Hi Pete and Shohole.

I'm trying to follow your advices and after a good lot of time searching with google I looked into the Google Sketchup 8 folders and in the wharehouse! Hurrah! or I should say mini-Hurray!

I found around 10 elements of the ruins of Pompei; in fact I should have one on my disks as I have their use in one of FlightSimulator addons.

I found also a video tutorial explaining how to transfer the object from Sketchup to DAZ via Blender . It took time as of course none of the 3 programs mentioned were used, with their actual version and lot of changes occurred in the meanwhile since the demo was made.

Nevertheless my wits improving thanks to you guys, I succeeded at last to view the object in DAZ! Again Hurrah!.....but there is a but... which you'll see in the following picture in the scale parameters: THEY ARE HUGE!!!! So huge that the Y coordinate is at its maximum in the translate set and can't go up further. After being under ashes for 2000 years my Palestra is well under the floor of DAZ Studio! One reason perhaps is that in reality the Pompei Paslestra is really huge. Pompeians used to come here for athletic games and sports. The area is 130 by 140 m and had a pool surrounded by two rows of trees which provided relief from the sun.See also the picture below. I noticed when I imported the final obj file, that the scale factor in the DAZ import options was already at 5000 and the palestra looked very small so.

If I reduce the scale to a normal 100% I would get something like a pin!

What should I do????? Is there a solution to the damn exasperating problem?

I'll check your replies when I come back this late afternoon. Thanks in advance.

music2u4u said:

I debated on bumpers also. I tried a tube bumper, a flat bumper, a wood bumper, a brush guard, etc. None of them looked as good as it does without one. So, lets just say, it has a reinforced steel one under the grill plate. Like new cars have.

I took the .3ds file into Cinema4D and removed the engine top and cover. I had already made the bed for it in Sketchup earlier today. So I exported the main car out as an .obj, then exported the bed out as a .3ds, then through Poseray to .obj. Imported it into DS 3 and made the chrome bed strips. I am happy with the results. Since I have dropped a "Boss 302 cu.in." in it, I chose to paint it the well known Mustang Boss 302 Orange and Matt Black.

:-)

That bed turned out looking good.

I debated on bumpers also. I tried a tube bumper, a flat bumper, a wood bumper, a brush guard, etc. None of them looked as good as it does without one. So, lets just say, it has a reinforced steel one under the grill plate. Like new cars have.

I took the .3ds file into Cinema4D and removed the engine top and cover. I had already made the bed for it in Sketchup earlier today. So I exported the main car out as an .obj, then exported the bed out as a .3ds, then through Poseray to .obj. Imported it into DS 3 and made the chrome bed strips. I am happy with the results. Since I have dropped a "Boss 302 cu.in." in it, I chose to paint it the well known Mustang Boss 302 Orange and Matt Black.

:-)

The best results I got was the .lwo format converted in Poseray to an .obj file. It is super smooth.

I tried to import the .3ds file into Sketchup, and it loaded fine. I deleted the rear wheelie bar and the engine top and bed cover. I then made a wooden floor and inner sides and front bed for it. It looked really nice, but when I tried to export it back to a .3ds or an .obj file, I got a bug splat and Sketchup shut down. Either the mesh is just to detailed, or some other reason caused it. I even tried to seperate and download parts one at a time...still got a splat and shutdown. So, I am going to export the bed I made for it, then tale the main model into Bryce and see if I can delete the parts and export it from there, then put the bed liner in it in Daz. We will see what happens.

:-)

music2u4u said:

Looks pretty close to one Betsy. There is a whole drag strip on the sketchup site. It has bleechers, advertisement banners, signs and a center part...it is huge and looks awesome. The only problem is that the artist did not paint or texture both sides of the parts he made, so the normals flip on export and about 98% of it is all white. That is why when you make a model in sketchup, you group each part you make so when you apply a color or texture, flipped or not, it will still hold the color or texture. Mine always export perfectly.

SP...I sure will be glad when you get back to the 40 coupe, and the 32 roadster. I was hoping to get a copy of each from you...hehehe.

OK....Here is a very cool find. While surfing the net for cars, I came across a site that has high poly cars. They offered this 1961 Ford Econoline for free as a sample of their cars. Most all the cars sell for $100.00-$200.00. The mesh is awesome and perfect. I had to register to get it, but the registration was very simple and small, and it gave me the link immediately after I registered. It also gave me a cool kind toon looking car with eyes on the front, but every part of the car itself looks realistic. Also a perfect mesh. Looks like a 59 Plymouth Belvedere or a 59 Caddy. I will render it next. I think they change up what they give from time to time. Well worth registering to get these. They come in .3ds, .lwo, .C4d, .obj, .fbx and .max formats. You get to choose which formats you want...one, two or all if you like. I just got all of them because I have 3dmax too.

The green and black is the default color, but I also did one in red. The engine is in the back with a blower setup. It is part of the mesh, so I am going to open it in 3dmax or blender and edit it out along with the bed cover to get a nice standard Ford version with the engine in the front.

:-)

I use to drive one of those where I worked many years ago.....late '60.... What's the link to the site?

Looks pretty close to one Betsy. There is a whole drag strip on the sketchup site. It has bleechers, advertisement banners, signs and a center part...it is huge and looks awesome. The only problem is that the artist did not paint or texture both sides of the parts he made, so the normals flip on export and about 98% of it is all white. That is why when you make a model in sketchup, you group each part you make so when you apply a color or texture, flipped or not, it will still hold the color or texture. Mine always export perfectly.

SP...I sure will be glad when you get back to the 40 coupe, and the 32 roadster. I was hoping to get a copy of each from you...hehehe.

OK....Here is a very cool find. While surfing the net for cars, I came across a site that has high poly cars. They offered this 1961 Ford Econoline for free as a sample of their cars. Most all the cars sell for $100.00-$200.00. The mesh is awesome and perfect. I had to register to get it, but the registration was very simple and small, and it gave me the link immediately after I registered. It also gave me a cool kind toon looking car with eyes on the front, but every part of the car itself looks realistic. Also a perfect mesh. Looks like a 59 Plymouth Belvedere or a 59 Caddy. I will render it next. I think they change up what they give from time to time. Well worth registering to get these. They come in .3ds, .lwo, .C4d, .obj, .fbx and .max formats. You get to choose which formats you want...one, two or all if you like. I just got all of them because I have 3dmax too.

The green and black is the default color, but I also did one in red. The engine is in the back with a blower setup. It is part of the mesh, so I am going to open it in 3dmax or blender and edit it out along with the bed cover to get a nice standard Ford version with the engine in the front.

:-)

simpleplanning said:

music just a note i do not placate anyone for the purose of sparing feelings because it accomplishes nothing
the 1st was pretty good for a 1st try
1 thing i noticed on both is the front left turnsignal
on the original it is an inset flat lense but in the model it wraps around under the grill/ head light trim ring
i dont have the mesh you used to see what was done that seems to be off from the real truck but something just isnt right about it
but i did just notice 1 small issue with your last try
look at the bottom attatch point on the side mirror versus the stock position
it may just be the images ive seen of the 67 f100 but it looks off to me

SP...I appreciate all comments. I do not wear my heart on my sleeve, so I love an honest opinion. It helps us all grow. Humoring gets us nowhere...lol.

I agree with you on both issues. First, The truck itself is actually a 79, not a 67. All the body parts are interchangable on them in real life except for the front grill. In fact the driver door on my real life one is a 72 and matches perfectly.I reworked the center of the grill today to match the 67. I still need to rework the turn signals next. They should be in their own enclosed housings.

The side mirrors I made were for when I had removed the side molding, now with the new version, the bottom mount sits up on top of the new shape, therefore tilts the entire mirror. I need to go back now and resize it so the bottom mount attatches to the door, not the hump. This will straighten it out. I still have alot to do with it.

Thanks for bringing it to my attention. My biggest problem so far has been getting it to render without some of the faces either flipping, or showing dark. If I apply shaders, it throws it all into a spin and reflects back in edgy jutted segments. This, I am sure, is due to the way Sketchup does it's UVs. Different from any other program. It just goes wild all over the place...lol. Plus DS has trouble with triads which this mesh is full of. If I could convert to quads, I would, but even smoothing in Poseray does not help. The new one is not smoothed, so the faces are in place. I just did some postwork to hide the lines...lol.

:-)

:-)

Okay. Got an .obj from Sketchup Pro [8 hour free trial, as in 8 hours real time so turn it off when not using it] of the Bridge!
Imported it into Hexagon and it's HUGE ... some extra bits and pieces too :-)

SpottedKitty said:

crownlion said:

this is the bridge from google3d found at the link below.

Hmm. I've seen the film, and I don't remember realising the bridge was so close in its general layout to the "real" TOS Enterprise. Although the shooting angles used left me with the impression I hadn't a clue what the bridge actually looked like, I just couldn't visualise it.... :roll:

To be clear, I didn't read that it was TOS, I was just thinking to try it with TOS myself and see if worked. However will see if I can coax sketchup to work on this computer. I did read though that it was basically a generic ST bridge with lots of railing added in. I watched the film too ... to tell you the truth, first time i watched it, it came dangerous close to the garbage can. However ... still have it. And no, they don't give an acceptable clean, view of it. The railings are a good idea, after being "blinded by the lights" staff would need them lol ...

crownlion said:

sorry the link

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=8b4bafd84d74e262fb4fe6770d8af214&prevstart=0

Thank you. Downloading now and also sketchup ... and we'll see what happens.

sorry the link

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=8b4bafd84d74e262fb4fe6770d8af214&prevstart=0

Well . . . here's what I've fumbled together so far. Part of this that's bugging me though is the rank bar . . . any suggestions on how to make it fit to the chest a little better?

I made the belt buckle, code cylinders, and rank from scratch in sketchup. The shirt is a re-texture of the fairytale prince king expansion shirt with the collar from the fairytale prince jacket. Belt is also from fairytale prince.

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh32/Styles2304/ImperialOfficer_0002_zps680b5b1d.png

chohole said:

Have a word with the petrolheads in the Car and Bike lovers thread. They often work with sketchup files.

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/290/

That was a big help, thanks! With a bit of digging I found a Ruby Script for doing the job (OBJ Exporter). It's part of the Ruby Library Depot, and that's linked to from http://www.sketchup.com/intl/en/community/resources.html#ruby

This could give me the kick start I need to actually get some things done in Daz! Wahoo!

wendy♥catz said:

http://www.sketchup.com/download/plugins.html the main site
got me to this
http://rhin.crai.archi.fr/rld/plugin_details.php?id=790
I have an old rb plugin for sketchup 6 I use myself

or use Blender to convert the .dae

thanks wendy ;-)

http://www.sketchup.com/download/plugins.html the main site
got me to this
http://rhin.crai.archi.fr/rld/plugin_details.php?id=790
I have an old rb plugin for sketchup 6 I use myself

or use Blender to convert the .dae

FlageZooke said:

OK, so any recommendations on how to get Sketchup files into OBJ form? I tried downloading a Sketchup Plugin to do that, but the it was laced with a funmood virus...

look at the plugins at the Sketchup site - they should be virus free ( at least they are for me )

I frequently create simple models in SketchUp and export them as .obj files into DAZ. In DAZ 4.0, the imported object's origin would always be located at the zero coordinate point in SketchUp. This was really convenient. Now in DAZ 4.5, I'm finding that the origin point of my imported objects is roughly in the center of the object, with seemingly no way for me to control where it is ahead of time. This is really frustrating. I often want to rotate an object in DAZ around a specific point (like the handle of a sword for instance), and now moving my imported objects around to just the right position is much more time consuming.

Is there a way in DAZ to control the location of an imported object's origin point?

Have a word with the petrolheads in the Car and Bike lovers thread. They often work with sketchup files.

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/290/

OK, so any recommendations on how to get Sketchup files into OBJ form? I tried downloading a Sketchup Plugin to do that, but the it was laced with a funmood virus...

FlageZooke said:

I know this reply is kind of late, but I'm still looking into this myself.

I've had the problem back with Daz 4 as well. When I got a hold of their support team, I was told that COLLADA (.dae) files are a rough standard. Not sure how much I believe that or if I mis-understood support.

Google / Trimble / whoever currently owns Sketchup says that it uses the COLLADA 1.4 specifications and schema (as of 10/16/2012 at least). I couldn't find a similar specification on DAZ. The closest I've come is to notice that Daz never puts just "COLLADA" files, it's always "DAZ COLLADA", which makes me think they might be the ones breaking the format. Don't know since I don't have any other 3D editor to try exporting with.

Hopefully someone comes along and fixes this, since COLLADA is really the only way to transition between the two (without having Sketchup Pro).

you can use obj files .

edit to add - Bryce can import some Sketchup files - just don't try to send them to DS .