How Cloud Rendering Works

Chaos Cloud works as follows:

1. Prepare your render locally: Set everything up at full resolution.

2. Send to the cloud: Click the cloud icon to send the render(s) to the cloud. This can be a single render, an animation, a panorama, or a batch render.

3. Log in: Your browser will pop open, and you will need to log in to the cloud.

4. Finalize settings: The browser will display a few remaining settings, such as which project the render belongs to, as well as some last-minute adjustable options like file format and render dimensions. For animations, you can choose to render a limited selection of the total frames as a test.

5. Submit: Click "Submit" and the render(s) will begin.

6. Free up your time: You can go ahead and do something else, like catching up on emails, grabbing a coffee, attending meetings, or any other daily tasks.

7. Notification: You will receive an email at your login address once your render is complete. You can access the results directly via the email link or have them automatically downloaded to Google Drive.

What are the costs?

Cloud rendering is paid for using Credits. The number of credits a render costs depends on how long it takes to process. This, in turn, depends on several factors:

• Render dimensions

• Lighting complexity

• Scene complexity

• Selected quality settings

• Material usage within the scene

• Selected channels

• ... and much more (though these are the most important)

Chaos credits are independent of your software license, but they are linked to a specific login. They can either be assigned to a single login (named credits), made available to everyone within a user pool, or a specific amount can be allocated to you.

Credits can be purchased separately from the license—either through your reseller, through us, or directly online from Chaos. Credits are typically purchased per user, or as a Floating package.

Note: A SketchUp Studio license includes 20 Cloud Rendering Credits (one-time) and 200 AI Credits per month.

Managing Credits for Multiple Users (Teams)

If you want to purchase credits on a single account and distribute them among your SketchUp Studio users, you must request an "Organization" from Chaos.

⚠️ Important: Setting up an organization may cause existing credits to be lost. Therefore, we highly recommend using up any existing credits first.

Once set up, an Organization looks roughly like this:

• A new tab will appear on the my.chaos.com  page. This tab is only visible to organization members or administrators.

• You can set credit limits per user or grant them unlimited access.

• As a company, you will have a floating credits package. Note that if you have named credits, these cannot be distributed.

See Chaos Credit System for more information on the Chaos Credit System. 

See Chaos Credits Management Chaos Credits Management for details on how an Account Owner can distribute credits.

How to set up an Organization

To set up an organization, please contact us. We will need the following information:

• Name and email address of the administrator

• Company name

As a user, you can check your remaining credit balance under Products -> Chaos Credits.

Adding Users to an Organization

Once your organization has been created, you can add users yourself.

For instructions on how to add users, please see our next article: How to add a member to your pool and assign them a license