Sketchup to Cheetah, what will I get?

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Innerdreamrecords

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Sketchup to Cheetah, what will I get?

Hi again,

I've been building some models in SU and I am going to export them soon to try and render in Cheetah. My question is what do I need to export as and what do I need to do to my SU models to prep? Do I need to remove cars, people, trees that are from the SU library? Also, what will I see in Cheetah when I get there?

Thanks in advance!
 
Not Good

Okay,

I did my model in SU free and then imported to the demo of SU pro to save the file as a 3DS file to import into Cheetah demo (I'm not buying any of this unless it works well) and my Cheetah model has sketchy lines all over it. I just want solid forms no line work - what am I doing wrong in this process?

In SU I am using the rectangle tool etc. and pulling shapes.

Thanks.
 
Innerdreamrecords said:
Okay,

I did my model in SU free and then imported to the demo of SU pro to save the file as a 3DS file to import into Cheetah demo (I'm not buying any of this unless it works well) and my Cheetah model has sketchy lines all over it. I just want solid forms no line work - what am I doing wrong in this process?

In SU I am using the rectangle tool etc. and pulling shapes.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

try exporting to fbx from sketchup.

-to
 
luke Bocchinelli said:
I find that the 3ds export works well with the retain texture coords box checked

Regards

Luke
Click to expand...

Luke:

What about all the other option boxes in the export option window for 3DS export?

I have two buildings side by side with windows and mulions. I can get the model into Cheetah but can't edit the planes of glass, mulions, wall surfaces etc. They come in as one unit e.g. both buildings whe I assign a material change to that material.

I turned off all the line work so it's not visable in SU but I'm still getting lines that should not be there.

Thanks.
 
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Okay- here is an image of the fbx file in Cheetah. It looks close to the sketchup model but I can't edit materials for each element, for example if I put a material on the columns it changes the entire building, same for the glass and mulions. Do I have to do something in SU first?


I have SU demo Pro 6 on a Win XP machine and I am using Cheetah on a Macbook/Intel with OSX.

Any detailed help would really be appreciated.

Thanks again.
 

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Frank - that gets the model into Cheetah pretty clean.

In the object browser I have a 135 meshes and some groups. I can find some things but how do you organize before export in SU so that things are labeled to apply material and other changes?

I have only built and rendered in the same app so this is new as far as what I should do.

Is everyone just applying materials in SU then tweaking in Cheetah? I was hoping you could do all the materials in Cheetah but if I can't find the surface I want to add a material to in the list of meshes it will be a terrible process.
 
Hi Innerdreamrecords.
The model you posted is a simple one and could easely be done within Cheetah3d. So I won´t tunneling through two apps where one is enough.
Sorry but 135 meshes is pretty too much to organise well for such a simple thing. So I have to make a cut here.
You can mail me the untextured 3ds or obj or whatever and I will build up the thing in short time if I´m online;-)

With kindest regards
Frank
 
frank beckmann said:
Hi Innerdreamrecords.
The model you posted is a simple one and could easely be done within Cheetah3d. So I won´t tunneling through two apps where one is enough.
Sorry but 135 meshes is pretty too much to organise well for such a simple thing. So I have to make a cut here.
You can mail me the untextured 3ds or obj or whatever and I will build up the thing in short time if I´m online;-)

With kindest regards
Frank
Click to expand...

Thanks for the offer Frank.

I am looking to buy a program(s) to do renderings myself. I mentioned in my first post on these forums that I had 3DS max and C4D demos and in Max I could easily build and render. Cheetah does not have the tool set that Max has so I was looking to build SU and Render in Cheetah like Luke is doing so there must be an easier way than what I'm doing.

I'm going to add materials in SU and do the rest in Cheetah for now and when I can afford it buy Max.

Thanks for everyone's help.
 
Innerdreamrecords said:
I can find some things but how do you organize before export in SU so that things are labeled to apply material and other changes?
Click to expand...

The trick with SU is to group elements by material and to name the group (eg : group all the walls and name the group "Walls"). This will be one mesh in C3D and the mesh will have the material you applied in SU. And of, course you can change that material in C3D if needed.

Innerdreamrecords said:
I have only built and rendered in the same app so this is new as far as what I should do.
Click to expand...
It's always a good idea to search the forums when starting with a new app since a lot of questions have already been answered. A search here with "Sketchup" will bring you a lot of answers, including this one :

http://cheetah3d.de/forum/showthread.php?t=269&highlight=sketchup

Innerdreamrecords said:
Is everyone just applying materials in SU then tweaking in Cheetah? I was hoping you could do all the materials in Cheetah but if I can't find the surface I want to add a material to in the list of meshes it will be a terrible process.
Click to expand...
If you group and name the groups in SU, then it's a very easy process to either put the material in SU or in C3D

The above procedure is valid for both .3DS and .FBX export formats
 
If you're using SU 6 on an intel Mac, there's no FBX export. The FBX exporter library isn't intel native yet. Pretty big oversight, eh, Google?
 
TimD said:
If you're using SU 6 on an intel Mac, there's no FBX export. The FBX exporter library isn't intel native yet. Pretty big oversight, eh, Google?
Click to expand...

Yeup - found that out the hard way.

Francois,

Thanks for your detailed response, I obviously have done "many" searches on the matter here and missed that thread.

Just a suggestion as a potential customer - make the process easy for the end user. I think it's pretty clear a lot of people are using SU and Cheetah together would it be that hard for the developer to put together a sticky post on the migration process?

Thanks again!
 
I use Sketchup a lot for architectural work; for both testing and solving three dimensional design problems with architectural details and for presentation of ideas within a project to clients. As many others do on this forum, I use Cheetah3D as my renderer of choice. I think that the pairing is quite complimentary, and my only complaint would be the lack of a direct .skp importer. Within Sketchup, I group constantly. I make components from repetitive elements and use groups to easily modify elements and keep them from sticking together. I place the geometry on different layers which are organized by material. I try to approximate the color of the material within the layer manager, using the color by layer option as I go along. I export the model as an .fbx and then in Cheetah use the smart folder to link to the .fbx. This way, I can go back and edit the sketchup file as I see problems, re-exporting as necessary. The materials get tweaked in Cheetah, and the lighting and cameras get set at this time. I do a series of small test renders, gradually adding more and more complexities as I go. First renders to figure out views and to see any problems with the model, second to check lighting, additional ones as I add HDRI and/or caustics. When I get everything set, I do final renders which can sometimes last a day or more. Sometimes I do a bit of color correction in Photoshop afterwards, but all in all, the output is fantastic.
I think that the combination of Sketchup for architectural modeling and Cheetah for rendering is tremendous, and would recommend it to anyone who is doing similar things.

Randolph
 

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