well I downloaded SU 8 and joined sketchucation and downloaded that ruby file
buggy but works on some models, some others crash sketchup
bit hit and miss
that stadium worked and imported into Daz studio fine

Hello all,

I am very new to daz3d I don't know a lot about it. Just find out couple videos and start searching about it.

If you masters can help me here I would appreciate it.

My problem is I need a 3d animated horse back riding in fbx format. with the rider and if it is possible one male and one female riding.

I use sketchup and Lumion to 3d model and render animations. Lumion has animated horse models in its library but it doesnt have a simple horse riding.

Any suggestions or showing some directions ???

I got you now nowefg... Now I think I know what the problem is... If I remember correctly, sometimes in the past I have come across models at SCG, where there was ONLY a OBJ and MTL file.
Most likely (since you say that the material zones are still preserved-as evidenced by relevant surfaces highlighting in DS), what probably happened was model was textured in shaders that only exist or make sense for the particular modeling program where they were created... although it is odd that at least the diffuse color was not preserved... usually for example if say in Maya the model had a really cool procedural rust shader, it might export out as just brown or orange... Even more likely these models were assigned tiling Jpegs or Pngs (seamless image based textures), in which case if the person did not check the correct export option, the image files would be excluded. It is also entirely possible (depends on the model, so this is just a guess, but it is a common occurrence) the model may have been created in one program, exported as say a .3ds or .lwo and the imported into another program like Blender, and then exported out as an .obj file... Sometimes people convert someone else's models, but don't really know what they are doing, so they screw it up.
Quite often people take models from 3D Warehouse which are SketchUp files and export them out as OBJs... problem is if they are doing this in SketchUp and are not using the newer OBJ exporter plugins, they don't export any materials... the model just comes out grey, sometime with the mat zones preserved, but not even a diffuse color... just plain default preview grey. This is especially prevalent when the model is textured ONLY using seamless image based textures... if the jpeg texture is not exported then there is no diffuse data provided and the default gray is shown.

Bejaymac said:

Well after a fair bit of head scratching I'm actually able to get most of the Sketchup DAE files to load into DS4.5, files made in 6.0.5xxx and newer will load without any file editing, they just load invisible as Opacity is set to 0%. It's the files made in 6.0.4xxx and older that need a bit of text editing, my methods aren't perfect as it's about 50/50 on it loading properly or giving me a WTF moment, issues are the mesh loads in HUGE, so big that scaling it down to Genesis size requires scale settings around 0.01%, loads in so far of in the distance that you need around 400,000 in the X & Z translations to center it, or the mesh parts being a bit scambled and looking nothing like the pictures, I've had all three and combinations of the three.

Thanks.

Just an idea, if you've got the item in 4.5 way off in the distant 400,000 give or take ... if said item can then be exported out of D/S as an .obj; imported into Hexagon, the item repositioned to world centre, then exported back out ... the import back into D/S should have it at world centre. Just an idea at this stage as I haven't time to test atm however the concept has worked on other items I've worked with.

Well after a fair bit of head scratching I'm actually able to get most of the Sketchup DAE files to load into DS4.5, files made in 6.0.5xxx and newer will load without any file editing, they just load invisible as Opacity is set to 0%. It's the files made in 6.0.4xxx and older that need a bit of text editing, my methods aren't perfect as it's about 50/50 on it loading properly or giving me a WTF moment, issues are the mesh loads in HUGE, so big that scaling it down to Genesis size requires scale settings around 0.01%, loads in so far of in the distance that you need around 400,000 in the X & Z translations to center it, or the mesh parts being a bit scambled and looking nothing like the pictures, I've had all three and combinations of the three.

So far collada files made in sketchup 6 (and probably earlier versions) don't load into DS, the scene data in the dae is all over the place, so the only parts we get are the nulls and the cameras, sketchup 7 collada does load, it just loads invisible as opacity is set to 0%, haven't found any sketchup 8 collada files yet as those downloads only appear to be skp.

I have a couple of sofas that I like the look of, but they were done in 6 so they don't load, but as dae is a sort of xml I might have a bash at hand editing the files to see if I can get them to work.

wendy♥catz said:

if you cannot use the freee sketucation obj converter plugin for some reason
either use the .dae or export as kmz, rename it a .zip extract and import into Blender
export obj, Blender will fix the ngons and reversed normals that are rife in sketchup models.

How convenient that this topic is being discussed as I was just running into the same issue myself. I d/l'd a number of models in the Collada format, thinking I could just import and get away with some minor tweaking. Yeah, right! After several hours of WILDLY inconsistent results, I threw my hands up in disgust; I'm pretty sure that each person has a different way of formatting all their files than anyone else on the Warehouse.

Anyway, I'm a bit confused by your instructions here. If you d/l a model in Collada format from the 3D Warehouse, they already come in a .zip file - which (generally) includes the .dae & .kmz as well as any textures. Can I just use that in Blender or do I need to literally change the extension of the .dae (or .kmz) file to .zip?

Also, it's a bit off topic, but while I'm thinking about it - is there a way to rename assets in a D|S scene like you can in Poser? It's one thing when you're dealing with just a couple of iterations of Vicky (Victoria, Victoria1, Victoria2, etc.) in your scene tree but another hassle altogether when you're trying to create a skyline and every single building is named Model#. I shudder at the thought of trying to keep track of 40+ models that I'll need to constantly re-size, rotate, and translate when they all basically have the same name.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

-Damon

Install more than one version of sketchup like I have I have the SU6 pro trial as well as free 7, still 8 to be downloaded if I need it

Some in sketchup fiormat. http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/search?tags=art+deco

It's a rather difficult era for Architecture, especially on this side of the pond, because it is an era that included the wartime period and the subsequent rebuilding afterwards, during a period of vast austerity and lack of resources.

I can convert some for you if they are sketchup models specifically for Google Earth under their EULA
depends entirely on usage rights as stated for individual models
I would never redistribute any however a conversion if allowed for one person I would do

Kyoto Kid said:

...I had the same issue. I clicked on what I thought`was the DL link but it only opened a copy of the same forum page. Also not sure what it is supposed to "plug into" as the posts that I read didn't make it very clear.

So a .dae is the standard Sketchup format then?

I have Blender but still early on the learning curve yet.

The plugin is for Sketchup. There's the free edition [4 hours pro demo] and of course the $ Pro. Where to put it is included with the text around the attachment's link.

...I had the same issue. I clicked on what I thought`was the DL link but it only opened a copy of the same forum page. Also not sure what it is supposed to "plug into" as the posts that I read didn't make it very clear.

So a .dae is the standard Sketchup format then?

I have Blender but still early on the learning curve yet.

wendy♥catz said:

if you cannot use the freee sketucation obj converter plugin for some reason
either use the .dae or export as kmz, rename it a .zip extract and import into Blender
export obj, Blender will fix the ngons and reversed normals that are rife in sketchup models.

I combed the page, maybe can't see the forest for the trees but is there a download link somewhere?

if you cannot use the freee sketucation obj converter plugin for some reason
either use the .dae or export as kmz, rename it a .zip extract and import into Blender
export obj, Blender will fix the ngons and reversed normals that are rife in sketchup models.

...have to do this on the cheap, 100$ for a plugin to convert a few models is a bit much for my budget at the moment as I am unemployed.

A lot of the models I'm interested in unfortunately appear to be only in Collada and SketchUp Formats.

Kyoto Kid said:

...only a 4 hour demo? That's pretty lame. Heck, even AutoDesk gives you a full 30 days.

So you can't just DL them and then convert using something like Hexagon or another modelling app?

There's one company I found that is selling a plugin for about $100 if I recall correctly, just to convert the sketchup files to .obj files. No demo.

If there's a lightwave file to be had, then PoseRay [one option of several] can convert it.

Well how I did a few was:

Put in a folder "all" the sketchup files I wish to convert.

Download/install/run the free trial. [Be SURE to close the program when not in active use as it's good for 4 hours real time]
Export out all the .obj files possible inside of 4 hours. [be it in one stretch or over a period of days]

:-)

...I remember long ago someone discussing the process for converting Google SketchUp models for use in DazStudio however don't remember the steps and tools needed. The 3D Warehouse has a lot of nice RL architecture which I would love to convert for use in scenes.

Another thing I noticed is that there are few .obj downloads. Most are just SketchUp and Collada (the latter usually having large file sizes). In the past, thought I saw a lot more that also were in .obj format.

Thanks RedSquare, That K6 (1935) telephone box took me many hours, it was my personal project to finally learn properly and become comfortable with Sketchup. I could not find hardly any drawings so decided to work from scratch and my highly technical methods included taking photos in twilight and in the rain with one hand, whilst holding a tape measure with the other :)
Here is the map reference for anyone who wants to have a walk around in google maps, 51.493006,-0.11098 there is a nice pub on the corner with an even older K2 (1930) phone box just by it.
Since you live in Blackheath just up the road from me here in Kennington Red, come over and I will buy you a beer. Mind I have not been to Greenwich for a while, used to go on Sundays quite a lot.

@ Rorrkon
I still use Truespace, it has fascinated me since 1998 my first 3d app also :), that and Bryce. It had and still has what Hexagon does not, plugins and scripts. And this leads me to Mykyl's original post here.
Hexagon quite simply has the cleanest and fastest interface to work with, I now use it in all of my projects one way or another, just try dragging a .obj file over from a folder and away you go, great. But it is, as he mentions loosing direction, it falls short as it has no scripting or plugins, which is a shame, as that would be a way to carry on with its development.
RorrKonn you mention a new modeller, well I thought I would never get the hang of this application but found it equally as addictive as Truespace, I use the free version (of course), and it has the all important scripting and plugins that keep it alive and moving forward.
With a very large and helpful scripting and user base, Sketchup, is a whole world on it's own and better for it, I would not have been able to create this scaled and detailed British Telephone Box, referenced from one just around the corner from my flat here in London without using some of the excellent freely available plugin scripts.
And Merlin the cat would not have a Shaker style cat closet with all mod cons :)