Sketchup to 3DSMax Workflow

[Morne]

I find that sketchup people (that dont know max) draw windows as a single plane (as in paper thin). Then your usual glass material doesnt work, and instead you have to set IOR to 1 and tick "reflect on back"

[WIEGERINCK_ARCHITECTEN]

Haha, i was replying to your message, wanting to say we specifically tried modelling the glass in stead of using single planes...i instructed the sketchup-modeller to do it anyway....but before sending the reply i checked...and this was it !!!! hahaha...he still used single planes...so there is no problem !! i tested again, and there we go !! i can use my normal vray-glass again...

so many many thanks pointing me in the right direction !! i assumed it was a much deeper problem, hahaha....

stupid i didn't notice it myself

[Morne]

so to be clear, when I export to 3ds from SU, do I use the deafult settings or do I change something here? I exported a 3ds with defaults, and in max the materials seems 10 times more than when I did a straight import. Also, I still got multisub materials.

[ledisnomad]

Just wanted to add my 2 cents to the conversation as a SketchUp, Max, Rhino, and Revit user. Don't blame SketchUp. Rather, educate the person modeling in SketchUp. I'm an architect and find SketchUp to be a great design tool. Under deadline, my models get messy in whatever software I'm using. At one firm with an in-house renderer, we worked out an excellent workflow between SketchUp and Max linking the .skp directly into Max. I was able to give her my model and she could bring it directly in, maintain her scene materials (as longs I didn't change names mid-design), and render without any remodeling.

When designing, it can be a huge help to do things that aren't great for rendering. For example, single planes for glass really make modeling so much faster. Everybody on the team just has to understand that when it's time to render, we need to extrude all the glass. Normals all facing the right way is something you can educate SketchUp or Rhino users about. Both programs have a way to have a custom shaded view in which the back side of a surface has a unique color. I periodically turn this style on to make sure my normals are facing the right way. Again, when designing it isn't the most important thing... as long as everybody understands that come render time, you'll have to check this piece.

And groups versus components is big, but has nothing to do specifically with SketchUp. Rhino has groups and blocks. I don't model with Max much, but I assume there are equivalents. That just takes experience and training. If you work with the person creating the model, over time you can create a great workflow from SketchUp to Max, Rhino to Max, Revit to Max, whatever. Help your colleagues be better modelers and everybody will be happier and more efficient.