Predominantly used in NPR or 'non-photorealistic' rendering, Piranesi also works well adding effects and interest to photorealistic images as here, in a beautifully detailed image by Jacek Mielewski, an architect at MAAG in Warsaw, Poland.

Google SketchUp Pro exports to EPix files which can be opened by Piranesi. We have a walkthrough below.

If you have the free Google SketchUp, you can download our SketchUp plugin which adds a menu item to create a Piranesi EPix file from your model. You will need Piranesi installed for this, and we have a free trial and videos.

Updated plugin 12 July 2010: we have corrected a problem when using our SketchUp plugin with Piranesi 2010 Pro - painting on the bottom layer was hidden by the top layer, unless you selected the top layer in the Piranesi Layer Manager. This version creates one layer.

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Google SketchUp 7 Update: SKP files saved from Google SketchUp 7 can be read with Piranesi 5.1, 2010 Lite and 2010 Pro. If you have an earlier version of Piranesi, choose Save As and change the "Save as type" to "SketchUp Version 6".

To generate an EPix file in SketchUp Pro:

1. Start SketchUp, open your model and select the view you wish to use.
   
2. If you are using SketchUp version 4, or SketchUp version 5 or 6 Pro, click File > Export > 2D Graphic. Note that if you are using Piranesi 4 with SketchUp 5 components, you will need to apply the Piranesi 4.0.2 upgrade.
   If you are using SketchUp version 3, use the equivalent File > Export > Raster Image command.
   
3. Now, from the 'Export type' list at the bottom of the displayed dialog box, select 'Piranesi Epix(*.epx)'.
   
4. Click the Options button on the dialog box.
   This mounts an 'Export Epx Options' dialog box.
   
5. Ensure that you clear the 'Use view size' check box.
   
6. Now specify your required resolution in the Width and Height boxes. Note that SketchUp will maintain the aspect ratio of the viewport on screen, so you may have to resize the Sketchup window on screen to get the correct aspect ratio.
   
   • For an 8.5"x 11" print, try a width of around 3300 pixels
   • For a 17"x 11" print, try a width of about 5000 pixels
   If you find these files are too large for your machine, try half the size.  
   The lower part of the dialog box contains the following options:
   • Export edges - you should probably switch off this option as it may lead to some issues when painting in Piranesi. 
   • Export textures - this is personal taste.
   • Export ground plane - typically you would turn this on so that there is some geometry on which to place your cutouts.

6. Click OK and then browse to the location in which to save the EPix file. The EPix files generated by SketchUp are uncompressed, so we recommend that you open the files in Piranesi and save them which will also compress them.
   Now you can start painting in Piranesi.

    

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