Wishing everyone from members to visitors a very Merry Christmas and prosperous new year

Little festive render to up the mood!

Some Rayscaper tests....

I love the Polyhaven integration to just drag drop HDRIs to switch up the lighting.

@L-i-am

Would be nice if AI tackled real world problems rather than disrupting markets that create employment.

SUbD fun with furniture

Rendered in Rayscaper

Having some fun with Rayscaper

The guys over at Lightbeans had added Lightbeans to our ExtensionStore and site.

Lightbeans 3D Texture Library | SketchUcation

3D SketchUp Community for Design and Engineering Professionals.

(sketchucation.com)

I've been using there site for a few months and the textures are high quality. If you are doing ArchViz and need access to high quality render ready building products this is a must have!

Plus it's free! They also drop new materials every week and its all accessible directly in SketchUp.

Check it out if you're interested....

From this separate thread I ended have some play time with texturing...

Modelled using SUbD, UV unwrapped with WrapR and a quick render in Rayscaper

If you missed yesterdays announcement from Epic with their new Fab platform...

(www.fab.com)

Part of this change means the assets currently available at Quixel for free will become paid after December 2024.

To get all 18k assets just login into your account at Quixel then visit the collections area...

Quixel Megascans

Discover a world of unbounded creativity. Explore a massive asset library, and Quixel’s powerful tools, plus free in-depth tutorials and resources.

Quixel Megascans (quixel.com)

Press F12 to open your browsers console and paste in the following js

(await (async (startPage = 0, autoClearConsole = true) => {

  const getCookie = (name) => {
    const value = `; ${document.cookie}`;
    const parts = value.split(`; ${name}=`);
    if (parts.length === 2) return parts.pop().split(';').shift();
  }

  const callCacheApi = async (params = {}) => {
    const defaultParams = {
      page: 0,
      maxValuesPerFacet: 1000,
      hitsPerPage: 1000,
      attributesToRetrieve: ["id", "name"].join(",")
    }
    const response = await fetch("https://proxy-algolia-prod.quixel.com/algolia/cache", {
      "headers": {
        "x-api-key": "2Zg8!d2WAHIUW?pCO28cVjfOt9seOWPx@2j"
      },
      "body": JSON.stringify({
        url: "https://6UJ1I5A072-2.algolianet.com/1/indexes/assets/query?x-algolia-application-id=6UJ1I5A072&x-algolia-api-key=e93907f4f65fb1d9f813957bdc344892",
        params: new URLSearchParams({ ...defaultParams, ...params }).toString()
      }),
      "method": "POST",
    })
    return await response.json()
  }

  const callAcl = async ({ id, name }) => {
    console.log(`  --> Adding Item ${id} | ${name}...`)

    const response = await fetch("https://quixel.com/v1/acl", {
      "headers": {
        "authorization": "Bearer " + authToken,
        "content-type": "application/json;charset=UTF-8",
      },
      "body": JSON.stringify({ assetID: id }),
      "method": "POST",
    });
    const json = await response.json()
    if (json?.isError) {
      console.error(`  --> **UNABLE TO ADD ITEM** Item ${id} | ${name} (${json?.msg})`)
    } else {
      console.log(`  --> ADDED ITEM Item ${id} | ${name}`)
    }
  }

  // 1. Check token exist, quixel API needs it
  console.log("-> Checking Auth API Token...")
  let authToken = ""
  try {
    const authCookie = getCookie("auth") ?? "{}"
    authToken = JSON.parse(decodeURIComponent(authCookie))?.token
    if (!authToken) {
      return console.error("-> Error: cannot find authentication token. Please login again.")
    }
  } catch (_) {
    return console.error("-> Error: cannot find authentication token. Please login again.")
  }

  // 2. Get total count of items
  console.log("-> Getting Total Number of Pages....")
  const { nbPages: totalPages, hitsPerPage: itemsPerPage, nbHits: totalItems } = await callCacheApi()

  console.log(`-> Total Items to add: ${totalItems} | ${totalPages} total pages with ${itemsPerPage} per page`)
  if (!confirm(`Click OK to start adding ${totalItems} items in your account.`)) return

  // Loop
  for (let pageIdx = startPage || 0; pageIdx < totalPages; pageIdx++) {
    console.log("-> ======================= PAGE " + pageIdx + " START =======================")

    console.log("-> Getting Items from page " + pageIdx + " ...")

    const { hits: items } = await callCacheApi({ page: pageIdx })
    const aclPromises = items.map(callAcl)

    await Promise.all(aclPromises)
    console.log("-> ======================= PAGE " + pageIdx + " COMPLETED =======================")
    if (autoClearConsole) console.clear() // Fix the issue that too much log hangs the console. Set autoClearConsole = false to keep the logs

  }
})())

Hit enter and it will begin adding the assets to your account. It can take a few mins and can run into to snags. But for help on that please visit this Github...

A script to automatically add ALL items to your account in quixel

A script to automatically add ALL items to your account in quixel - README.md

Gist (gist.github.com)

As you can see all assets were assigned to my account which saves you a ton of time!

Further Information and usage instructions on Axyz is available here

Requirements

• LibFredo6: v14.5 or above Download Libfredo
• Sketchucation Tools v4.4.1 or above Download Sketchucation Tools
• SketchUp 2017 and above
• Platform: Windows and Mac OSX
• Licensed under Sketchucation SCFLicense (Free)

Overview

Perform transformation on selected objects with a Widget: Translation, Rotation, Scaling, Mirror

• Manipulates Guides, Edges, Faces, Images, Groups and Components
• Position Widget in the model by a simple Click or inferencing
• Transformation (translation, rotation, scaling, mirror) by Click-Drag on a widget handles
• Post-transformation adjustments via VCB and modifiers (copy and multiples, distance, angle, scale factors)

Documentation

Help is integrated in the extension, as a Quick Card.

Link to YouTube Playlist

Keybindings

TAB to cycle transformations
ALT to cycle global, local or current context axes
SHIFT to cycle individual centers
CTRL to cycle copy mode
ARROW to cycle nudge mode

Have fun!

Release Notes

1.1a - Fixed the issue of Divide (ex: 3/) for Rotation

Fun little idea I saw for a fold out step for kiddos to be able to reach the sink

@pilou I prefer to see Majid's natural talent for hand painted and sketched output than some AI generated stuff.

Fun with Animator and metallic materials...
https://youtu.be/Bd5_8KreTfM

Oof....blockout done but my head hurts trying to keep it clean quads.

Quick attempt

@Mike-Amos The current vibe is a skeleton which we will improve over time.

There's many aspects that I am not a fan of either. But the previous was too old and had many security issues we needed to constantly patch. This is huge improvement over that.

Once we get a handle on the current quirks we are seeing then we can start polishing.

Sketchucation Tools 4.4.1 is available
Download

Release Notes:

• Web dialog improvements
• Progress and notification changes
• Path handling
• Licensing improvements
• Plugin/Extension Manager bugfixes

Most notable changes revolve around UI:

• Progress spinners for downloads
• Less dialog alerts
• New paths functionality
  

If you are running Additional Folders to manage your extension install location/s. You can now either automatically control the install path or prompt for install paths.

Here's your very own cushion @L-i-am

liam-cushion.skp

@L-i-am AntonS CopyAlongCurve