@nomo81 said:

the left one was exported with the sketchup 2 vue plug, material issue,
the right one was exported with 3dmax way., no material issue.

regards
nacho

Hi Nacho. Can you send me the SU file of your test here and I will try and see what the problem is. Send the model to:

dburdick@e-onsoftware.com

Thanks

@karolinalundbladh said:

@unknownuser said:

Edit: I just downloaded and installed an old eval version of SU7.1 Pro on the Mac and much to my surprise, the Vue Exporter works just fine. You need to make sure you are using a Vue Product with build number later than 51429. The latest Vue 8 products are at build number 52326 - so perhaps you need to download a Vue software update.

Thanks for checking Dave!

My build number is too low (48976), however when I check for software updates (File -> Check for updates) Vue tells me that my software is up to date. I purchased Vue and the SketchUp exporter together so they should be compatible. Any idea what I should do to solve this?

Go to the e-on website and download the latest release:

(www.e-onsoftware.com)

The latest build number for Complete is 52326

@karolinalundbladh said:

@unknownuser said:

Hi Tim,

What version of Vue are you using? You must have Vue 8 or later (build # 51429 or higher) in order to read the exported .vob files. The problems experienced by others were those using the Sketchup 7 on the Mac which has a ruby problem. Sketchup 8 on the Mac and Sketcup 7 and 8 on the PC work just fine with the exporter.

On the upgrade options for Vue 8 Complete, you have the ability to upgrade to Vue 9 Complete when it becomes available. There is also a trade-in path where you can trade in you Vue 8 Conplete to Infinite for $495. In your case however, given that you are using Max 2011, I would recommend waiting for Vue 9 xStream (should be released in a couple of weeks). Vue xStream can work in standalone mode or as a Plugin inside of Max/Maya/XSI/Lightwave/C4D and it's fully integrated in with the render engines of those systems.

Hi Dave,

I have just purchased Vue 8 Studio + the SketchUp exporter. I'm using SketchUp 7 Pro on my Mac and Vue is not able to read the .vob files that I export from SketchUp. Can the "ruby problem" with SketchUp 7 on Mac be solved?

Edit: I just downloaded and installed an old eval version of SU7.1 Pro on the Mac and much to my surprise, the Vue Exporter works just fine. You need to make sure you are using a Vue Product with build number later than 51429. The latest Vue 8 products are at build number 52326 - so perhaps you need to download a Vue software update.

@hieru said:

I'm a little confused.

Is the new SU plugin compable with Vue 64?

Yes, the Sketchup Vue Exporter runs with all Vue Platforms (Win 32, Win 64, Mac 32, Mac 64)

@d12dozr said:

Hi Dave,
I see that Vue 9 Complete is due to be released soon, around the same time as the Vue 8 Complete sale is due to end (that makes sense, I guess ), so I want to ask for advice...

I'm going to purchase Complete, preferably version 9, is it going to be on sale or am I better off buying Vue 8 Complete and then upgrading to 9?

Also, that relighting looks awesome...will that be available in Vue 9 Artist versions?

Thanks,
Marcus

Hi Marcus,

Good question. You can save around $100 by buying either Vue 8 Complete ($299) or the Vue 8 Complete Architectural Bundle ($329) and then the Upgrade to Vue 9 complete is $199. The Standard List Price for Vue 9 Complete will be $599. There will not be a sale of Vue 9 products for quite while - probably not until mid 2011 or later.

@thecravatman said:

@dburdick said:

Hi Tim, when you say "latest downloads" do mean Vue 8 or just the latest downloads of your earlier Vue versions?

Thanks for the follow up Dave, I tried 8 complete and also 8.5 ple and trial version, don't tell me they only work with registered versions?
The pc spec is useful, I aim to start with 12 meg and move on to 24 when the system works well.

It's entirely possible the SU to Vue exporter won't work with the trial versions because they are older build numbers than the registered versions - I need to check this - thanks for pointing this out.

@prisoner said:

Using SU with Vue (plus l3dt for terrain creation) could be very interesting for me (rendering outdoor top view maps), but rendering with parallel perspective would be necessary. Does anybody know if Vue can do this by now? I tried Vue once 1-2 years ago and from what I can recall there was no way to render orthogonal views. Would be great if that changed. Vue master solo?

Hi There. You can render orthagonal views in Vue, but it's currently limited to the size of the viewport. I can render out 1600 x 1024 orthagonals on my 1900 x 1280 screen.

@thecravatman said:

Thanks for the upgrade info Dave. I used the latest down loads plus SU 7 & 8. I have had no luck reading the vob files so I have removed every vue version and cleaned my machine and intend to do a clean install when 9 is released. Max imports Sketchup really well now so with Xstream + the plugin I have two paths I suppose.
Any thoughts on a machine spec? what do you use at e-on?

Hi Tim, when you say "latest downloads" do mean Vue 8 or just the latest downloads of your earlier Vue versions?

On the machine specs for Vue, I would recommend:

64-bit multicore cpu - I like the quad cores I5 and I7 from intel
8 GB of RAM at least
a decent graphics card - GeForce 460 or better or Quadro 2000 or better

Also, it might be nice to scrounge up a few machines to use as render nodes and build your own mini render farm.

@thecravatman said:

Dave can you please clarify the upgrade options if the complete 8 version is purchased now? I started with vue 3 upgraded to 4 and then have tested every version since, but never found a stable enough set up to justifying purchasing. However, I have just purchased the new exporter that I am delighted to see but unfortunately can't get to work. It produces unreadable vob files or the python script yields only a dome, both problems are noted on the cornucopia forum by others too. This is even without textures. I would like to progress to 9 infinite or xstream if I can get the export to work seamlessly.
I use Max and Bionatics at the moment but struggle with grass, ground cover and clouds; why Bionatics didn't ever produce a complete solution amazes me. I could also do with a couple of suggested system specifications to cope with SU 8, Vue 9 & Max 2011. I hope that 2011 is going to be the year that I finally buy Vue software again!
Many thanks in advance.
Tim

Hi Tim,

What version of Vue are you using? You must have Vue 8 or later (build # 51429 or higher) in order to read the exported .vob files. The problems experienced by others were those using the Sketchup 7 on the Mac which has a ruby problem. Sketchup 8 on the Mac and Sketcup 7 and 8 on the PC work just fine with the exporter.

On the upgrade options for Vue 8 Complete, you have the ability to upgrade to Vue 9 Complete when it becomes available. There is also a trade-in path where you can trade in you Vue 8 Conplete to Infinite for $495. In your case however, given that you are using Max 2011, I would recommend waiting for Vue 9 xStream (should be released in a couple of weeks). Vue xStream can work in standalone mode or as a Plugin inside of Max/Maya/XSI/Lightwave/C4D and it's fully integrated in with the render engines of those systems.

@daniel said:

Dave,

Thanks for coming on this forum and speaking with us about Vue. I use Vue 7 Infinite - love it, and can't wait to try this plug-in, and hopefully upgrade to 9 soon. One aspect about Vue that I like is that you can generate a rendering of any of the three orthagonal views (top, front, side), but unfortunately your limited by the size and there is no way to create a large size rendering or to save it without doing a screen capture. It would be great to be able to apply the rendering settings for the perspective view to the other three views (and maybe add the other side and rear views).

Hi Daniel,

Yes, I agree with you - we need to add unlimited render size for orthographic view rendering. We have this on this list.

@krisidious said:

is there a way to keep plants leaves from sticking through walls?

Not exactly. You can specify a hit radius to use when populating ecosystems which will maintain a safety distance away from objects. Most of the time I end up tweaking the location of veg and trees anyways using the eco-instance selection tool.

@krisidious said:

1. ability to undock layer list, material view and preview window.
   (I have 4 Screens (3)19"s and (1) 42")
2. ability to render to a fourth screen or maximize current render window on another screen.
3. ability to assign navigation mouse buttons, rotate, pan and zoom
4. ability to select materials with an eye dropper.
5. maximize current view button on each view window
6. ability to pat you on the back for giving me more than I ever dreamed of in a piece of software... thank you...

Hi Kristoff,

#1 and #2 are frequently requested, we've have some interesting things happending here - stay tuned
#3. You can reassing mouse buttons now. Go to File-->Option-->Operations and set the keyboard/mouse shortcuts to anything you want. You can rotate around in the main view by using right mouse down. Most of the time, I just use the camera controls below the preview window or adjust the camera in one of the 4 views.
#4. I've asked for this one for a long time
#5. Good idea - I like the how the zoom entents function works in SU - we need this in Vue as well
#6. LOL - I would settle to see some cool Sketchup/Vue renders

@krisidious said:

yes Vue informed me earlier today that my system was woefully inadequate...

currently running Intel E4300 overclocked to 3.0 ghz 4 gig of ram and 1 gig video

I'm getting ready to go quad core Q9505 and 8 gigs of Ram with (2) 1 Gig video cards.

I'm going to try to squeeze all of that in under $500.00

as discussed earlier in this thread... there are tuts online that show someone working in Vue with 16 cpus...

Vue Infinite suggested system specs.

Windows 64 bit (XP, Vista or Windows 7), Mac OS X v10.6
Multi-core CPU (Intel QuadCore, Core I7, or Mac Pro),
4GB+ of RAM,
4GB+ of free Hard Disk space (on the drive hosting the OS),
An OpenGL accelerated video board (see below for optimal compatibility)

Hi Kristoff,

Looks like a nice set up for Vue there. Why the two graphics cards though? That sounds more like a gaming set up. Vue doesn't push the graphics that hard. Go for more CPU or more memory.

@krisidious said:

I went back into the model in Sketchup and with the idea that a material was at fault, I looked atr what could be removed. of course being what Vue is the plants were the first thing I deleted. after exporting again it seems to have fixed the issue. one of the plant's textures is at fault I feel.

Hi Kris,

Yes, I suspected that it might have been a corrupt texture - I've seen this from time to time. If you still feel like it, go ahead and send the me the Sketchup file if you can with the corrupted image. Perhaps we could do a better job of reporting out when that condition occurs.

@krisidious said:

I've gotten a few errors when trying to import a SU model... Vue says can't read the file.

so removed all the materials. and tried again... the model came in with ease.

I wonder what Vue doesn't like in way of materials? maybe if the material that was on the model when it was made is not found? Vue has said that before but it also asked if I wanted to locate and did so with out error.

anyway no biggy...

I think I'm gonna delete all my renders now.

Hello Kris,

Any chance you could send me the model you're having texture problems with? I'll give it a good looking over and see if we can find the problem. You can send it to dburdick@e-onsoftware.com

Thanks

Dave

@earthmover said:

Bought the plugin and it's definitely a time saver.

My wish list would be -

1. Convert Sketchup "Faceme" components to Vue Billboard Face Camera
2. Translate Sketchup Layers to Vue Layers
3. Convert Sketchup Scenes to Vue Cameras
4. The ability to create Vue lights within Sketchup. Perhaps by creating a Sketchup Sphere and naming is Vue_Omni, this could be read by the exporter and the sphere replaced with a Vue light. I just find it easier to navigate and add things in Sketchup. Adding 30+ lights in Vue tends to be a tedious task.

Great job otherwise and thanks for thinking of us lowly SU users!

Great suggestions - thanks for this.
(1) Is absolutely doable and in the plan
(2) Layers in Vue work a bit differently in Vue than in Sketchup. In Sketchup, you can spread a model across different layers. In Vue, Layers are used to manage scene elements (e.g. multiple models, lights, vegetation, ecosystems, etc). So typically, a single model will only exisit on a single layer. We could build a script to distribute the model elements by layer in Vue but I'm not sure that would be useful to you.
(3) Doable and already in the works. We are going to have a very nice automated animation interface between Sketchup and Vue in the next version of the plugin.
(4) We thought about this, but felt that it wouldn't be too useful unless we could provide some real-time preview in Sketchup of how the lights would look in Vue. Otherwise, you could spend a lot of your time going back and forth between the apps to "tune" the lighting. Thoughts?

@burkhard said:

Hi dburdick, I purchased, but get an endless loop by trying to register.
I have an account but can't get the synchronisation to run because it ends into the Authorisation code, which seems not possible to generate...
and back... One of the messages: # This product has already been activated on another user account.

" Please feel free to contact technical support " if you have any trouble....but how?
No forum available, no mail available to get feedback. Any other suggestions?

Hi Burkhard,

I'm not sure I understand what the problem is so forgive me. Are you saying you purchased the Sketchup to Vue Exporter Plugin but can't get it registered? The Plugin does not require registration. It only requires that you have a copy of Vue. Can you be more specific about exactly what the problem is. Please feel free to e-mail me at dburdick@e-onsoftware.com

Thanks

Dave

@solo said:

Dave,

I have not had much time to play with this, I did finally install it this weekend and give it a whirl.

I'd like to see Vue open up on export or at least a dialogue asking if we want to open Vue on export, that way the whole python sync can be automated.

Hi Pete,

Good idea on the launching of Vue after export. We are looking at the idea of perhaps allowing a .VOB file to auto-load a Python script (or include an embedded Python script)as well. Thanks

@coulteri said:

How is it with "face-camera components"? Is this plugin able to convert them into "face-camera" entities in VUE?

Hi Coulteri. We haven't implemented what you call "Face me" billboards in the exporter but Vue has the ability to do this with what we call "camera billboards". Our thinking was that most SU users would want to convert things like trees and veg to into actual 3D ecosystems in Vue. If you think this is important, we can add this.

Hi Guys,

Dave Burdick here - VP of Marketing at e-on Software. I met some of you at Training Camp. I just want to claify a few things and let you know about some special offers we have just put out for the Sketchup crowd:

1. The new Sketchup to Vue Exporter plugin will not work with the low-end, Enthusiast versions of Vue (e.g. Pioneer and Frontier). It requires Vue Esprit or above.

2. We put together a couple of very nice architectural solution package deals which combines Vue Studio or Vue Complete with the new Sketchup to Vue Exporter plugin. The prices are really attractive 50% off the standard price. You can find out more about these solutions here:

(www.e-onsoftware.com)

This is a short time offer that will probably only last until the middle of next month(sorry for the shameless plug).