[Burkhard]

Feel better to make a thread where problems and questions will find an answer when studie the Videos from Jason.

First of all...well done! Easy to follow and for non english users usefull too.

1: Of one of my question I got an answer from Jason, related to the skm - mxm Materials. The linked path to the mxm files are reside in the material database folder from Maxwell root. That's the way Sketchup works. I stumbled upon it because I normaly used a seperate harddrive for materials and the arroway Textures, mentioned in the Videos, are having big file sizes. If you use your own Textures and want to make them available as skp you can place it every on your computer and do it manually. But they have to reside there too.

2: For the embedded Glass Materials - the whole chapter - I can't get it to work. When start rendering, it told me C:/.... mxi not found
I have not changed anything, so I used the ( different ) skp from the workfiles and hit render - like in your Video; it failed.

3: The overlay for Clayrendering does not work too. I tried different objects but it always show the applied Materials. Any idea?
( The stretch problem seems solved, maybe by one of the updates. All works okay here )

I have to take a break with the following chapters, but will soon continue.

Burkhard

[Half Life]

That is odd -- there was a plugin update released after the video series was recorded so there are some bug fixes.

2) I tested the SKP file here and it will not render if I export to Maxwell, however if I save the MXS file and manually load it into Maxwell and render it works fine... I'll submit the file to JD to see if he can find the error.

3) Are you talking about the full document material-override function or the per layer Auto-MXM trick?

Best,
Jason.

[Half Life]

I tested and the Material override command does not appear to be working -- on any sketchup file... thanks for reporting these bugs

Best,
Jason.

[Half Life]

As an added tip for the new versions of the plugin -- during recording I asked for a few new tools to be added and JD was super cool and added them

The functionality is exactly the same as the "Set Depth of Field" tool on the plugin toolbar but the clicks fill-in information that would be hard to get any other way automatically for a couple of interesting functions:

1) The first is to set the ZBuffer render channel Min and Max values (enable the render channel in the output tab)

2) the second is to set the Z-Clip Planes Near and Far values (enable Z-Clip from the cameras tab)

They can both be accessed via the Ruby console -- in Sketchup simply go to Window>Ruby Console and type in either:

MX::Tools.pick_zbuffer and hit enter -- then chose min and max points in the model.

-or-

MX::Tools.pick_zclip and hit enter -- then chose near and far points in the model.

Enjoy!

Best,
Jason.

[Burkhard]

Glad you'll find it out. For sure I mean Override from the Scene manager ...not Overlay!

Will take a look to the added tips. Thanks

[JDHill]

It's going to take me awhile to download 400MB of files. Meanwhile, does this situation involve any paths which contain folders which look like files, i.e. c:\folder.name\file.name ?

[JDHill]

This appears to be a similar issue to the one I mentioned above -- please remove the space immediately preceding the extension separator, i.e. change File .skp to File.skp, and let me know if Maxwell is then able to find the output.

[Half Life]

Yep! that did the trick -- such a simple little thing

Best,
Jason.

[JDHill]

Well, technically speaking (as with the folder-name issue), it should not be a problem...but apparently it is, so I'll see about putting some logic in the next build to prevent it happening. The override material issue appears to be a bug in maxwell.exe; the switch is being enabled in the MXS, as can be seen from Studio, but when opened in maxwell.exe, it is un-checked. Stopping the render, checking the checkbox, and re-starting, you should find the Override MXM being rendered as expected.

[Richard]

As an added tip for the new versions of the plugin -- during recording I asked for a few new tools to be added and JD was super cool and added them

The functionality is exactly the same as the "Set Depth of Field" tool on the plugin toolbar but the clicks fill-in information that would be hard to get any other way automatically for a couple of interesting functions:

1) The first is to set the ZBuffer render channel Min and Max values (enable the render channel in the output tab)

2) the second is to set the Z-Clip Planes Near and Far values (enable Z-Clip from the cameras tab)

Both of you are freaking genious!!! I'm just glad the mother ship has not yet returned to take you back!

A question though with both these and FOV - Can they be set for a camera though yet from a different view point? Meaning if one wants to locate these points say in plan so as to be more accurate, are they then still relative if I return to the camera?

I've always thought it would be handy if planes could be inserted and nominated as min max limits for Z,C and DOF!

[JDHill]

No, they are part of the camera, and therefore exist relative to it. If you want to set them to fixed points in your model, you should probably draw some lines and use them for snapping.

[Half Life]

Yeah, a construction point where you want a plane (or even a temporary plane component) for snapping purposes is the way I would go.

The Z-Clip will also be much easier to see (and adjust) when we have a Fire preview of our cameras... this could just be a fast method of getting some starting points that you can fine tune by eye at that point.

Best,
Jason.

[stefan_kaplan]

Would be cool if the "Pick DOF" button could be turned into a "Pick Z-Clip Planes" button by pressing Ctrl (Win) / Option (OSX), and maybe even into a "Pick ZBuffer Min and Max" button by holding Alt (Win) / cmd (OSX).

Just a thought...

/Stefan

[Half Life]

I suggested the exact same thing

Best,
Jason.

[JDHill]

What, are you guys the same guy?

Rather than those modifier keys, wouldn't it be better if you had to stand on one leg, touch your nose, and say the alphabet backwards, all while clicking the Pick DOF button? You're not against people being healthy, are you? We could really help to make a difference.

Really, that would be pretty great -- just picture a huge architectural firm -- rows and rows of fluorescent lights, drab-grey cubicles, people doing head-stands on desks.

"Johnson, what in the HELL are you doing?"
"Just setting the z-clip plane, boss."
"Ah, I see. Carry on."