Letting the Fog Roll into Your Model

Fog is primarily used as a special effect during presentations. The fog effect mimics real fog, as shown in the figure, so your 3D model becomes clearer as you zoom closer to it, and less clear as you move away.

To add fog-like effects to your model, follow these steps:

  1. Select Window > Fog. Select Window > Default Tray > Fog. The Fog dialog box appears, as shown in the following figure.
  2. Select the Enable Fog checkbox.
  3. (Optional) Click and drag the Distance sliders to adjust the fog relative to the camera (your current view). Here’s how the sliders work:
  4. The left-most fog slider determines where the fog starts. At zero, fog begins right in front of the camera. Moving this slider to the right starts fog somewhere beyond the camera.
  5. The right-most slider determines where the fog is at 100% strength (known as zero visibility). Move the right-most slider to the left to establish 100 percent strength closer to the camera. If you move this slider all the way to the left, zero visibility extends info infinity, and you can’t see your model at all and at any distance.
  6. (Optional) Clear the Use Background Color checkbox and click the color swatch to select a fog color.
Tip: Because fog appearance is based on your current view relative to the camera, the fog sliders move as you orbit and zoom.
Note: If you’ve changed the default OpenGL settings in the System Preferences dialog box, make sure the Use Hardware Acceleration checkbox is selected before you use fog. See Customizing SketchUp for details about setting system preferences.
Note: If you’ve changed the default OpenGL settings in the SketchUp Preferences dialog box, make sure the Use Hardware Acceleration checkbox is selected before you use fog. See Customizing SketchUp for details about setting system preferences.
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