[Stinkie7000]

It sounds to me like it's not Maxwell that is not production ready, but Sketchup... sorry, I am not a Sketchup fan.

Try it in combination with Vray. You might like it. But seriously, I get your point.

NL - modo plugin! Hurry!

[JTB]

I don't know about Sketchup but you're probably right about Max... maybe there should be an option to use another material editor dialog, just like MXED in Max, which would also work exactly like MXED...

[Bubbaloo]

I don't know about Sketchup but you're probably right about Max... maybe there should be an option to use another material editor dialog, just like MXED in Max, which would also work exactly like MXED...

Like this in the Max plugin:

[fv]

after many testrounds and hours I found the cause.

In Sketchup once you have assigned a material and named it you can no longer change the name. The original name will be there indefinatly no matter the new new.

So I deleted the materials that gave trouble and made new ones and reassigned them. Then it all worked again.
When it does not work for a reason I need a day to calm down and then in my own time when customers do not pay for it I fix the problem.

Maxwell Sketchup is still very difficult to use regretfully.

[Bubbaloo]

In your Sketchup post you wrote:

The problem was in the Sketchup part of the process.

You failed to mention that here. Maybe the title of this thread should be "revised"?

[-Adrian]

Useless piece of s*** render.

[Bubbaloo]

Perfect!

[JTB]

I don't know about Sketchup but you're probably right about Max... maybe there should be an option to use another material editor dialog, just like MXED in Max, which would also work exactly like MXED...

Like this in the Max plugin:

So stupid of me!

[fv]

Yes teh title shold be revised.
But the combination Sketchup and Maxwell is still very unreliable. Today we ran into problems again with renderings failing.
Sometimes we wish to just give up on MAxwell and get a more widely used solution. We do get nice results usually but its too much work. The modelling and texturing is ok but the timeconsuming troubleshooting is not what we like to keep doing. Maybe also a result of the different applications that need to work together. Much better is to get something that is done in one application.

[kami]

sketchup & maxwell really are a pain in the ass to use.
it's not completely maxwell's fault, nor sketchup's. however, the material system is not ideal (with having the mxm and there having the textures linked), it's quite susceptible to missing files.
sketchup may be a bit weak for real "professional" use, but the sloppy maxwell plugin isn't helping a lot there. I hope it'll be improved soon, so I can use sketchup again.
I love, how the rhino plugin works. It really has a great workflow, but there may have been more possibilities for the plugin designers. I don't know anything about the plugin interface of sketchup.

[fv]

Actually the plugin is not all that bad. The problem is Sketchup really and combined with Maxwell you usually find out to late that its Sketchup that is delivering corrupted files.

In my case this time I had imported dwg files into Sketchup and the dimensions of the various geometry was off a little causing triangulated surfaces and inside out surfaces all over. By the time I found out by trial and error I had lost several hours and missed the deadlines.

Using two seperate applications to get to an image is difficult.
At the moment things run better because we only render SU files that are completely and freshly drawn in Sketchup without any foreign imported geometry.

The texture path thing is weird and remains a costant worry and cause for trouble. It makes me feel the management of NL is out of touch with its users.

[messire]

i have to admit i'm also like fv fed up with the way material pathes are dealt with... often when you swith materials libray from MR from a machine to another one pathes are not kept etc...the problem with SU we can live with and work around it but i have no idea how things could be improved..


Pack and go: this option is ok when you have no workflow organised directly within your modeling software ( aka we never use studio, and render directly from SU...the only time studio is used is for HDRI lighting, or material testing on bigger scenes..)

Pathes: We are organised since SU6 and its new material libray with a simple system:
1. MR/material database/textures : all textures used by mxm's ( jpg's etc, high res)
2. MR/material database/texturesSU: same textures ( but no bumps etc) at much lower resolutions, this is where SU picks up its jpgs for making a clone of the mxm texture as much as possible)
3.SU/materials/: all folders with .skm files ( SU material files) that embed the lower resolution image: .skm's are named exactly the same as the .mxm so automxm works on export.

Workflow:

All materials are made within stand alone MR material editor, then the reflectance jpb is copied, downsized, then used in SU when creating new texture with same name as mxm.

Worked well until i'm moving everything into the mac ( copied PC material database folder onto the mac MR folder:
In MR ( studio, or material editor) all pathes are lost: each mxm cannot find its textures, and when it asks to find for missing texture, all files are "grey" and not selectable.
Fix texture paths, if i'm correct, fixes texture paths only for a designed mxs file, it does not correct the whole library...

basically: stuck
Not able to find any solution for automatic relinking of pathes...

As we say since the beta, and the first SU plug in that, incredibly worked despite all flaws, some people just want to render directly from SU, and not having to rework all materials all the time: those people ( me, fv i think..) need a tool that is simple to maintain working:

in one word: help

thnx

N

as for fv's problem, i've been there too and found the solution after the deadline....grrr

[fv]

thanks Nils,

If maxwell and its texture system would be weird as hell but reliable all would be solvable. But the textures path's and the material editor problems are different all the time. I simply have no control over the outcome. Everything could be perfect but still no render. Since there is no render I can not see whats wrong and what to change.

I often find myself just repeating the steps taken to texture geometry and with the same steps sometimes get results.