I have heard alot of people speaking on Modo possibly not being the best tool for Archviz/Modeling work. While I do not think there is a "best tool", many are good or great, I do think a few really shine and Modo is one of them. Modo is not just a tool for doing organic modeling. While it does do that well it can excel at architectural modeling as well. Modo can model down to as tight of a tolerance as you want to throw at it. I do not know to many architectural modelers modeling tighter that maybe a 1/16" or a customer who expects tighter tolerances that that either. If someone is saying modo can not model accurately then they have not taken the time to learn how. I used to say "sketchup does everything I want it to do" too, but the more I use it the more I find myself doing things in modo that I can not do as easily in sketchup. I think we as artists always need to be moving forward...we just hope that our software is moving forward as well. THIS is where sketchup falls short for me. The lack of high poly support is beginning to be a killer for me. So many people want to add good trees into a visualization (stuff like xfrog or onyx trees) and we all know that will grind sketchup to a halt. Yes, there are good work arounds but they will never equal a great full 3d tree. Again, Sketchup is great but if you are looking for a well rounded FULL 3D package then I would spend the money on Modo. The sketchup importer......Yes it falls short. Much of this is not Luxology's fault though. We have heard this was a matter of Google not working very well with Luxology. Below are some good video's showing the architectural capabilities of Modo. Sorry, they cost but there are some great models and render examples on the modo forum as well. http://www.luxology.com/store/training_series14.aspx http://www.luxology.com/store/15_architectural_interiors/ Scott

It all depends on your needs. If you're okay with SU's toolset and poly limitations, go with Vray. No need of going through the hassle of exporting to modo, cleaning up your model etc then.Then again, if you think you'll be needing a bit more in the future, get Modo. If you buy 301 now, you get a free upgrade to 401. personal observation Me, I got both. Yet, if I were in your shoes, I'd choose Modo, as it doesn't look SU is going anywhere, for the moment.

The Mac version of Modelur is out! Give it a spin and please let us now what you think!

Controlling the softness of the shadows of the sun can be done through the Sun Size parameter. You'd get to that through your sky settings in the Environment rollout

@whaat said: It won't be too hard to pick the winner. There was only one entry! Oh well... Oh so I got two round-trip plane tickets to Finland? That's a good news... @whaat said: Can anyone explain the lack of entries? Making tutorials for software is not everybody's favorite passtime I guess. I kinda enjoy doing it, hence the steady updating of "Visual Index of Ruby scripts". http://www.pushpullbar.com/forums/ruby-scripts/9467-visual-index-ruby-scripts.html I always wanted to write about this script in the Visual Index, but the complexity of the script and three-picture-per-script limit of the forum (half self-imposed) didn't allow me to take on the task. I also happened to have the idea for the tutorial and the material at hand, which I initially thought about a SU book-deal (now dead). So it was like a perfect opportunity for me... I hope my tutorial lived up to your standard, Dale. (BTW Camtasia Studio didn't live up to mine!)

dont think there is any output of the .visopt possible maybe just do some print screen ? usually I save the entire .visopt with reference names...

The Adaptice amount is best set to 0.85 - always. Check this value before you render.

Well, that's one thing, it certainly won't be the quickest. But it doesn't has to be. But the main issue is that file format other than the BMP format tends to be complex, especially when they compress the images. And if you don't find a good library that can read/write the formats that's supported on both platforms you have to do it yourself - learning the structure of the file format. Speaking of this, I might see if I an make a class that handles the BMP format as it's one of the most straight forward formats out there.

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Thea Render technology previews is updated with a sneak peak at the material system. http://www.thearender.com/forum -> Technology Preview (registration required).

Jim you are absolutely correct preset cannot change softness of omni lights.

@unknownuser said: I have both Modo and 3Dpaint. 3Dpaint is a nice program for the money but a bit quirky and prone to crashes if the resolution of the images is to high (typical in many of the programs I have tried). Modo crashes a bit too often to my liking as well. Still, I pre-ordered 401. I'm totally looking forward to using it. I have a sneaking suspicion that it'll almost completely replace SU for me. (I am still hoping our friends over at Google HQ will get of their asses, though. Hope is a peculiar thing.) Modo 401's preview renderer and presets will be enormous time savers for me. @arail1 said: I made the mistake of spending most of my trial time trying to import a SketchUp model to work on. Sounds familiar. It's probably better to just bite the bullet and start modelling in Modo. It's tools can run circles around SU's - for the most part, that is.

Hehe yea. After yesterday's incident, there's a few more backups of my scripts now.

arguably you could then output from rhino into 3ds i guess

thanks for the help, .... i tried to download sketchup 6 spanish version and it worked!~~

Me too. The biggest complaint I hear is about speed so I think this should help out a lot. -Brodie

I have done both, I have a shared folder which all the materials are placed by V-Ray. But even so, Sky material is not a material, it is a setting, I had previously installed an older version but reinstalled with the same version I'm running. I will try try try again!

Try http://www.ikeafans.com/blog/3d-ikea-furniture-autocad-google-sketchup/. Hope that helps.

that pluggin is great. Thanks again for your help.

Can you post an image of your render? Also info on what V-Ray for Sketchup version you use as well as settings?