[tavih14]

Hi, I just recently downloaded the sketchup plugin and I'm having issues with the grass part of it. I've tried creating grass several different ways and still nothing. I try using the grass feature, I can see the render trying to create the grass but nothing actually "grows." When I trying using an mxm file I still get nothing. i've looked at several tutorials and followed exactly what they did and I've also looked at the pdf files on the maxwell website. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[JDHill]

Are you using the version 3.0.1 beta plugin announced here? There was a problem with grass in the 3.0.0 release having a dependency on Maxwell Render Suite.

[tavih14]

Oh no I haven't yet. I just got it two days ago. Where can I download it from?

[JDHill]

You can find it on the Maxwell Betas page, here.

[tavih14]

Alright! Thanks, I'll check it out soon. Thanks for the feedback. I'll give an update soon.

[tavih14]

All is good in the world, but im having issues with mxm files. I dont think im using them properly. Keep getting the same error.

1. File "X:/_3D_/D_OBJETS/Vegetation/Vegetations_3D/gazon/gazon02/images/grass_c.jpg" has not been found. Render cannot continue.
2. Bitmap File not found ( X:/_3D_/D_OBJETS/Vegetation/Vegetations_3D/gazon/gazon02/images/grass_c.jpg ) in reflectance in bsdf of Material "grass" .
3. Data preprocess failed. Render cannot continue.
4. startRender returned -1.

[JDHill]

I would guess the path mentioned is from the machine where the MXM was created, but is the file "grass_c.jpg" located either in the same directory as the SKP file, or in any path set in Scene Manager > Options > Search Paths? It should have been downloaded with the MXM file.

[tavih14]

The zip folder has everything but when i export, the only thing that gets exported is the mxm file.

[JDHill]

I'm not sure I understand; the downloaded zip file has been unzipped, correct? Could you please post a link to the MXM, or at least its name, so I can take a look and see if there's anything funny going on with it?

[tavih14]

Yea no problem. The link : http://resources.maxwellrender.com/rank ... =1&id=1074

So, I download the file. it saves in my download folder. i move it to my desktop. i extract.

i then use the mxm browser to find the file on my desktop

I try and render, then thats when I get an error.

[tavih14]

I tried applying an mxm file according to this tutorial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qTZrc_S1cA#t=15

but it still doesnt work. I know at this point its probably user error, but im not sure exactly what im doing wrong.

after watching the turorial, the only thing that renders is the texture. i see the texture but i dont see the color.

[JDHill]

Yea no problem. The link : http://resources.maxwellrender.com/rank ... =1&id=1074

So, I download the file. it saves in my download folder. i move it to my desktop. i extract.

i then use the mxm browser to find the file on my desktop

I try and render, then thats when I get an error.

The problem is that the "grass_c.jpg" file (and the others, as well) have been put in an "images" folder inside the download. The plugin has no way of knowing it should look inside this folder to find the textures, in order to add it to the list of search paths, and allow the engine to find them. Incidentally, if it had been named "textures" then they would have been found, since by convention, the plugin does look for a folder named "textures" next to the MXM.

However, once you fix that, you'll find the MXM doesn't work well, so I'll just use this as an example of how to pirate textures from downloaded MXMs. Using photoshop or similar, use the grass_clip.jpg texture to clip out the non-grass portions of the grass_c.jpg file, and then save the result as a png with alpha. Then, use that png in a new material in SketchUp, and edit the material in Scene Manager > Materials. There, notice the Character Type:

• 

Set the material Character to SSS (Single-Sided) with Roughness=40, Thickness=0.1, and Asymmetry=-50%. You can also add some Bump (Strength=20%, perhaps) if you like:

• 

As you do, you can check the result using a few different preview Scenes:

• 

The stage2, leaf, and drapery scenes are probably most useful for this material. So play around a bit with the Roughness and Asymmetry values to see what they do, and perhaps boost Saturation a bit, in the Texture panel:

• 

You should pretty quickly be able to build something that looks nice, and does not rely on the MXM file, which was either built badly, or is an older material, which is not translating nicely in V3. So please give that a try and let me know how it goes. These images are from the docs for the Scene Manager > Materials page, by the way.

[tavih14]

Awesome! Thanks JD, ive been playing around quite a bit with the grass feature. I'll try what u mentioned. Im sure i can make something out of the file i downloaded. Thanks for all the help!

[JDHill]

I should mention, since you say that, that this would not be a good material to use with Maxwell Grass, which generates actual 3D grass blades in the model. You would use something like this with a bunch of vertical planes, but with Maxwell Grass, you just want a regular material, most likely not using any texture at all, since the texture would be applied to each individual blade of grass -- and you hardly want blades of grass on your blades of grass. So in other words, try using a material like the SSS (Single-Sided) material mentioned above, but without the texture.