Posts made by miikka1978

What are nowadays the best alternatives or softwares to bring Autocad (dwg-files) to Sketchup?

I am using the free version of Sketchup and I would like to bring some dwg files into Sketchup. Also, I would like to clean the file by deleting certain layers before bringing the file into Sketchup. There is no need to use the software for drawing but mostly cleaning the file.

I have noticed that there are some free or cheap software available but I would like to avoid testing them all. Would there be any recommendations? For some years ago there was DoubleCad that was free to use but it seems that it is no longer available.

Or is the any other good ways to import the dwg file to Sketchup and have the ability to clean the layers in Sketchup?

@rich o brien said:

not accurately dimensioned just something to for you to tweak...

[edg3d:1qmnhj2j]hROHySkeFXAjkq4[/edg3d:1qmnhj2j]

[attachment=0:1qmnhj2j]<!-- ia0 -->subd-jacuzzi.skp<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment:1qmnhj2j]

Thanks for the model/tips! All these basic shapes (included skp model) look so simple but I am still having hard hard time to find out what is the efficient way (workflow) to create this kind of models and what are the plugins that would be useful. I will try to recreate this model and hopefully I will learn something.

Do you have any tips what would be your workflow when modeling this kind of Jacuzzi with the help of SUbD and other useful plugins?

@garry k said:

One of my users has made a suggestion that I group items together a bit better. Currently the first 2 tabs contain cabinet values and the 3'rd and 4'th tab contains rules.

His suggestion means mixing cabinet values and rules. Up to now I have been against mixing as I think it causes confusion. However, having kick information on 2 tabs and frame information on 2 tabs also causes confusion.

Batch editing currently ignores the first 2 tabs. When batch editing you can change rules, materials, or defaults and have the changes applied to an entire kitchen.

What I have come up with is a way to identify rules by changing the color to read for the border of each rule.

I would like user comments on these proposed changes. This mockup hasn't changed the organization of the rules but does show the borders as red even for a disabled control.

[attachment=2:h5rb1bkh]<!-- ia2 -->rules red mockup.PNG<!-- ia2 -->[/attachment:h5rb1bkh]

Here is the proposed change for the rules tab

[attachment=1:h5rb1bkh]<!-- ia1 -->rules mockup.PNG<!-- ia1 -->[/attachment:h5rb1bkh]

Here is the Extra tab and the proposed changes

[attachment=0:h5rb1bkh]<!-- ia0 -->Extra mockup.PNG<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment:h5rb1bkh]

I have been using this plugin only for 1 day and I have the say that this is just great and price is reasonable!

As a totally new user I agree that the logic of different settings and rules could be improved to make the plugin even better. At least for beginner like me there is some confusion where different settings are made (Rules, Rules 2, Extra, etc.). For example, I managed to create the below Cabin but I don't have any idea how did I do it. Does anybody know how fix this because I am not able to change the Drawer type back to normal?

Hopefully I have enough time to experiment this plugin more in the coming weeks so I could give some meaningful feedback.

@ntxdave said:

These are really neat.....
What tools/plugins did you use to produce the skp model?

I pretty much use Sketchup only creating the shape of the terrain and spaltmaps that I use for texturing the terrain Unity 3D. When modeling terrain I mainly use Topo Shaper plugin, which is great when working with contour lines.

It has been a long time since I have been working with Golf Course animations. Anyway, here are some examples of different way of modeling fairways.

https://vimeo.com/154626617

https://vimeo.com/154627105

Is there any plugin working like Blender's Add Loop cut, see link below? I think that this would be really useful when using SubD.

https://www.blender.org/manual/modeling/meshes/editing/subdividing/loop_subdivide.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f4XKe8lZEU

Bricks'n'Tiles has been my favorite tile texture generator for a long time. Anyway, I updated my Windows 7 to Windows 10 and I can't get it working anymore. Do you know if there are any similar texture generator softwares available?

http://www.bricksntiles.com/

Edit 12.1.2023:
Here few ones that have been proposed/considered:
https://architextures.org/
https://www.vizpark.com/shop/omnitiles-standalone/
https://www.poliigon.com/search/generator
https://www.materialmaker.org/
https://www.renderhub.com/viverna/tiles-generator-texture
https://www.stonecurators.com/stone-designer/
https://blenderartists.org/t/addon-parquet-floor-generator/630413

@speaker60 said:

ah thanks so much and such a quick reply, and the snap tools is awesome thankyou for that

anybody else know of any other tools out there that are similar to sketchup features

doing a google search "blender sketchup style" or "sketchup features for blender" dosnt return much of anything, would be interesting to know if there are anything else

id like something like sketchups paint bucket tool for textureing. the uv editor good for more complex texturing but id love to be able to just click a face to apply a texture/material

This Addon makes selecting deselecting much easier but if I have understood correct it is still not working 100%.

rSelection (Left click to select and click empty to deselect all, script not 100% finalized!)

Blender is getting some Sketchup like functionalities with the help of this new addon, CAD Snap Utilities. Although, it is still far away from being good tool for modeling with exact dimensions.

http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?363859-Addon-CAD-Snap-Utilities

Do you have any idea what this means? I don't know too much about uvmapping/unwrapping but there are some comments that this would remove the need for that.

http://home.otoy.com/otoy-unveils-octanerender-3-worlds-best-gpu-renderer/

"Advanced live texture baking: A feature that’s most beneficial for use in real-time game engines, OctaneRender 3 supports unbiased GPU texture baking (UV or volumetric) of global illumination, spherical harmonics and 8D light fields in Unreal Engine 4 and Unity plugins."

Here is one example of Unity 5 used in architecture visualization.

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/archviz-test.310430/

In my case I have only been using Unity because there was already free version. Now I definitely need to check Unreal 4 Engine.

My planned workflow has been mainly:

• Modeling in Sketchup
• Finalize and UV mapping in Blender
• Texturing in Substance Designer/Painter (should work pretty much the same for Unity and UE)

Anyway, I haven't got too far yet because this is just a hobby to me and I can’t works constantly with this. Lately I have been even learning Blender because it is developing so fast even though it is still far away from being modeler for architects, etc.

Do you think that UE is as easy as Unity to learn? I would still like to stick with Unity but the quality of some architectural visualizations in UE look unbelievable, which makes it tempting.

I have been experimenting just a little with Game Engines. My understanding has been that Sketchup files don’t work that well with game Engines because the models need to be UV mapped properly. Therefore, I have assumed that it is always need to have tome 3rd party tool to do the UV mapping, for example Blender. Anyway, I am still novice with these so please correct if I am wrong.

One more Unreal Engine Architecture video.

http://youtu.be/Y6PQ19BEE24

It seems that this is no more active thread but I would like to check if there are still some Sketchup users trying to learn Blender and what are the good Addons/practices/workflows that you are using?

I have been trying to learn Blender since May 2014. Basically, I have been spending ½-1 hr every day watching Blender tutorials and surfing in Blenderartists forum. I have also modeled most of those simple objects that I modeled when I started to learn and use Sketchup. I would say that nowadays I am quite comfortable in using Blender. Please note that I am just hobbyist when talking about 3D modeling. I don't do any commercial projects.

Below are some Addons/settings that I have found most useful when learning Blender with Sketchup background. I would say that Pie Menus and possibility to select with Left Click have been the most important functionalities for me when trying to learn Blender. Also, Blenderartists.org Forum is as amazing as Sketchucation forum in helping people. Anyway, there are still some major shortcomings in Blender. One of the basic things is that Blender is not build to be used for modeling with exact dimensions. This can be done, but it slows you down.

Must have Addons:
rSelection (Left click to select and click empty to deselect all, script not 100% finalized!)
Wazou's RMB Pie Menu

Nice Addons:
Layer Management (similar to Sketchup Layers)
Edge Roundifier (Creating arcs from edges)
Edge fillet
Face inset fillet
Enhanced 3D Cursor (to Place 3D Cursor easily)

User preferences:
Zoom to mouse position
Emulate 3 Button Mouse: On
Continuous Grab: On
Orbit Style: Turntable
Invert Mouse Zoom Direction: On
Rotate Around Selection: On

Blender Theme:
rTheme (Nice looking Blender Theme)

Additional Keyboard Shorcuts:
1 – Select Vertex
2 – Select Edge
3 – Select Face

@unknownuser said:

Downloaded and installed. Won't run, freezes up on my laptop, Windows 7 Professional, 16gigs ram.

Ken

Same thing here when installing to my laptop. I still need to test it with desktop computer.

I see that this is a 4 year old discussion.

Anyway,is this still available somewhere or does anybody know any similar Blender Addons or User Preference settings that would make Blender a little more comfortable for Sketchup user.

This is really interesting discussion here. I am more like a hobbyist in 3d modeling but I still feel that Sketchup has not developed too much over the years. Anyway, I can't really complain because I have always been using the the free version of Sketchup. I would definitely be frustrated if I was a professional and using commercial version.

I have also been experimenting Blender multiple times and it has always been complicated. Anyway, nowadays I am already testing Blender by importing my Sketchup models and trying to find an efficient workflow to bring my models into game engines like Unity3D. For me this is more like learning Blender step by step. Hopefully I can already manage the tool after a couple of years! When experimenting modeling in Blender I have really been missing:

• Tape measure tool for drawing construction lines in order to model efficiently with dimensions
• Proper pen/line tool
• Object snapping like in Sketchup

By the way, has anybody tried Bonzai 3D recently? They are now in the version 3.x. A couple of years ago people seemed to complain that there was just too many bugs and crashes but I would assume that it has improved since then.

Link to Bonzai3d version history:
http://www.formz.com/products/bonzai3d/versionHistory/b3d_History.html

@cmeed said:

So I have played and played - watched many videos on unreal4 and i have to say it really looks amazing. Unfortunately, sketchup isn't making life easy. exporting a mesh using .fbx and importing into unreal4 is relatively easy but the texture UV are all overlapping.
my understanding of UVs are limited as I've never really used them having been a sketchup user for so long they are not as prominent as they are in other programs - Maya, 3dsMax and blender - and I'm just learning how they are used in game engines.
looking through Unreal Answerhub and UnrealForums there a few sketchupers trying to make it work but the forums answers are - "learn blender" or "learn maya" etc - yeh easy for them
Unreal4.2 is imminent, which is able to import .obj - will the same overlapping uvs happen - probably but I'm hopeful…..

I have similar challenges. I don't know too much about UV mapping, etc. but I would like to bring my sketchup models into game engines. Actually, I have been using Unity because of the free version. I have also been experimenting Blender but it is such a big change that i have not yet put my time there. Lately I have been checking some other ways to do the UV mapping and texturing with different tools like Roadkill, substance designer, substance painter. I think that I am still quite far away from having good results. Anyway, I think that game engines are developing so fast that those could replace render engines in near future if you don't need to have 100% realistics results.

I would be interested to know if there are any people here who are using sketchup models with game engines like Unreal or Unity.