Sketchup and Blender

solo

Can you show me how to model it in SU so that it translates better in Blender?

Stinkie

Couldn't you bevel the n-gons in slightly in Blender to get rid of the smoothing issues?

Rich O Brien

Here's a very quick example....

Image 1.png

solo

@rich o brien said:

Here's a very quick example....

[attachment=0:314utpts]Image 1.png[/attachment:314utpts]

So what will it take to get a tutorial on how you did that?

And another thing, what software do folks use when doing a tutorial that shows what mouse and keyboard button is pressed?

arail1

I think real important plugins when considering export to sub d are RemoveLonelyVertices or Vertex Tools. Even after you've thought through what the other program wants and modeled accordingly you can end up with a lot of tris because of hidden vertices at mid line positions in SketchUp (for instance when you had a polygon intersecting another polygon and then deleted the intersection)

Hope that helps in some way.

pilou

@unknownuser said:

The reasons for learning Blender for me are numerous from animations, nurb modeling

Maybe I am wrong but seems Blender has not yet so many tools for nurbs ?

solo

@unknownuser said:

@unknownuser said:

The reasons for learning Blender for me are numerous from animations, nurb modeling

Maybe I am wrong but seems Blender has not yet so many tools for nurbs ?

http://vimeo.com/16555180

Rich O Brien

Here's a good example why using n-gons in SU and then fixing them in Blender still causes havoc...

Image 4.png

Image 3.png

For modeling something like this logo you need to forward plan a small bit.

Both circles that meet in the middle must have a common amount of adjacent verts...

Image 5.png

solo

Rich, So how would one use SU with Blender then going forward? What I mean is Sketchup even to be considered or should one just break the ties and go Blender 100%? As it seems that the mesh SU creates is pretty useless in Blender.

Rich O Brien

No, it's the habit that SU creates that is the problem.

Is is so easy to draw circles, have incorrect topology and create n-gons in SU that the user is pretty much learning a modeling approach that goes against every convention in every other app.

It is not to say SU is at fault it is that the user takes the lazy approach. Hence people whining that nothing is like SU and failing to step outside the comfort zone.

I model most of my Blender proxies in SU because it is quicker. I don't do detail work in SU though.

One of 2 things will happen here. You'll either have a Eureka moment or you'll just constantly flog SU into doing something it in't meant to do...

I've no problem helping out while you transition but I ain't investing time when I get the impression it is already proving too non-SU.

The reason I adopted Blender was I needed better animation tools. But months of 'why does this SU export cause this or that' meant the progress was slow. But now I know when to open S or when to open Blender.

I don't have a secret I just learned when to stop in SU and when to migrate models to Blender.

thea logo.skp

Here's what I would make in SU prior to Blender export for the sub-d work. Nothing anyone else couldn't do.

dedmin

About units in Blender - this is very confusing for new users:
http://www.katsbits.com/tutorials/blender/metric-imperial-units.php

Importing Google SketchUp files into Blender 3D - advanced:
http://www.katsbits.com/tutorials/blender/import-google-sketchup-kmz-models-advanced.php

dedmin

@solo said:

And another thing, what software do folks use when doing a tutorial that shows what mouse and keyboard button is pressed?

michaliszissiou

OK, joining the club.

There are many reasons to turn a geometry to quads.
SketchUp supports n-gons based geometry.
Blender also supports n-gons.
The way to import the SUp n-gons to blender and continue to be N-gons is the Collada format.
Import in blender as collada then.
Enter edit mode, select all (A), press W menu/[remove doubles], select all again, [ctrl+N], this will turn all normals of faces outwards , in case something messed up in SUp.
Now you are ready to go for a nice UV unwrapping. No need to import textures from SUp (it is possible) because the SUp default unwrapping can be automatically generated in blender. It is the cubic projection.
The blender UV editor is one of the more powerful around and I suggest you to learn it.

Now, you re ready to setup a scene, lighting and go for a Cycles rendering.
And, more additional modeling of course.

JQL

I tried exporting a model from SU to render in Blender, with little success. Is there a way to export cameras from SU to Blender? That was mostly where I stuck because everything was already set in SU.

Thanks,

JQL

solo

@jql said:

I tried exporting a model from SU to render in Blender, with little success. Is there a way to export cameras from SU to Blender? That was mostly where I stuck because everything was already set in SU.

Thanks,

JQL

Looking at the addons in Blender there are many importers and exporters, I wonder what it will take or who it will take to write one for Sketchup, one that will support layers, groups, components, camera's and even animations.

solo

My first attempt at following a tutorial.

I changed the obstacle to the Thea logo and opted to render with the Thea plugin and not Cycles as Cycles was still rendering after 15 minutes (too slow) and Thea completed it in just over 3 minutes.

blend test.png

Rich O Brien

Winner.

Show the blender mesh.

Mine way to quickly learn commands is with the dynamic menu. Hit space bar while in the viewport and start typing.

solo

@rich o brien said:

Winner.

Show the blender mesh.

Mine way to quickly learn commands is with the dynamic menu. Hit space bar while in the viewport and start typing.

What is supposed to happen when you hit space, I get a window that opens but not sure what to do then.

Here is the screen shot.

blender screen1.jpg

Rich O Brien

You should see this command palette...

Image 7.png

...here you can type a word to see what the command is...

example...if you needed to merge verts hit space - type merge...

Image 8.png

...and you'll see the command is Alt+M

Great way to learn what is the shortcuts and the commands.

I'd really like to see the Thea Logo in edit mode.

Select it, hit edit and then hit / on the numpad to go into local view.

Take a screengrab while in edit mode so we can see the mesh.

andybot

Woohoo!! Thanks for starting this thread Pete, glad to see Rich and Michalis right on board! I will be watching and participating as I can. I Blender!