Richard, you are not on OSX are you.
I would love to know why I can't use the new plugin with autoMXM turned on. Its simply stalls and I have to resort to the previous version of the plugin.

I find Studio 2 better to work with. But I have a 30" screen....
I do not understand the hiarchy of panels and windows in Studio. Typical Spanish engeneering style, would love a more Danish aproach, simple and clean.
I think its very wise to wait half a year with the update. Although I do not mind helping NL to perfect their product. We also tested the Modo plugin but there is a lot not working there yet either. No replicators for example, could be expected though.

I tried most of the new cheaper renderapps. They either need a lot of tuning to come up with proper results to be compaired to Maxwell or are slow or very limited. The only one now interesting is Vray to me. I saw the work of Alex Roman http://motionographer.com/2009/08/16/alex-roman-thethirdtheseventh/ and was very inspired. Rendertimes 1,5 hours max. as he seems to state in this article. I think Maxwell isn't an architectural tool. Too slow and too complicated. I need a modeller like SU and a renderer like Vray.

I got this nice reply from NL:
"There were no changes on the Auto-mxm feature in Maxwell2 so the change in the speed there is very unlikely.
What we see as potentially an issue is the size/structure of the folder holding MXM files - if there is more files there now than it was before then the export can be slower.
Note, that Auto-mxm searches through hierarchical structure of folders for MXM materials matching the name of SU material so if the structure of folders or number of files is bigger than the search takes longer.
Let me know if the problem persists."

Well, in my case the MXM folders are the same so the bug must be in the new plugin.
I will report it again to NL and see how they can solve the matter. I am sure they will.

Maxwell is unique to me since it does produce nice renders just as it is. With Modo, Twilight and a bunch of other apps I find that it takes much more effort to produce natural light or a quick render. And Maxwell is rather fast on my 8core macpro. I agree working in Studio with large models is fast as well. I can import "number 1" SU models into Studio and have the "number 2" model in Studio growing very big....

my reason for postprocessing Maxwell images is that it safes rendertime. Without having to fully let Maxwell clean the images I filter the images as such that they look pleasing. It saves me hours of rendertimes and allows me to work with rendered images at SL10 or even less.

I wonder though if Revit does more or less as well as the combination SU/Maxwell in terms of moddeling speed and renderquality en maybe ease of use.

Compliments on your images btw. They look certainly professsional. I am always amaized to see my clients not at all concerned about the quality of textures or blurryness. All they go for is atmosphere and the vision of a future building at a certain site. They go from blindness to a sudden image of a completed projected. Only long after that first impression they will start looking for qualities of the images themselves.
Architects do not sell an image, its the build results that count. Most clients look at images and imagine buildings the architects has shown them in real before. If Richard Meier would propose all colored buildings in his images I think most clients would still expect the actual build projects to come out white ..

There's a lot of alternatives out there, also for Sketchup. But its still NL's problem if things go wrong. People invest time and money into this app and for reasons of quality output. I am sure they will solve the matter but its true that SU seems no longer a target for Maxwell.
How else would you sell a new upgraded version/plugin that stalls at the first test by (Iam afraid) the first guy who upgrades.....

I am thinking of going Vray. We already use Modo but not yet much in combination with SU.

The plugin is slow as much that exporting goes from second or a minute to hours . Not even with really a lot of textures. I am exporting now with the old plugin and render from studio.

I have not seen any response on the Maxwell forums or from NL.

Is anybody using Maxwell 2 and the new plugin. I wonder if others are having the same problem exporting models under autoMXM ?

Well, autoMXM is linking SU materials in an automatic way and its actually really simple to use. Just get the names right and it works. But with the new plugin this does not work any longer.

To be honest, I got v2 now but for architectural work using SU I would wait a few months before upgrading. I don't think you should be excited a lot over faster renderingspeed. My current models seem to not to be rendering any faster or nicer. For me upgrading is more or less a matter of keeping support up to date.

Hi Brodie,
yes the design is nice but I did not make it, I regret to say I just did the SU/Maxwell/PS work.....
I did post my problem on the Maxwell sketchup forum.

It did not work since I use the new plugin and autoMXM. Once I reinstalled the old plugin all went well again. Reinstalling is just a matter of getting the old installation file and reinstall over the new version.

I wonder how you asign tectures without autoMXM. I find autoMXM the most useful way to asign textures.

Some quick remarks about the new Maxwell:
Working in Studio v2 seems a bit slow (unresponsive) compared to the old Studio.
Studio is easier to work with since its all a bit more visual.
Maxwell output is rather different in color and renderquality. My first renders of older models came out ugly. Glass to much reflective, colors harder and skies a but dull. I am used that one should tweek settings to get good results so I am sure these differences can be quickly overcome.

Hi, I actually get a lot of work done with Maxwell for my clients although at times I am utterly frustrated with it.

I bought v2 and just one license to test things first a bit.

The new plugin though does not work yet. With autoMXM on the export fails or takes so long you have to cancel it. I do all my texturing with autoMXM. Who knows how long it will take to get it fixed. I should try to reinstall the old plugin and see how it works with Maxwell and Studio v2.
Will try that later.
Francois
PS
Made this little drawing with v1.7 for a client this week. I can not get this model (2.5Mb) to work with v2. Happy I did not upgrade while working on that project.

you can work around this bu that has already been reported here and there.
Type a valua for an other tool and then go back to the tool that would not pick up the values. For me after this I can move on. It seems SKetchup 7.1 is a bit confused with the measurements or focal lengths when typed in at the lower right corner.

1. Sometimes its impossible to change the focal lenght while working in perspective vieuw.
   No matter what you fill in the focal length remains the same. Have not found a solution yet. In the file I am working in now I can only go back to certian scenes to get the focal lenght I had in there. Adjusting it by typing in different lengths no longer works.
   Francois

OSX 10.5.8
SU 7.1
Macpro 8 core.

yes, another learning curve seems worth avouding. But, I use CAD since 1988 and have grown used to the fact that every now and then a new system or application comes along that can not be ignored. The older you get the more you hate to learn new things. That's usually why after a certain age you can no longer be on the job.

But VW is worth it since the features surely make it easier and much faster to produce CAD drawings of good quality. We use SU and VW simultaniously from the start.
We have tried Layout but it was utterly useless for professional use. I do not want to go there again. Google is a search engine company and not a developer of pro-CAD applacations in the field of the building industry. Soon SU will as well be a thing of the past. Others have picked up where Google just consumed SU.

We use SU and CAD all the time and work with Vectorworks.
Vectorworks is very well organized and has some features that make it very handy for CAD work. One is that you can use layers as well as classes. May seem trivial but you can for example set up 3 layers for floorplans and 10 classes for by example different materials. If you switch to the layer of the first floor you can switch of and on certain details or materials for all layers at once. You no longer need dozens or even hundreds of layers but a well organized set of just a few. This is just one example of how well Vectorworks is developed. It started out much the same way as Sketchup late '80's and has a huge usergroup all over the world. It also does 3D but actually it is 2D where it shines. I would forget about using VW for 3D or rendering as for that it still is in the '80's
Vectorworks also just opens SU files. I have never seen anything better for 2D CAD work. Maybe you can get an older version for free somewhere. Vectorworks 12.5 is also a good version although they are now at VW 2009.

Have a look at these drawings, all SU and Vectorworks
http://web.me.com/fillieverhoeven/architektuur/rogerslijn.html
http://web.me.com/fillieverhoeven/bouwen/atelier_woningen_haarlem.html
http://web.me.com/fillieverhoeven/bouwen/Palette.html

Francois

Thanks a lot sofar, MXM reporter works well to sort out materials in SU before exporting.
I do not really care for MXED to start within SU anytime soon.

We are also into Modo these days. SU to us seems a dead end since Google took over. The newsletter from SU proves our feelings. Hardly any news on developments, just shows and tutorials.....

Hopefully within a few years we are as fluent in Modo as we were in SU. We feel Modo is one of the most interesting CAD applications to invest time in.

thanks again and if I have any further requests I let you know
Francois

Hi,
well, the material panel under OSX is not very reliable. It does not always show all the materials. And it does not always highlight the material the colorpicker is picking up.

MXM reporter shows up only when activated so in combination with the colorpicker its not very handy. Each time you click geometry to colorpick the material MXM reporter dissapears to the back.
But once you click a material in MXM reporter the material is set under the colorpicker so that works...if only MXM reporter would remain visable while assigning materials..

I think you really need a OSX system for a day to see how things are different. And you should use a big file to see what happens with lots of materials. Just a few materials on simple geometry will usually work but when things are more complicated the typical OSX-SU bugs show up.
Thanks again,
Francois

When I click on a material in MXM reporter I see in the SU material panel the right color or texture highlighted but in the color grid in the same panel often the wrong or previous material remains highlighted. I think this is really a SU bug under OSX. Has little to do with the color white as I previously thought.

Francois

Hi,
just found out its actually rather often that MXM reporter does not highlight the proper material in the SU material panel (OSX).
Its also normal that with the entity info palette the wrong materials are highlighted in the SU material panel . I see his happen with slightly larger files.
Francois

Hi,
yep latest version.
And yes, the bug I can reproduce with white materials. They get confused with the default material. No idea why, mabe its just my machine or even me.
I will test on other OSX systems here at my office.

Since I am close to a deadline I will have to postpone further testing till later next week.

I wonder if there are any other OSX Maxwell users here, seems I am the one and only OSX guy here. Hope not....
Francois

It seems to me that 100% white materials get confused with the default material in the SU material panel. I noticed before that Maxwell does not understand 100 % white SU materials. I have not tested this thoroughly.

But when I want to reproduce the bug it always shows up with 100% white materials, when clicked in MXM reporter the SU default highlights.

Hope this helps,
thanks Francois

Good news, when I use the color picker in SU then the material highlights in MXM reporter. That's probably also the way it is inteneded to work Very handy, makes MXM reporter even a lot more functional.

Here is the ruby console readout when I double click on a MXM reporter material
COULD NOT FIND MXED: /Applications/Maxwell 1.7/mxed
FOUND FILE: /Applications/Maxwell 1.7/materials database/MXM library/BZKII materialen (Maxwell)/glas.mxm

Now, that's exactly where the app mxed is located.

mxed does not come up either through the Maxwell export material panel. If someone reads this and has it working under OSX please let me know.

Thanks again,
Francois