Importing Sketchup Model into Max

[acjwalker]

Got a guy come in with a sketch up model whic he wants importing into Max.

 

We have tried exporting it as an fbx and obj, but keeps crashing.

 

It is a very large model, not massive amounts of detail but is very large, a small town.

 

 

The only Think I can think of doing is exporting parts out seperatley, houses, landscaping, cars and surrounding area then merge into one max file.

 

any help?

[thierrybauwens@inpix.be]

you should export to *.3ds, it works fine to me. Maybe export only selected items and repaet the operation with the different parts of the scene if you want smaller files

[BillyElNino]

Take out the usual culprits like people, cars and especially any trees. These are always better done through Max anyway. A general clean up of the model (in SketchUp) is good, just try and figure out where you are using up all the polys. I presume the intention is to render in Max so you only need the basic mesh, everything else can be canned and purge the file afterwards pre export.

 

Its all dependent on the amount of detail, but you should not have a problem with a basic town model, just depends if every tile, door handle is modeled!

 

We always use .3DS...

[acjwalker]

cool guys will give it a try tomorrow. Hopefully will work. nightmare files, max files at 500mb!

[Tommy Burns]

Best of luck with that one!!! I have been in the same position numerous times and each of them I would say I would have been better off remodelling the whole thing. The problem isn't sketch up it's usually the person that created it. Sketchup is so easy to learn that people think that they are expert modelers in a couple of days. What they don't realize is that sketchup allows you to patch up a lot of things with say a line, mesh but this doesn't translate well into max. If it was modeled with a bit of thought (accuracy) I'd say it'll be alright, but it my experience it will be all over the place. As soon as you add some glass or reflections thats when the fun starts. Let us know how you get on and fingers crossed

 

Tommy

[creasia]

Export the majority of the scene as an AutoCad dwg. for cars etc. export individually as fbx or obj. On the ruby library depot there is a plugin to convert materials to layers and then move the geometry to the layers. Then once in AutoCad assign materials by layers. The plugin is a little bit tricky though and doesn't always work.

 

or ----------

 

If you have an Max Autodesk Subscription download the latest plugin, go to the import menu and select .skp for the import file type. I dont have a subscription

Edited August 14, 2009 by creasia