RpTreeMaker Free
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RpTreeMaker Free is a free integrated plug-in for Google SketchUp that creates realistic trees for SketchUp.
What RpTreeMaker Free means to you...
- A new way to add depth and realism to your SketchUp model.
- Quickly and easily add a large variety of trees to your SketchUp model.
- Create custom trees to match any setting.
- It’s Free!
New for Version 2.0
- A library of premade trees. See: Load Tree from Library
- Toolbar for easy access to functions
- Flowers and additional Tree types such as "Complex"
User comments:
- "This looks fantastic! A long time needed and superb tool for those with inferior talents/expertise in PS work and such (not to speak about time needed even for experts to create something like this). And all this for free!"
- Gaieus
- "This is a very needed plugin, as it enables folk to add original trees into SU for straight output or render. Especially with SU poly handicap this feature results in a low poly solution for a very poly intensive object." - solo
RpTreeMaker Free, a free add-on for Google SketchUp , generates fractal trees based on parameters - tree type, number of trunks, number of roots, age, bending parameters, etc. - and the creates a tree image and places the tree as a 2D, always-face-camera, component into SketchUp.
For more information see: RpTreeMaker Free
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What others have to say
- Al that is fantastic! Amazing. Thanks. I've just got out of bed, it is snowing outside, so a good day to stay in and draw trees." - lineal
- Hey Al, this is just great!! Thanks heaps! I can see an explosion of vegetation in SU models! - Stu
- Simply amazing Al! Thanks for this, - Chris
- Thanks Al, very useful. And continue your great work at Renderplus. - Burkhard
Download and Installation
- Proceed to Downloads Page to download a copy of RpTreeMaker Free.
- After downloading the ZIP file, click Click to install to install it.
See also:
Downloads and Installation
Video Tutorial
- RpTreeMaker Free Video Tutorial
Toolbar
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There are two functions on the RpTreeMaker toolbar: |
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Create a new tree
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Load a tree from the Library
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Create a tree image
After defining the tree shape and parameters:
- Enter a name for the component.
- Enter a resolution for the image stored in SketchUp.
- enter the Shadow Mask options
- Use Advanced Settings... for other settings.
- Click Start to render the tree
After generating the first image, you can change the resolution or rotation and generate a new image by clicking Remake Image. - Click Save Tree Image when done.
Advanced Settings
- Tree Rotation - lets you rotate the tree in the image.
- (Useful for angled, or non-symmetrical trees)
- Camera Height - lets you raise or lower the camera for different effects.
- Background mode - this does not effect the final image when saved to SketchUp.
- HDRi sky mode and be useful to see how the sky effects the lighting.
- Illumination factor - alter if tree is too light or too dark.
- HDRi sky rotation - will effect how the HDRi sky illuminates the tree.
- Use Defaults - reset to default settings
- Create alpha clipmask for VRay - an alpha mask is created for VRay users.
Save tree image
- Adjust the Brightness, if desired
- Click Save Tree Image.
Tree Editor usage
Type
Set the type from the Type menu at the top.
There are four tree types - Standard, Conifer, Broad Crown, Palm and Complex
(Do not use Groundcover with RpTreeMaker).
Each has different setting on the tabs of the tree editor.
Play with the various settings to see what they do.
Trunk Settings
Foliage and Flowers
You can click on the leaf image to select a different image.
Flowers/Fruit
You can also add an image to be used as flowers or fruit
Images
You can select new leaves, trunk, etc. by clicking on the image.
You can also add your own leaves and bark to the Plant Image folder and use them for your custom trees.
RayTrace
Click 'Start' on the RayTrace drop down menu to see a sample of the tree with foliage.
Rendering tips
Users of rendering products besides IRender nXt have discovered that they need to explode the tree component, explode the image entity into a face, and remake to tree component in order to get the tree to render properly.
For IRender users, the RpTreeMaker tree will automatically re-render as a full, fractal, 3D tree.
IRender users should make their tree images at the lowest resolution to save time and keep the SketchUp model fast and small. After the tree is re-rendered the original image resolution will not effect the final image.
Settings
There is a Settings menu which lets you set:
- Background mode while rendering (this had nothing to do with the final image, but the HDRi setting gives you some sense of how the HDRi illumination works - If turn it on you will see that the tree is illuminated in a forest with the sun shining from behind on the left)
- default Illumination of the image. -(Smaller numbers make the image brighter)
- HDRi sky rotation for illumination. (55 degrees leaves the tree half in light and half in shadow)
Display Quality
Note: If your alpha transparent images do not display well in SketchUp, you can adjust the quality (vs speed) of Alpha Image display.
- Set it to 'nicer' for the best tree display.
Notes
- The Tree Editor allows you to choose from four types of trees (more coming soon.)
- .ArPlant files can be saved and loaded in the editor.
- .ArPlant files can be loaded into SketchUp for rendering.
Some Limitations on Trees (still numerous)
- Shrubs may be difficult to do in the current interface.
- We don’t have templates for things like Herbaceous Plants yet.
- You can’t change anything about the trees at the moment.
In case of a problem
Some users are having problems loading and running the tree editor.
If the tree editor fails, go to the RpTreeMaker menu under windows and select Show debug file. Send us the content of the debug file so we can determine where it failed.
Batch mode
Some users are having problems executing RpTreeMaker directly from SketchUp, so we have instituted a batch mode.
Select RpTreeMaker... - Match mode from the SketchUp Plugins menu.
You will be presented with the name and location of the Batch file, and two Run Options:
- Run Manually, or
- Execute .bat
To run the .bat file manually
- Select the file name from the top edit box (Batch File) and use Ctrl-C to copy it the Windows clipboard.
(Select and copy the quote marks as well.) - Go to A DOS prompt (or use Windows Start/Run) and paste this command to run it manually.
- The .bat file should allow you to define a tree and then to create a tree image.
- Select OK from the prompt in the SketchUp window after running the .bat file
- The tree should now appear at the end of your SketchUp cursor for placement in your model.
To execute the .bat file from SketchUp
- Select the Execute .bat Run Option
- Click Ok
- The .bat file should allow you to define a tree and then to create a tree image.
- The tree should now appear at the end of your SketchUp cursor for placement in your model.
Let us know if either of these options work for you.
If the second option works, there is no need to use the first option.
Frequently asked questions
Can you change color? If so, how? This would be very important.
To change color, you can take the raster images for the leaves or bark, change the color, and save them with a new name.
These are stored in:
C:\Program Files\Render Plus Systems\RpTreeMaker\Support\Plants
in a Bark and a Leaves sub-folder.
Here I took the standard leaf, made it yellow, saved it as a new leaf, and used it to render the tree.
You can create your own bark and leaf images by altering the color of existing images.
You will need a paint program which respects the Alpha Channel.
(I don't have one, but there is a tool in RpTools which will convert the background color of an image to an alpha channel which I used.)
Can you use this to make a 3D tree
- As I understand, the tree generator is actually 3D based by default right?
- So what about the option to have the full 3D tree as output?
- Would be great for us render heads.
I will try this out (creating full 3D plants) and see if it works and or is practical.
However, this may effect the "Free" aspect of RpTreeMaker Free. I will have to discuss this with the developer, since he includes this product as a tool in his own rendering package (nXt) - which is not free.
Where can I get some more leaf and bark images?
Note: these are links to collections, not the images themselves.