Thanks for all the replies.  

My other hobby is model railroading so apologize if use “railroad loco lingo.”  ; )

Correctly pointed out though.  GP40X (I think) would’ve time traveled from late 70s into the 50s.  RSD-15 was around in 1956?  “Low nose” because I prefer a windscreen. Probably not going to find a 3D model of one tho.

So... Quantum leap from England.  Cab detailing in Class 37 by Dryjack a winner!  I doubt anyone but rail buffs (or railroad employees) would spot the difference.

Other option would be 3D Classic’s “Superchief” bundle.  Anyone own it and can comment about cab detail?

Railroad Depot and train is a long term project.  Sort of a guided tour of train and engine followed by scenic trip through California. (Both my model train layout and imaginary DAZ town is loosely based on San Louis Obispo “SLO” in California.) Anyway, since this will be quite a few renders, will need to be very careful in selecting props with attention to detail.

I didn't really type ...

According to Mrs. Penobscott (Pre-K teacher through 1st Grade) -- the accepted term in American English in is “Choo-Choo Train.” Railway and Railroad are considered extra credit.

====
Attempt at humor aside, tow truck is going to be a learning curve which is good.  I enjoy 3D as a hobby because I learn something in DS or Hexagon most every time I use them.

So thanks for sharing example.  That’s pretty much what was looking for.  Not sure if could kit bash cab interior from similar truck (DAZ 1948 Ford?) or just avoid interior with camera angle.  A cop-out. ; )

Don’t have Sketchup 2017.  Still consider myself new to the hobby from 2017.

If understand correctly, export directly from Sketchup 2022 as .obj or other supported file type.  For textures and logos, Ultimate Unwrap 3D might be *very* useful to unfold the UV maps?  I’d have to learn of course, but a “mesh” view of unfolded UV maps and export to photoshop would be *very* handy.  I have to make do with the ones that come with product and a template that's a grid.   It's hit or miss sometimes. 

All in all some very useful nuggets of info.  Two terrific PAs I didn't know about, and some apps to explore for better kit bashing & tow truck.
Thanks again & enjoy weekend.       
 

This is the model I linked to above just converted to a OBJ (using Ultimate Unwrap 3D, which can convert SketchUp format)...

I used a couple of IRay materials, but basically that's it... there is no interior and there is some weirdness on the wrecker bed skirt by the wheel opening, but that could be fixed in hexagon or blender.

The best I can suggest is if you have any experience with SketchUp, you could convert some models from 3D Warehouse... there are a few vehicles that you use to kitbash something appropriate... there is actually a decent wrecker boom of close enough vintage that it could be usable... but it's not rigged or anything... which of course would be an issue anyway for any OBJ or model not in DAZ/Poser format.

If you are interested, I could offer suggestions on how to accomplish this, but unfortunately you'd need an older copy of SketchUp Free (SU 2017) to do this... the new version is online only and can not use any of the plug-ins required to do this.

Here's an interesting find...

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model/87342b2f669c6bb1c8760fa3f1cd98d4/1949-Chevy-Wrecker

It part of this collection...

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/user/1679100973116074420359482/Coyote56

Cybersox said:

Taoz said:

One of their staff said back in 2016 that they had reached 3 million registered users.

But that's a highly deceptive number as someone has to register simply to use the free software download, even if they end up only using it for a short time or... as a number of the people I've recommended it to have reported, gotten so frustrated with the incredibly poor documentation that they just give up.  Also, consider that in 2012 Google SketchUp was reporting registrations of 30 million users annually, and yet Google ultimately deemed SketchUp not profitible enough to keep up themselves and sold it off to Trimble. 

I think a better way to look at it is how big the market is for DAZ products, and it's been documented several times (including by reliable sources like Richard Haseltine) that that many vendors consider selling a hundred units of an item to be a sucessful product. 

 

30 million SketchUp users probably mostly reflects the number of users of the free version.

A huge portion of those free users were engaged in a project Google was using for Google Earth maps...

From what I understand, the biggest reason why Google purchased SketchUp was to allow users to create simple geolocated 3D models of actual structures for Google Earth... they gave away a free version to encourage users to create models to populate the 3D cities for the 3D maps.

Basically they were doing the work of 3D mapping cities for Google for free, and Google allowed people to use SketchUp Free for non commercial use to encourage more users to join the effort.

SketchUp Professional helped pay the basic bills allowing the project to continue.

Its why SketchUp Free had only KMZ, SKP and DAE as export formats... .kmz is a form of .xlm that's good at expressing geographic information for internet based maps... users of the free version could make simple models of real world structures, and submit the models for inclusion in Google Earth maps... SketchUp was chosen for this endeavor because of its simplicity to learn and use and because it had a very easy way of projecting photo based images onto surfaces, which allowed people to take low resolution pictures of buildings and texture the simple models in one click of the paint bucket (honestly, it's usually slightly more involved, but it can often be that simple)... 
Google was continually criticized for not doing much to improve the software or fix simple bugs and over the years users made hundreds of (mostly) free plug-ins that added tools and functionality that Google didn't cost them anything to develop... this preexisting, mostly free library of tools and plugins made SketchUp a valuable asset that cost Google very little overhead to gain, so by the time they were done with it, it had acquired a large worldwide user base of professional architects and engineers... it served its purpose at very little cost to Google, the users who purchased the Professional version probably covered most of the cost of software upkeep/ maintenance and website maintenance, with some level of profit... but overall it was meant more as a tool for Google, than a product to sell... and ultimately they sold it for a decent sum (probably around 90 million dollars... they paid around 45 million to purchase it from @Last Software in 2006)

Unless I was misinformed, their original purchase of SketchUp had less to do with selling a product than using that product to help them achieve a goal... which again, unless I'm mistaken, was why they eventually sold SketchUp to Trimble when better tools became available to allow them to achieve their goal quicker and more effectively... 

I'm not trying to correct anyone, but it was actually an interesting business model or way to approach a project... sadly though, considering how many talented people contributed to enhancing the value of SketchUp, it would have been nice if Google had done something different with the software as Trimble has a completely different business model and its now subscription only and the free version is online only and extremely limited with no plugins.

Taoz said:

 

Also, consider that in 2012 Google SketchUp was reporting registrations of 30 million users annually, and yet Google ultimately deemed SketchUp not profitible enough to keep up themselves and sold it off to Trimble. 

Also a different type of content, hardly any sexy stuff.  If you google sketchup images practically everything is architecture.  Try google daz3d and see what you get...

SketchUp wasn't mentioned as a direct comparison to DAZ's product mix, but as a relative example of how having a large number of registered users can have little relationship to how viable a product site may actually be.    

Cybersox said:

Taoz said:

One of their staff said back in 2016 that they had reached 3 million registered users.

But that's a highly deceptive number as someone has to register simply to use the free software download, even if they end up only using it for a short time or... as a number of the people I've recommended it to have reported, gotten so frustrated with the incredibly poor documentation that they just give up. 

Sure, but it gives you an idea of the general interest I think.

Also, consider that in 2012 Google SketchUp was reporting registrations of 30 million users annually, and yet Google ultimately deemed SketchUp not profitible enough to keep up themselves and sold it off to Trimble. 

Also a different type of content, hardly any sexy stuff.  If you google sketchup images practically everything is architecture.  Try google daz3d and see what you get...

I think a better way to look at it is how big the market is for DAZ products, and it's been documented several times (including by reliable sources like Richard Haseltine) that that many vendors consider selling a hundred units of an item to be a sucessful product.

I've heard that too, but isn't that just for the first couple of months?  Back catalogs are the key for earning a decent living I've heard.  Don Albert revealed his monthly income a while ago and I was pretty surprised by the numbers ($700+ /month AFAIR) considering 98% of his stuff is pretty old (SKU < 20.000).

Taoz said:

One of their staff said back in 2016 that they had reached 3 million registered users.

But that's a highly deceptive number as someone has to register simply to use the free software download, even if they end up only using it for a short time or... as a number of the people I've recommended it to have reported, gotten so frustrated with the incredibly poor documentation that they just give up.  Also, consider that in 2012 Google SketchUp was reporting registrations of 30 million users annually, and yet Google ultimately deemed SketchUp not profitible enough to keep up themselves and sold it off to Trimble. 

I think a better way to look at it is how big the market is for DAZ products, and it's been documented several times (including by reliable sources like Richard Haseltine) that that many vendors consider selling a hundred units of an item to be a sucessful product. 

Now that's a nice tie in!  I exported it from Sketchup as a 3ds, then pulled it into Poseray, did a vertice weld and normal recalulate and then exported as ,obj.. that was a good starting model..

..now that's a rare one. .Nice find and good work getting it in "Daz" rednering shape (I've heard numerous tales of getting Sketchup Warehouse models fixed & cleaned up)  

I remember seeing it mentioned in a couple of the car magazines of the day.

Made by the company who' we in Wisconsin affectionately referred to as "Kenosha Cadillac" . I used to work at their parts distribution warehouse in Milwaukee in the 70s.

Lukon100 - clever! and nicely done!

Here's a 1970 AMC AMX/3  - sadly the deal to make these fell through.. model is a Sketchup model  - tok a lot of work to get it to be really useable.

Charlie Judge said:

McGyver said:

I'd suggest looking at 3D Warehouse, but now you'd need to have an old copy of SketchUp (2017) and the free plug-in Open Newer by Eneroth to open the models and export as a .DAE... Trimble who now owns SketchUp decided to kill off the free version of SketchUp (SketchUp is $$$$ subscription only now) a while back and now they have eliminated the .DAE format from the downloadable formats at 3D Warehouse.

That having been said, if it's something you can do, have an older version of SU and are interested, here is the plug-in that allows you to open newer SketchUp models in older software versions...

 https://extensions.sketchup.com/extension/39811dd4-8f44-4aed-bd20-c83f196c55b1/eneroth-open-newer-version

Thank you so much for the link to that plugin. I use the free SkethUp 2017 but never knew there was a way to pen newer models in it. 

I think this is the first time in fourteen years of posting SketchUp related information that I've actually ever helped anyone.

I'm extremely happy to have helped!

McGyver said:

I'd suggest looking at 3D Warehouse, but now you'd need to have an old copy of SketchUp (2017) and the free plug-in Open Newer by Eneroth to open the models and export as a .DAE... Trimble who now owns SketchUp decided to kill off the free version of SketchUp (SketchUp is $$$$ subscription only now) a while back and now they have eliminated the .DAE format from the downloadable formats at 3D Warehouse.

That having been said, if it's something you can do, have an older version of SU and are interested, here is the plug-in that allows you to open newer SketchUp models in older software versions...

 https://extensions.sketchup.com/extension/39811dd4-8f44-4aed-bd20-c83f196c55b1/eneroth-open-newer-version

Thank you so much for the link to that plugin. I use the free SkethUp 2017 but never knew there was a way to pen newer models in it. 

over at the 3d Warehouse.. theres this - 1949 Chevy, among others

I use Pcon planner to convert Sketchup files which I downloaded years before current world events, make sure you have a good antivirus as its  Russian

I'd suggest looking at 3D Warehouse, but now you'd need to have an old copy of SketchUp (2017) and the free plug-in Open Newer by Eneroth to open the models and export as a .DAE... Trimble who now owns SketchUp decided to kill off the free version of SketchUp (SketchUp is $$$$ subscription only now) a while back and now they have eliminated the .DAE format from the downloadable formats at 3D Warehouse.

That having been said, if it's something you can do, have an older version of SU and are interested, here is the plug-in that allows you to open newer SketchUp models in older software versions...

 https://extensions.sketchup.com/extension/39811dd4-8f44-4aed-bd20-c83f196c55b1/eneroth-open-newer-version

There is a pretty decent lowish resolution GMC Topkick flatbed here...

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model/dbbb05c9aa36beb7a7b64b68b09f01e3/gmc-topkick-tow-truck

Flatbeds are the most common type of tow truck nowadays because most modern cars don't do well with being towed the traditional method...

My guess why nobody bothers to make a DAZ/Poser tow truck is that rigging an old fashioned boom type or more modern Lift Jack/Yoke would be a pain in the butt with lots of moving parts that need to adjust for different types or sizes of cars... especially the old school boom type which have cables... then again accuracy isn't always a priority, but still it's complicated.

Richard Haseltine said:

Yes, content you make yourself is yours to do with as you wish, including sell. Obviously if you use an existing model of any kind as a starting point then the license for that determines what you can do with it, passing through Hexagon does not add or remove restrictions.

Fantastic! That's just what I wanted to know. Yes, obviously if I use a third person model as starting point, the model will have a kind of license, which is not going to change if I pass it through Hexagon, Blender, Wings3D or whatever software. I only wanted to know if Hexagon may be used for commercial use, because there are other free 3D software (like SketchUp Free, Rocket 3F or Clara.io), which, even being free, are intended for non-commmercial use. And there's no info about Hexagon about that.

So, thanks for the reply! :)

There  is one that;s free in the sketchup 3dwarehouse.. its exterior only, though..

FirstBastion said:

Thanks for the suggestions.

There are also free models at 3DWarehouse and dmi-3d.

There's an Afghan Hound at 3D Warehouse.

..usually sketchup models require a fiar bit of "fixing" in a modelling programme to work correctly. 

There are also a couple free ones.but the one at CG trader is probably the most accurate of the lot...and it is already set up for Daz (.duf) and has Daz materials so no need to mess around with conversions and/or reskinning.

Here are a couple of the free ones  that are in .obj format that will import into Daz.

https://downloadfree3d.com/3d-models/vehicles/car/1960-batmobile/  ;

https://www.cadnav.com/3d-models/model-44955.html