[Plugin] SketchUV - now free

sh00ks

Hi,

I've been using the plugin for some time now and all works great and love it!

But on my latest project I encoutered a problem with SketchUV and transferring the mapped texture/UV's to Thea Render.

Let me try to explain

When exporting a model from SU to TR via the TR-plugin, I get a model-entry with every material I applied in SU. This entry has the UV's included.

When I map an object in SU with the Planar or Box tools, the mapped texture is correctly transferred to TR with the correct UV's.
From here on out I can properly apply any TR material I wish.

But, when I have mapped an object with the Cylindrical or Tube tool it all goes wrong:
For every face of the object, an texture is imported, named as the main texture (i.e. 'SketchUV') and folowed by a number (i.e. 'SketchUV-21').
This gives an enormous amount of modelentries in TR and keeps me from properly appying a material in TR.

Here a simple example setup:
Basic object with the different SketchUV tools applied

The way of exporting the object to TR

Here the object in TR mapped with Box tool
Notice that in the tree, under 'Models', there is just one entry of the texture (=correct)

Here the object in TR mapped with Cylindrical tool
Notice that in the tree, under 'Models', there are 23 entries that came with this object.

Here the object in TR mapped with Tube tool
Notice that in the tree, under 'Model', there are 288 entries that came with this object

Is there something that I'm doing wrong or is this just not right?

Hope you understand the problem and can help me on this one!
Realy need to map by Tube for my current project

Rich O Brien

Did you try triangulating before exporting?

What version of the Thea plugin are you using?

sh00ks

Rich,

Thx for the quick reply!

In the examples there is no triangulation, 'cause I thought it didn't matter in this case if it was triangulated or not and tested it before.

I was wrong

Traingulation does the trick!
Before I only triangulated when mapping was doing something weird, but from now on I'll always triangulate

Thx for the (oh so simple and obvious) solution!!

When I was testing your solution I encoutered another thing I don't understand and I hope you can enlighten me on this one:

When tube mapping, I encouter an error (see attachement) when I first triangulate the tube and then apply tube mapping.
When I start off with tube mapping and afterward triangulate the tube, it works.

Is this (first map, then triangulate) the preffered way or is there something I need to change to first triangulate and then map without the error?

Error when tubemapping traingulated tube

Rich O Brien

Tube Mapping only works on quad faces. So if you triangulate it's not a quad.

sh00ks

Again, thx!

smicha

First of all - I love the plugin. Thank you so much for your work. This is my major tool for uv mapping.

When I uv map different groups or components of different sizes I get different sized sketchuv texture. What I usually do to normalize them (make their texture sizes equal, see the screenshot) I just use '*' or '/' operations but this is extremely time consuming for hundreds of different groups and in most situations this gives me only approximate results. So my question and big wish is - is it possible to add extra feature to auto normalize sizes of the same sketchuv texture?

Kind regards,

Sebastian

clausgs

HI

Looks like a great plugin. I am considering buying the plugin.
I am the user of Sketchup and Octane render, have any one tested if the UV mapping created with sketchuv are correctly exported with the octane render exporter (made by TIG).
I mean both normal faces and triangulated faces.
???

Brg.
Claus

Whaat

@smicha said:

First of all - I love the plugin. Thank you so much for your work. This is my major tool for uv mapping.

When I uv map different groups or components of different sizes I get different sized sketchuv texture. What I usually do to normalize them (make their texture sizes equal, see the screenshot) I just use '*' or '/' operations but this is extremely time consuming for hundreds of different groups and in most situations this gives me only approximate results. So my question and big wish is - is it possible to add extra feature to auto normalize sizes of the same sketchuv texture?

Kind regards,

Sebastian

Hi Sebastian,
What you are suggesting should be possible. I will consider it in a future update. Thanks!
Dale

Whaat

@unknownuser said:

HI

Looks like a great plugin. I am considering buying the plugin.
I am the user of Sketchup and Octane render, have any one tested if the UV mapping created with sketchuv are correctly exported with the octane render exporter (made by TIG).
I mean both normal faces and triangulated faces.
???

Brg.
Claus

It should work fine with Octane render. If you are getting unexpected results, try triangulating your faces using the tool in SketchUV. The tutorials on the Smustard website demonstrate the workflow.

Cheers,
Dale

clausgs

@whaat said:

@unknownuser said:

HI

Looks like a great plugin. I am considering buying the plugin.
I am the user of Sketchup and Octane render, have any one tested if the UV mapping created with sketchuv are correctly exported with the octane render exporter (made by TIG).
I mean both normal faces and triangulated faces.
???

Brg.
Claus

It should work fine with Octane render. If you are getting unexpected results, try triangulating your faces using the tool in SketchUV. The tutorials on the Smustard website demonstrate the workflow.

Cheers,
Dale

Hi

Thanks for the confirmation.
One more thing i need to check before I buy is... Will this UV tool be able to handle wood veneers / materials well??

I have some curved parts with a big rounding on the edges where I want to apply a wood material.

I have attached a link to the skp and wood texture file, can you pleas apply it on the part so it goes nicely around the curved and rounded edge.???
If it work it will save me hundreds of hours and I will for sure buy the plug-in.

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=C4272F611B80808D!579&authkey=!AHm5_fQQpDMVA2c

Pleas tell me if the link do not work.

Brg.
Claus

smicha

@unknownuser said:

Hi Sebastian,
What you are suggesting should be possible. I will consider it in a future update. Thanks!
Dale

Dale,

Such update would be awesome and extremely useful for my current work.

Best wishes,

smicha

smicha

Claus,

All uvs are properly exported using TIG's exporter. This is the only exporter I am using for Octane render. In your example I used tube mapping, which is extremely useful on round edges.

Kind regards,

smicha

clausgs

@smicha said:

Claus,

All uvs are properly exported using TIG's exporter. This is the only exporter I am using for Octane render. In your example I used tube mapping, which is extremely useful on round edges.

Kind regards,

smicha

HI

Thanks for the demonstration, it seams that there is a texture lineup problem vertically in the middle of the component but i guess it is just a matter of adjustment.
Also it seams that the texture on the flat surfaces do not continue on the round surfaces, but again i guess it is a issue that can be solved.

I will most-likely buy the plugin and test it out, hope it is easy to use and can make some of my texture mapping easier.

Claus S

clausgs

HI

Have now bought the plugin and tried it.

What happen is that I use planar mapping and it wrap the sketchUV texture around the component. I save uv's and then apply the texture that i want to use on this surfaces, then i load the uv's. what happen is that it re-scale my texture in a non-uniform way. My texture is a 10000x3300 pix png file and it looks terrible.

How to keep a uniformed scale of you end texture while using sketchUV???
Something i miss here or???
Or it can only be used with squared sizes-ed texture files??

Claus S

smicha

@unknownuser said:

... My texture is a 10000x3300 pix png file and it looks terrible.

How to keep a uniformed scale of you end texture while using sketchUV???
Something i miss here or???
Or it can only be used with squared sizes-ed texture files??

Claus S

Can you post a screenshot?

Whaat

Yeah, a screenshot might help. Can you fix the scaling by adjusting the length and width values in the SketchUp material editor window?

clausgs

HI

On the attached pic you can see o the left a 10000x3300 mm plane where i have applied a texture (10000x3300 pix png file).
Now i make a simple curved surface and apply a planar map with sketchuv, you can see that the sketchuv texture are re sized to fit the whole curved surface. I save the uv's and apply the wood texture and load Uv's, what happen is that the 10000x3300 pix texture get re-sized to fit the whole curved surface.
now i will need to re-scale the wood texture with sketchuv manualy what never will be perfect.
If i change the dimensions in the texture / material editor it will re-scale all textures in the whole model.
Any solution to that issue???

Claus S

smicha

Claus,

The solution for your problem is simple. Please attach the bent shape in skp file and I will write exactly what to do.

smicha

clausgs

@smicha said:

Claus,

The solution for your problem is simple. Please attach the bent shape in skp file and I will write exactly what to do.

smicha

Hi

Thanks for offering a solution...
The attached skp is just a simple sample,,, my components are many and very different in shape. So what I am looking for is a general solution / workflow to keep the aspect-ratio of the texture....

Claus S

sketchuv.skp

smicha

Claus,

Rotate the texture by 90deg. - simply select faces with the texture, run sketchuv, type 90
Some calculations: 3300/1250 = 2.64; 10000/3670 = 2.72.
Again, select faces with the texture, run sketchuv, type /2.64v, then /2.72u (u and v are changed/shifted due to the prior rotation in step 1.)

PS. Your problem is strictly connected with my question about normalizing size of textures. It would be great to select one texture and normalize its size on different objects. I hope to see the update of the plugin soon.

Kind regards,

smicha