[pelias]

The code for the new version of SketchUp plugin (with instances) was finalized - I just wait for the final comments from testers. If you want to help me out with testing just let me know via PM - I will make the plugin available for anyone interested even before the release.

Pavol

[macitect]

Have I missed something? Has this been released?

[creasia]

I have followed the instructions to the last post by Pavol. I have done some testing on a rather huge scene, with some success.

No the new version hasn't been released yet, but I'll bet you could help with testing if indeed you are on a Mac Macitect.

[pelias]

Have I missed something? Has this been released?

Not yet - the plan is to release next week if no further bugs are found.

Pavol

[tok]

@ pelias:

the geometry was exported with the new plugin; when displacement is applied to a material there are still artefacts occuring. Would be interesting to know if this is a plugin or a Maxwell issue.

[Richard]

Pavol

Mate I'm still using the plugin for 1.5.1 as with the latest plugin my models dont render straight from SU and I have to open the file in studio first and render from there - could be that I'm doing something wrong with my installation. Though I'm having major problems with 1.6.1 of studio anyway. Seems the location of my sun in SU (normally Sydney Australia - home!) upon export ends up randomly anywhere in the world usually Kabul Afganistan?? Weird. Other problems to of course!

Mate I have changed my workflow a little of late ie: not relying on AutoMXM feature (not for any reason that it is broken) but I'm finding my workflow in SU better if I name materials relevant to what they are representing in the model; Garage door, entry tiles, guttering, roof tiles etc, this personally is better suiting my work flow in SU as I mentioned.

I therefore link later the SU material direct to an MXM via the plugin dialogue box. Therefore one of the most useful features to me in plugin development would be as per Indigo's Plugin (haven't looked at the development there for a long time I have to admit - maxwell is doing fine for me!) the ability to view a list of applied materials!!!!! I would also love it if as an option a list of materials came up in two colums First the SU material name and second the applied MXM name and at columns end a load button for each material to allow easy changing of any or all materials.

Not sure this will type correctly:

SketchUp Material....Maxwell MXM..........................Load Button

Entry Tiles...............Grey Stone Floor Tiles.............>Load MXM
Garage Door...........Grey Colorbond.......................>Load MXM
Guttering................Grey Colorbond.......................>Load MXM
Roof Tiles................Dark Grey Roof Tile.................>Load MXM

I feel this would certainly cut down the workflow drama's by allowing the materials to be edited englobo (is that the right word?) rather than selecting the material from the SU material browser and then selecting the link from the plugin and then doing it again and again and only fining out upon export you've missed some or made errors in selection!!!!

Thanks for all your efforts mate....!!!

Richard

[Richard]

Pavol

Sorry mate I meant also to ask is there anyway emitters or more so the geometry containing the emitter material (the light fitting / object) can be named upon export as per it's name assigned via the entity info or via the SU outliner so that when the emixer is enabled upon export the emitters in the emixer are named for example - dining, living, wall lights etc not as per currently object 4 , object 97, object 351?????

I'm doing 16 renderings of different dwellings at the moment and although the light fittings in each are the same and I wish for similar output from each the saved emixer sequence for one does not work for any others...bugger!!!!

[Mihai]

Seems the location of my sun in SU (normally Sydney Australia - home!) upon export ends up randomly anywhere in the world usually Kabul Afganistan?? Weird. Other problems to of course!

That is just what the cities list shows, but the lat/long should actually be correct, it should be the location you set in the plugin.

[Mihai]

@ pelias:

the geometry was exported with the new plugin; when displacement is applied to a material there are still artefacts occuring.

Some info here, and mentioned in the manual as well:

http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/view ... 508#262508

http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/view ... 214#260214 (looks like you know this one already )

I'm not sure how you can avoid that, depends how Sketchup exports the geometry. Perhaps if you add some lines here and there on the geometry so it doesn't export such long, thin triangles.

[macitect]

I have followed the instructions to the last post by Pavol. I have done some testing on a rather huge scene, with some success.

No the new version hasn't been released yet, but I'll bet you could help with testing if indeed you are on a Mac Macitect.

Creasia - Indeed I am on the fairest of computig platforms. I do have the "in progress" version of the plug-in, but unfortunately my work in 3D is very much on the side and I haven't had time to really give it a thorough workout. I am glad to see however that just my post helped to get things going a little more in here.

Mihai - thanks, that info will help a few of us in here I am sure.

[tok]

Thanks for your hints, Mihai. I am afraid Pelias will have to improve the SU export plugin in order to avoid these long triangles and to enable a better displacement. Still, this would not solve the problem utterly (s. the thread I knew alredy )

[Richard]

Seems the location of my sun in SU (normally Sydney Australia - home!) upon export ends up randomly anywhere in the world usually Kabul Afganistan?? Weird. Other problems to of course!

That is just what the cities list shows, but the lat/long should actually be correct, it should be the location you set in the plugin.

I wish that were the case!!!!!! But sadly not! Though not hard to change back. Though my bigger issue is more that I can't render direct from export.

I have looked through heaps of threads to find if there is anything i'm doing wrong with my install but can't find any instructions. I must say I've never had such issues before!!!

To Tok:

Mate I don't think your problem is born from the plugin - SU has some texture break up issues internally that have never been resolved. Try making a component of that geometry and copy it elsewhere in your scene and see if the same occurs to your original. If it doesn't then you can be assured this is the dreaded texture issue normal to SU. By the way if you select a low camera angle in SU you can sometimes reproduce the breakup in native SU output. @last / google have been aware of this for a few years now!

Richard

[pelias]

Several issues to address here so I will to cover them one-by-one.

• 1. geometry issues and texturing.

There are really 2 separate points here:
- quality of the geometry (long narrow triangles) - this is really up to the person creating the model. Even though it is technically possible to process the geometry at the time of export it is not always desirable (as far as I know no other Maxwell plugin is doing that) and as the model can be easily modified in SU that is the better way to handle the problem. So I am not ready to accept the blame on the plugin here
- texturing problem in SU related to geometry - I can just confirm that this is indeed SU problem which was reported to them long time ago (I myself reported it several times) but so far the fix is not available (which is really bad).

• 2. sun/location issue

Please note that the city name is not exported from SU (there is no way to do that) - what is exported though is the location - latitude and longitude which definitely should match the values in SU. I've tested it with Sydney values (151E, 33S) and it works fine for me. Anything I am overlooking here?

• 3. list of materials for easy editing of material ssignments

Obviously this is a little bit late for this version of the plugin (which is a ready and waits to be released) but I am putting that on my ToDo list. It should be doable and it will improve the situation with the material assignment .

• 4. names for emitter objects

Just wait for the new version of the plugin - it supports groups/components with their names so it is much easier to work with the exported geometry in Studio. Typically it is enough to create a group with the emitting geometry and name it in SU - you will get it as a group in Studio and it will keep the name...

• 5. not being able to render directly from export

I do not have enough information on this so far. What platform you are on (Win, OSX)? What is the version of the plugin you are running (you can get that info from SU - Plugins/MaxwellExport/About Maxwell Export)

Hope this helps.

Pavol

[Stinkie7000]

• 4. names for emitter objects

Just wait for the new version of the plugin - it supports groups/components with their names so it is much easier to work with the exported geometry in Studio. Typically it is enough to create a group with the emitting geometry and name it in SU - you will get it as a group in Studio and it will keep the name...

Excellent.

[messire]

Pelias and MR crew...do not forget that one of the main goal of working with SU for MR is to be able to do everything without having to use the studio...to be frank i have never opened it since the beta version and am pretty happy with the outputs i get without using the studio...
SU is simple, and MR within SU should remain simple and embeded, not having to rely on studio for setting up things..

you can see here on my website that SU direct use is really powerfull enough for most SU users...
http://www.lofta.com

Nils