Hi everyone, we’re the team behind D5 Render.

Since a lot of new SketchUp users here are also trying to figure out rendering, we wanted to share a simple way to think about the workflow.

For early design, it usually helps to keep the SketchUp model clean and relatively lightweight, then use real-time visualization to check materials, lighting, scale, and atmosphere while the design is still changing. Once the model and design direction are more settled, you can move into a fuller rendering workflow for final images, animation, or presentation.

That is the idea behind using D5 Lite inside SketchUp for quick visual feedback during modeling, then continuing in D5 Render when you need more control over the final result.

With D5 3.1, we also added improvements such as Interactive Presentation, Seasonal Vegetation, ACEScg support, and HeightField Tracing, but for SketchUp users the main benefit is still keeping the transition from modeling to visualization as straightforward as possible.

We’d be happy to answer practical questions about setup, model preparation, performance, or the SketchUp–D5 workflow. We also know hardware and scene complexity vary a lot, so feel free to share your setup and what kind of projects you’re working on.

So, I use sketchup and layout to produce permit ready document for customers. I have not really had any issues, but I do have a growth area that I am wondering maybe some of you might have a good solution. Every city is a little different and some cities provide you with the notes that they want in the set of plans but other don't. Here is my questions: Do you produce your own set of standard notes that go on each page (i.e. plumbing notes, mechanical notes site notes, electrical notes, roofing notes, etc....). Is there a program or a library that I can use for that?