Improving early-stage visualization inside SketchUp without heavy export workflow?

Extending SketchUp SketchUp AI Render
1

I’ve been thinking about early-stage visualization workflow lately.

During concept phase, I often just want to check lighting direction, material balance, and overall mood, not produce final renders, but maybe can use it for quick presentation as well??? Exporting to a full rendering engine every time feels a bit heavy for that stage.

Are there any lightweight solutions that let you preview lighting and materials directly inside SketchUp without fully committing to a final render pipeline?

Curious what people are using for that intermediate step.

2

SketchUp does not allow for lights other than the sun / global… so I am not sure what solution you are looking for.

Low res, medium quality VRay with material over ride is what I generally use before going to final.

3

There is Lumion View which is a lite version of the regular Lumion.

4

That’s what Enscape is designed for really - it’s a design tool rather than a full blow visualisation renderer.

Although many do push it right up against the latter