[JDHill]

Especially for NL, a company that has not much credit for making a good UI.

Pardon me, but have you tried Studio in Maxwell 2.0? It is very flexible. Also, I have gotten very good feedback on my plugin UIs.

[Richard]

I'm not completely back JD here as I think vast improvement could be made to the studio UI (I haven't looked at any of the other plugin UIs) but I don't think it fair to put it in comparison to SU UI - Studio is generally a settings UI afterall.

Imagine your SU interface with all setting windows open Layers, mat browser, mat editor, component, shadows, smoothing, entity, styles, scenes, model info and outliner - Wouldn't be so user friendly!

You can set up studio with only that what you need and still have the option of not using it at all!! The bonus to me of having the option of a studio feature is that once I've rendered out quick tests from SU to ensure geometry and camera ok I can do all tweaking in studio just so much faster and no further SU exports. Again no one is forced to use it!

[fv]

The UI of Studio is rather disorientating, especially switching between SU and Studio or Maxwell. Going from clear and simple to chaotic and complex.

I like the UI of Omniplan by the Omnigroup and Modo, app's like Filemaker, Vectorworks, Aperture, Photoshop and SU. Those put your work (model and preview renders) at the top of the hiarchy without much change into that order while working. As Richard writes Studio does not guide you into anything or structures lesser or more important parts of the workflow. But I have to add its an achievement to have so much user input to render a SU file. I use Studio/Maxwell for this reason.

Architects and designers in general are very attracted to app's like Modo and SU because they have a very well concieved UI. There are few moments you feel lost. Studio is much better now but I am still recovering from the previous versions were I had to get used to dead tools.

The current Maxwell material panel lin SU is really funny. When you check "show render area" and click ok you get your render area view. When you click "pick focal distance" after you switch on render area nothing happens with the view while the panel dissapears. When you want to switch off render area you have to popup the Maxwell material panel twice, you have to switch it on first again and the off again. It would be far nicer if you could have a panel with settings like the SU layers or scenes panel that simply stays put or can be clicked away instead of a panel with a will of its own...

The export to MXS window is fine though and is consistent with the rest of SU. Obviously it could be expanded with more options as been discussed.
Would be nice if you can choose to render or autmatically open the mxs in Studio... Would also be nice if you could just export SU geometry by material. That way you could quickly exchange model updates by a simple export. For instance all concrete geometry in Studio will be replaced by updated concrete geometry.

[messire]

anyway am back to 1.7.1 for now....really a bummer...

2.0 is fast yes but:

- Material editor does not work in OSX (browsing freezes the software)
- Export gives bugs ( quits SU, does not launch render, automxm bugs etc..)

I'll be back when:
- we have support on the OSX version
- we have support on the SU plug in ( mac and PC)

N.

[fv]

When you export with the new 2.4, render/maxwell will start but SU remains active so when you quit the render you actually quit SU .... and the render continues, without care you even loose your unsaved changes in SU.

Its true v2 and its pluigin under OSX is a bit of a mess but workable. If you are in a project or had all working well under 1.7 you should not update until the new plugin is done. I am not sure though that considering the few users there are on SU/OSX without any feedback on this forum or complaints to NL much will change. JD is on the new plugin but I have no idea if an update on Studio/OSX is expected soon.

If you do want v2 as off now you need to export without autoMXM and without direct render. Open the mxs in Studio and work from there.

To NL. please get a few reliable betatesters for SU on OSX. The bugs in the new version would have been noticed before users like me and others got stuck. I would have been a happy 1.7 users ready for v2 any time it was truly finshed. Or release the new version clearly as a beta version with a list of possible bugs.
Francois

[Richard]

I've just noted an issue when exporting from the old 1.7.1 plugin that I hadn't before! I'm trying to create a host of good trees for use in MR renderings that still maintain a level of low poly for the host app!

In SU I have worked out a really cool way to map the trunks and branches using a number of projections of the same map, however when I bring these exported from SU into Studio I have each projection as a separate material.

If I uncheck separate on export the group will come in as one object group with a number of projectors with one material though all the other materials still come in also - though can be removed.

Hopefully this can be fixed and possibly also the option to select groups or components in SU that can be identified as not to be separated.

[brodie_geers]

Hrm...so I just got my 2.0.1 license and installed the new plugin. My buttons and settings are all there but Maxwell isn't listed under my exporters anymore. I'm on Vista64. Any ideas?

I went through and uninstalled all the maxwell stuff from both the plugins and exporters folders, redownloaded in case I got a corrupted download, and reran the installation file with the same results. I guess for now I'm back to the 2.2 exporter.

-Brodie

[Richard]

Mate when the dialogue window opens to select the export format - scroll upward, MXS generally hides up the top of the list!

[brodie_geers]

no dice Richard. I gave it a shot but there's nothing hidden for me to scroll to. Here's a screenshot of all the relevant stuff, I think. The important stuff is highlighted. If someone can see anything that looks off, let me know.



-Brodie

[JDHill]

I was going to ask if the installer was actually putting the MaxwellExport7.dll file in the Sketchup exporters folder, but now I see your screenshots. I am also on Vista x64, and do not have this problem - have you tried rebooting the machine?

[brodie_geers]

I gave it a shot but no change. When I reinstall the 2.2 plugin it works as it should, but every time I reinstall the 2.4 plugin the same thing happens (everything looks right except for the export mxs option is missing).

-Brodie

[brodie_geers]

I installed the 2.4 plugin and then replaced just the exporter with the 2.2 version and it seems to be working fine (although of course it renders to Maxwell 1.7 rather than 2.0), so it does seem to be an exporter issue. I'm not sure why I'm the first and only one to experience this though.

-Brodie

[brodie_geers]

It seems that the 2.4 exporter has a file size about 30% larger than the 2.2 exporter. Are there some significant changes between the two?

-Brodie

[JDHill]

Most of the difference has to do with using a different SDK (i.e. mwr 2.0). I'm checking into this to try and figure out why it is not showing up in your SU export format list.

[brodie_geers]

Thanks, let me know if there's anything I can do to help/test for you.

-Brodie