[chedda]

Since moving to maxwell i had to give up my extensive artlantis libraries. I am looking for a good modern furniture collection.I have had a look at dosch & evermotion, can someone suggest any other sites ? I am sold on the evermotion trees they look super ! Also some companies state made for version 1.5 or 1.7 does this affect there ability to work with 2.5 ? Many thanks in advance Simon.

[Mihai]

They should work ok in 2.5, the only problem could be for objects that are using multimaterials and they have an emitter material applied to only some polygons of the object. This is no longer supported and you have to apply an emitter material to an entire object or Maxwell will give you an error and won't start rendering.

[Bubbaloo]

Interovisuals.com has excellent models. Unfortunately, they only have mental and vray mats, but it's not too difficult to convert them as you use the models.

[chedda]

Thanks for the tips guys.Brian do you use 3ds max to convert these mental/vray objects ?. If i open them and hit render with maxwell can i use the mxi as an object ? Maybe there is a tutorial somewhere ? Many thanks in advance.

[rusteberg]

i would look here for modern furniture: http://www.designconnected.com/

[Bubbaloo]

Brian do you use 3ds max to convert these mental/vray objects ?

Yes. I just basically take the textures/materials that are supplied, and rework them into comparable (better) Maxwell materials.

If i open them and hit render with maxwell can i use the mxi as an object ? Maybe there is a tutorial somewhere ?

I don't understand what you mean. There's no easy conversion. You just have to create a new Maxwell material for each vray/mental ray material.

[chedda]

I don't have 3ds max or a windows environment at the moment. I think i need the v-ray & mental ray plugins to even be able to open these files? I use sketchup to model.

Formfonts has some good sketchup objects, my only concern is that they are not detailed enough.They seem like a bargain as it is subscription based does anyone have any experience with them, are the models yours or rented ?

I have tried previously opening .3ds files with sketchup but it can struggle and corrupts the geometry. If i could i'd prefer .mxs objects it would make things a lot easier. Designconnected has exactly what i'm looking for big soft sofa's with modelled cushions, i think there could be a chance to open these models directly into MR or sketchup ?

I will be up & running and in the WIP section soon guys, at the moment i am having a revelation in the sponza !

[Half Life]

Definitely you will want to get comfortable with Maxwell Studio since it can work with many file formats that Sketchup cannot -- and it can easily handle geometry that would make Sketchup choke and die. Most of the Sketchup/Maxwell power-users work in Studio at a least part of the time... if for no other reason than to have access to the larger 3D world than Sketchup can provide.

Any imported file in Studio can be saved back out as an MXS and saved to a custom library for fast importing into a scene.

If you can open your old library objects (from Artlantis) and export them to Maxwell Studio (via the plugin) you can convert them all to MXS files that you can import into any Studio scene.

Likewise there is nothing about Sketchup components that keeps you from being able to assign Maxwell materials (via the plugin) and saving them into Maxwellized component libraries ready for use in any Sketchup scene.

I cover both concepts in my video series and in the "Sketchup to Maxwell" series I give the users a bunch of Arroway texture based components textured to the appropriate scale as tools to show the simple power of the technique.

Best,
Jason.

[chedda]

Okay thanks for your help half-life. I am still struggling though. I have a 3ds file here:

http://www.flyingarchitecture.com/eames_lounge_chair/


I launch studio in 32 bit mode open the file fine.
Where is it i zoom out it's lost i thought it should be at the origin ?
Is there a command zoom extents or move to origin ?
Also how can i see the size of the scene to check the scale ?

I think i'm close but still banging my head on the desk !

[Half Life]

The grid in Studio is how you check scale -- you can use it at specific units (in the preferences) and also with any of the orthographic camera views to check scale.

I've had 3DS files come in absolutely huge -- sometimes this is a units issue... Maxwell always works in Meter units.

If you have a 3-button mouse you can zoom, pan, and rotate (as well as camera specific movements) using the different mouse buttons in combination with the modifier keys depending on what specifically you want to do... I use a Wacom tablet which I've programed buttons to mimic those commands. Check the Maxwell manual for specifics as it is a long list of functions and key combinations (or watch my Maxwell 2 series videos in which I cover all the Studios functions).

I'll answer your other questions it a bit later when I get into the studio ( I just got up)... I also don't have Maxwell here and I always like to double check myself before giving specific instructions.

Maxwell Studio is much more powerful than Sketchup but along with the power comes a learning curve but once it is mastered you may find that you will prefer it to Sketchup in many ways for setting up scenes (I certainly do). We'll get you up and running ASAP, so don't get too frustrated

Best,
Jason.

[Half Life]

For a "Zoom Extents" type function in Studio select the object you want to zoom to (in the Objects panel) and then context click in the viewport to select "Center Selection" from the context menu.

For individual pieces you can move them to the origin by selecting it in the Objects panel then going to the Object Parameters>Coordinates panel and hitting the Center button and then zeroing out all the Position values (enter 0 in X and hold down the shift key and hit enter/return to automatically enter the same value into all 3 fields).

If the object is composed of several loose pieces the easiest thing in to select all the loose parts (in the Objects panel) and context click(in the Objects panel) to make them a Group -- once they are a group just select the group(in the Objects panel) and hit the Center button(in the Object Parameters>Coordinates panel) and zero out all of the Position values.

Once you have the Group positioned wherever you like it and scaled however you like it, you can select all the parts of the group and context click(in the Objects panel) to Ungroup them (if you need/want to for some reason) and the parts will be properly transformed in relation to each other.

The main point here is in Maxwell Studio (unlike Sketchup) I find working with objects in the panels interface to be much more precise than trying to manipulate them in the viewport... there is an workflow adjustment there but I think it is a good thing.

Best,
Jason.

[Half Life]

Here's a couple of MXS files made from 3DS files from the Herman Miller website -- the materials are not yet really optimized but the geometry transformations have been made to make these usable library objects in Maxwell Studio:

http://www.spotoarts.com/jason/Herman%20Miller.zip

I edited the zip file because I posted the wrong one and here's a new render showing scale better -- this brings up an excellent point about being able to quickly export anything needed for scale from Sketchup to Studio.

Best,
Jason.

[chedda]

Thanks a lot Jason you have been very helpfull. One more problem i have encountered is a low poly sofa i am trying to use. I found it on the cappellini website. Originally it was very basic but the main shape was right. I used subdivide & smooth plugin to add geometry in sketchup however it seems i am facing a losing battle because the angle of the light in the scene always shows facets. I just get more facets with more sub-division. I noticed smoothing in the objects inspector but this has not helped. I have attached an image of my problem (the sofa back face)

P.S i am trying to emulate the Koshino house scene.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[Half Life]

2 things could be happening here -- First, make sure you click "recalculate" after setting a new smoothing value in Studio. Second possibility, I have seen this sometimes with displacement based materials... are you using displacement here?

Best,
Jason.

[mashium123]

turn off bump and/or turn up the polycount/density of the mesh.