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All About View: FAQ: (Windows and Mac editions)

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Peter M
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Your Lumion View FAQ:

Includes both Windows and Mac editions. For SketchUp (Win and Mac).  For Revit (Win).

Please also see FAQ sections in articles relevant to your task.

 

Menu:

1. Commercial questions.

2. Troubleshooting.

3. General information.

4. Download and Installation.

 

1. Commercial questions:

1.1: How much does Lumion View cost?

Lumion View was released as early access in March 2025 and is commercially available starting with the 30th of April 2025. The price is available here.

1.2: Is Lumion View part of my subscription?

If you own a Lumion Studio subscription, Lumion View is part of it.

1.3: Will I have to pay for Lumion View after the early access period?

Yes. Lumion View will is available both standalone and packaged with Lumion Pro.

1.4: How many Lumion View seats do I have during the early access period?

10 Seats are available for Lumion View per owned Seats of Lumion Pro. Example: Your Lumion Pro License Key has 3 seats - this means you have 30 seats available for Lumion View. This promotion is available until the 31st of October, after which the ratio of Seats will be 1 to 1.

1.5: Can I add additional seats to my Lumion View subscription during the early access period? What about after?

Changes to the Lumion View subscription can only be made after the market release. Starting with the 30th of April, if you purchase a subscription for Lumion View, you can add seats in your Lumion Account.

1.6: I have a Lumion perpetual license. Do I qualify for early access?

Yes, Lumion View is also available for Lumion Pro and Standard perpetual users until the end of June.

1.7: I have a Lumion Standard subscription. Do I qualify for early access?

As of the 30th of April 2025, Standard subscriptions are migrated to Lumion Studio and, therefore, have access to Lumion View.

1.8: Is there a Lumion View trial?

Please visit this page.

1.9: I have a Lumion Subscription, where can I access Lumion View?

If you have a Lumion Pro subscription purchased after the 30th of April 2025, Lumion View needs to be purchased separately or you can upgrade to Lumion Studio (see 1.10). If you have a Lumion Studio subscription, Lumion View is available in your Lumion Account or in the SketchUp Extension Warehouse.

1.10: How do you purchase Lumion View?

Please visit this page.

1.11: If I purchase Lumion View, can I upgrade it to Lumion Pro?

Lumion View and Lumion Pro are two different, unrelated, products and therefore an upgrade is not possible.

1.12: Will Lumion View be available for a monthly subscription?

Lumion View is offered as an annual subscription.

1.13: Are there discounts available for Lumion Pro users who want to add Lumion View?

Lumion View is free for Lumion Studio users. All subscription holders (who have a subscription on the 30th of April) are migrated to Lumion Studio. If you purchased Lumion Pro after the 30th of April, please see 1.9.

1.14: How do you add users to Lumion view?

You can add and manage who is a user as part of the Named-users License system. This allows you to add and remove a user if you have the right account level. For full details see these articles:

 

 

2. Troubleshooting:

2.1: Why are some of the faces transparent in Lumion View although the are solid in SketchUp?

If the backface of the model is set to glass, the front face will not be visible. Please assign the same material to both faces.

2.2: I am trying to start Lumion View and everything is black. Why?

Lumion View is built on real time path tracing technology. A black model means that your graphics card is not ray tracing compatible.

2.3: How do I edit materials in Lumion View?

Lumion View inherits the material information from SketchUp. Editing the materials in SketchUp will reflect in Lumion View.

2.4: How do I edit lights in Lumion View?

You can place a light by selecting the ‘Lightbulb’ button in the Lumion View ribbon. After placement, select the light in SketchUp and click the ‘Lightbulb’ button to edit its settings. To edit its color, use the Paint Bucket tool in SketchUp to assign it a solid color and the light will inherit the coloring.

2.5: How do I adjust the Material Mapping in Lumion View?

Lumion View inherits the material mapping of the object in SketchUp.

2.6: Are there any keyboard shortcuts in Lumion View?

Yes - the help button at the bottom right of the Lumion View window will display an overlay with the available key bindings.



2.7: Why is Lumion View not available in my account?

If you currently do not own a Lumion Pro License Key, Lumion View will not be available during this time. It can later be purchased via our website or partner portal.



2.8: Is Lumion View available for students? If not, when will it be available?

Lumion View is available to students starting with the 30th of April.



2.9: Why is Lumion View slow to open?

Large complexity models require more time to process and may be slower. You can check the complexity of the model in SketchUp by going to Window - Model Info - Statistics.



2.10: Why is there no cloud slider in Lumion View?

Starting with version 25.1, a slider is added.



2.11: Why does ambient occlusion slider not work in Lumion View?

Lumion View does not support per-material mapping for ambient occlusion.



2.12: Why does the Emissive Strength slider not work in Lumion View?

Emissive Strength may not be visible if the sky is too bright or during day time



2.13: Why am I being logged out of Lumion View?

The authentication token expires after a set amount of time. In the case of authentication expiry, log our of your Lumion Account from your browser then log back in using the button inside Lumion View.



2.14: Why are face-me surfaces not facing the camera?

A feature to support billboard-like materials is currently on the roadmap and will become available in Lumion View at later stage.



2.15: Why is section plane not working in Lumion View?

A feature to support section planes is currently on the roadmap and will become available in Lumion View at later stage.



2.16: Why is Lumion View taking so long to render?

If your rendering times are slow it likely means that your machine does not have enough video memory to process the whole model. Please reduce the complexity of the model and the number of materials (or their resolution) used.

In case your notice Lumion View being slow while the model is relatively simple, make sure to close background applications that are consuming a lot of resources.



2.17: How do I make a Glass Material?

You can assign an existing SketchUp glass material that will automatically be displayed as glass. Alternatively, assign your material of choice, use the picker tool in SketchUp to select it, then click the ‘Brush’ tool in the Lumion View Ribbon to change it to Glass.



2.18: Why does my model look very bright when using a black background?

Automatic exposure adjustment is applied when setting the background to pure black. This will be fixed in a later version. Until then, set the color to H 99 S 0 V 0 to work around this.



2.19: How can I optimize my model for better performance in Lumion View?

Use the purge function in SketchUp to remove unnecessary items in the model.
Optimise your geometry using the CleanUp plugin.
Make sure you do not have unnecessary duplicates of Materials in SketchUp.
Use a texture resolution that is optimal for each material.



2.21: Why does my interior look blotchy when I nagivate into a room?

Make sure that the room is correctly lit and that the windows are set to Glass in Lumion View. Setting the windows to a transparent material instead of glass will result in blotches.



2.22: Why does Lumion View not open the folder where I saved my image?

After rendering an image you click on the Open Folder button 

but Windows File Explorer does not seem to open and you do not see the image.

Or you open the folder, or the image, but it does not show.

Cause:

If you have the Lumion View window set as pinned On Top then no other windows will open on top of it and so you will not see the folder or image.

Fix: options

  • Either unpin Lumion View

  • Or, Minimize the window:



 

 

 

3. General information:

3.1: What is Lumion View and how is it different from Lumion Pro?

Lumion View is a real-time path-tracing rendering plugin. Unlike Lumion Pro, its functionality is meant to mimic the behaviour in SketchUp for quick decision making during the design process.



3.2: What software is Lumion View available for?

Currently, Lumion View is available only for SketchUp. In the future, more compatible applications are planned.



3.3: What versions of SketchUp can Lumion View be installed for?

SketchUp 2025 is the only version officially supported for Lumion View.



3.4: If I get Lumion View, why do I have a LiveSync bar?

Lumion View and Lumion LiveSync are downloadable and installable as a package called Lumion Plugins.



3.5: I already have a previous version of LiveSync. If Lumion View is integrated with LiveSync, what happens to my existing version? Will it be overwritten?

Your current version of LiveSync will be overwritten, however LiveSync will continue to work as expected.



3.6: Why can’t I simultaneously use Lumion LiveSync (real-time synchronization) and Lumion View to render my scene?

Lumion LiveSync is meant to synchronize your project into Lumion Pro, whereas Lumion View is a standalone renderer. Depending on the stage of your project, you should chose to use the appropriate tool.



3.7: What does ‘Lumion Plugins’ mean in the Warehouse?

Lumion Plugins is an RBZ package containing all Lumion-compatible plugins. It is planned to be available in the SketchUp Warehouse towards the end of April.



3.8: Where can I book an onboarding appointment for Lumion View?

On purchase, an email will be delivered with the relevant onboarding content. Booking an appointment is not possible for Lumion View.



3.9: Can my computer run Lumion View for SketchUp? What are the system requirements?

Please check the system requirements of Lumion View.



3.10: Can Lumion View be used for VR walkthroughs?

A feature to support VR walkthroughs is currently on the roadmap and will become available in Lumion View at a later stage.



3.11: Can you save additional maps in Lumion View for post-production?

Lumion View can only export the final rendering.



3.12: I downloaded an RBZ file with the plugin - what do I do to run it?

In SketchUp open Extensions - Extension Manager and choose “install extension’. Then browse to the location of the RBZ package and Open it.



3.13: Is Lumion View available for MacOs users?

A Mac version is currently on the roadmap.



3.14: How do I update Lumion View?

SketchUp will display a notification when a new version of the Lumion Plugins is available.



3.15: Does Lumion View work offline?

Lumion View requires online authentication to work. There is no offline version available.



3.16: Can I have multiple Lumion View Windows open? If so, how many Sketchup programs can be opened and connected to Lumion View simultaneously?

Yes. One Lumion View window can be opened per instance of SketchUp. There is no limit to how many windows can be opened for Lumion View and that solely depends on your hardware’s capabilities.



3.17: Can you render video with Lumion View?

Video rendering is outside of the scope of Lumion View. However, you can always record your screen.



3.18: How do I save my scene’s settings?

Please save your Scene settings in SketchUp. Lumion View does not have a configuration file or a save feature.



3.19: How do I save and load my material’s settings?

This can be done using SketchUp’s material editor. Lumion View will inherit the data from SketchUp.



3.20: How many lights can View support in one model?

There is no limit set in the software for the number of lights that can be placed. The number depends on your hardware capabilities



3.21: I installed Lumion View and now when I LiveSync into Lumion, the lights and materials don’t sync?

A feature to support lights and PBR-map synchronization into Lumion Pro using LiveSync is currently on the roadmap and is expected in Lumion Pro 2025.1.



3.22: How do you use Lumion View?

All you need is a few minutes to run/Start Lumion View and see the real time Ray Traced render of your model. A good starting place is here:

3.23: What is the difference between Lumion, Lumion View, and the Lumion Viewer?

Lumion (Pro) is a standalone application equipped with all the tools required for a full rendering workflow. Importing, a library, advanced scene organisation tools, animations, and more are available. Lumion can use both rasterization and ray (path) tracing)

Lumion View is a lightweight rendering plugin, currently available for SketchUp that uses the ray (path) tracing engine and provides essential controls for rendering realistic and diagrammatic images.

Lumion Viewer is the old, deprecated application, that was used before Lumion 12.5 to allow customers to share their projects with clients. Since March 2023, the application is no longer in development and should not be confused with Lumion View.

3.24: Are issue expected during early access releases from Lumion?

Yes. Beta, Preview, and Early Access releases may not be fully stable. Please report any issues via our feedback channels or to our support teams.

 

 

4. Download and Installation:

4.1: Where can I download Lumion View?

You can download Lumion View from your Lumion Account if it is available to you. Lumion View is also available in 'Lumion Plugins' in the SketchUp Warehouse.

See these articles:

 

4.2: Where do you get the Lumion View plugins?

See this article for access information:

 

 

 

Need any Help?

Contact us in Technical Support:

 

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