@pieterv said:

Hello,

There is a question I have been asking myself for some time now. There are a lot of people who are fed up with the low performance of Sketchup when you are working with slightly more complex models. Skethcup is the best tool for modelling non-organic things, but is awful at almost every other task.

Would it be possible for anyone to build some kind of plugin for a program like 3ds Max or Blender that installs some kind of "Sketchup-modelling mode"? A plugin that would allow you to model the same way as you do in Sketchup, but also allows you to do all the other things with the tools of another program?

It would be nice I think. Or is this a stupid idea?

I think it's a brilliant idea...it crossed my mind as well how wonderful it would be to have a 'Sketchup skin' for Max or Cinema 4D or Modo, fully working navigation control included.

The alternative, a total reworking of the inner Sketchup code seems out of the question.
I think it could only be done by the @Last team, back in the pioneers era .
Nowadays, Sketchup is this slow dragon with a lot of people (ruby devs) relying on the core to remain as it is.
Sketchup doesn't like polygons and it is not bound to change imo.

@dkendig said:

I hope you get up to speed in time for beta to start. The next version has a bit more pep in it's step.

good news

I love it

who else was thinking battle tanks before accessing thread?

Oooh thank you Danble for explaining more about the concept.
I actually like the whole real time idea and I definitely see a market for the real time sharing of the output.

What I am interested in to know is whether they borrowed that render engine for their 'cloud service' or whether they actually developed the render engine themselves.
My feeling is they borrowed the technology and in that case I would love to know which render engine it is.
I rather use the render engine on local CPU's apart from the service they provide...

Not sure how it works.... and indeed it might be expensive.
I was just impressed with the real time render engine and what they are showing on Youtube.
Really looks good and stable...

I would love to try a demo, not sure if there is one yet

Hi all,
I stumbled on this real time render engine that just came out.
The videos on their Youtube channel Look very very promising
[url]
http://www.bloomunit.com[/url]
http://www.youtube.com/user/BloomUnit

Also... the Simlab .fbx importer (90$) mentioned in this thread just converts geometry, no materials.
So it is not more useful than the DWG importer in Sketchup which is free.
Since 2011 Revit version,Autodesk changed the way it writes Collada and FBX files, so they only can be read by Autodesk products.
Way to gooooooooooooooo Autodesk

I can confirm that the Collada importer fails a 100% of the times.

@unknownuser said:

What should have happened was an open competition for logos. Crowd source the logo and make it born from the community of avid users who understand the product.

Great idea

The logo suggests that Sketchup is a piece of software to model 'just' boxy stuff.
The logo totally ignores the richness and capabilities of the software.

And it's quite booooring

@cmoreink said:

I have more of a dream than a wish and only one:

1. import and handle large .obj files (trees, hedges, etc.), is this even possible for SU in next 12-24 months? or should I look into thea render, since I use SU+vray only.
   What or which part of SU is responsible for not being able to handle such a big files?
   Or could SU and vray do (in near future) something like thea render (instances in regards to tress, grass, flowers, hedges, etc.)

cheers

Not sure, a lot of people thought it was Sketchup not being 64 bit etc., but that balloon myth kind of got popped by a lot of members.
I think it is just the way Sketchup is coded at it's core....
It's my believe it will never be 'fixed' as I guess it would mean an overhaul and a little bit of a re-inventing the way Sketchup handles geometry?

This has been a topic for years now...

Wow, I am impressed.

I tried Thea some time ago and dropped it as I wasn't attracted to the Sketchup plugin...
The images are beautiful

@richard said:

I found Pinterest funnily enough about two weeks ago and now I'm trawling through peeps collections like a mad man - completely addicted!

See 2 weeks! - http://pinterest.com/richardjeffrey/

My partner just raises her eyes at me each time I pick up my phone! I just find it such a place for inspiration - though it would seem at present only inspiration to search further!

What a synchronicity . I found out by accident yesterday. Instantly in love with it.
Beautiful stuff on there

@lapx said:

Rotation input in the material dialogue box please.

good suggestion

@unknownuser said:

have a look at indigo

great quality. decently easy to learn (though you have to at least try to learn it )

a free version is available (with output size limits)

I agree .
Indigo is still a wonderful quality renderer...and really not that hard to get into.
Whaat (developer of the SU plugin) did a brilliant job, especially the material presets work easy peasy

I agree that my statement on Sketchup getting obsolete is a little over stated.
I was referring to a very particular situation where Revit models require to be ported to Sketchup for visualisation. I added 'Revit' to the thread title, not to generalise.

In my particular situation, yes , I do think the use of Sketchup will be downscaled in the near future in our office because of that.

I agree Mike, that Sketchup is still a good tool for initial design.
Up until the rise of Revit in architectural practices, there was also a good role for Sketchup in photoreal visualization of elaborated projects (for clients, marketing, DA applications etc...).
Sketchup could easily handle whatever it was fed from Autocad, Vectorworks etcetera, mostly 2D info that is.
In a lot of offices, Sketchup could cover both bases , initial design as photoreal visualization in a later phase.

Now, with the rise of Revit and the enormous amount of geometry it creates, it has become a total different ball game.
Sketchup for initial design and then taking the project to Revit is still a workable method.
Using Sketchup (+ photoreal rendering) to visualize the project while the changes are done in Revit does not work.

I see the guys who use 3ds Max in the office doing a better job communicating with Revit (linking it through FBX) and easily start rendering it .
Sketchup can't.
What is more, the guys using Max are as fast using it in the design phase as well.
Needless to say that the directors tend to phase out Sketchup in the workflow all together.
And honestly, I can't produce any reasoning to counter it, except that Sketchup has better looking line work ...and even that is not valid , as the expected output is semi or full photoreal rendered to start with. The only 3D line work that is ever asked for are little conceptual schemes, like massings.

Hi all,

I was wondering what your experience is with working with Sketchup in larger architectural offices, especially on 3D visualisation and photoreal rendering.

For 10 years I have been using Sketchup as an architect, both as an independant architect and as employee for bigger firms. It has served me well.
However, with Revit being rolled out as the new 'Autocad' in a lot of firms (including ours), I feel Sketchup is not at all suited for the job anymore.
Revit files are way too heavy for poor old Sketchup, and since Revit and 3d Max are now sold as an Autodesk package deal with 'smart' FBX linking between the two pieces of software, it is getting tough to keep on using Sketchup.
Porting a Revit file to Sketchup in whatever format is not successful. Sketchup can't cope with the polycount and materials don't transfer.

I know a lot of people have been asking for the famous 'polycount capable' version of Sketchup in whatever form it would be, and Google never really provided a solution for that.

Now I see Sketchup getting obsolete and not being able to be put to serious tasks for visualisation.

I would be interested to hear what your experience is.

Cheers