I'm on the latest updates of Sketchup, the SU plugin for maxwell and Maxwell itself.

I'm having trouble assigning MXMs to objects. In the past I've clicked on the icon with the folder (6th icon along), which opens MXED. I then locate the MXM I want to use, click on it and so long as the surface is still selected in SU model, that MXM gets assigned to that surface.

But now, I get the spinning ball. It freezes SU. Anyone know why this is happening?

I'm following Jason Maranto's videos on Sketchup to Maxwell workflow. His version of Sketchup has a plus symbol top right of the panel. It probably doesn't matter for what I want to do, which is to use the Scene manager in Maxwell plugin in MXM mode.

I need to get MXMs integrated into SU. The Scene Manager seems not to allow the loading up of an MXM until you select a material from the drop down. Which is a pain, because it has a name and qualities that you don't ultimately want. But I have found a more useful button on the toolbar, namely browse for MXM, which launches MXED.

So I double click on the material I want and it loads into SU, or a reference to it. It's a new Arroway gravel material. So far so good. But now I can't see the texture clearly on the surface of the face. It's just a flat colour. How can I get the texture to be visible (at least in low res) in my SU model?

I'm attaching a screenshot of the materials window. The only way I seem to be able to make a new material from the window is via "New Texture".

Am I missing something, or has SU 8 removed the plus symbol from the top of the materials window? How do you create a new blank material?

Thanks Jason, I'll try that.

When I export as an MXS to use the model in Maxwell Studio, some objects are missing. One example is this: a group of 3 trees are in the model, but only one of them appears in Studio.
Is there anything I should be checking in SU to avoid this? By the way, the 'missing' objects were visible, not hidden in SU.

I should go ahead and demo it tomorrow.

Thanks guys. Are Apple bringing out a new 12 core?

If I want to run the Maxwell standalone suite, am I right in thinking I need to but Sketchup Pro (because SU free doesn't export a file that Maxwell standalone can use)?

Thanks Chedda. I'd rather not upgrade to a 12 core just yet - you think the 8 core will be good for a while longer?

So you opted for Maxwell instead of Vray...still happy you did?

I'm thinking of buying Maxwell.

I'm a Sketchup user on a Mac. I have a MacBook Pro i5 machine and also a 2008 Mac Pro 8 Core 3.2GHz 10Gb RAM machine. I have a feeling the laptop will struggle with Maxwell render, but will the 8 Core do a good job on complex models? I use a lot of vegetation, so the edges and faces count is often over 2 million.

If I buy the Maxwell for Sketchup plugin will that be enough or will I benefit greatly from the standalone version?

Hi Rich, I do that, but turning them on again takes a while when you have as many plants as I have.

What slows down the performance of Sketchup most of all? Plants are a killer, as is Shadows On. I need both unfortunately!

If I go to V Ray, that causes a crash on my MacBook Pro i5 machine with just a moderate number of plants on the model.

Any Mac users out there who can recommend a MacPro desktop configuration for models with up to say 4 million edges and 2 million faces?

I'm a landscape designer. My SU models use a lot of 3D plants, which slows the Mac down after a while. I was wondering if there were any tips for keeping the size down.

For instance, does grouping reduce the 'load' on the computer?

@cmoreink said:

If you have time and want quality ----> model your $!@%.

Model your what?!
Great shots btw.

Got any hardware setup recommendations?
I'm Mac based. 2008 8 core 10Gb RAM. Is that enough for a landscape with loads of plants?

Me too.

http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=322&t=44117

I'm thinking of investing in Vray, but my MacBookPro i5 with 4gB RAM is too slow for the rendering and it crashes SU.

My other Mac is a 2008 Mac Pro 2 x 3.2GHz Quad Core with 10Gb RAM. Should that be able to render complex scenes? Or do I need to upgrade to the latest, biggest, fastest Mac?

If any of you could give me your experiences with Mac hardware in this regard that would be very useful.

Thank you. I'll look into texture map. At the moment I'm having trouble with rendering my scenes. Crash, crash all the time.

The model I'm working on has 1,442,481 edges
633,000 faces
57,625 component instances

I'm on a MacBookPro i5 2.4GHz 2011 machine with 4Gb RAM

The render screen doesn't even appear. Spinning ball for 5 minutes. Then crash.

Any ideas?

Yes.

So how do people get floor tiles to look real?