thanks Mark.  if you have paypal I would consider a donation to help you in your time allocations ;)

can I edit Python in Notepad, or need a python script editing program of some sort?
I'm thinking I'm just crazy enough to at least open them and see where the camera info is... and give it a whirl... is it too much for my first-ever script in any language? (except Basic from 9th grade)

Impish.

I posted this comment to your blog, but thought I would also put it here for benefit of others...

This script is a piece of ART in itself... thanks again for your help...(i'm certainly no programmer)

care to top your feat?! I have a huge favor to ask...

by the way,
I use the free render engine "Kerkythea" to render my SketchUP stuff.
check out this amazing FREE program here... it's kinda like maxwell and vray but easier (sure, it's not vray or maxwell, I'm just saying you can get some amazing renders - easy!)
http://suwiki.org/suwiki/index.php?title=Kerkythea
see the image gallery here:
http://www.kerkythea.net/gallery2/main.php

it reads .xml files.
A guy, ToMasz, has created an exporter using Ruby from SketchUp that exports lights, geometry, pages as cameras, and a sun&sky using the Ruby script language... which I understand is something similar to Python, but I'm no programmer. You can d/l the script here. http://forum.sketchup.com/showthread.php?t=75797&page=4

My question... Please... I want to see if you would be able to analyze his script and create an exporter that will export my camera either from SketchUp, or from Kerkythea (maybe this is easier?) and set up the exact camera inside of Vue5 (and eventually we will get Vue6) so that I can render my building in KT with MLT or BiPT or Progressive Path Tracing, but get my veg at the right angle from VUE!!!! this would be very cool experiment.

the new version coming out very soon of Kerkythea has MLT (and multi-threads... so it's a seriously beautiful thing.

if it's off the VUE default grid plane, it disappears from your camera in the preview window and this is very annoying to put it mildly.

svdl,
when I export a .3ds from Sketchup and bring it into V5i,
I exported a 1000' cube
it came in as 12000 vue units... so... you are correct.  But this then is too big to work with in VUE.  I typically work with large models, on the 1/4 to 1/2 mile or more in size... gets KINDA big if 1 unit = 1 inch.

I have started to try to rescale my objects so that 1 VUE unit = 1 foot.... this seems to be better for VUE to handle... but then I have to scale down most stuff by 1/12 or multiply by .08... for some plants to come in at correct scale, but most plants and people or content comes in at all diff. scales for some reason.

when you explode (split) a .3ds file mesh in VUE, depending on what exactly you exported, you will get what you say, each mesh on its own layer, dependant on your export options from your 3D modelling program.

I don't think there's a way to globally set the plant objects in VUE, that's why I say, assume Vue units as a certain measure, then, when you import a plant, you can type in it's Z dim. so you know how tall it is, then, knowing what it came in for a Z at default, you can know what ratio you had to scale it to get it to be in feet, etc...

I highly suggest a hybrid of Wabe's and My methods for scaling in VUE.  I hadn't thought of Wabe's before, I wonder if you could just have the 8 points of a corner of a box that surrounds each of your objects, but either way you can just delete it later in VUE.

again, though, VUE really isn't ready for Architects yet.  It will turn your 8 hour project into a 2 week project.

you may want to read this thread...

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2667018&page=1

my review of VUE for Architects
http://www.vizdepot.com/forums/showthread.php?p=30696#post30696

my issues with Rendering posted to e-on's website
http://www.e-onsoftware.com/support...p?id=1147626608

Architect/designer/3D guru here, I second Ryan.  Vue is fun if you don't care about precision... unfortunately, architecture IS ALL ABOUT precision.  I've done 3 very large projects in VUE, and am deciding to quit using it until hmmm version 10 comes out or something.

scaling... tip I've figured out this past week... but am still working on... scale your object in VUE by typing in the exact x or y distance you know from your CAD 3D model file you are importing into VUE... so that 1 vue unit = 1 foot.  Then things go smoother.  I was unchecking the 'resize and rescale' box in my options, but found my CAD converted .3ds 3D models came into VUE WAY too big for vue to handle if they were on a large landscape... which my projects seem to be for some reason.

My suggestion is create a new file - a cube 1000' each side, divide it by 100' increments, import it into VUE and see how big VUE makes it when it rescales/resizes... then bring another copy in, and adjust it's scale to be 1000... go from there.  At least this way, if 1 Vue unit is 1 foot to me, I know where and how high my camera is...

forester,
thanks for the tip... I've been wondering though, what advantages/disadvantages does WELD give?  I've tried both ways and don't notice a diff...

mmm... thanks!
I actually build a lot of my architectural stuff in Sketchup.  It's quick to use, and combined with Photoshop I get 80% of my clients covered.  It rare I need an animation... but I do look forward to the day when VUE can actually be a useful part of my work... the concept is great... the execution is lagging waaaayyyyy behind. 

And Phillip Bouyer, the guy that does their animations for their promo videos... well, he's some sort of genius, or majician, and must have 1000s of hours of patience to get the output he gets... I can't touch it.  He needs to create and sell his own tutorial videos because the ones we bought were quite, ummm... well they didn't teach me how to get HIS results... and it's killing me. 

I imported a terrain mesh as a .3ds that I built in Sketchup.

I applied ecosytems to different layers that I had in the mesh.  (I had put certain faces of the mesh on different layers in Sketchup)

Then after I populated the ecosystems, and rotated the camera to get a closer look, all the ecosystems veg. MOVED BY A 1/4 OF A MILE OR SO... so I had to RE-populated each of the 5-6 ecosystems... this happened 5 or 6 times, then I closed VUE and did it in VIZ and Photoshop.

There are some things about V5i I REALLY hate... working with imported objects is it's major weakness.

1:  HOW CAN I SEARCH THIS FORUM ON THIS WEBSITE?  THERE'S NO SEARCH BUTTON OR BOX ANYWHERE THAT I CAN FIND!!!

2: I'm trying to find Linda Daireaux to ask her to build some plants for architects

3: There's a tree builder called something like 'Frog' I saw that may be free or not I forget... look it up in your favorite search engine.

Tirjasdyn
I am an architect and renderer for a living... typicically I have 1-2 days to build a model, texture, render... that's life.

I only attempt to use VUE for animations anymore... for Stills I use VIZ and Photoshop.

no... I haven't read up on it because there's no way we're springing to buy Max when we have 60 licenses or something like that for VIZ2006.  Thanks for the heads-up.

Vue 6 claims to have fixed the 'not rendered in the background' issue, and claims to have improved the rendering.  I am intrigued by painting plants onto my terrains, but am scared it will be unstable with my imported terrain meshes from Sketchup.  for $300 we can try it and see... if they actually got it to work, I would then think about buying more copies.

Yes I would say Vray is becoming THEway.  But for exteriors, Mental Ray is fairly simple to use and it comes bundled with VIZ.  Vray is an independant thing, so that's why they went with Mental Ray compatibility, anyone with Max and Vray also has Mental Ray... so I guess they figured they hit everyone in one shot that way... but I LOVE the VRAY stuff I'm seeing out there.  And I see Mray appears to be no fun to work with for interiors.

Ryan, AMEN, BROTHER!!!!

I was trying to render a 'landscaping' rendering in VUE this past week at work.  I work for a large architecture firm and I had two days.  I wasted 8hrs - AN ENTIRE DAY fighting with vue.  I finally dumped VUE 5 i, and popped it into VIZ, then Pshopped my trees and veg in... I was done in 4 hours. 

Vue doesn't map to imported mesh geometry the same way it maps to terrains or VUE native geometry.  Plain and simple, it's $#$^%#'d up.  I tried applying the exact same settings to a material applied to a terrain versus to a .3ds mesh and they came out COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.  It doesn't know what to think of Object Parametric when looking at an imported object and the scale is just screwed.  THEN whenever I changed cameras or it refreshed my view, it actually moved ALL MY ECOSYSTEMS 800 feet approximately in the southwest direction... but there was no predicting and I gave up fighting.

VUE is a !#$@$#!@ WASTE of a professional's time.  When it works, it's a beautiful thing... but it doesn't work much.  And their RENDER COWS - what a joke!  I can render farm to all 60 machines in my office with VIZ, no prob.  But VUE - if someone logs off of the Render cow, all frames to that machine are LOST WITH NO HOPE OF RECOVERY.  So we didn't bother buying more cows.  VUE6 promises a 'RENDER BULL'... and I think it's aptly named.  if they didn't make it a service that can run in the background, then it's no use to architects.  I'm not running around my firm logging people on and off computers.  Even when it's 'done' rendering the frame it still has to 'post-process' the frame on the original sending machine- that's jacked up.

The 'Cow' doesn't even SHOW UP for use if someone isn't logged on... ridiculous.

VUE is NOT for Still shots, IMHO... I would only use it for animations... but then, as you mentioned, it's so freaking unstable, I'm scared to try and stand on it any more.

I started using Mental Ray in VIZ, AND I HATE VIZ WITH A PASSION... but at least it's fairly stable, eventhough Viz is soooo overly complicated to use.  I would get MAX 8 and the VUE xStream plugin... THAT'S THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS- render to 60 computers at once with MAX and Backburner, but get MENTAL RAY realism.  Unfortunately, they don't have xStream for VUE and VIZ 6 yet... so I'm stuck with one or the other.

here's my Mental Ray/Photoshop rendering:
http://www.vizdepot.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=2082&cat=500&page=1

my review of VUE for Architects
http://www.vizdepot.com/forums/showthread.php?p=30696#post30696

my issues with Rendering posted to e-on's website
http://www.e-onsoftware.com/support...p?id=1147626608