exploding question

[STRAT]

Hi chaps

 

before we bring a sketchup model into max or cinema 4d for rendering, we explode it all completely first, then bring it into autocad for pre-render fiddling about.

 

trouble is, especially with a huge model, the exploding process can take a time. and you need to manually initiate each process of the exploding process (ie, after it's finished exploding the a block of elements, it might need several further explodings to completely separate all the model's elements.)

 

is there anyway i can automate this exploding process so i dont have to manually start it each time? i'd like to leave it going over night for example.

 

thanks.

[pg3d]

I don't have a very good answer for you, but it would seem very possible with some ruby scripting. Maybe check out the ruby forum on the SketchUp site.

[Ernest Burden III]

I've had the same problem going from SU to C4D. But I eventually gave up and try first to just export to 3ds and see what comes into Cinema. Most of the time its usable.

[Thiago de Andrade]

I found out that the time problem I had importing SketchUp models was that all faces came as objects.

Well, I don't know if it will help, but if you group entities and objects in SketchUp and organize them in layers, they will import as blocks, and process of assigning materials and rendering in MAX will be a piece of cake. I don't know if you're intending to modify the imported model though...

[AJLynn]

That's how I do it - layers and groups that make sense. There's a guy in my office who likes to export each layer as an individual file in single object mode, with the entire scene offset from 0,0,0 and a box with the lower corner at 0,0,0 that's included in every export. Then when you import one file at a time, the ocations are all aligned (and you have a reference point) and you can eyedropper each layer's material set into a mat slot as a multi/sub.

 

When I do it it's similar but if there's something that can be instanced to save a lot of file space, I'll do that and make the instances in Max or even as Vray proxies. If your Sketchup model is clean and you've got a consistent import strategy you probably don't need Autocad - or if there's stuff you want to add in Autocad you can use the same reference box and bring it in on another layer.

[aaron-cds]

is there anyway i can automate this exploding process so i dont have to manually start it each time? i'd like to leave it going over night for example.

 

Yes there is a script called bomb. I've tried this and it's extremely slow. One day, out of desperation, I opened the exported dwg file in autocad, selected everything and hit the explode command. I had to hit it a couple of times to explode the groups within groups but I had the process complete in about 2 or 3 minutes. That was for a model that was around 16 mb in sketchup. I think sketchup was just not built for optimization when it comes to exploding. Hope that helps.

 

As for my process, I group things in sketchup so that it makes it easier for me to work on certain areas. I'll have a group of the elevator lobby, a group of the east wall of a tall atrium, a group of the reception desk, etc... I keep each material on a unique layer. When I export, I export faces to a dwg file. In viz, I import the dwg and combine objects by layer, weld and auto-smooth. So far, this is working for me. I've had problems with auto-smooth. Importing 3ds files will smooth the model but I just can't get into the mindset of grouping by layer. There is a ruby script that will explode and group by layer but I don't feel like staring at my monitor for an unbearable amount of time.

 

No offense, but creating seperate files for each layer and importing each file seperately is completely counter-productive. I can't imagine how much longer that must take for complex models.

[STRAT]

thanks for the input fellers

[AJLynn]

No offense, but creating seperate files for each layer and importing each file seperately is completely counter-productive. I can't imagine how much longer that must take for complex models.

 

I didn't say that was the best way. I should clarify - this is a "safe" method. We're a large office where the files often have been worked on by multiple people at different times and with different styles, and different expectations of how long it will take to go from Sketchup to mental ray (we're slowly phasing in Vray) renders - in other words, the makings of a complete fiasco. The more standards that can be implemented, and the more "robust" the file structure, the better.

 

Going layer-by-layer is a process that takes a bit longer but we've found it ends up with the most consistent results, more likely that errors will be caught and easier to deal with them, and when there are design changes the more you've broken things up the better. If you change to a different desk, you kill the old desks and reimport the desks layer. You can keep doing that work in Sketchup instead of changing to Max modeling. And without breaking it up our files can become huge, fast.

 

If you're working alone, or with a small group that has a consistent way of working in Sketchup, and you're a vis firm that will bill more time if there are design changes (instead of an architecture firm where there's nobody to bill for that but yourself) you can use one 3DS file (FBX would be better but there are some issues with the mesh) and use the group-by-textures script, or even the one-huge-mesh method.