One of them is 'Getting Started' toolbar and the other is 'Large Toolset'.
Right click to your toolbar area and enable/disable as you wish.

@igendreau said:

lol, that's not my render. That's just a photo. What I'm saying is, I need to know how to do something similar. Not only have the light of the city scene, but actually have that city scene outside the window like that.

Ahah, allright then. (Advises on my first post are still relevant though)
When you said you watched HDR tutorials, i assumed you already know dome lights, spherical images (preferably HDR), rotating them etc., do you?

Briefly:
1- Create dome light anywhere in scene.
2- Apply spherical HDR image (that cityscape in your example) to dome light.
3- Rotate image & tweak settings that suits your needs.
4- Render!

That background scene is -probably- a spherical HDR (High-Dynamic-Range) image. Dome light takes color information from the HDR image and illuminates the scene accordingly. So you have an accurate image-based lighting environment.
Thus the most important step becomes to be able to find good quality HDR image that you desire (check these free ones).

Note that not all spherical images are HDR. You might find spherical .jpg images while searching which will not be carrying any light information and will act just like a background image.

@pilou said:

Sandbox is not inside the normal install of 2017 ?
It's only for Pro version ?

No, it's available in Make too.
I just prefer Bezier Surface for creating such curved slopes etc.

@igendreau said:

I need them to have HDRI lighting, with the scene outside the window to match.
I see lots of HDRI lighting tutorials, but not a whole heck of a lot on how to put a realistic scene to match.

I think your render looks quite good. Maybe you should be the one doing tutorial here

I believe it's mostly about understanding where light comes from (its color/tint as well) your background image and try to match that. Then tweak in post process (color corrections etc.).

I can suggest checking this tutorial for post-processing with channels and lossless adjusting (16/32 bit image) if you haven't already.

You can create curved surfaces easily with this plugin: Bezier Surface.
Then you can use Sculpt Tools plugin to give some bumps and height etc.
Also you can give thickness to that irregular shape with JointPushPull Interactive plugin.

@chippwalters said:

Does anyone know of a plugin, like the knife tool in Artisan, only it cuts a solid into two using only a polyline?

Not sure if it does exactly you want but did you try Zorro2.

@pilou said:

You have a trick for resolve that big problem!
(extend text Show more under the video on the Youtube site !)
I wish this solution was a bit more precise. Handling those pins manually is just not good.

Thank you Charlie, i think you're right. I was overthinking for some reason and didn't even notice hint given inside Unity

I imported SketchUp file (.skp) directly to Unity. Then changed my material names and parameters that suits my scene. After a while i added more geometry (or changed) in SketchUp and saved but Unity's auto-refresh feature 'reimported' all materials again (completely) and reapplied to my geometry.

I also tried disabling 'import materials' via import settings under Inspector but then Unity assigns default material to my geometry. I was hoping to update only meshes that i added.

So, is there a way to keep my edited material applied on unchanged geometry when auto-refreshed in Unity?

And yes, i asked in Unity forums, noone replied yet.

@rodolfost said:

Hi. Thanks for the help.
This plugin uses the same database as the current SketchUp system, the "DigitalGlobe". It does not have as much precision as the old system, which used data from Google Earth. It's a good alternative, but it still does not work as well as the old system.

Yes, they use the same provider but not the same 'quality level' as they claim. Also note that in the trial, high-res aerials imagery is not available.

@kendrickho said:

I've tried Curviloft, Soap-Skin-Bubble and Ferrari, they can create simple tensile structure but not the complex one

With curviloft you can create quite complex shapes. It's all about drawing a neat outline/contour.
Here i give it a quick shot, only with arcs & rotation copies, then applied curviloft skinning.

Later on you can apply SketchyFFD to your geometry as well if you wish.

curviloft_tent_example.skp

You can disable 'Safe Frame' via Asset Editor in Vray 3.
Asset Editor > Render Settings > Render Output

Check this out for more info.

Is this any better than Autodesk Remake ?

@xayzer said:

This is my first real attempt at rendering an interior.
If this is really your first attempt, then either you're gifted or Keyshot is doing amazing job or both!

I liked the style maybe giving slightly more color and less cartoon effect & reflections could be better.

@mike amos said:

So, what is the process for importing sketchup files into unreal engine?

Take a look at this topic: https://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=79%26amp;t=67426

Unity triangulates meshes as JQL pointed out but it's not necesserily a bad thing. Because i don't get weird light-maps or textures broken when imported .skp files and i'm not going to edit meshes inside Unity.
So i suspect there is something wrong with your .skp model/geometry, can you share?

Check this tutorial: How to Create REALISTIC Materials | Vray 3.4 for Sketchup

Thank you Pixero.

@filibis said:

Here are free alternative plugins: Sculpt Tools, Bezier Surface, Curviloft

This is called PBR (Physically Based Rendering) textures. It's for rendering plugins (such as V-ray) or game engines (such as Unity & Unreal Engine). Those different colored images are called 'maps' and you apply them all in order to get a realistic look. (Bumps that you were familiar before is kind of equivalent to 'normal' maps in this workflow)

'Substance' is an exceptional software where you create those textures and maps. (It's not the only way, of course) (Some of those plugins & engines has features to apply .sbsar file and not bother with maps individually)

Check these tutorials by Unity or this by Allegorithmic for more information.