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I don't think that this has anything to do with the plugin, but I am having issues with cameras and thought that perhaps someone watching this forum might be able to help.

I have a scene built in sketchup (the free version) that I have imported into Rhino. It comes in looking correctly, and brings in its own camera view. When I switch to that camera view, it *looks* right on the screen, but it doesn't render the same view as the screen shows.

Looking closer, I found that sketchup had a different value assigned to the focal length than what rhino was showing in the viewport properties window. Changing this to match in Rhino did not fix the issue though. What's really strange is that the viewport looks right, but the info in the viewport properties window doesn't show the correct info.

Anyone else had this issue? Anyone know a good/better way to import cameras from sketchup?

Thanks,

Jason

Why bother with the SU cameras and just expect to create new ones in Rhino ? Easy enough , .. no ? Maybe I don't fully understand the scope...

Hi Jason,

Would you mind sending me one of these scenes? I know I can't export any parallel or ortho views accurately, since there is really not enough information to generate a valid camera, but I would like to know exactly why these imported views are not working.

Thanks,

JD

Creating the new cameras in Rhino isn't a problem, but I was hoping to save the exact camera placement from Sketchup. I used the "sketch over" feature in Sketchup to match the scene to a photo, thinking that I would then be able to bring that into Rhino... Sketchup's photo matching is way faster than trying to do it by hand in Rhino, or at least it is for me...

And because I'm using the free version of sketchup, I don't have any other export options...

JD - the model is on its way... You *should* see the model in the veiwport correctly - the same view as I have in sketchup. If you then render that viewport, it should change the view and you will be looking at a single column... let me know if you get the same issue.

Thanks,

Jason

Hi Jason,

That's pretty interesting...if you open that file, and activate your DSC_0002 view - then in the command-line type 'Camera', and choose 'Show' - you can see that this is really an invalid camera. Once you've shown it, you may notice that the target location is actually at 0,0,0 although that's clearly not what you're seeing in the perspective viewport. I don't think there's much the plugin can do about this, since if I even touch the viewport, the view jumps to a different position - that is, Rhino immediately corrects the faulty view. Rhino can render this view, since it is apparently using different parameters to define it, but a Maxwell camera needs valid location, target, and up vectors - and it gets these from Rhino. If you render, and open the MXS in MXST, you'll see that it's building the camera exactly as it's shown by Rhino when you use Camera > Show, with the target at 0,0,0. Rhino Render must be using the frustum rectangles to define the frame, and not the camera's target point.

Personally, I'd tend to call this a bug in whatever plugin is importing the Sketchup camera - it is apparently generating enough of the information necessary for there to be a frame-match in Rhino, but it doesn't look like it's supplying a valid target point. You could confirm this theory by seeing if all of the cameras you're getting from Sketchup have 0,0,0 targets.

JD

You are correct JD, I didn't notice exactly what was happening before.

After doing a little testing, it looks like there are a couple of things going on... at least one of which doesn't make much sense yet. The first is that scenes from Sketchup are being imported as cameras (like you would expect), but those cameras are not valid and jump to correct themselves as you had pointed out.

The second is a little stranger... When I created a new file from scratch, it opened in rhino with the current view from Sketchup, and rendered correctly using that view. If, in the same model, I switched to a scene, it looks correct as before, but the camera wasn't valid and it rendered incorrectly. Using the file I sent you, however, I can't get the same results. I deleted both scenes and moved the camera in sketchup and then saved - just trying to get the camera's placement to persist - and it didn't work at all. I get a view that is extremely different from the original. It does, however, render that view correctly. Perhaps something about using the sketch over command creates a camera that isn't deleted where in a clean model that info isn't there?

Would you suggest that I post this same info up to the Rhino newsgroup? Would the developer of the sketchup import plugin be looking there, or is there anywhere else that may give better help? It looks like the last update of the Sketchup import plugin at the Rhino Labs site is July of 2007.

Thanks again,

Jason

Hi Jason,

I'm sorry, but I have never used Sketchup, so I may lose a little in the description - it sounds like you are making a distinction between a Sketchup 'view' and a 'scene'. Is there a difference, such as, maybe one of them has a shifted lens? I'm also unfamiliar with 'sketch over' - I assume this is some sort of perspective-matching utility in Sketchup?

As far as it being a Rhino Labs plugin, if that's the case I guess (?) it would be a McNeel project. You should be able to find out if it is by going to File > Properties > Plug-ins, and looking at the details for that plugin. If it's McNeel, they should be able to take care of it, or let you know if there are future plans for it...if it's not, they should be able to point you in the right direction. At any rate, presenting a clear repro case (as clear as you can determine, anyway) is always going to be a good thing.

JD