I'm also a user of unbiased engines, but i have to admit that if i knew vray well enough i would probably just use that. The big advantage for unbiased is the litle time is takes to set things up, wihtout needing to know too much technical stuff, but in return the render times are ridiculous big. Now the problem is that, in this CG business, we're always learning and evolving our skills and knowledge, with time beeing allways against us, so often we reach a point that we want the same quality (almost) with a fraction of the time and that's when we users, that ironicly always ask for simplicity, start studing and using more complex stuff that fit our new goals... I have 2 friends that everyday remember me that no matter how good quality my unbiased render is, their Vray and mental ray stuff will allways look better (I'm talking really top stuff here). They don't even lose much more time than me setting a scene up (experience and material libraries compensate that) and in render times i don't have a chance either, especially if we're talking big print resolutions...Nowdays i'm using more and more biased methods for render and evolve my photoshop skills...some stuff is a pain but it's starting to pay off

Hi Brodie, tx for your reply on Maxwell. I think you are right about Maxwell and the ease of getting a good render rather quick. The light in Maxwell just does it right. I preview a lot using the R1 render in Studio. But these days v2 renders so fast that previewing is not as much a problem as it was. I am also very interested in Vray once it runs on my Mac's. I think Vray is the typical Archviz application. Francois

Hi all, i was trying to do something similar. I have both windows and osx. For windows, the options shown above work, for osx, please see: http://wiki.dropbox.com/TipsAndTricks/SyncOtherFolders http://seiryu.home.comcast.net/~seiryu/symboliclinker.html cheers santiago

Sounds like a one liner require_all("/any/folder") is all you need (defined in sketchup.rb.) But as TIG said, not all scripts are made to work from any folder.

I owned one of these babies in 1969, same color. Seems to me $5.00 would buy all the beer, gas, and smokes (I smoked then) you needed for the weekend. In 58 it was even better, although airfare hasn't really gone up. Really fantastic work [image: Jm9h_Picture83.png]

Wonderful, thanks. I tried acme but mine must be messed up. It won't let me build with the block products anymore, only bricks. Thanks, -Brodie

That looks perfect, thanks guys -Brodie

i'm all better now!

Took about 16 hours of work time all together. Not too terrible I think. I'm working on a lobby for the same hospital at the moment. Hope it turns out as well. -Brodie

Well, at least the Back button is here. The toolbar issue is serious - although I have undocked all my toolbars aside my SU window and have been a happy person for quite a while now.

Not bad. I can do about anything with 3ds so that's good. That's interesting that it can import RAW format. Any idea what that's for? -Brodie

hello brodiee.. If u check out the environemt rollout.. u will find an option that controls the camera parameters such as exposure and all.. try fiddling with it.. the default values are always dull for me.. try messing with those... edit : i find these sites/blogs to be very helpful in learning mental ray : http://3dsmaxrendering.blogspot.com/ http://mentalraytips.blogspot.com/ a great material sharing site : http://www.mrmaterials.com/

Brodie, as others pointed out it's important to establish the rules beforehand, especially who pays you. It's not unusual for an architect to pay consultants after they've billed the client for the services, but if there is a billing dispute between the client and the architect, you don't want to be left out in the rain. If the architect hired you, then he should agree to reimbursing you within a set time.

Daniel, hehe, I think that was actually what I liked most about it . It felt a bit more artsy than most of the clay's I've seen. I did try a b/w sky behind the building but didn't really like it as much so I left it out. -Brodie

Aidus, Exactly. I pretty much start from an Autocad drawing and refine it to use in Sketchup. The dwg had all the lines in there already except for the yellow road lines in the foreground which I added myself based on existing conditions (if you haven't met the maps.live.com Bird's Eye view yet, it's a WONDERFUL tool to find out existing conditions). For the texture I just use the asphalt texture and adjust the color to yellow or white. Normally I just stick to white as yellow (or blue in the case of handicap symbols) can get distracting, but in this case I think the yellow works. -Brodie

Me too. The biggest complaint I hear is about speed so I think this should help out a lot. -Brodie

Dont worry mate I've been having the same issues with HDRI location and actually posted to the MR wish list a solution I'd like to see incorporated. Modo also does real time lighting from HDRI so the results from the illumination channel can be quickly tested. I've been playing with a work around for correctly positioning the HDRI for the illumination channel, though haven't get it finished yet! Check it out it may give you some ideas, or you may see ways to contribute! Oh hang on you posted to it - duh! Mate as the last post I always add my skys in later, there are a ton of sky images out there, infact any photo with plenty of sky will work. Using plastic for car paints can look a bit unrealistic unless you are going for more primary colours that aren't so suited for arch work - the grey, silver, brown inert tones one wants for arch vis are generally metallic and therefore need a coating in the BSDF. Metallics do tend to look a bit flat as the sheen spreads and disperses the light more! I one day should get back to this project - I can still see a great need for them for Maxwell and any other app they might work with - any that can take weight maps! http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=10730 [image: testad1.jpg] [image: autosavecarqq9.jpg]

Its worth a try. and what grahics card have you got?

@baz said: @unknownuser said: Have you looked into Organizer? Thanks Rick, tho it seems a bit complicated for my poor brain. I can see myself getting in lots of trouble trying to organise subfolders, especially considering the apparent dependency of various rubies on each other. baz Two things: Organizer can do a simple test and notify you if you move any required files, letting you know you need to put them back in the Plugins folder. Also, creating a backup of your Plugins folder prior to using Organizer can save you some headaches. I do offer support for all my scripts, so if you have questions, just ask

I'm assuming you tried going to the View>Show Materials in Viewpot>As textures? By default you have to turn them on before they are visible in Max. Are the textures showing up when you render? If not, it's probably either a normals issue, or the texture didn't export out of sketchup properly. I export to Max all the time with no real texture issues. I use .3ds format, select By Texture and check Preserve texture coordinates. Now and again there are messed up coordinates, especially on roofs, but I just apply a UVW map modifier and then use the gizmo to rotate the texture into place. Also, sketchup should be exporting the textures to a folder in the place you save your .3ds file to. Once in a while I'll have issues with max finding that folder. If that's the case, just go to Customize>Configure User Paths and browse the folder with the textures and Max will automatically apply them to the geometry.