I tried out UVMapper -- and it works really nice! If a model only has one texture you can import it (into 3dsMAX) as a complete model. This OBJ aspect is a lot better than other importers I just tried (scale and position is correct).

If UVMapper was expanded to input a file location and support multiple UVs, you could export the whole model (even just for OBJ importing/exporting)!

And yes -- the native subdivision in SketchUp creates some wacky face slivers. I saw it mentioned somewhere else, but I wish Google would develop a different function to criss-cross divisions, rather than pinwheel them like spokes. (I miss AtLast's more frequent improvements)

They get converted to triangles with what I'm using. There might be a better converter out there that keeps them.

With all faces being quads in SketchUp however, it guarantees a cleaner triangulation. When you let the exporter decided how to triangulate a 5-nth sided poly, you can get some crazy triangulation with very smaller face slivers.

I'm having to manually triangulate most of my SketchUp model to make sure it doesn't create these small sliver tri's. But then you're left with a bulky SketchUp model. Compared to 5-nth sided polys quads are still bulky, but better than tri's.

In d12dozr's example above, when unfolding and combining the hut to create the UV sheet, you create a copy. This becomes a separate object and doesn't link to the materials on the original. So, the missing step is taking the new UV sheet and re-mapping it to each face of the original hut, correct?

(seems kinda obvious, but I wanted to call out this missing bit)

ah! thanks (duh on my part)

Make Unique only works with 1 face selected, correct? Is there a plugin or method to do make multiple selections unique at once?

(I'm experimenting with these threads)
Creating an Arch -- http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=21847
UV Toolkit -- http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=18992

haha -- yes -- good point! I had forgotten about the squared aspect as well

Weird -- I can't get the Combine Textures menu option to show up. Are there certain rules that have to be in effect for this to appear?

Like triangulate, having the option to quadrulate would be fantastic. When pulling in a nice simple SketchUp model to Max or Maya, it can get triangulation from hell. Having a quadrulate will help reduce this, but not be as unwieldy as triangulation.

Plus, quadrulate would work great with thomthom's UV Toolkit!
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=18992

Ah -- yeah I can see what's happening. Thanks for confirming Chris!

In large scenes, it'd be easier if there was a global setting or way to transfer one scale to another. If there's 20 or so textures in a scene, that's a lot of material changes to do, heh.

For example, you might want to keep the default size for 80% of faces that use the material, but on the other 20% you want a different density. So instead of duplicating the material to change the scale, find a way to simply change the UV scale on the 20%.

I'll poke around the web and see if there's something already out there. If not -- maybe it's a good candidate for a plugin.

Here's a follow-up question --

Let's say I have 10 textures. 1 is 512x512 in resolution, set to 512x512 sketchup units. The other 9 are 256x256 in resolution, set to 256x256 sketchup units.

By default, applying all these textures on different sized faces will produce a 1:1 texel ratio.

So...
How would I make everything 4:1? Would I have to go in to Texture/Position and scale every face?*** Or, is there an option or plugin that can pick the desired scale from a face and transfer it to other faces?

***Texture scaling doesn't have a VCB numeric option for exact sizing? And without a way to display the current scale, there's no way to understand what the current texel ratio is, correct? I wish the "Reset Position" option was actually three options: Reset Position, Scale, or Rotation.

Thanks for the explanation Adam!

I suspected this was the case, but was unsure. I didn't know if Texel information was part of the object (meaning you could toss whatever texture you want on it and it'd match the ratio) or if it needs to be specified for each material.

SketchUp far more simple and to-the-point than massive programs like 3dsMax!

--alz

You got it -- it's the pixel density. So a 1:1 texel ratio would be 1 pixel per 1 unit on the model. So a 256x256 texture at 1:1 would fit exactly on a 256 unit wall (before repeating).

This means you could swap the 256x256 texture for 64x64 and you'd see it repeating 4x on the wall.

This wouldn't be the Texture width/height in the Material browser, correct? That affects the individual texture and how it's applied to anything in the world. The texel concept is scale applied to the UVs of the object.

I'm still wrapping my head around this concept. It seems simple, but I suppose it's confusing at first because I haven't seen a dialog for it readily exposed in any major editor [Max, Maya, SketchUp] (so it's not easy to play around with).

--alz

Okay double weird -- that image example doesn't always come through.

Here's a better example -- POOR texel ratio:

PERFECT texel ratio:

hmmm... perhaps I'm just confusing myself. This texel concept is not the UV scale, independent of the texture/material size (thinks)

Hi Chris!

Thanks for the suggestion. Goldilocks is based on the current viewpoint, whereas a texel ratio is more of a way to verify that all textures being used are all at the same pixel ratio.

Maybe Goldilocks had components that could lead to a texel script/plugin/filter/style.

An example in the image -- the left side has mixed texels, the right had uniform texels

EDIT:

@thomthom said:

I see no image attached...

...weird! The image is blocked within the <img> code. And it shows up in the Preview. Here's the raw url:

http://www.ericchadwick.com/examples/provost/byf2_figure6.jpg

Be sure to try out Jim's LEGO importer!

https://bitbucket.org/jimfoltz/sketchup-ldraw-importer/src/

Is it possible to show the "texel" information in a material, within SketchUp? Has anyone had a need (or at least thought about) conveying this ratio to a dialog for editing?

Thanks for the reply Jean!

I'll try it without the length snapping to see what happens. I'm using the snapping, because I want everything "on the grid" (or a whole number). Have you heard of some way to have all points within a certain distance auto-merge? Maybe this is a question for the Ruby/Scripts forum?

I've started having problems with modeling in SketchUp 7. Usually, SketchUp will automatically create a poly face when you connect enough edges to the model without having to actually draw the face. However, I'm finding situations where a simple four-sided collection of edges won't create a face. I can divide the face area, creating a triangle face, but never the other triangle face (of the original quad).

This was driving me nuts!

Upon zooming in REALLY close, I'd find that the quad was actually 5 edges, not 4. One side had not 1 edge, but 2. They were ever so slightly apart. So, when trying to build a face, it was snapping to the adjacent edge which wasn't a "seal" to the quad. Think of a corkscrew edge that's been flattened.

The only way around this is to strip out all the edges from the whole area and reconstruct them. These errors aren't always obvious in SketchUp, though. It's when I export it to 3dsMAX that it catches the problems.

I thought SketchUp always "glued" or "snapped" elements (edges, points, or faces) when under a certain distance from one another (if within the same component)? I do have my Unit Snap on, and set to a whole number (no decimals). Maybe this is a SketchUp 7 bug that's not present in SketchUp 6?

I believe this problem occurs when I've extruded adjacent faces, next to another face, then erased lines that didn't disappear. Or, this could be happening when I take two components (that appear to be on the same axis lines) and exploding them to meet -- but their same-space edges don't quite merge.

Any thoughts or solutions on this?? It's eating up far too much time in my day and now I'm second guessing every move I make. Could the extreme solution be finding a plugin that "snaps" all elements (edges, points) to the nearest "X.xx" unit?

Yeah, I agree -- having a more uniform triangulation method is preferred. It makes things a lot easier developing models if it's more uniformed and less "meet all at one point".

With the current method, I have to spend time flip-flopping various divisions (and sometimes just recutting the face).

@tig said:

There's another triangulateFaces that's a little newer somewhere on this forum - that triangulates all selected faces no matter how many sides they have, and also keeps UV-mapping etc [thanks to thomthom's help]

I believe this is it?
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=175613#p175613

Yeah, uncommenting it causes an error on line 172. From the readme, I'm lead to believe the material exporting worked, but I was unable to find a working example in any version.