Posted this over at my home forum (Delphi Bryce Forum), thought I should show youse guys too....
Most renders done in B7-Beta using the "Use sky as HDRI' setting...

Thought I would share a bit of what I've been up to for a while: Been using the DAZ Studio Beta to convert Google's SketchUp Warehouse models into OBJ files to use in Bryce.

Not all of the models could be converted (only about 1 in 5 or so..) and many of those were either poorly made or poorly textured, and thus un-usable.

But, even with that, there are some really neat models there which I could bring over to Bryce and render. Many of the world's most famous buildings have been made into 3d. and the best thing is that they are free! There are a few problems to be dealt with, but I'll mention those later.

If you are interested in the process:

1.) Download from SketchUp Warehouse the model you are interested in: choose either the zipped Collada file (.dae), or the Google Earth (.kmz) file. In my run-through any of the actual 'SketchUp' (.skp) files are useless, as you need SketchUp Pro (ie. money!) to convert them.
1a.) If you choose the Google Earth (.kmz) file, rename the file extension to .zip*.... (KMZ is a form of zip, and you should be able to open it with no problem once the extension is changed.)
2.) Open the zip file as you normally would.
3.) Using the latest D/S beta (not sure if the latest regular version can handle it, so I used the beta, which definitely does...) import the .dae file from the opened zip file.
4.) If all is well and good, you should see the model. If you don't, follow these steps:
4a.) On the list of the scene content (usually in the left-hand tab column), find and select the item called "Model".
4b.) On the list to the right-hand side of the screen, look under the "Surfaces" tab for the "Shaders" drop-down. Click on that, then click on the first listed 'mesh'. Then when you are exited from there, click on the "Shaders" drop-down again, scroll down to the last listed mesh, and shift-click on that mesh name. This will highlight all of the included meshes for the next step.
4c.) Just below the "Shaders" box, will be a slider for "Opacity". Slide that all the way to the right (100%) to have the model become visible.

Once it's visible, it is ready for export for Bryce. Choose the File_Export option from the menu, and In the OBJ Export box, make sure that the Convert Maps (for Bryce) is checked. Name your model, and you're good to go.

Now for the caveats:

While most of the models are low-poly, and don't take a lot of memory, there are a few that are HUGE! (Pity, because some look beautiful There is a reproduction of the Baths of Caracalla which is superb in it's preview, but I couldn't convert it.). Some of the models should only be used as background filler, as the lack of close-up detail may be noticeable.

To make up for the lack of modeled detail, the system relies heavily on photographic detail on the texturing. As a result, there are sometimes baked-in shadows, and things like people and cars that are captured when the person took the photo of the building. Again, you may have to choose which side of the building to render.

SketchUp/Google Earth for some reason uses white as it's transparency color, so some items (for example, a propeller blade) which is modeled as a simple square with a picture attached) will render out the whole image; prop blades on a white square. You may have to do a bit of trans-map work.

Lastly, because of the system, most of the model makers call their model "Model.dae" and all of their textures something like "Image1.jpg" and Image2.jpg".... Thus, trying to use more than one of the models in a scene becomes a nightmare, with cross-references getting all messy.

But, if you can maneuver around these pitfalls, there are some gems to use. I have gotten about 100 building models converted to a fairly acceptable stage. Some will need tweaking, but most render quite well as middle to long distance elements.

(Renders posted in the following messages:)

And the reason I started rummaging around in SketchUp Warehouse:  Bryce 7 beta 'lists' the Collada .dae file format in the import menu... not yet working, but once it is, you won't have to do the DAZ Studio conversion run-around.

 Thanks Rosemary...been waitng for an app I have to get onstream with the .dae format...Max uses it as does Maya and Vue can also deal with them...good to hear Bryce is due soon.....nice work figuring out the work around as well.. ....

Thank you for the mini tutorial!

I appreciate your going to all this trouble for the community - as I'm sure others will!
Thank you again.

This would be a nece addition to Bryce.
Thanks for the tips.

Always glad to contribute; even my little tid-bits may help someone.  

Thanks for the info!  I'm going to try this! 

Over at the DAZ forum, I'm told that Blender can import .dae files, and export .obj....
Don't have that (...tried it, didn't work comfortably for me, so I dropped it...) so try Blender, too.

In any case, this is a pointer to some good and useful free models.
 

Blender's supposed to go through a major rewrite, I think at 2.5...
I'll have to see if Wings or Hex can do it...

Thanks Rosaemaryr for the tips we always appreciate learning new things and the pics are great as well.

Outstanding contribution!

looks like wings can do collada...but only export it (grrrr....;)

 as a head's up re" .dae...trueSpace, the 3D app MSnot® bought and killed development on is available for free and handles ..dae as well I believe. As long as you are only using it as a format converter it should be fairly easy to use, but it's interface confuses me more than Bryce did at the start.. ...

Another route that has developed, is picking up the free version of SketchUp v.7, and the plugin from this Japanese site:
---------------------(quoting from a poster at DAZ)-----------
"The Ruby Export script I used for this came from here. The site is in Japanese but just download the su2objmtl2.zip file. There is a lot in there but the file named su2objmtl.rb is the only one you need. Go to where you installed Sketchup and place it inside "..GoogleGoogle SketchUp 7Tools" and you should be good to go. When you run Sketchup it will appear in the plugins menu.  

This will give you access not only to those models which are only available in .skp format, but also the .dae models which don't work right under D/Studio (usually because the sub-objects are in .skp form....)