When I first started using modo I found this short, simple video to be a helpful explanation of sub d modeling:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckOTl2GcS-E

Thanks all. An emmissive material was the answer. I tried that first but I didn't have it cranked up high enough. With a higher setting it showed a nice even glow.

So much to learn.

@valerostudio said:

V-Ray for SketchUp Freelancer Special Pricing http://www.chaosgroup.com/en/2/freelancer_promo.html

(not sure if this is appropriate )

If you go down the list of resellers you'll find CGriver is offering V-Ray for freelancers for $50 less than the promo price. At $649 it's one of the less expensive options available for rendering.

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.

@pbacot said:

I guess the items in a scrapbook could be all sorts of things. You can put pdf files in a scrapbook, e.g. for your logo, created in some other application.

I'm in retail so the work I do changes dramatically from project to project (a giant shoe for a retailer one week, some 12' steam punk industrial fans for a fashion show the following week). So title blocks rarely work for me - the place where the company logo sits on the template is always right in a space I need - no matter where I put it. I tried using several different templates (logo in upper right, logo in lower left etc.) but that didn't work so well.

I'm looking at scrapbooks as the solution. If the logos and material schedules are in scrapbooks I can open a page and 'float' the title block to any place I want it. Same with schedules.

Just found this. It's really great. Very much appreciated.

Thanks for that.

It worked but with some drawbacks. The original image I was using was an Arroway texture so it was tiled. Painting a rectangle with the edited version and then saving it and reimporting loses the tiling. Also, for some reason the original wrapped itself around the tree trunk cleanly, showing little of the faceting that occurs when wrapping a cylinder with a texture but the re-imported image breaks up along the facets. Not sure why.

I guess the answer is to go back to the original image, save it under a new name and make the necessary changes in Photoshop. But I find that to be unfortunate because, minor though it may be, SketchUp's material editor seems to always give me exactly what I want, whereas Photoshop tends to feel like taking a battleship out for a Sunday boating on the lake.

Anyways, thanks for your reply, I'm sure the technique will prove useful in many situations. Have a good Sunday ...

Good little tutorial - I should go to the start page more often.

A question - once I've adjusted a texture in the material editor, is there a way to save it? Going to Open Texture in Image Editor opens the original texture sans any changes I've made in the Material Editor panel. For instance - I'm working on a display in which the client has specified birch tree trunks around the display space. I brought in a larch texture, applied it to the tree trunks but it was too brown so, using the sliders, I got a nice light, almost white birch color. I'd like to save that but I don't see how. Opening the texture in an image editor just takes me back to the original jpg and I have to start adjusting all over again.

Thanks in advance for any advice you've got.

You might want to try Modo. More expensive then Zbrush (and Blender, of course) but it's a full suite sub d modeler with a pretty good rendering engine. And a great community.

My client wants to light the underside of some platforms and I have to achieve a down light glow on the floor to represent that and I can't figure out how to do it.

What I've tried so far -

Making the whole underside of the platform a emissive material - result: the shape of the platform is telegraphed on to the floor, not convincing at all.

Ran a strip of rectangle lights under the edges of the platfrom - result: rectangular shapes on the floor, even less convincing. (Curiously, V-Ray registered these lights as being about 2' to the left of where they are in the model).

I can probably dodge it in Photoshop but I'd like to find a more direct solution in case the client comes back and wants to do a lot more of this.

Any thoughts, direction, advice - much appreciated.

A question to anyone who uses both of these renderers -

I have a V-Ray license for SketchUp. Very happy with it, especially 2.0. I model in SketchUp and Rhino. I expect to buy a V-Ray license for Rhino.

A computer at one of the offices I work at has an old Indigo license. I've played around with it out of curiosity. There is a subtle difference in the way glass and reflections and refractions are handled in Indigo compared to V-Ray. I know, with tinkering, I can make either program give me the same results. But with little or no effort glass in Indigo is more pleasing to my eye. The difference is very subtle and someone who works with me disagrees (strongly), insisting the images I produce in V-Ray look better than those from Indigo. Nonetheless ...

So - if anyone who uses both of these renderers could comment on their individual strengths and weaknesses or any other input you feel is relevant -

Thanks in advance.

A minor update -

As far as I can tell, selecting all the geometry (make sure all layers are turned on) and pasting it into a new SketchUp file solves this problem for the time being. Obviously it would be good to get the bug fixed but the workaround is a pretty minor task.

OT - I've just been using 2.0 for a week or so and I have to say that the new dome light almost moves V-Ray into the mythical 'one button' renderer category. I've always been bothered by how much adjustment is needed with most renderers to get out even a simple image. Much as the final product may sometimes be worth it, my clients are often asking for a simple image to clarify the design or some minor aspect of the design and they don't need super perfect images for that. I put out half a dozen renders this week with no adjustment at all (other than turning off environment). The client sent them back with revisions - I saved hours of set up time. At the end of the project more complex images will be generated but for now - out of the box with the dome light is making everyone happy.

@valerostudio said:

I can confirm that on build: 2.00_23706 there is an issue. I tried to regenerate all materials and reset all material and render settings and it still renders blank. I copied and pasted it into a new scene and it seems to be fine after that.

Thanks for that. I'm out in the field all day. When I'm back this afternoon I'll try copying the geometry into a new file to see if that's a fix.

Love the new dome light in 2.0!

I'm still struggling with this.
I sent the file to Chaos last week but the file was so big it might not have gotten to them. This is a small section of the original file stripped of textures and everything else unnecessary.

When I render this section on 2.0 half the elements are missing.

I think the problem may have something to do with bringing material in from Rhino but I'm not sure. I haven't been able to systematically determine when it happens.

Maybe someone can take the time to run it through 2.0 and see if there's something I'm not seeing.

HB CR Oct 26_ChaosSupport2.skp

When I get back this afternoon I will send the file to support at Chaos and see if they can provide some insight.

Carrying this forward -
It has something to do with groups. The large platform taking up the left two thirds of the image was a parent group called North Group (I group whole areas of groups so I can turn them off to see the other side of the room from that position). When I exploded that group, the missing platform group to the right re-appeared. But not everything that disappeared re-appeared. Notice that one of the columns on the left platform is still missing and the aluminum frame at the bottom of the glass enclosure to the left is also missing.

I hope someone from Chaos can comment on this.

I'm using regular render. I've only had 2.0 for a week and I haven't started playing with RT. Thanks for trying though.

Just so you'll know I'm not crazy - this is from yesterday, different view but same model. All the columns are there, all the glass enclosures. What might have happened between yesterday and today?

Using the new V-Ray 2.0 I keep losing items. Notice the missing column, the missing frame at the bottom of the glass and the whole glass enclosure to the right. They were there yesterday. Not today. Yesterday I was lighting with the sun, today with the dome light. Other than that, I've made no changes.

Does it have something to do with groups in groups? Something really simple and obvious that I'm not seeing?

Any thoughts or advice you might have will be greatly appreciated. I am going mad and my client is getting mad.

Drats! Just got back to my home office expecting to see Use Fast Feedback unchecked but it's not, it's checked and I don't have time to muck around with my video card driver. And I don't think that could be the source of the problem anyways because the cursor response in SketchUp 8 on this computer is fine. But not SketchUp 2013