Hi everyone,

Long time since I last posted. Recently did some 3D work and 'rediscovered' SU as a concept dev tool for a super fast turnaround job (SU concepts down below).

I ended up doing the final modeling in MoI and rendering in Keyshot. Still, it got me back to thinking more about using SU as more of a full pipeline tool (sorta like how Pete does).

To that end, I'm doing a bit of research into some of the rendering tools available. I currently own older versions of Thea, Podium, and Shaderlight. I know there are many others available also. I have a few questions which would be most helpful if I could get some of you smart folks to help me with:

[1]How fast do these compare to Keyshot-- or other renderers? Are they even close? (Please no GPU renderers as I don't have the correct vid cards on all my computers).

[2]Do any SU renderers have micro radius settings aka Keyshot? This is a setting which can render a small radius across sharp corners making it look more real even though no radius exists in the geometry. Very helpful for creating realism for products.

[3]Do any of these create an infinite plane which can be camera mapped to the background (again like Keyshot)?This allows for the easy creation of photo composites and product shots like in the FastCo article below.

[4]Are any more or less harder to use or more or less LESS integrated with SU. I'm on Mac and the Keyshot plugin for Mac has been promised as "coming" for the last 3 years. I think I get the message they're not planning on delivering it

Thanks anyone for any help in this!

Here's the 5-day project I put together for an ambulance drone for Fast Company along with a few of the early exploratory 'sketches' done with SU.

http://www.fastcodesign.com/3041696/this-drone-ambulance-is-totally-wild-and-totally-inevitable

Concepts for this design were created quickly using SketchUp and some kitbashing from the warehouse.

For those interested in specified directions:

Find:

module AudioToolbox
extend DL::Importable
dlload '/System/Library/Frameworks/AudioToolbox.framework/Versions/Current/AudioToolbox'

and change to: (note blue line at bottom)

module AudioToolbox
extend DL::Importable
dlload '/System/Library/Frameworks/AudioToolbox.framework/Versions/Current/AudioToolbox'
dlload '/System/Library/Frameworks/AudioUnit.framework/Versions/Current/AudioUnit'

@tig said:

Chipp

This tool is now plenty old and there's a much better/faster [free, PC only] one available here...
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=316470#p316470
[follow the link to the download page here
http://www.fluidray.com/downloads]
I recommend you try that.
Here's its result, which I take is what you want ?[attachment=0:2wlcddqw]<!-- ia0 -->Capture.PNG<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment:2wlcddqw]

Thanks TIG. Just what the doctor ordered
I'm using a Mac these days, but I've got a Virtual Win version of SketchUp. I'll check it out!

Hey TIG,

How come this file (simple) won't import with map? I created it using UV Mapper Pro, which is pretty standard IMO. Any insight you might have would help greatly!!!

Dropbox - 404

(dl.dropbox.com)

Wow, this one was a tough one to track down-- turns out it was of all things, having the Rdio music client running in the background! Turned it off and everything's back to normal. Hope someone else finds this thread helpful!

Thanks Chris for the suggestion!

Any reason why the Move tool Ctrl-toggle key would just quit working? It used to be when I hit Ctrl while in Move mode, I get a + sign next to Move cursor, but no more. If I Ctrl-Drag selected objects it does make copies, but the Ctrl key HAS TO BE DOWN DURING THE DRAG.

I've removed ALL plugins, and reset everything but the shortcut keys..I guess that's the next thing to try. Bummer.

That's what I love about this place...post a message at 6:30 AM Sunday morning, and there's two answers waiting in short time! Thanks guys
Here's a couple images of an Aquarium Hood I'm building in SketchUp and will be printing out on Ponoko 3D printing and laser cut aluminum. These are the SketchUp models for them.

Or conversely, only select the edges? Thought there might be a plugin for this, but couldn't find one. TIA

@unknownuser said:

Beautiful as ever Pete. It immediately drew me to the great Ralph Goings Painting "Airstream" 1970 -- one of the hallmarks of the pop art / hyper-realism movement of the early 70's. You're in good company.

Yep. Goings was superb. I've actually seen his oil paintings up close and they are spectacular! Also, Pete, you might try an very subtle and large noise map in the bump channel to achieve the warpage effect on the sides. It still is a great render!

Wow! Very nice. Looks like some Artisan chops were used?

Hi Pete. Very nice concept, but IMO the manufacturing technique is a bit over the top. Injection molding would not create such a structure for a number of reasons (I think I mentioned before my background is in Industrial design). You are showing more of a blow molded solution, and while somewhat cheaper than injection molding, it also would be extremely ineffective cost wise. Injection mold tooling would be ridiculously expensive, and I'm not aware of any injection molded object that large. There are some blow molded and rotation molded canoes out there- so perhaps blow molding may be an option, but the tooling and setup also would be prohibitively expensive unless one owned a facility or had some very serious backing.

Still, the idea has great merit. I would suggest creating inexpensive reusable plastic, epoxy, or wooden tooling, like used in plastic forming, where you would vacuum form or pressure form parts to create your product. Or use the same tooling for a fiberglass or composite layup. Careful attention would have to be paid to how the mold goes together and collapses for removal, but with a pressure form technique, you could create zero degree draft angle walls and floors. There would still need to be multiple parts, but designed correctly, they could interlock to form a structural connect.

Another idea would be a foam formed structure in place (think non structural blue polystyrene foam) for the walls atop a structural laminate floor. The foam walls can be created easily with a minimum of soft tooling and once built are easily modified for custom window / door placement and plumbing / wiring with nothing more than a large exacto knife or hot wire cutter. When finished, you spray a structural sealer on it both inside and outside, like a concrete type substance (sipcrete) which laminates the foam creating a solid, albeit heavy, structure. This type of manufacturing is common in some third world low cost housing builders-- sorta like a hi-tech version of straw bale houses.

I concur with your decision to build, then deploy. If you wanted to create a knock down version, then consider centralizing all utilities on one wall, and make that your base module which is then added to in the field.

I do applaud your creativity. The next step is to be equally creative designing for specific manufacturing!

Stunning work, Pete. Hope you're staying indoors and keeping cool!

@solo said:

Hey Chipp,nice to see you are still around.

Hey Pete! Still alive and kicking, though unfortunately not spending enough time in 3D. Still have to make a living

@mitcorb said:

Very good model and render.
The left module would be the mind scanner, and the right module would be the search/playback?

How perceptive. Wait a minute, have you already tried one of these?

SecureThought Memory Vault by Altuit, Inc.
available second quarter 2018

Been awhile since I did anything in my favorite modeling program, so this past weekend I set a goal to 'speed' design and model a couple of fantasy products. I'll probably use them for something in the future, but for now, let's just say they are a 'different sort of memory storage.'

Rendered in KeyShot.

@martin-art said:

I just wanted to post an update on the licensing situation in Shaderlight.

For Shaderlight 1.2 we incorporated a new licensing system which has made the installation process much more straight forward for our community. However, we discovered that a limitation of this new system was that we were unable to allow multiple activations on a license code or have the ability to transfer the license to another machine. We have been working to resolve this and importantly maintain the straight forward licensing.

Our development team concentrated on allowing multiple activations on a single code, new commercial Shaderlight activation codes can be used twice so you will be ok to activate your Shaderlight license on your office and home computer. The licensing of Shaderlight allows you to have Shaderlight installed on 2 machines, but only use 1 at a time.

Customers that have an existing Shaderlight license will need to contact support@artvps.com and their license code will be modified.

Martin

That sounds great Martin. Thanks very much!

A couple key thing developers need to remember about licensing, is

1. It should not get in the way of legitimate users.
2. It should not allow casual users to be able to easily give it to their friends "to try."
3. It should NEVER prevent a sale.

Keeping hard core pirates from being able to hack copy protection is for the most part useless, especially if it conflicts with number one above. We know that most, if not all true pirates will never pay for legitimate software-- so no sales revenue is lost One of the best things you can do to protect your product is to continually update it, with a notification in your app of new update available.

It's now very popular to consider licensing to individuals and not machines, just as Maxwell does. Good conversation.

@unknownuser said:

Here is another one I tried to find this past weekend but could not. It was bookmarked here at the office.

Royalty free music and 'free to download' music - Free Music Archive

Free Music Archive is your number 1 resource for royalty free music and 'free to download' music.

(freemusicarchive.org)

Thanks Eric, much appreciated.

Thanks Eric. Originally, I had some Brooks and Dunn, but YouTube flagged me. Any suggestions on where I can find decent "legally free" background tunes?

Can you share a link of the car you are trying to model? Do you have front and side orthos ref images?

I would certainly use Artisan to model a car. Check out this thread:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=335&t=35730