Normals.

[Dave Buchhofer]

Has there been any sort of break through in how we handle normals and fsck'd meshes?

 

I ask because I was just handed yet another sketchup model that is more or less screwed because of almost random normal directions? Overall the geometry isn't too terribad, corners meet, doesn't appear to be many if any double faces.

 

but.. I could rebuild the entire thing in half the time it would take to clean the normals.

 

I was just curious as to whether anyone else had come across some magic solution that doesn't suck with regards to dealing with other peoples skethcup models?

[Chad Warner]

I had really good luck exporting to an fbx format out of sketchup. There were only a hand full of normals that needed to be flipped.

[alias_marks]

Turning off Backface Cull in max seems to work pretty well for the sketchup models I use, except for the glass...I almost always have to rebuilt the any objects with transparency.

[gfa2]

Turning off Backface Cull in max seems to work pretty well for the sketchup models I use, except for the glass...I almost always have to rebuilt the any objects with transparency.

 

I've had some success with this too. I still cringe when I'm given someone else's Sketchup file.

[Dave Buchhofer]

Well, the fbx importer that came with max08 had nearly exact results to the import via 3ds. exporting from sketchup to dwg, into autocad, then out as dxf seemed slightly better.

 

Downloaded the newest FBX importer, and i must say the interface for it is a bit of a clusterfuck.. it appeared to do slightly better with the normals, but didn't keep any of the material or layer relations.

 

may throw a little time into this, as its getting to be more annoying weekly

 

Its mostly a user issue with who/how they use sketchup (Read: extruding entire floorplans worth of walls for an institutional/hospital type job when you're only looking to actually use the exterior in a rendering.)

Edited June 11, 2008 by Dave Buchhofer