[Plugin] MXM Reporter (Maxwell Render)

frv

Good news, when I use the color picker in SU then the material highlights in MXM reporter. That's probably also the way it is inteneded to work Very handy, makes MXM reporter even a lot more functional.

Here is the ruby console readout when I double click on a MXM reporter material
COULD NOT FIND MXED: /Applications/Maxwell 1.7/mxed
FOUND FILE: /Applications/Maxwell 1.7/materials database/MXM library/BZKII materialen (Maxwell)/glas.mxm

Now, that's exactly where the app mxed is located.

mxed does not come up either through the Maxwell export material panel. If someone reads this and has it working under OSX please let me know.

Thanks again,
Francois

frv

It seems to me that 100% white materials get confused with the default material in the SU material panel. I noticed before that Maxwell does not understand 100 % white SU materials. I have not tested this thoroughly.

But when I want to reproduce the bug it always shows up with 100% white materials, when clicked in MXM reporter the SU default highlights.

Hope this helps,
thanks Francois

vodkamartini

I find it hard to believe that even the official Maxwell Plugin won't let you use mxed. You ARE using the latest version of the maxwell plugin, right?. And I assume you can start mxed manually? Is that how you've been editing your mxm files, or have you always been using mxs studio? If you can start mxed from the osx finder, you should be able to do it from a terminal (by just typing in that "/Applications/Maxwell 1.7/mxed" path.)

Can any other osx maxwell users chime in on this one?

Anyway, If choosing a color in the sketchup material panel causes the material to highlight in MXM Reporter, then that may be a possible bug in the sketchup api on osx. It sounds like it's not firing the "set current material" event when you click on materials, but rather when you edit them.

As far as maxwell having problems with white materials in sketchup... that one is beyond me. I haven't seen anything like that over here. MXM Reporter only uses material names to distinguish between the sketchup materials, it doesn't care about colors or any other attributes. So, yeah I don't know.. if you can't find a method to recreate this bug it may have to wait until I can play on an osx machine.

frv

Hi,
yep latest version.
And yes, the bug I can reproduce with white materials. They get confused with the default material. No idea why, mabe its just my machine or even me.
I will test on other OSX systems here at my office.

Since I am close to a deadline I will have to postpone further testing till later next week.

I wonder if there are any other OSX Maxwell users here, seems I am the one and only OSX guy here. Hope not....
Francois

frv

Hi,
just found out its actually rather often that MXM reporter does not highlight the proper material in the SU material panel (OSX).
Its also normal that with the entity info palette the wrong materials are highlighted in the SU material panel . I see his happen with slightly larger files.
Francois

frv

When I click on a material in MXM reporter I see in the SU material panel the right color or texture highlighted but in the color grid in the same panel often the wrong or previous material remains highlighted. I think this is really a SU bug under OSX. Has little to do with the color white as I previously thought.

Francois

vodkamartini

I have to admit you've lost me, Francois. Are you saying that selecting sketchup materials in MXM Reporter DOES highlight the proper material in sketchup's material panel, but the color picker doesn't update to reflect that material? And if you simply click on the currently selected material in sketchup's material panel (the one that was just set via MXM Reporter) the color picker will update? If that's all that is happening then it's just an osx sketchup bug.

So just to be clear... as long as clicking on a sketchup material in MXM Reporter correctly sets the current material in sketchup's material panel, everything is fine with the plugin. So for instance, if you have the paint bucket tool active and click on the various sketchup material names in MXM Reporter, you will always be painting the correct colors regardless of what the color picker shows.. is that the behavior you see?

frv

Hi,
well, the material panel under OSX is not very reliable. It does not always show all the materials. And it does not always highlight the material the colorpicker is picking up.

MXM reporter shows up only when activated so in combination with the colorpicker its not very handy. Each time you click geometry to colorpick the material MXM reporter dissapears to the back.
But once you click a material in MXM reporter the material is set under the colorpicker so that works...if only MXM reporter would remain visable while assigning materials..

I think you really need a OSX system for a day to see how things are different. And you should use a big file to see what happens with lots of materials. Just a few materials on simple geometry will usually work but when things are more complicated the typical OSX-SU bugs show up.
Thanks again,
Francois

vodkamartini

Yeah, I can understand the osx version of sketchup having problems. I was just trying to ensure it had nothing to do with my plugin. That said, I completely forgot that modal dialog windows acted differently in osx. This new version of MXM Reporter should now stay on top like you expect. I also made the "scan results" window start out at the bottom so you can quickly click on the continue button like you had asked for earlier.

I tried setting up an osx virtual machine last weekend, but was never able to get sketchup running inside it. I'm being honest when I say I don't think I'll be able to borrow a macbook and install sketchup & maxwell on it anytime soon. This plugin was never really meant to do anything but help me diagnose a few issues I was having when toying around with sketchup renders. I've since moved on to modo, and have been dealing with writing python scripts for it. Regardless, I'm still trying to accommodate you as best I can, and as long as you keep bringing osx issues to my attention I'll keep trying to fix them. Right now it seems like launching mxed is the only one left, and unless you experiment with some of the earlier suggestions I made or someone else chimes in it probably won't get fixed. But yeah, I wish I had a nice big mac pro to work on, I really do.. =(

MXM Reporter 0.4f

frv

Thanks a lot sofar, MXM reporter works well to sort out materials in SU before exporting.
I do not really care for MXED to start within SU anytime soon.

We are also into Modo these days. SU to us seems a dead end since Google took over. The newsletter from SU proves our feelings. Hardly any news on developments, just shows and tutorials.....

Hopefully within a few years we are as fluent in Modo as we were in SU. We feel Modo is one of the most interesting CAD applications to invest time in.

thanks again and if I have any further requests I let you know
Francois

Richard

Vodka

I wish I had the resources to give you and big fat mac for your great efforts! Wouldn't mind one myself!

stefankaplan

Great plugin, Vodkamartini!

I've already saved alot of time using it.
Only thing I miss is:

The use of letters like "æ, ø, å" (I'm from Denmark)
A toolbar-button. I've attached a rather simple png-suggestion for a button, but I don't know how to make a toolbar (I don't script).

Thanks again.
Stefan

vodkamartini

Hey, Stefan.

Sorry for the late response. I should get an email whenever someone posts in this thread, but that didn't happen for some reason. Luckily, I just saw the comment you left the other day in the Maxwell V2 thread.

Call me goofy, but I didn't include a toolbar in the plugin because I liked the simplicity of having it be a single script file (e.g. all the html and javascript are embedded). I made a quick edit to the code to search for "mxmReporterLarge.png" and "mxmReporterSmall.png". If you place those image files alongside mxm_reporter.rb in the plugins folder you will have your toolbar. You'll need to enable it the first time you use it (View ->Toolbars->MXM Reporter).

The localization part is a bit tricky. Does the actual plugin fail to work when you use those characters in material names / autoMXM paths? I can imagine there being some unicode issues with that.

Also, I haven't pulled the trigger on Maxwell V2, so I can't make any claims as to how compatible this plugin remains with it. It doesn't sound like anything has really changed with the sketchup plugin/exporter, but some of the problems people are having with autoMXM in V2 concerns me.

MXM Reporter 0.4g

stefankaplan

Wow, Thank you very much, Vodkamartini!

It works like at charm.
I understand the beauty of it being a single script, but I just wanted to avoid searching through my stuffed pulldowns when activating your great plugin...
Don't worry about my stupid Danish letters - they tend to mess things up in other applications as well. I'll stick to the a-z system.

Best regards.
Stefan

frv

Hi,
I have had some more time to test and I am pleased to see MXM reporter works well even without autoMXM on at export in v2. So the export is fast and I do not have to copy paste material names in the SU material panel.

I just asign materials through MXM reporter and the mxs file show up in Studio with SU names for the materials with the settings as they are in the original MXM's.
Just perfect.

frv

Hi Vodka,
are you still with us here ? How's Modo ?
Your plugin works great even with v2 and plugin 2.4 of Maxwell.
Actually it works better than expected since I no longer autoMXM and export using your plugin. SU materials are imported into Studio with their original SU names but with the MXM settings as assigned. Even the default material is not exported when using your plugin. All very handy.

One fashion request, could you make the plugin panel a lot smaller ?
SU panels and text's are a little less big. Although I use a 30" screen your panel takes a good chunck of it....
Tx again
Francois