Components with nested materials to create "render ready" libraries

[1234qwer]

It would be great if you could have components with materials already assigned to them (nested). This would allow everybody to place "render ready" lights and rich photorealistic content using clipmaps just like in 3d studio max.

[1234qwer]

Re: Components with nested materials to create "render ready" libraries

I suggest that this could be done by inverting the linking material process.
example:
- component is created, with sketchup materials
- vray automatically matches vray materials that have the same name
It would be nice if this could be an option, for example a checkbox that says:
Match Vray materials with SU materials? yes/no
This way all you would have to do is to have a folder with all the vray materials used in components. This would allow users to build clipmap libraries, and pre-mapped components,
;D
let me know if you think this could be a good idea

[thomthom]

Re: Components with nested materials to create "render ready" libraries

Yes, some feature that made V-Ray always linked Sketchup materials with V-Ray materials would be a very useful feature.

Yesterday I was testing linked materials in V-Ray. I had hoped that when I made a linked material I could simply use the SU material to apply it to more objects without having to applying the linked V-Ray material as well. But it didn't...

[1234qwer]

Re: Components with nested materials to create "render ready" libraries

I just noticed that:
1)If I copy a component that has vray materials applied, within a same SU file, all vray materials will show in the copy.

2)If I copy a component that has vray materials applied, to another file, vray materials will no longer be available.

3)If add a new component library in SU whith the original file with vray materials applied, and insert the componentto a new file, vray materials will not show.

There must be a way to fix this.

At the moment my workflow to create a clipmap is:

- create a clipmap component using png (to have wysiwyg effect in SU)
(insert png, explode, make component, face camera, change axes
- create a vray material (not linked) to map the component
- apply the material to the component
- export the material I used (it makes it easy if you use the same name for the material and the component)

My workflow to use the clipmap I created in a new file is:

- create a new component library in SU selecting the folder where I saved my clipmap.skp file
- insert component
- import material i previously exported
- apply the matching material to component
- copy/scale the component (if needed)

I hope this is going to be useful, I also thought this could help to explain my suggestion in the previous post, about how to embed materials in components, as some of the steps in my worklow could be automatic.

Any suggestions to make the workflow smoother are greatly appreciated.

Cheers