Kerkythea is a free graphical rendering software designed to produce graphics without requiring image licensing.
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Oktopost
Score9 out of 10
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Oktopost empowers B2B enterprise and mid-market companies across Tech, Financial Services, Healthcare and other sectors to adopt a data-driven approach to social media marketing. Oktopost's social media management, social listening, and employee advocacy solutions enable B2B organizations to amplify their brand on social and measure the real impact of social on the business. Oktopost aims to enable marketers to better engage with customers and prospects, get actionable insights, and…
Kerkythea is a powerful, yet simple to use rendering package that integrates seamlessly into SketchUp and other modeling programs. My experience is only with SketchUp, but the combination of these two packages (I bought SketchUp Pro and use Kerkythea for free!) is the best bang-for-your-buck way that I have found to produce high quality images of 3D models. I have seen some extremely photo-realistic images online, but I am not sure if a paid rendering engine would be able to produce higher quality or be easier to use. If you are looking for a free way to get higher quality images from your SketchUp models I would highly recommend Kerkythea.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Oktopost is great if you have several Social Media profiles you want to manage and want to schedule and post all your things in a simple interface. They have a great calendar view that shows everything that is coming up and you can easily move or change postings with a few clicks. It is also good for managing a single account. It has all the features I need for our single account markets, like campaigns, tracking, scheduling, etc. I think if you are trying to manage a very large number of social media profiles it might get a bit difficult. There are tools more suited for that than Oktopost that may be easier, but Oktopost would still work.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Kerkythea seamlessly integrates with SketchUp, eliminating the need for costly and complex 3D modeling software.
Kerkythea has a simple to use interface and does not require extensive training to learn how to use.
Despite being easy to use out of the box, Kerkythea is also very powerful for advanced users. This allowed us to achieve fast results, but also to constantly improve the quality of our rendered images as we have gained knowledge and experience
The Kerkythea plug-in for SketchUp has an incredibly easy to use lighting feature. Spot lights and flood lights can be added, adjusted and manipulated easily, giving a much more professional looking end product.
The user community support for Kerkythea is vast. From tips and tricks to free, downloadable materials packages, there are an incredible number of peer-to-peer assistance options available.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
The default viewing mode for Kerkythea is wireframe. This makes it hard to view the model upon opening, however it is easily changed using "View/Adjust/Solid Rendering" in the menu bar. My preference would be for the software to default to Solid Rendering from startup, or to have a way to save the interface settings (If that option exists, I am not aware of it).
When exporting a model to Kerkythea from SketchUp, it usually takes a very long time to open the Kerkythea software. This only happens when selecting "Yes" in the dialog box that asks, "Open exported model in Kerkythea?" The quickest way I've found is to answer "No", open Kerkythea manually and then open the desired file from Kerkythea.
While there are many free, user contributed materials packages available online, it would be nice to have a larger materials library pre-installed in the software.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Sometimes there were bugs in the user experience, but they seemed to be quickly addressed.
They didn't seem to have experience dealing with large-scale company use when integrating with Eloqua information. We had a lot of issues with false data or form submits showing up.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
At this point, I have not found myself limited by using Kerkythea. It is easy to use and has not required a huge amount of time investment to get results. I have been able to utilize 3D modeling software that I am already familiar with and that is also cost effective. The quality of the finished product that can be achieved using Kerkythea is still beyond the abilities that I have, however I continue to learn and grow in my competency as I use the software.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
I give Oktopost a 9, as a 10 means NO improvement is needed, but all platforms must iterate and improve. Hands down Oktopost is the B2B marketing leader in the social and content marketing world. They are also very quick to work on things and make the experience better for users. I would say I was a very early adopter of Oktopost and have seen them grow into a very useful tool and also a great company! I am VERY excited to see what they will do next to make our B2B marketing jobs more efficient and results producing! Thanks for helping our business close 10 accounts from LinkedIn in the last year! And that is up from ZERO the year before NOT using Oktopost.
Because in general is very good, the support team is always happy to help and you can ask them anything. They always have the solution. I also like the new functionalities that they are implementing; each month, we have something new. The end user platform is very easy to be used by the sales people.
When I have sent in questions to support, I have received answers pretty quickly and they were helpful. However, I would like to see more information on the support page rather than having to contact them directly.
As I stated earlier, I would suggest doing a quick session with the Oktopost team in order to properly set up the account and make sure you are getting the full experience.
Blender is a free 3D modeling and rendering package. What I liked about Kerkythea is that it integrates with SketchUp, while Blender does not. This allows me to use modeling software that I was already familiar with rather than having to learn something new.
Autodesk 3D Studio Max and Autodesk Maya are also very powerful 3D modeling and rendering packages, however they are not free. They do have free trials, and the software is excellent and powerful. Guaranteed these are both better modeling packages than SketchUp, however with the work I do, SketchUp is easier to use and lower cost. If you're looking at doing more free-form modeling as opposed to basic rectangular buildings like me, you will need different modeling software than SketchUp. While Kerkythea can be used for many model types (*.kzx, *.xml, *.obj and *.sia at the time of this review) from any modeling package, it might be easier to use the rendering features built into 3DS rather than exporting to Kerkythea.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
The integration with SalesForce and Marketo was the number one reason we went with Oktopost. It wasn't until after I got inside and got my hands dirty that I saw how great Oktopost was. The analytics reporting is sensational. It allowed me to easily pull reports to organize for my marketing department.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
While it is impossible for me to give a firm number, I can definitely say that the images produced by Kerkythea are an excellent selling tool for projects presented to potential clients.
As freeware, Kerkythea has allowed me to achieve quality results without spending a fortune on software. Being self-employed, this is wonderful.
Kerkythea has allowed me to display professional materials without a major cost or time investment in training. This has allowed me to focus on creating floorplans and designs rather than spending all of my time getting the presentation of said designs to look good.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Ability to quickly and comprehensively provide metrics on all activities to internal users and external clients helps inform and direct immediate and long term posting decisions.
Ability to integrate with websites and marketing platforms allows for an understanding of user interest beyond the awareness arena and into the conversion arena.
Ability to quickly post allows for immediate input during time sensitive social discussions.
