[stefan_kaplan]

Great news!
The camera tools are back in SketchUp.

With these re-released, free tools you can:
- place a camera in an exact position in a SketchUp model.
- change field of view from a fixed camera position, making it possible to extend the render area without changing the view's perspective! Nice.
- roll, pan, tilt the camera. (Render tilted scenes...)
- When "Format" is set to "Screen" (default setting), then the image aspect ratio is controlled by the Maxwell Plugin - meaning that the Camera Tools plugin seems to work perfectly with Maxwell camera settings.

More info:
SketchUp Blog
Getting started guide

Downloads:
For Windows: Advanced Camera Tools - SketchUp Pro 8
For Mac: Advanced Camera Tools - SketchUp Pro 8

[Half Life]

Very cool -- thanks for the links and the heads up!

Best,
Jason.

[numerobis]

yes, i saw them too. very cool. i think now it's time for an upgrade to v8

[brodie_geers]

yes, i saw them too. very cool. i think now it's time for an upgrade to v8

haha, I was just thinking the same thing. Pretty sad when a new version is less appealing than some redone old plugin from 3 versions ago.

-Brodie

[Half Life]

I love the solid tools in version 8 for Dielectrics and SSS "watertight" volumes and boolean functions... but then I also really dig layout as well.

Best,
Jason.

[brodie_geers]

I love the solid tools in version 8 for Dielectrics and SSS "watertight" volumes and boolean functions... but then I also really dig layout as well.

Best,
Jason.

Well, I've no need of layout so they'll never reach me there, although I'm sure it's great. How exactly do booleans help you with dielectrics and SSS?

-Brodie

[Half Life]

Ah, that is 2 separate thoughts -- I like modeling with booleans (personal preference, I had purchased the old Booltools plugin in previous versions) and I like the quick volume and watertight testing of solids (entity info palette) for Maxwell materials.

Layout is much more useful than you might think, but if you never need to prepare presentations then you may not appreciate its power... I actually like Layout better than Sketchup, and it makes me appreciate Sketchup more.

Best,
Jason.

[Richard]

I'm with you mate Layout is brilliant! I've actually been working it's butt off lately planning a new product I'm developing - though not LO or SU related, I've ball'sed up to put my money where my mouth is and taking a risk. It would be all the more harder without LO - it isn't just a page tool but a full design tool minus the 3rd dimension. LOVE IT!

[Half Life]

Interesting to note -- in a thread about this Google is saying you need to add the focal length into the distance to target for accurate framing. For instance 5m to target with a 35mm focal length is really 4.965M to target since they seem to be measuring to the focal point.

Best,
Jason.