...maybe the Sketchup Vault. A number of models are in ,obj format so they should work in Daz.Studio.

I keep all .objs in a separate folder (simply named, ".objs") as they don't install into Studio directly. Just don't ever move that folder to a different location or you'll get a lot of "Unable to Locate Geometry/Texture" errors when reopening scenes that contain them.

Jaderail said:

Saw that one too.. I'm still at work here. You will have THAT bungalow you wanted. I have Exported to Obj already once. I found some areas I could clean up in Sketch up before export. It will have working windows, doors and the full floor plan and come in two versions one for exterior renders only and a Full for outer and inner shots. I'm slow but steady as I go.

Sounds good.

I don't know the words for the different house styles, but the Renderosity house seems more modern than what I had in mind. Maybe mid-20th century rather than early. It says here there have been revivals up to the present:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Craftsman

I'm glad I gave up quickly, since with my lack of modelling experience and extreme lack of patience, I would have never gotten there. Just curious, do you still think Sketchup is the way to start? I would have guessed Carrara or Hexagon, or maybe some architectural app.

Dream Cutter said:

Smoothing and such will require resurfacing with a different modeler, The problem is that the polys are not distributed evenly with Sketchup and many CAD type modelers, nor grouped for materials etc. There are some tools there do "per-pixel" painting that can make a texture map for this that would make it look fine. like Blacksmith3d and 3DCoat. However re-topo with evenly spaced polys may be a good idea if you want to bring DAZ. Have you seen Pixeologic's (makers of ZBrush) free and super easy "Scupltrix"? its a fun clay like 3d modeler that includes a 3d paint tool that would allow you to make more organic looking props for your scene. Much easier and simpler than Blender.org's super sophisticated modeling, animation and UV tool. You may want to doanload and install that (free too) to provide UV (texture) and advanced modeling capabilities. Ask more questions... they will come up as you explore your options.

OMG! this is what i was hoping to find i knew there was something out there i would be able to mold and sculpt! oh the ideas now! thank you so much im going to have fun with this i hope that i can save it into a .dae file type and add textures to it as well this will give me the tools to sculpt and create as i have needed to

much appreciation and gratitude

Smoothing and such will require resurfacing with a different modeler, The problem is that the polys are not distributed evenly with Sketchup and many CAD type modelers, nor grouped for materials etc. There are some tools there do "per-pixel" painting that can make a texture map for this that would make it look fine. like Blacksmith3d and 3DCoat. However re-topo with evenly spaced polys may be a good idea if you want to bring DAZ. Have you seen Pixeologic's (makers of ZBrush) free and super easy "Scupltrix"? its a fun clay like 3d modeler that includes a 3d paint tool that would allow you to make more organic looking props for your scene. Much easier and simpler than Blender.org's super sophisticated modeling, animation and UV tool. You may want to doanload and install that (free too) to provide UV (texture) and advanced modeling capabilities. Ask more questions... they will come up as you explore your options.

Frank0314 said:

Smoothing is going to take adding poly into it. I don't know what your limits are for the sim. It looks pretty smooth to me from your screen shot.

well its very boxy and poly would mean rounded edges? the opensim allows a high level of mesh content. the grid is called inworldz. very similar to the ones known as Secondlife. ive had some great mesh builds that ive modified and textured threw sketchup buts its a limited program was a good one to start learning the ways in mesh but would love to learn more about this and using the better programs as well

Route66Rambler said:

usherstang said:

can you guys do me a favor and keep an eye out for a 69 chenille for me i would really appreciat it cause i cant find 1 free

This one is a four-door 300 that is also a transformer:

https://grabcad.com/library/1969-chevelle-300-deluxe-transformer-based-on-the-character-springer-1

Here are 4 of them in GTA sa format:

http://www.gta-mania.com/downloads/index.php?act=view&id=1874

http://www.gtaall.com/en/gta-san-andreas/cars/950-1969-chevrolet-chevelle.html

http://www.gta-worldmods.de/phpkit/start/include.php?path=content/download.php&contentid=247&PHPKITSID=b4b72121e8409d754bf9d21a51d6a352

http://www.gamemodding.net/en/gta-san-andreas/gta-sa-cars/17404-1969-chevrolet-chevelle.html

There are many many more. Sketchup has a few in the warehouse too.

:-)

Yes, RAMWolff, go into your preferences settings, camera settings, and you can change them there.

I use "Two Mouse Buttons" (two button trackball) "Blender" setting which is Alt + Left click for rotate (you do not need to hold down Alt once you initiate the command), Alt + Ctrl + Lt Clk for zoom/dolly, and Alt + Shift + Lt Clk for pan/track. Three buttons Blender is probably different, so may yield different results. Only difference for me from Blender is I cannot invert dolly as I can in Blender, so I have two different zoom mechanics going between the two apps.

You have many default presets to choose from besides the default Wings3D such as Nendo, Mirai, Blender, 3DSMax, Maya, Motionbuilder, and SketchUp. Just find one that works to your liking.

Plus, there are a lot of other settings you can play with to get W3D customized to the way you like it.

Regarding the rotate around scene to object; The default is scene rotate around world center (0,0,0) which can always be reset to default view rotate/world scene with "r" key. Even if you have an object selected, and rotate around object selected (Shift + A) enabled, it will default to rotate around world center. You just need to zoom in/out for your scene viewing preference.

Kyoto Kid said:

...what application do you use for modelling?

I use wings3D. It works a bit like my head does and it is free. I was trained on CAD apps and Povray which you had to program. My husband reconstructed the local Roman remains in Povray - now used in the museum. There's a Linux version so I can have it at work too along with Blender which I will learn oneday. I found that my husband has Sketchup but I haven't hand much success with it. It seems geared toward modern buildings - I tend to make old ones. It could not do my standard romanesque chapel but I might try the full version to see what that has.

Though I live in a 1930s house - backing onto the local cemetery so it is quiet. The local cats go through to an old footpath for a pee. It is good as they have made it into a sort of arboretum. We have flowering cherries in the bit we overlook and there are a number of sumachs. I used to like walking there but an old lady was mugged at knifepoint visiting her husband's grave so I'm a bit wary now. The gravediggers are nice blokes and one of them has been keeping an eye out for our missing cat. He'd been gone two weeks now. I'm hoping some local students have adopted him as they often miss their own pets.

@ Sean,
Thanks for the advice!
I'll try cranking up the polygon count!

Do you know anything about Hexagon? Would Hexagon be a good way to paint a terrain? Just wondering,
I haven't tried it myself, and am considering it to paint some other models I made in SketchUp, but wasn't sure if it would to terrains.

Thanks

@ Horo,
Wow! 2 Masters of Bryce replied to me, I am honored!

I have tried it the other way, as well. Which works good.

But I find it hard to work in wireframe, I get too lost in the positioning of objects, and moving around as well.

Still trying to learn the basics. I have limited background in 3D. I've been a 2D AutoCAD draftsman for about 20 years,

I first got into 3d at my job with a building contractor using SketchUp to draw 3d models of our buildings. (About 3 years now).

I liked it, but saw the limitations of SketchUp and wanted to get into the better programs out there and try my hand at it.

Thanks for the advice, I will probably stick to importing into Bryce when I get better at it.

Thanks again!

went of on a silly tangent that wasted most my time.
Was impressed by the new Google Earth 3D model view so tried to investigate the world of GIS mapping and creating 3D models from Geospacially photographed terrains
got out of my depth very quickly :long:
so back to polygon modelling,
I thought I could settle for Just doing Rundle Mall in Adelaide only to find it is not in street view so I need to go photograph all the buildings myself if I want to model it in Sketchup, that aint happening.
Google Map maker Building maker looked like a possibility but you need to submit them to Google Earth to do them, you cannot just blunder around modeling some yourself apparently.

been looking at this online, awesome stuff using Google Earth images to create 3D models of cities.
http://blogs.esri.com/esri/arcgis/2012/05/16/virtual-3d-city-in-your-pocket/
but can I find a price and how to actually use this???
well signed up for a trial and got nowhere fast navigating their site LOL!
no wiser just scratching my head and will probably faint when I finally learnt the cost of this stuff.
all I want is a 3D model of Adelaide South Australia my hometown to use as a set to do my crazy Daz 3D content based animations in using Carrara and iClone mostly.
One Google 3D warehouse sketchup model from Adelaide at a time is the only way I can build it at the moment (the gaps modeled in Carrara and Sketchup badly by me)
Damn I would buy such a model f I could, it EXISTS in Google Earth if you fly-through in 3D model mode, it uses GIS but I cannot grab it!
I would buy the pro version of Google Earth or Sketchup if it were possible to do it with either but seems one cannot.

benjbernstein said:

Wow, a lot here to digest. I just learned how to use Sketchup and the learning curve was pretty smooth. This 3d world is so brain draining. I'll have to read your reply a few times. I'm still trying to understand the runtime stuff, I'm lost with understanding it. I don't get what writing to the runtime means or how to make sure the poser library is pointing to the runtime or how to tell if it can be written to the importer. I think I have a general understanding of a write protected directory but not enough to know if it applies here.

And then the part that get me blown is you say that it may not work when and (big if) I can figure all this out.

Also, you said I would need to buy the Genesis and Genesis 2 head and body morphs. I downloaded, (I think) the Genesis and Genesis 2 starter essentials (both said PoserCF) at the end of the name. The Daz importer opened and it appears to have downloaded but it didn't specify whether it did or not and it didn't say where. Besides being able to make those usable for me in Poser, do you know if those starter essentials have the head and body morphs you're talking about?

By the way, even though your explanation is way over my head I really appreciate it.

I think you need to backpedal a bit, because I'm afraid that you're missing some basic non-Poser-specific knowledge that you need to have:

* The Importer installs nothing. You have to do that yourself. The importer is what allows Poser to translate and load the files when you click on them in Poser's Library

* You need the PoserCF AND the DSON core files. The PoserCF are Poser Companion Files. They are just there so that you can see and load the files from the Poser Library, the same as you would any files made specifically for Poser. The DSON Core files are the actual files themselves. If you don't install them, then the PoserCFs have nothing to load.

Wow, a lot here to digest. I just learned how to use Sketchup and the learning curve was pretty smooth. This 3d world is so brain draining. I'll have to read your reply a few times. I'm still trying to understand the runtime stuff, I'm lost with understanding it. I don't get what writing to the runtime means or how to make sure the poser library is pointing to the runtime or how to tell if it can be written to the importer. I think I have a general understanding of a write protected directory but not enough to know if it applies here.

And then the part that get me blown is you say that it may not work when and (big if) I can figure all this out.

Also, you said I would need to buy the Genesis and Genesis 2 head and body morphs. I downloaded, (I think) the Genesis and Genesis 2 starter essentials (both said PoserCF) at the end of the name. The Daz importer opened and it appears to have downloaded but it didn't specify whether it did or not and it didn't say where. Besides being able to make those usable for me in Poser, do you know if those starter essentials have the head and body morphs you're talking about?

By the way, even though your explanation is way over my head I really appreciate it.

http://www.indigorenderer.com/

There's a sale on Indigo right now, if anyone owns a compatible program :)
(Maya, 3DS, SketchUp, Blender, C4D, .... )

Someone should really make an exporter for Carrara or D|S. :)

Jonstark said:

magaremoto said:

Jonstark said:

sbilf said:

Hi,

I'm a bit confused...Octane, Luxus, Thea... :roll:

Hey don't forget about Cycles or Arion or Indigo or... :) There's a whole bunch of unbiased render engines out there, though some are so pricey they probably don't bear serious consideration for most of us Carrara users.

Not to make it more complicated or anything... :)

just to be a little bit exhaustive about unbiased renderer, I would mention arion and lagoa (and maxwell as well) if you need realistic hair and corona renderer as a viable choice for archviz (freeware); anyway no one of the renderer in this thread may rival with arnold and clarisse for animation purpose (both biased and cpu-based); so we have a pletora of possibilities for any taste

I thought Arnold Render was private only and couldn't be bought for any amount, and in fairness I had never even heard of Clarisse before... or Corona! :) The wiki on unbiased render engines mentions Mantra, but as far as I can tell that's for Houdini only.... Truly there is a veritable ocean of unbiased render engines out there.

Though for most purposes, there are a lot fewer of the unbiased render engines that are really in consideration for those of us using Carrara (we're too thrifty and smart to spend tremendous amounts of money when we don't have to, don't you know). If I had to narrow it down I would guess:

- Thea
- Octane
- Arion2
- Lux
- Cycles
- Corona
- Kerkythea
- Nox

are the ones that are economically feasible for the hobbyist/independent professional market. Actually that's quite a list, and a lot of them are freeware :) Any that I missed?

And anyone who wonders about how awesome Octane is for renders should go to the Renderosity galleries, and search by 'most viewed'. Every single render on the first page of results is by RGUS, who uses Octane to render. And they are all pretty 'wow' :)

I would add Indigo between arion e lux and delete cycles for it's not a stand alone version afaik, otherwise you should also consider iray and a bunch of unbiased renderer for sketchup.
Thea is the commercial evolution of Kerkythea I suppose
Octane astonishes me every time, I'll be waiting for a fur department like Maxwell render and then will be perfect. Thea is the most intuitive and versatile of the crew imo

I found this one at the Sketchup warehouse. I converted it to an .obj and took it into Daz. The lights I made myself for it.

:-)

Sketchup has a few good drag strips, but they are from older versions of Sketchup and the material zones are whacked. I downloaded one and it had no textures for all the signs and stuff.

:-)

aexamples of 3dsom viewer

Google sketchup bungalow model my figures would be bill boards like tree but with some thickness and backs

my bulldog

Hmmm...I have never heard of an .oth file before. You mean .obj file?

If so...Poseray will convert .3ds to .obj files.

The bike looks good. Maybe I can get a copy from you and I will convert it to .obj or .3ds...or both for you. If we can get a nice .obj file, I can UV map it for you and make a nice Police texture for the body and save you the template...maybe...lol. You can send the Sketchup file if you like. I will see what I can do with it. Maybe some flames on black too. We'll see.

:-)