forget?

How to add lights in sketchup