[mgordon320]

Hello,

I wanted to see if I might be able to enlist some help in figuring out a problem that I've had with SketchUp/Maxwell interaction for quite a while. It's with cutting components.

I frequently use cutting components in SketchUp to make quick revisions more quickly. Things like windows, doors, and other components can be made to cut into the surface to which they're attached, eliminating the need to cut a hole around them, which is very useful for modeling and revising windows quickly. I will also use nested cutting components where they make sense.

So here's the issue: Even single level cutting components for some reason cause Maxwell not to render the face to which they're attached. In the case of nesting components, sometimes the results are even stranger. I've posted images to help illustrate.

Here's the component in SketchUp...

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and it's settings.

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Here's the component as it looks in SketchUp...

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but here's how it renders in Maxwell:

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If I remove the cutting sub-components, I get even stranger results:

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However, if I explode the component so that it no longer cuts, it behaves perfectly. This is great, but it means that I have to either save off separate versions to make edits or renders, which becomes an issue when dealing with many iterations with a client.

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Let me know if anyone has dealt with this issue and knows the fix.

I would be happy to upload the SketchUp Component to anyone that would like to mess with it.

EDIT: I've tried uploading the images multiple times to Imgur, Dropbox, and I can't get them to display no matter what I do, so I've just zipped them for download here https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/218 ... Issues.zip

Thanks!

Matt

[JDHill]

Thanks for posting the images (I altered the links -- the problem was that they pointed to the dropbox pages, not the images on those pages). However, I cannot tell, without seeing the model, what might be going on; a quick test here is not showing similar behavior:

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However, notice how the cylinder on the left is not smoothed. The only difference between the two is that the one on the right is grouped. I don't think the images you posted could result from a smoothing problem, but it may be worth trying (if they are not already) making sure the geometry you're cutting is in a group or component. Aside from that, like I say, I'll need to see an example where it fails, so I can find out if there are actually faces missing from the export, or if they are exported, and are just not rendering correctly.

[mgordon320]

Ok, is there anyone who can help me figure out why I can't post pictures to this forum? No matter what hosting, no matter what type of link I post, it won't work. I'm at my wits end and ready to just scrap the project and never look back. I'm desperate, please help.

[JDHill]

I'm not sure why you changed the links again, I had already edited your post to correct them (as I wrote, links were pointing to download pages for images, rather than to the images themselves), but the links you have now point to an invalid location, or possibly to some private folder, which I don't have permission to view. As far as linking to images in general, it works fine, so long as you point to the url for an image, and nothing else. If it is easier to link to a download page than to an image, then you can always just post the link to that page, too.

Regardless, the upshot is that I have already seen those images, and as you see above, I made a test to see if I could reproduce the issue, without success. So I will need you to make available a failing SKP file, so I can try to see where the problem comes in.

[mgordon320]

Alright. Sorry about that. I didn't realize that you could see the images (because I still can't get them to show on this forum page on any of my computers, mobile, work, etc). I'll go ahead and upload the model as soon as possible.

Thanks.

[mgordon320]

Ok, I've attached a SketchUp model that demonstrates the issue I've had in SketchUp/Maxwell for a long time. Some instances cut into the model successfully, some display as if certain faces are missing entirely. I can't figure out what the source of the problem is.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/218 ... rpiece.skp

If anyone can help me nail down the issue, I'd appreciate it very much.

Thanks!

[JDHill]

Thanks for the model, now I see what you mean. This is a problem inside the render engine itself (it is not specifically related to cutting components, though it might seem so, since it apparently has to do with instances of faces that are perfectly axis-aligned), with the only workarounds I know being to disable instances, or to group the model and rotate it by a degree or so.

[mgordon320]

Thanks for looking into it. At this point I've just resorted to having a working file and a render file (in which I explode all offending instances). It's not the best workflow, but it seems to be the only option.

[mgordon320]

Hi JDHill,

I wanted to see if you might be up for some testing of this issue to see if we can determine what the issue is. It's currently rather cumbersome to have to save off another model just to explode and render, and on complex models that requires more cleanup than usual. I've been testing cutting component examples in Maxwell FIRE, and there's certainly different behaviors when placing components from the component browser as opposed to just copying cutting components. It also seems to make a difference where the components are (x,y,z coords) whether they have missing faces or not. I can upload another test model, but I'd like to finish up a few more ideas I have before uploading.

Let me know what you think, thanks!

Matt

[JDHill]

There is nothing I can do about this, it is an engine problem, which I've reported before internally. I would recommend to try disabling instances as an easier workaround than exploding everything -- the result, if it works, will be pretty much the same.