I could use some help with this chair...

brodie

I run into this issue a lot. Here are some tips.

enlarge the model in another program. typically the reason this happens is because the small poly's are just too small for SU's importer and it just gets rid of them. If you scale the model up by say x100 in 3ds Max or another program and then bring it in, you'll solve most if not all of this.
try different formats. If you can open it up in 3ds max try exporting as different formats. I've had good luck with .dae and .obj (you'll need a special plugin for 3ds Max to export the former and a special plugin for SU to import the later). Afterwards, you may want to run a cleanup ruby and soften the edges.

You COULD remodel the chair, but I wouldn't go that route unless you have to. In the long run, you'll be better off finding a solution to the problem rather than having to model everything in SU when there are many great 3d models out there which can save time and look great.

-Brodie

Rich O Brien

This will stay in dropbox until 2moro

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3207490/Untitled.skp

It's 11mb even though its mirrored

Explode overnight

anstvam

@unknownuser said:

You COULD remodel the chair, but I wouldn't go that route unless you have to. In the long run, you'll be better off finding a solution to the problem rather than having to model everything in SU when there are many great 3d models out there which can save time and look great.

I couldn't agree more Brodie. I can't imagine having to model each sofa or armchair I specify in a rendering... I'd be interested to know how fellow interior designers using sketchup cope with the issue. For me it's an unnending, and often hectic, race to find models of existing, for-sale furniture. That said, I'm well aware there are sites that sell models, and I'm also well aware that a good model has a price, but it's not always cost effective to resort to buying a sofa model for, say, 30 euros...

@unknownuser said:

you'll need a special plugin for 3ds Max to export the former and a special plugin for SU to import the later

Any idea where I could find those plugins?

@Rich Am I right in guessing you modelled the chair from scratch instead of mending the problematic areas?
In that case, I must say a big thank you, but I feel very reluctant to use the model. Because I need it for work, I can't conceive using for (potential) profit what you made out of good intention, putting time and energy (and a lot of patience with exploding it ) The only way I could use it would be to buy it from you, but I'm afraid this isn't an option at he moment.

Well, I decided to render the dining room using the bad chairs (if I don't manage to resolve it in the meantime) and then try to camouflage the black patches that come out in the rendering in Photoshop. Clients must show some understanding after all!...

Rich O Brien

I didn't model it. Just used rhino to tweak and exported to 3ds then imported to SU.

anstvam

Thanks again for the fuss Rich...

brodie

@anstvam said:

Any idea where I could find those plugins?

The .DAE plugin for 3ds Max comes from this thread where John Bacus is promoting the use of collada. May be an interesting read for you http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=32481&start=15

Collada export plugin for 3ds Max
http://www.opencollada.org/download.html

There are several OBJ importers. I don't know what all the names and differences are (I don't find the search feature here very good sadly which makes things a bit more difficult) but here's at least one of them
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=20584

-Brodie

solo

Rich, did you remove the file? I wanted to try a new plugin on that chair (reducer).

Rich O Brien

No, is the link not working?

Rich O Brien

http://db.tt/d6JPJll

solo

It was my internet settings, thanks.

solo

Reduced.

chair rich2.png

cannot talk too much about the process or plugin right now, but can say it works great.
311kb.

chair richard.skp

anstvam

Impressive Pete. Will we be hearing about this soon?

Rich O Brien

If you are familiar with Subdivide and Smooth plugin then this is v2. It was demo'd at Basecamp by Whaat. I was blown away. No confirmed release yet but I've asked Santa to work his magic.

The poly reduce feature is incredible and perfect for your needs.

anstvam

Are there any Basecamp videos of this being featured? I'd be interested in watching...
And of course I can't wait for the poly reduce feature...

Gaieus

Unfortunately this time only the keynote presentation (announcing SU was recorded.

Rich O Brien

There was also a Google Earth presentation nearby when Dale showed SDS2. So that drew some attention also. Not sure if that was recorded? Would loved to have seen it!

solo

Is that the Google earth presentation with the History layer?, I heard it gathered a huge crowd.

Rich O Brien

That's the one. They needed to move venues to handle the crowd control. Oh well maybe next time

Gaieus

mac1

See this link for your chair http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=e0f16ba60e1deefe427d16763a0ff49. How it was done:

Saved the Febo chair as an obj file( it has 5825 vertices and 11238 faces);
Imported to Mesh lab( it will import 3ds also) and ran through filters: Merge close vertices ( d= .00010251) with 3 merged; removed duplicate faces with abuot 40 removed;
Saved as dxf file and imported to DoubleCad free. Scaled by 10e6 in DoubleCad;
Imported to SU 7.1 free with the result you see. I have not re-scaled yet.
The reason with the step to Mesh lab is because it has a number of filters for clean up and decimation. I have not tried to reduce model size smaller than above. In addition I think Mesh lab is using a older version of dxf and wanted a later one for import to SU.
Note the small artifacts at left/ right cushion back rest/ seat are in the basics model as well as the small ones on seat front edge. You can try different filters in Mesh lab to reduce model size to what you find acceptable.
Good Luck