Hi Vodka,
it works now. Maybe I have just overlooked the proper highlight. I can not reproduce the wrong link to the SU material panel.

What not works, there is no mxed link when you double click materials in the MXM reporter. When you double click a material in MXM reporter the associated material highlights in the SU material panel but there is no other vise versa link.

Still, thanks a lot. It makes life a little easier this way being able to actually see a listing and getting a visual on what to expect from auto MXM.
The ambigious names are indeed handy, I am starting to clean up my MXM library to make sure there are no longer doublures.
Francois

Hi Vodka,
some further testing show me that sometimes the .mxm path is neccesary but sometimes not. I had for instance a material that worked both ways but other only worked when I attached .mxm to the material name in SU.

more request, maybe impossible.
Can you make the list in MXM reported a little more interactive. Like the option to change material names in the list or rename them and maybe even to delete a set of materials from the SU file. In SU I can not delete more than one material at once. Can you imagine deleting 20 materials by deleting them one by one.....

Ok, thanks again a lot,
Francois

the ruby console shows up with this
MXED PATH: /Applications/Maxwell/mxed.app/Contents/MacOS/mxed

The application path in my case is
MXED PATH: /Applications/Maxwell 1.7

The application mxed in my case shows up in the Maxwell 1.7 folder as just mxed. No .anything

Maybe you should have a manual path guide in MXM reporter since I think many for instance do not have a Maxwell 1.7 folder but just a Maxwell folder to locate.

Good luck,
Francois

Hi Vodka,
update on Version 0.4c

its works !!
But....... you have to remove "MXMPath = " from your default in the auto MXM path. At first I tried your plugin but it could not locate any materials and MXM reporter kept disabling the auto MXM. As soon as I removed "MXMPath = " from the Path in your plugin MXM reporter made a proper list and things worked out.

Clicking on a MXM material in the MXM reporter list does not bring on MXED though.

One material though when clicked in MXM reporter highlight the default material in Sketchup instead of the proper SU material. It happened once , but I did not check thoroughly with other files.

request:
Can you bring "continue" to the top of the scan list. In most cases I am not very interested in the scanlist and just want to move on without having to scroll down.
What is the consequence of ambiguous material names ? and why did you list in the scanlist
Can you make the MXM reporter dialogbox sizable ? Its a rather large window.
Can you skip the path from the MXM materials list that is already in the "auto MXM path box". It would be easier to quickly read the list. The path since its already shown does not need to come up with every material again.

Ha, I hope I am not giving you unwanted homework to do. I am already happy with MXM reporter since it gives me a tool to debug a file before it has gone through the export MXM plugin.
Francois

yes those "%" characters are in the ini file when I open it with a texteditor.......
I also thought there might be a problem. But your previous rb actually found the right path when I typed it in so if you changed nothing there it should not give a problem now.
You are getting closer I think as well

Hi Vodka,
with your latest rb I will list here my results:

this works:

1. the path is now correct by default
2. I can manually asign the materials.
3. clicking a material in the MXM reporter highlights the material in the SU material panel. Nice.

this does not:

1. auto MXM remains disabled by default
2. double clicking the assigned material does not open de material editor
3. this the result when I hit "scan". MXM reporter should have found the assigned materials.
   Auto MXM Scan Results
   MXMPath = /Applications/Maxwell%1.7/materials%database/MXM%library
   Located 0 Materials
   Continue

Hope you still feel inspired to get it to work,
thanks Francois

The MaxwellRender.ini file is just stored in the home folder of the user. I am not sure if you can set the MXM plugin to store it somewhere else.

The problem is that materials under OSX must be named glass.mxm for instance in the material panel of Sketchup. Otherwise auto MXM does not work. If I change the material in just "glass" and copy/paste the right path in MXM reporter than your rb will work well. But then of course I will not export the file properly for auto MXM to work. So the problem is with .mxm in the material names in Sketchup.

Hi Vodka,
yes, after I hit the scan button to right folder the list shows up and I can continue. But then I am returned to MXM reporter as it was. I can then manually assign mxm materials. Obviously that is to much of a job with a regular project.

Also when I close MXM reporter and reopen it, the auto MXM is disabled again and the scan path shows "c:\materials" again instead of the path I directed it to before. The manually assigned MXM materials remain assigned though.

I am afraid you need need a Mac to further test. Any help is very appreciated though, and thanks for your efforts anyhow, for PC users your plugin must be very useful.
Francois
Indeed Richard, I have some issues...

Hi Vodka,
I am on OSX and your rb does not work for me.
Everytime I open de dialog mxm conversion is disabled and I have to manually enable it. Then the path does not stick in the box either. The path I copy paste in to right folder does not stay there after I close and reopen the dailog.

All my materials remain "no materials assigned" no matter what I seem to do.
Could you look into this for an OSX user.

The plugin looks very promising though. Thanks in advance.
Francois

you're right, I used shift in the images. Works great actually and saves rendertimes by getting the frame where you want it at wide angle views.

The PS work was just a afterthought really, For all images (5 in total) less than an hour. We are usually making these images in the designproces and so we are not all that good at the photowork with green and people. But I see some here spending proper time and talents to really work up a rendered image up to photorealism. I might get into that a little more when I have the time.

SU is very slow indeed but not meant to do professional modeling for photorealistic rendering. Using more appropriate modeling programs is the answer. With Sketchup you pay a high price for the ease of use and the amount of information you get while drawing.

But we use Maxwell and import portions of our model from Sketchup into Maxwell Studio and so we never have to handle the whole model all the time in Sketchup. Devide your models when they become slow.

Here is a new project I just finished.
http://web.me.com/fillieverhoeven/bouwen/endress_archviz.html

Done with a Macpro (OSX) and Sketchup (3D model)-Maxwell (render)-Aperture (image processing)-Photoshop (green and people).

Maxwell is difficult to use but it also is rewarding in terms off renderqualitiy. The ease of use is in the lighting setup, just the sun and some predefined lights. The difficulties are in getting to know the bugs.

Francois

tried it too.Could not even render two small objects, it took too long to render to even wait for the results. I am on a 8core Macpro with 4Gb ram.
I must have done something wrong. Its seemed uselss software. I deinstalled the demo. Looking at your results I wonder how you did that.
Thanks for posting.
I am using Maxwell but it can't render glass properly and its extremely hard to use if not impossible for casual use. I might reconsider Hypershot.

thanks, I just added this page
http://web.me.com/fillieverhoeven/bouwen/gpr_houten.html

For more
http://www.fillieverhoeven.nl

Just finished a small job for an architectural presentation. Did it with Sketchup 6 and Maxwell.
http://web.me.com/fillieverhoeven/bouwen/rabobank.html
It was no fun. Maxwell is nice but almost impossibly difficult to use. I would say in terms of cost in time, 20% modeling in SU, 60% trying to fix texture path's to image files and 20% photoshop work. The rendering itself is done overnight. Why some materials just do not render remains a mistery to me. Even sometimes just restarting makes things better. I have a love hate relationship with Maxwell. I am always looking for easier to use renderapplications with the same quality. I am leaning over to towards Vue now...

I am very intersted to get Vue 7 after trying the demo. But I am afraid it won't really work out well with Sketchup 7 on OSX. I do mostly architectural work but obviously architecture is about nature all the time. So Vue should be potentionally a big time safer when it comes to spice up a building model.

Just did this with Sketchup and Maxwell http://web.me.com/fillieverhoeven/bouwen/rabobank.html , it was a nightmare to do. Maxwell gives nice results at great cost in terms of time. Maxwell is so extremely difficult to use we no longer regard it as an app to make a profit with in architecture. I wonder how Vue would compare.

I am hoping Vue is going to safe me time. Does Vue also import camera positions so you can do most set up work in SU. And does Vue also handle bigger models up to 50Mb and more. Anyone experience with Vue 7, SU7 on a Mac ?
Any help is greatly appreciated before we buy Vue.
Francois

Thanks, did some experiments and indeed it works as you explain.
Francois

I posted this in the gallery section but thought it might of interest here too.

Question for maxwell users. Does any know how to put a texture nicely over a rounded edge.
Francois

Hi, great to see enthusiasm. Happy also to know people like our work.
Thanks also for the comment on the site. I made it rather quick in iWeb out of the "Welcome Page" Its a very simple site actually to make once you got a pleasing layout figured out.

I will post some more soon. I just remodeled and rendered the wooden models using "round edges" plugins.
Francois

Hi, have not been here a while.
Since the credit crisis has stalled our work we had time for a website and show our work with it.
Have a look and let me know what you think, there is lots more but here are some direct links:
This is SU + Maxwell
http://web.me.com/fillieverhoeven/bouwen/leytse_hof_archviz.html
http://web.me.com/fillieverhoeven/bouwen/kantoorgebouw.html (maxwell for wooden lookalike of SU model)
http://web.me.com/fillieverhoeven/architektuur/stadskantoor.html (maxwell for the light shading)
http://web.me.com/fillieverhoeven/architektuur/rogerslijn.html (scroll down and see the design sketches made with SU and rendered in Maxwell)
http://web.me.com/fillieverhoeven/architektuur/asplund.html (maxwell for wooden lookalike of SU model)

This is just SU work some with a little PS here and there
http://web.me.com/fillieverhoeven/bouwen/cfi_archviz.html
http://web.me.com/fillieverhoeven/architektuur/helsingor.html
http://web.me.com/fillieverhoeven/architektuur/gwangju.html
http://web.me.com/fillieverhoeven/architektuur/appartementen.html
http://web.me.com/fillieverhoeven/bouwen/broekerveiling.html

Francois Verhoeven
FILLIE & VERHOEVEN ARCHITECTS