---
title: "Irradiance Map Viewer"
canonical: "https://documentation.chaos.com/space/DOCSGUIDE/113290540/Irradiance%20Map%20Viewer"
format: markdown
---
**Page Contents**

> Macro (toc)

 

## **Overview**

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## **Installation**

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By default, the installation of V-Ray for SketchUp installs the irradiance map viewer in the folder **Program Files\Chaos Group\V-Ray\V-Ray 3.X for SketchUp\extension\	ools\imapviewer.exe**. 

 

## **Usage**

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There are several methods of running the irradiance map viewer, which are outlined below.

The simplest way is to double-click the imapviewer.exe file. This will bring up an Open File dialogue box that lets you browse for an irradiance map to open. This is the same as starting the irradiance map viewer from the Start Menu. The menus of the program allow you to do various things with the irradiance map (merging and saving etc).

You can also run the irradiance map viewer from the command line. In this case there are several possible choices:

1. If you type just
  > imapviewer
  on the command line, this is the same as double-clicking the file. It will bring up the File Open dialogue for selecting an irradiance map file.
2. You can also type
  > imapviewer *<filename>*
  where * <filename> * is the name of an irradiance map file. This file will be opened automatically.
3. A third way is to use the viewer to merge several maps into one:
  > imapviewer -load *<map1>* -load *<map2>* ... [-save*<finalmap>*] [-nodisplay]
  This will load the specified maps and combine them into one irradiance map. If the -save option is specified, the result will be written to the given file. If the -nodisplay option is specified, the resulting map will not be displayed (otherwise the viewer will display the final result).

 

## **Notes**

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- Use the -help option on the command line to see a short description of the usage of the irradiance map viewer.