The webinar can been seen now as it is posted by Next Limit on their blog page: http://blog.maxwellrender.com/tips/webinar-maxwell-4-in-archviz-by-francois-verhoeven/

@frv said: I could not find the manual for version 3.0 for OSX. I don't think there is any official manual for OSX at all. (I might be wrong though) Settings and their places more or less should be similar.

Francois, I stumbled across your posting and oddly enough, I am doing exactly the same thing - now, it's 2020, so it's close to 5 years after you posted this so I wanted to see how you've progressed with this workflow? Any feedback would be great - have you thought of or have already converted over to using the newest version of Layout or you still working between the two apps (SU & VW)? Thanks! J @frv said: I had to do some elevations in a hurry. I had a detailled SU model. Imported it into Layout. Set the scale to 1:100 Exported a pdf from Layout. Imported the pdf of several pages as a reference into Vectorworks (2014) on several designlayers and put them into vieuwports set up as A1 elevations drawings with dimensions and all. This is a housing units project devided over 3 blocks. 12 elevations. Now when I edit the SU model all I have to do is update the Layout file and reexport the pdf. Then open the Vectoworksfile which automatically updates all pdf references. And all my 12 elevations are updated at once. Since this link is by pdf you can actually snap to lines in the pdf in Vectorworks. Conclusion: With a few simple clicks I have a perfect (layout) link between SU and Vectorworks. I don't have to mess about replacing pdf's. All is done automatically. It would even be better if Layout could update all its pages by one click. I could not use Layouts tools for dimensions etc. Too slow and a bit too simple to properly set up drawings with. Mayby someone can make a plugin that automates the proces of opening the Layout file, update all pages and export to pdf again. Francois [attachment=0:1xrpkhwg]<!-- ia0 -->elevation 1.jpg<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment:1xrpkhwg]

Yes, uploading is the bottleneck. But that's really the end user problem since the farm itself has a very speedy connection to the web. We had a problem downloading our files last week. They gave us a refund so it was solved rather well by Rebus. But the biggest advantage of the farm is incredible speed, this means you can switch on any channels you like along with Multiplight. The mxi file you download can be used to finetune the image and you can safe the image in any format. Great, I never realised before that a renderfarm is the way to go for larger projects that are well paid enough to spend the extra money. What kept me from going there before is that it sounded complicated. But it was actually very simple to set up. Francois

The discount update is from 2009 to 2013,2014 &2015 for about 1500 euros for two licenses. That's a rather good deal. You get all the updates up to 2015 in a socalled VSS. Vectorworks Service Select. I am sure that VW will not really be a crashing monster. It could be some updates are but that should be taken care off rather quick. I know VW very well and I love it. Its just that in 3D it all looks very old fashioned compared to what we do in SU, Modo and Maxwell. Also compared to Rhino. VW looks to me old school 3D modeling. You know the kind engineers are able to bear with but designers dread. Tx Unearthed for the links. I gave them a look. I will start a thread at Nemetchek to see what the VW community would like to share. Anyhow, anyone with real hands on experience here using SU as well as a recent version of VW. Would love to hear from you. Francois

I wish I could help you out. The key is finding the right method that works. When you do, it is remarkable how fast a complete set of 3d construction documents can be prepared. I'm on my ninth custom home this year with very detailed drawing sets - typically 50-60 sheets. 6 of those designs are already well under way in construction. All of them are fairly complex as well. One of these days, I am hopeful to really document my approach in more detail, not just to help out those struggling, but to hopefully find someone that expands it much further. If it helps any, I spend 90% of my time in Sketchup, and only 10% in layout. It's all in the prep time, so that you utilize Layout only for what it is intended......presentation.

lovely new renders, very slick

this is fantastic work francois!!! congrats... myself I've started working with mxs references for vegetation since I got the license and it works great... best V

tx Dave, its a good idea to adjust the style to meet my goal. Still, I think its a bit strange that Sketchup does one export fine and the other stalls forever, the same model, just a different scene with the same layers active. I will disable all extensions when exporting image files though. Need some more time to see what causes the problem. Exporting disabling all trees, cars and people components will also speed things up. Mostly I only need the sketchy lines for the model of the architecture. I will post some of the results of this project later on. Its a competition so I can't right now. Francois

@frv said: I use the latest version of Maxwell rendersuite. Though this feature is hidden for as long its not officially rolled out and properly tested. No idea how this feature will be set up later on in the final version. I do know that it worls great, even in beta. Francois hi Francois, thanks for your reply! its use looks great on your posted image, anyhow, it would be fantastic to see the feature included on the standalone plugin... best V

Outstanding article Francois! I thought you presented a really compelling argument for the value of using both SketchUp and Maxwell (as well as the combination of the two). I also want to say that the images you used as examples are excellent and highly artistic (as always). Thank-you for sharing Best, Jason.

Hi Brodie, tx the winner is http://www.architectenweb.nl/aweb/redactie/photo.asp?iNID=28741&PhotoID=229015 I think they won because of their strong conceptual sketches. We focussed a lot on the building itself. A mistake we often make. Its often better to set a design into its environment with a visionary conceptual idea. No need to render or get a lot of CAD involved. Our design has a lot of thought going into details, materials and techniques. Too much maybe. But we the jury told us they had a hard time choosing between us and the one who has won. The building itself is just a pumphouse and a hotwater barrel of about 16m. height and 22m diameter. Francois

Francois, the plugin ferrary sketch might also be of interest for you: http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=46678 and formfinder, although it is not for Mac: http://www.formfinder.at/ Jörg

HI. I'm using Maxwell Render and SKP. I'm astonished by its quality. However I can not see my scenes with the HDRI's background, someone can help me?

Great images and website, nice one!

Great renders, especially the close-ups. Awesome!

@frv said: Tx, I visited your blog, nice work and also very nice links to other blogs. I see you are rather happy with SU 8. I haven't updated yet but wondered if there are any speedimprovements. I am actually doing an animation and wondered if it had any use to get the update. Francois Sorry for the late response. Thanks for the comments. Yes I am happy with SU 8. As far as speed improvements, no not really. There are many new tools for the pro version which I like and use quite a bit now. You can have both 7 and 8 running on your machine so go ahead and DL the free version and see for yourself if you see any improvements for your animations. Cheers.

Hi, I just made a new website with our work, all renders done with Maxwell, models made with Sketchup and Modo. There are some models we actually made at real scale, actual timber, stones and so on... We use sketchup for anything regular and straigthforward, Modo for organic shapes. Vectorworks is our choice for 2D drawing. It also does 3D but that's something of the past. The UI of Vectorworks is useless considering these days developments in 3D cad. I used to model all our 3D work in MiniCad and later Vectorworks. The link to our website is here, I made it with iWeb. http://www.fillieverhoeven.nl Francois

I like images 2 and 6 the most. Nice focus on the buildings and great lighting