20.5.0 - SketchUp plugin, Rhino V7 & fixes/improvements

Version 20.5.0 is up on the builds page.

This build includes the first iteration of our new plugin for SketchUp, as well as support for Rhino V7 WIP, and various other fixes & improvements. Albert is still working on optimization for the SSS we showed earlier.

Sketchup plugin

This is a very simple plugin that has only two buttons: one for rendering, and another to show the plugin settings window:

The plugin uses SketchUp’s settings where applicable — background colors, sun on/off & date/time, etc — and adds a number of Bella-specific settings in the window. It also lists all materials in the model, allowing to set whether a material in SketchUp will render as a metal, plastic, or other type of Bella material.

The export is very quick (on the order of DAE export, with textures), and models are rendered in Bella GUI, where you can also choose to tweak things if you like.

Rhino plugin

The main points of this build are to fix some issues with the display, and find workarounds to allow the plugin to work in Rhino V7 WIP.

Provided you have Bella set as current renderer, there should no longer be a need to think about Rhino’s linear workflow & gamma settings (though you should still disable them in the Bella display mode, if you will use Bella in the viewport while another renderer is current).

Regarding V7, the plugin appears to be working pretty well, though I have not found a workaround yet for a problem with getting the bump textures from non-custom Rhino materials.