SKP to 3d MAX import - ungrouped geometry

ups

Hi guys,
I'm trying to open SKP in 2d MAX, however all the objects I have as groups and components in Sketchup come ungrouped. Any suggestions how to keep them grouped in 3d MAX (some magic button, perhaps )?
Thanks in advance,
Andrew.

panixia

uhhh? that sound a bit odd.. wich version of sketchup/max are you using?
are you importing by the SketchupReader in 3dsmax or exporting to other formats (.obj .3ds .fbx) ?
anyway.. i would strongly reccomend to import straight .skp in max..

maybe you can share screenshot or maybe .skp/.max sample model so i can try to investigate/fix this?

panixia

bytheway what do you mean by "ungrouped" it actually turns out to generate separated meshes where connected geometry was supposed to be? or simply you are pretending to transfer the group-nesting hierarky in sketchup?
as far as i can tell 3dsmax skp importer only takes into account the lowest hierarchy level for grouping and layeryng the imported geometry..

let's say in sketchup you have single components/groups for each wall of a building.. a typical siuation in sketchup could be to have geometry on layer 0, some group in layer "inner walls" and maybe they are grouped in a "wrapper group" lets' suppose that the same group is assigned to layer "inner walls too" let's suppose we have the same situation for outer walls so each outer wall is a box belonging to layer "outher walls" and all of this are grouped in another container assigned also to "outer walls"..
now in sketchup you can do another group containing the 2 groups "inner walls" and "outher walls" and assign this "third level" group to a new layer, let's say "walls".
this is a common practice in sketchup because that way you are able to toggle "inner walls"
or "outer walls" separately and control the visibility of ALL walls at once by hiding/showing layer "walls"

now as far as my experience about this went.. there is no way to keep this sort of hierarchy in max import.. in the case described above the skp importer should detect the single boxes wich compose the wall as 3dsmax "editable mesh" object assigned to layer "inner wall" or "outer wall" the containers keeping togeter all the inner walls, the outer walls and also the "external container" group will be lost. Layer "walls" will be ignored as well by the max importer or maybe created as an empty useless layer (doesn't remember exactly but that doesn't change that much)

the good new is that single "standalone" sketchup components are read by max as "istances" so at least you can keep editing them all togheter if you need.

unfortunately the whole group/subgroup hierarchy can't be transefered as it is in max or at least i don't know how and never found a tutorial about this..

there are a bit of workarounds you can do to keep some sort of "organization" from sketchup..
one is to layer "smartly" enough in sketchup so the imported geometry will be easy to select/isolate/group/createselectionset/wathever you are confortable with in max..

another trick let'say in case you have a rather complicate assembly wich is an arrayed component in sketchup and you want to replicate this situation in max ormaybe create a vrayproxy or something like that.. is to export the assembly to a standalone max model and re-create the hyerarchy or create the proxy, export the main model with a placeholder component cloned around to replace the assembly (maybe a cube a sphere or a simple primitive wich canbe weel suited for the general shape/volume/insert point of your particular assembly) then in max "main" imported model import->merge and import the "standalone" max assembly you have created before.. create a selection set or maybe a group (never tried if it works with groups but it should) and from the array toolbar in max pick the command "clone and align" with that command you can quicly place the assembly as an "istances" were the placeholders useded to be.

assuming you were smart enough to put the placeholder to a separate layer you should be easy to get rid of them leaving all your sketchup assembly back in place in max

that's not so smooth or easy but it works.. with similar tricks and tecniques i managed to manipulate rather large (actually also 20gb+) renders in max were modeling was actually done in sketchup 90% and "strategically" "composed" in max..

ups

panixia,

Right, sounds odd, but this how it is. I use SU 8 Pro and max 2012. The geometry comes ungrouped to single simple solids, not meshes or faces. So as you said MAX doesn't support sub-groups. Yes, I agree that I can group them in MAX, however it's extra work which I wouldn't do.
As for OBJ - I couldn't open in MAX because of some error (don't remember exactly what it was). 3ds is too large (SKP is around 40 Mb) to be converted within acceptable period of time, thus my choice is SKP. Works very well except the above mentioned disadvantage. Probably I should use layers when modelling in SU. It's kind of things I always trying to avoid since it makes work more complicated. Anyhow, thanks for reply, dude.
I can't attach the original SKP since it's too large, sorry.

panixia

it's not more complicated modeling with layers whenyou catch it it's actually easyer and that's why i suppose layers were invented lol. i would strongly reccommend to use layers both in sketchup and in 3dsmax. imho is quite impossible to get a clean, efficient and professional looking model whitout using them. in particular when the size/complexity grows.. aside using proper layers, i would strongly suggest to split the model in smaller pieces and process them one by one, because at the end it is faster than tryng to import "mammouth" models from sketchup to max.
i think that's the way you can take the most of the advantages out of both the softwares, because you can model way faster in sketchup and assemble more large enviroments in max.. i think for a proper workflow is best to use each application for his intended job.. (and use layers/selection sets/proper naming of course that all helps)