Skatter

Skatter is a SketchUp extension that can help you speed up the process of rendering large numbers of objects.

The first thing you need to do is to choose the host, i.e. the place you want to populate with new objects.You can do so on plane surfaces, along curves, or you can even select individual points in your loaded model.

You can also define the places where you do not want to distribute the objects (you can even manually draw the areas yourself).

Next, you need to specify the object you want to scatter over your surface. You can either use one that already exists in your model, thus multiplying it, or you can load it from the dedicated library.

To make sure the outcome matches your expectations, you have the liberty to define the distribution type: grid, uniform, random, vertices, or faces centers.

You can also adjust the density (number of items per unit), the altitude range, the slope range and the collisions.

To make sure there are not hard cutoffs, you can alter falloff parameters like areas, altitude, slope, camera clipping. All these are meant to ensure smooth transitions.

You can randomize the placement of objects by turning to random translation, rotation, scale, or mirroring, to break repetition.

This function makes it possible for you to not scatter items that are not visible to the camera, or that are located too far away. This can come in handy when dealing with huge amounts of scattered items.

Skatter can help you become more efficient and productive in your work, especially when you need to scatter huge numbers of items.