find_faces was exactly what I was looking for. Thanks,

btw, I starting reading Google SketchUp for Site Design: A Guide to Modeling Site Plans, Terrain and Architecture (the name alone takes up the first 12 pages of the book! 😉 ) yesterday and it talks a lot about importing CAD drawings and gives some really helpful advice on a couple different methods to through the cleanup process, as well as some various ruby scripts which speed things up. He also has some interesting ways of using a few tools that help with site modeling as well. I've only skimmed it so far but if you work a lot with terrain you might check it out. There don't seem to be many SU books out there yet so getting detailed info can be tricky, at least that's my experience.

arklandesign started a thread on the book here...
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=179&t=21371

-Brodie

I've managed to get molecule images into SU by using Accutrans 3D (Vivaty doesn't read VRML 1 files ) to convert VRML files into 3DS format then importing into SU.
benzene_SU.jpg
molec.jpg

Hi.
Im a Spirit user also from New Zealand (Wellington). Upgrading to 2009 asa I can find time to do it. 😒 I use Pro7 SU too.
Have had problems getting onto this site, but back now thanks to Gai' hard wk ..Im trying to locate some kiwi's again
Cheers Jeff 👍

very generous of you! obviously this took you a while to put together even though it is probably second nature to you by now. Thanks for saving us a lot of future pain in guessing and checking!

OK, now the "old" link should also work.

hello brodiee..
If u check out the environemt rollout.. u will find an option that controls the camera parameters such as exposure and all.. try fiddling with it.. the default values are always dull for me.. try messing with those...

edit :
i find these sites/blogs to be very helpful in learning mental ray :

http://3dsmaxrendering.blogspot.com/
http://mentalraytips.blogspot.com/

a great material sharing site :
http://www.mrmaterials.com/

Thanks honoluludesktop. I'll try this and see I can get the result I'm looking for.

Yup - sorry about that, we were having some downtime last week. We've got monitoring on the site now so it should be more robust.

At the Indigo SketchUp page - we just posted a new tutorial on using SketchUp + Indigo to render a few nice things from the google warehouse.

http://www.indigorenderer.com/forum/download/file.php?id=8418

Thanks Pete & Miguel, could not agree more.

Not that i know of, but it might be possible.

Have you go any links for more specific info on your laser measuring device of choice?

I've been using ACME for awhile now and can agree that it works great. You can pick from tons of bricks as well as mortar colors, even add soldier courses. It will also give you an alpha map (basically white=brick black=mortar so it's a great start to a bump map). I've downloaded Beldin's software as well and other than the types of brick which, of course, match up with their particular varieties it's got the exact same interface. Must have been designed by the same software folks.

-Brodie

Hi Jim,

Thanks for your reply. I would prefer to add the zoom functionality in the javascript which is probably easier said than done! for me anyway. I was planning to export higher res images than those exported by default using the web exporter plugin.

Will have a play around with your suggestion and post back.

thanks adam but I have sorted it now, I was to impatient to render and started asking questions before trying harder myself first lol. I managed to fix it and your right about it not matching up. Thanks for the help anyway.

@phmeier said:

Oh sorry ,,, my mistake .. well in this image tha trees are not part from the hdri they´re 2d trees located at the other side of the street .. The hdri is basiclly a bkue sky with clouds and mountains .. ive tryied another ones tih houses .. but all of them just reflect a small part in a big scale ..

I will try this dome thing !!! But anyway ,, is there a way to reduce or map how it will reflect !?!

In general "no" - an HDRI needs to cover the entire universe. However there may be some tools to help you create a HDRI by repeating a smaller pattern.

You might also try some full HDRi skies from the web, such as this one:

http://www.hdrmill.com/PanoramaThumbnails/Free%20Samples/SunnyRenoSuburb01.jpg

Free HDRi Skies

Good idea, thanks Aerilius for sharing

MALAISE

@unknownuser said:

Vray is almost $800 and Max, well, if you think that paying the price of a used car for software is worth it, then go right ahead. Right now for a starter that's too much for my blood.

A quick Google search and I found Vray for SU for $720 at Novedge. I bought me a home license before the summer at a campaign price from somewhere for about $650 so its not THAT much more expensive. But if time is no restrain for you go with Maxwell...great images but takes forever to render.

Don't forget there are some great free renderers like Kerkythea thats most likely a whole deal better than IDX.
I can say I have tried them all and to me the important aspects are: Image quality, speed, workflow and ability to handle complex scenes without choking.
My advice is to go with a free renderer if your new to rendering. Then as you find it too limited for your needs go for a better one.
No renderer is better than its user. And to me as a professional user speed is one of the mayor factors to be able to deliver on time. Or for citing Electric Image renderers old slogan: Render fast, retire young.

@unknownuser said:

By the way Pixero, that's a nice rendering... You did this in Max? How long did it take you to model it? Nice flower and outdoor space.

Thats Vray and Sketchup. I'll try to post a lowres version of the animation once its done.

@unknownuser said:

Yeah, I think when I finish putting together my new machine I will eventually look at VRay for my personal higher end renderer. Is it easy to use? That one I have not tried yet.

I cant really comment on if its easy or not. That depend on your prior knowledge. I find it quite easy, but then again others don't.

Back on topic for a sec.

Anyone checked out the tutorial vids on Nevercenter.com? There's a lot of them, they're good - and they're totally free. For those interested, Silo + those vids may prove a very affordable way of getting into poly/sub-d modeling.

@earthmover said:

...I can vouch that these plants and trees are really good quality and good resolution.

Yes, I think so did the plants imported from the RLA in SketchUp, instead of being a model skp pull it, because in the program RLA whole model glue together and not under command, renders the possibility is not very good, although the plants are really good ...

Examples:

http://s56.radikal.ru/i154/0908/10/4baedcaade93t.jpg

http://i049.radikal.ru/0908/d1/9df814d13d1ct.jpg