Rendering in SketchUp

395
Chapter 24: Simulated Lighting
referencing Geometry
Due to SketchUp’s inference system, placing lights into a scene can be tricky: the lights will 
try to snap to wherever your mouse is pointing. This can make things especially difficult when 
you’re trying to place a light inside a fixture: the light emitter will snap to whatever geometry 
you are pointing at in the model.
One solution is to draw reference edges with the Line tool, and then snap the light to the 
edges’ endpoints or midpoints. For example, draw a line dissecting a fixture opening. Insert 
the light by snapping to the edge midpoint. Then, with the light selected, move it upward into 
the fixture (Fig. 24.22, Fig. 24.23).
Fig. 24.22: 
A spotlight component is shown in SketchUp (left). Draw an edge across the front of the light (middle). 
Snap the midpoint of the drawn line (right).
Fig. 24.23: 
The lamp component includes modeled lightbulbs. Snap the emitter lights to the existing bulb model 
surfaces (Shaderlight Lighting menu).
placing In Components
You can also place lights in component fixtures and objects. This works if you have multiple 
fixtures of the same type in your model, such as pedestrian, street, wall, ceiling, or track 
lighting. Once the point light is inserted into one component, every copied version of the 
component will have a point light. This is a quick way to populate a scene with lights.
Place the light directly into the component instance as if you were placing a lightbulb into 
the light. Next, simply copy the component around the model as needed. The light emitter will 
copy with the component (Fig. 24.24, Fig. 24.25).

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396
Part 5: The Iterative Rendering Process
Fig. 24.24: 
Ceiling fixture 
components are placed on the 
ceiling (top). Each ceiling light 
is a component. The point light 
is placed into one of these 
components (middle). Each 
ceiling component now has a 
point light (bottom).

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