Hi all,

I model in SketchUp 5, export as .obj and render in Vue 5. I've been using this work flow for  a couple of years now.  However, I can't work out why my smoothed meshes (smoothed in SU 5) aren't smoothed in Vue 5. This would be less frustrating if it had never worked, but it used to work perfectly. I haven't changed any settings that I'm aware of, so I'm baffled.  The people at @last (SU 5's developers) deny that they've changed anything during updates so could it be caused by a new build of Vue 5, or am I just doing something dumb? I've pored over my user manual, Googled and searched e-on's Knowledge Base, but can't find anything on the subject- I'm really desparate to find a solution to this.

Thanks in advance,

Jackson

 

If right-click on object in Vue 5 list > Edit Object > and setting smoothing angle doesn't work, i would submit a support ticket at e-on's web site. Works fine for me, with .obj files from Silo 3D and Vue 5 Infinite.

Jim's right again, try '60 degrees'.  the smoothing angle is defaulted to this for me for some reason and I hate it because VUE smooths my models, and I don't want that.

I know you probably know this already J.B., but for reference of others: smoothing angle is the angle measured between the normals of two adjacent faces.  A normal is a line drawn perpendicular to a face.  (Hope that clarifies)

here's my post about this very thing on Sketchup's forum Jackson:

http://forum.sketchup.com/showthread.php?t=70785

Yeah, 60 degrees is the default. I usually go through the groups (parts) of my imported models and set each smoothing angle individually, depending on what look i want. Found that old prop style Poser hair often looks better with no smoothing - shows more detail. 

Smoothing is useful because it means you can make models with fewer polygons and still get smoth surfaces. If Vue gets Displacement mapping some day, that will be even better.

Thanks guys,

 

I've tried every setting for smoothing angle, from 0 to 90 degs and nothing works. I've tried welding and splitting objects in Vue 5, grouping and ungrouping them in SU5, smoothing inside groups, smoothing outside groups. I'm simply baffled why this used to work effortlessly and now it totally evades me. I guess I'll have to try e-on's support.

 

Thanks again,

Jackson

well, J, you gotta say what you've already tried when you post these q's, or we just type in useless info for you.  are you in Vue 5 Infinite or Esprit?  I'm assuming Infinite.

I'm in regular old Vue 5 (fully updated). I'm stumped whether this is an SU export or Vue 5 import issue- I'm suspecting Vue.

 

Thanks again,

Jackson

 

Intel Core Duo T2400 1.83GHz, 1.5Gb RAM, NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400

I think you mentioned, M. dangeroux, that you were smoothing the mesh inside of SU?
I'm sure you've tried it both ways, but I read somewhere that smoothing it inside of SU is no good.

What are you bringing into VUE?  a .3ds or a .obj?

Jackson, Did you try increasing your number of segments in your arc or circle when you draw it in SU?  You have to select the arc (it defaults to 12 segmts) and change the segment number to 50 or higher (I did 100- very smooth, very high memory/long render time)  Here's a test I tried w/ a curb I drew in SU and used the 'follow me' around a curve w/ 100 segments.  I might try 50 segments next time... it takes a lot of memory w/ that many segments.  In VUE I set my auto smoothing to 35 I think... but unnesessarily probably.

Yep, I smooth curves in SU and until a few months ago it carried through into Vue. If I unsmooth curves in SU, then import into Vue it doesn't make any difference. I used to to export/import in 3DS format (which didn't support smoothed meshes in Vue) until someone pointed out that obj did, so I switched and Bingo!- there was no messing around with settings- I just exported my SU models as they were (smoothed curves for viewing in SU) as obj's and they came in smoothed in Vue. It's so weird.

 

Unfortunately, using more segments isn't really an option as many of my and my client's  models have been in constant development for months and would take almost as long to remodel them with more facets.... and as you say, they really bog down a system.

 

As you can see from this very curvaceous interior :) , Vue used to import my smoothed SU objs with no problem, regardess of number of segments.

 

Thanks again for all your help (assuming you are who I think you are- have you seen my PM on the SU forum?),

Jackson

I haven't tried the .obj thing,

does it split the materials just as easily as the .3ds option?

 

Fletch.

yes I saw it... I think... had several pm's lately so, you know...

resend it if I didn't respond and you needed something.  I'm there every day!

Fuzzy,

ASFAIK, the only practical difference between 3DS and OBJ is that OBJ doesn't keep it's scale from SU, which is annoying. Other than that, it keeps materials and groups just the same as 3DS.

 

However, now I'm really confused. I used to export as 3DS as it was what I was used to, but it didn't support smoothing in Vue and this was confirmed by other SU/Vue users. On someone's advice I switched to OBJ and voila- smoothing worked perfectly, albeit at the expense of weird scaled imports. But you say you export/import 3DS files and they ARE smoothed in Vue- WTF?

 

It MUST be an import setting in Vue, but I swear I've been through every menu, setting, option and preference and I'm stumped. I guess the fact that almost no-else is replying to this thread suggest that this isn't a common problem, but I've even done 2 fresh reinstalls of Vue 5 and SU5 in the last couple of months so I know the presets are clean.

 

Regards,

Jackson

 

p.s. I actually missed your email- it got caught in my junk filter for a couple of days. Have read and replied now.

I think most of the friendly folks here have not caught on to Google Sketchup Free yet.
Have you seen Google Sketchup's intro videos?  They are umm.... extremely elementary.  If anyone reading this is thinking of checking out the free Google Sketchup (and I highly recommend they do, they don't know what they're missing) watch the video tutorials found here:
http://www.sketchup.com/?sid=35

there are hundreds of dollars(USD) worth of free tutorials and in as little as 20 mins-or up to 2 hours you will be FLYING in 3D.

http://download.sketchup.com/downloads/training/tutorials50/Sketchup%20Video%20Tutorials.html

okay, here's my test...in case anyone cares