Related Tools
The last section described the Export Tools – the Plugin Tools at the core of Exporting. However, these Export Tools function in close conjunction with some other Plugin Tools. These are discussed in greater detail in their own sections. Here, only the relationship with exporting is examined.
Separate Solids and Canopies
Refer to the Separate Solids and Canopies section.
This tool traverses the current SketchUp model and separates Solid geometry from Canopy geometry. More precisely, any geometry that passes watertight-validation is put on the vwPlugin_Solid SketchUp Layer; any geometry that fails is put on the vwPlugin_Canopy Layer.
If you read the last section, you will recall that most of the Export modes use Layer information. If the geometry is not on the correct Layer, most Export modes will ignore that geometry. This is other most common mistake in exporting: forgetting to perform a Separation before performing an Export. The first mistake is forgetting to put your geometry in a Group.
Make Terrain
Refer to the Make Terrain section.
This tool allows you to easily put a Group on the Terrain Layer, which in turn tells the Export All Tool to export the Group as a Virtualwind Terrain. It serves a similar purpose to the Separate Solids and Canopies Tool, but with Terrains.
Launch Virtualwind
Refer to the Launch Virtualwind section.
Once a VWS file has been generated, you can double-click on the file to launch Virtualwind with that file already opened. The Launch Virtualwind Tool is a convenience tool that automates that process from directly within SketchUp. When invoked, the Launch Virtualwind Tool uses the most recently exported file as the file to load. If no Export has been performed on the current model, the Launch Export will launch a clean session of Virtualwind.