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Direct Sketchup support

arno

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No, because the SKP format is a proprietary format of SketchUp and there is no documentation or library available to be able to read it.
 
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unitedkingdom
flipping the idea, as sketchup allows 3rd party add-ons, can you get model converter x to work inside sketchup, would love to see object placement in scketchup! Simdirector is buggy as hell, i woiuld be nice to work on a project all in SketchUp then just hit save to BGL and textures boom done :)
 

Pyscen

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Hello... to some degree it's possible but MCX would need to be fully rewritten in Ruby script... I don't believe it would be an easy rewrite at all.
 

=rk=

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Model Converter X already uses 3rd party addons; XtoMdl.exe, for example. MCX provides a "graphical user interface," for what are otherwise "command line tools," which is the exact same thing Sketchup does for it's tools. So you would actually want to get the tools to work in Sketchup and leave MCX behind, no need for a GUI to work a GUI, agreed?
 

Pyscen

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Hello...

Yes, agreed... if Rob is referring to the object placement specifically though,... it would be easier if someone could write a ruby script to access to a map,.. but then you run into licensing agreements etc... By which was gone with the latest update of SketchUp...

This was known by Trimble when they bought SketchUp... The agreement upon purchasing SketchUp that Google would continue with access of their maps for 5 years... after that it was up to Trimble to furnish the maps etc...

I'm only assuming that is the reason of the idea in the first place.
 

arno

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I have considered this in the past and technically it seems possible. But for the moment I don't see a big need to work only from SketchUp. SketchUp models often need post-processing for good performance anyway.
 
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Hi guys,

I can think of one thing that would be useful but it would work within Sketchup with a Ruby script (I presume) and not require any changes to MCX.

In spite of my best efforts, while building complex SU models I typically end up with a few textures that are slightly 'out of square' and these create additional unnecessary textures. MCX can create a texture sheet for these additional textures but the ability to edit these textures, say to create LMs directly from the .psd is lost. My solution while working in SU is to do a quick export from SU, then open the .dae in MCX using the wire frame view to find the offending out of square textures. Now I can go back to SU to fix them and confirm my fix in MCX. It would be great if a script could be written that would export the SU model while working in SU and open or refresh the export in MCX. There are other reasons to check things in MCX as I work too.
 

Pyscen

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Hello...

The best thing to do in this case is to use the texture import function, having SketchUp use your psd file for example... I don't have the means to explain better... but it's through the paint bucket icon...

Hopefully... that makes some sense... otherwise, Will explain better upon returning to home computer :) .
 

=rk=

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Hello...

The best thing to do in this case is to use the texture import function, having SketchUp use your psd file for example... I don't have the means to explain better... but it's through the paint bucket icon...
I believe he means to "re-import" the edited texture, but if not, it is my solution. So you have your skewed texture in SU and you already have the correct layered image in PS, save this to your working folder. Now select the edit tab for the texture in SU, but instead of using the export to editor function, select load from file, navigate to your PSD texture and replace.
 

Pyscen

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I believe he means to "re-import" the edited texture, but if not, it is my solution. So you have your skewed texture in SU and you already have the correct layered image in PS, save this to your working folder. Now select the edit tab for the texture in SU, but instead of using the export to editor function, select load from file, navigate to your PSD texture and replace.
Thanks... that's what I was referring to :) .

After doing what rk said... you might have to realign the texture... Also from where this was done you can adjust the size of the texture if need be.
 
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Hi Guys, Just to confirm, I do what Doug and Rick describe. In SU I just keep updating my psd saves as I work.

But here is a little oddity that I discovered: when using .psd directly in SU, if a texture is skewed, when you export and open the model in MCX typically another version of the entire .psd texture will appear in the Material Editor. This can make finding the offending texture area difficult if it's very small. My solution is to temporarily save the .psd as a .tiff without layers (but with alpha if there is one) and reference that. Now when I export to MCX, the Material Editor will show only the offending texture area instead of the full area of the .psd and finding the skewed texture then much easier. Once I've fixed the problem I then go back to the .psd for further work on the SU model.

Another clue to a skewed texture is that if you export the dae using the .psd texture, areas that are skewed will often have very bizarre textures as seen in MCX. But this does not help much if the texture area in question is very small--- as they usually are. I often can't find them in MCX just by looking for odd textures.
 
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