Indeed!

Thanks tomasz, sorry if I shouted, it wasn't my intention... I'm beginner in forums use, so I'm still learning... it will no happen again About the exportation problem. I tried to save in a location I have full access to, and I tried to save it without specifying the extension. Still nothing. By the way, I'm working in Mac, I don't know if it makes any difference. I posted this question a month ago in Kerkythea forum, but I didn't get response, that's why I'm trying now here. Anyway I'll try it again. Any idea? Thanks again.

As a side note, I would suggest getting Onyx Tree for making trees. Especially if you want a hi-poly version for MXS and then export a very low poly version for SKP or even better, it will export shaded TGA which you can turn into a PNG file to save even more memory in SU. Using the new MXS reference feature it kicks serious butt. The Onyx program, although it looks dated is very powerful, will let you create tons of custom trees and shrubs and they export in 3DS, OBJ, FBX and other formats. Well worth the money. I think it was like $150 for the Broadleaf program and I feel like I have already created well over $150 in tree models. Highly recommended for sure for all SketchUpers.

One thing that is important to keep in mind when using MXM files within SketchUp is the type of tiling that the creator of the MXM file specified. There are 2 types of tiling possible: Relative and Meters. The basic idea is that Meters (which used to be known as "RealScale" in older versions of Maxwell) allows the creator to set up the MXM texture(s) to tile at a specific real-world size... this requires the UVs for that object to be 1 meter X 1 meter. The way this is accomplished inside SketchUp is via the Maxwell>UV Coordinates context menu -- here you choose your UV projection type (Cubic/Planar/Spherical/Camera) and set the projection size to 1 meter. [image: ksQe_maxwellUV.jpg] However if the MXM is set up to tile using Relative (typically with a value of 1 and 1) it will automatically tile at the scale and aspect ratio of the UVs created inside SketchUp. The easiest way to control this is to choose one of the texture images used in the MXM and create a new SketchUp material (setting the scale in the SketchUp material to whatever you want as your final). Unfortunately, often without MXED you will not know if the MXM is set to Meters or Relative tiling, and as you can see you would take very different actions in SketchUp to get proper results. Best, Jason.

thank you very much for these background informations jason! people can always count on your maxwell knowledge here...much appreciated!

Do bear in mind you have created a scene where there are many more bounces to resolve than normal (by virtue of having mirrors reflecting into each other -- AGS is just a metal mirror with reduced opacity) -- this will take time to resolve and as I said SL 18 would be the minimum I would personally accept as "final". Best, Jason.

Most likely this is an emitter/instancing issue -- disable "use instances" to check. Also, you should probably update to the newest version of Maxwell and see if that clears the issue up. Best, Jason.

hi, you can also grab mxm files from here: http://resources.maxwellrender.com/news_scripts.php?t=1 p.s. avoid using materials with displacement within Maxwell for Sketchup

Try the latest version of Thomthom's "Simple Plugins Installer", and after you've installed that and restarted Sketchup, you can try to reinstall the RBZ archive using it, rather than the native-installer [which I assume you have used initially]... It should spot some permission/VirtualStore issues that the native-installer might miss... It might still be an 'security/permissions' issue... Have you checked this, as I suggested previously ? The Plugins folder's security/permissions needs to be FULL for you [and All] and its contents/subfolders...

This is a good place to ask, but more appropriate would be Developers section.

Whoah, I had no idea. It is indeed the letter Ø causing the problem. Thank you very much.

I'm tempted, but I'm not quite sure whether I should get a new license. After all, how many apps does one hobbyist need? Edit: Watched the tutorial in its entirety. It indeed is good. If you want to know about rendering in Modo, these vids are just what you need.

http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=17899 Bep

Mystery solved thanks to massimo! I had to switch to rgb mode in Photoshop before saving as PNG. All is well now. Now to continue growing trees.

Hey Jason, Thanks for the reply! I will try this. Best, Pieter

An official material tutorial would be welcome! Thea is great and every time I read through a tutorial I learn something new and useful.

Some issues with service provider... we seen these happen time to time.

@solo said: Once you register Thea after purchase you can download some Xfrog trees in the licensed user section, there will be more added as they are optimised for Thea. The next version of Thea is 1,2 probably coming out next month, free upgrade to all registered users so buying now will make sense. How do you plan to use Terragen2? with Vue? Thanks for the info on Thea. I was just holding out in case they had an upcoming sale. Was wondering if historically the cg community had these conditions every year. I actually did some research and chose Terragen over Vue after reading some comparison reviews. Traditionally I been painting landscapes for many years so having a 3D landscape generator makes sense for me to have. I would like to use Terragen to make back drops, and even use generated terrain meshes to import into blender or even Sketchup. I downloaded the demo already and the only issue I'm having so far is the lack of good tutorials and info to learn the thing quickly. I would like the license version to use professionally and break out of the 800x600 maximum res. As far as xfrog goes, aside from the libraries I can get to use in Thea, I would like to have the tree generator itself so I can make my own trees. So far I been using the free Tree[d] program but xfrog look so much better. Im still feeling my way around the cg community and getting an idea of what tools will be great for me to have in my workflow. So far I got plenty of modeling tools, now I am focusing on Thea and anything that enhances the environments for my projects.

Use Maxwell Z-Clipping instead of SketchUp section planes for the type of scene you have shown -- this works, always has. Best, Jason.

So excited about this!