I figured it out. It turns out you need to select all components and continue to explode them until you're down to the base texture(explode 3 times). Previously I tried "editing" the component then exploding, that will not work. While the final version on the best setting does look good, I consider this a negative for working with maxwell. You have to save the file first, then explode, then reject changes when you close the file. I find this a bit odd since most other rendering plugins with render components as is.

Still having issues. I have uploaded a Maxwell render and the SU shot. The trees continue to disappear, I've tried various combinations of exploding. Still no luck.

Thanks, that solved part of the problem. I got the jpeg of the site plan to show up, still can't get the trees to work. I'm sure it is a simple enough solution. I did register at the Maxwell forum, unfortunately they won't grant me access to post (bureaucratic red pixels!).

I recently purchased the stand alone Maxwell plugin for SU. I have a simple model with a jpeg of a site plan on the ground and I have constructed buildings on top. I also have inserted some 2d face-me trees. When I render the scene the buildings are fine, but the jpeg on the ground plane and the face-me trees disappear. Am I missing something? The jpeg and the trees show up when rendered in Twilght.
Any help is appreciated.

I have used Global Mapper quite a bit to generate contours for import to SU. The largest I have done was about 2000 acres. You may want to play with the contour interval to speed up SU. I generated a terrain model with 2' contours on 2000 ac. SU ran all night. When It was complete, I had to zoom WAY back (really far). Good Luck, sounds like a cool project.

I would recommend the AMD. I use SU7 Pro on a Phenom Quad core 9850 that I built (asus mobo). It runs great. You can take the cash you save and put it into a good video card. the video card is probably more critical. And of course, you can never have too much RAM.