are there any tools out there which will give any kind of render? i've installed loads of extensions yet they all seem to be paid things for sketchup pro.
I've been there. Things may have changed in a year or so, but I think you want maxwell renderer. The free version is (or was) limited only by resolution. You can even get around that limitation with some clever work with two point perspective. Anyhow, I was able to make some really impressive photorealistic renders with minimal effort using this.
You can export to your model as Collada .dae file and use Blender from http://www.blender.org/ You can produce really high quality renders and animations but takes a bit of learning. Have Fun.
Okay it worked! i was successful downloading the Kerkythea version of Sketchup. It was the Sketchup 8 version. I don't know what the differences are between this one and the previous one '2014'. Hopefully, this version won't expire after a couple days use. I thank you ever so much! I never would have been able to find this on my own. I can get back to learning the system.
