Everything related to Studio.
By James Owen
#396333
I am a long time user of Sketchup, but I'm new to Maxwell. I am using Sketchup Pro '16 and Maxwell Studio 4. I can not seem to find the right workflow to export from SU and import to MS. I have exported using each 3d file type from SU, but have not been able to import the model so that I can assign a material to individual model surfaces. It seems that I should be able to explode the MS object like a SU group or component. I have tried leaving groups and components intact and all exploded before creating the SU export file.
Hopefully this is just a lack of experience on my part and not a software compatibility problem. I purchased Studio and not the SU plug-in so that I wouldn't have to keep upgrading both programs together. Also,I like the flexibility of the stand alone Studio.
Any advice or leads would be greatly appreciated!
James
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By Mihai
#396339
I think the easiest way is to first apply dummy materials to your component and/or faces and then export as FBX. In Studio this FBX will be imported as one object, but with triangle selections already created for the individual faces that had a material applied.

You will see these triangle groups if you select the object and in the Attributes panel, under the "Geometry" tab you will see the different groups and you can apply separate materials to these individual triangle groups by drag and dropping a material from the material list, over the name of the triangle group. There is no way to explode an object in Studio so it has separate polygons, you need to go via triangle groups to apply a material to a certain set of faces.

I'm mentioning this just in case: it's best to apply as much as possible materials to an entire component in Sketchup and not to individual faces unless that's necessary.
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By seghier
#396341
i always have problem when export skp file if the model have groups and components but you can try to export to 3ds .
first select all groups/ components and objects than export to 3ds and check :
-Export only current selection
-Export two-sided faces
if you export as single object you will have problem with emitter material, and of course the best way is using the plugin
By James Owen
#396345
After more trial and error I have found the answer. Thank you Mihai and seghier for getting me on the right road. The model that I had been working with had many nested groups and components. I have found that if I group polygons with like materials, they will stay grouped as the desired object in MS. This will now require in the future that when I model in SU, I need to determine my finish materials or at least what polygons will have the same materials applied later. If I have multiples of these groups in MS I can group the objects in MS to speed up any material changes. I haven't tried importing SU components yet. But right now I am happy that I've gotten to the point where I can move on to learning more MS features. By the way I exported using the .FBX file type as Mihai suggested.
Thank you again.....
James
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