Ruby's strength. I also started rubbing up against limits within SketchUp trying to make it do things it was never designed to do. eg using model.raytest to test a line is fine. I was calling it 1,000,000 times! So I decided to redo almost everything in C++ - high performance collision, geometry, lighting, rendering - pretty much everything but GUI stuff.
I'm generally pleased with the result. For small and medium sized models it works great at adding some real sense of being "in" the scene that is lacking without lighting.

CatchUp: Our last question for this interview: What is the future of LightUp and will you focus on other projects in the future as well?

Adam Billyard: I don't think I can resist the bad pun. "LightUp has a bright future".. :-) Seriously, there is still much work to be done but I've got a lot of ideas for future versions and where I can take this beyond just lighting. I need to bed down the base technology, iron out the wrinkles, obviously add the multicore support etc. and I'll be gathering information and feedback over the coming months to figure out where we go next.

I've got a bunch of other (non-SketchUp) projects on the go too, so its a bit of juggling act, but I'm enjoying it immensely.

LightUp in trial and full version: http://www.light-up.co.uk/.

Fletch

Fletch is the author of a plug-in for SketchUp which has taken the community by storm: LightUp, a new way for SketchUp users to display their models with real lighting and effects right inside SketchUp.

CatchUp: First we'd like to ask you some general questions and then some specific questions about your work. Can you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about you and your role at Kerkythea?

Fletch: My friends have called me “Fletch” for years and years. I have a Master of Architecture degree from MSU-Bozeman, in my beloved home of Montana.

I have been living and working in Milwaukee, WI for 10 years. I am currently a designer at Plunkett Raysich Architects. I adopted Kerkythea (KT) as my favorite render engine in late October 2006. It was not long after that they invited me to be a part of the KT Team. Since then I have sought to give back to that wonderful community by creating tutorials for beginners, and intermediate-level users (they teach me something new every day).

I felt like I could contribute with tutorials because I feel like I understand how it feels to be ‘lost’ in settings. I have been working on developing the Kerkythea Wiki and many video tutorials for using Kerkythea (especially with SketchUp) in parallel with editing the website and part of the documentation. While I try to help everyone, my help is mainly towards SketchUp users and typically architectural renderings. My goal is