problem with (sketchup) scenery

[lucio49]

Hi everyone,

I have been able to create quite some scenery with Sketchup, but now appears a problem I can't handle. On this terminal building (see pics), only part of the textures are pisplayed. I have done it all over again several times, and allways same result. All is checked again and again, all files are in the right location. The only unusual thing I noticed, is that Modelconverterx takes a long time ( about 30 sec) to compile the mdl file. Usually, it's more like 5 sec.
Does anybody has a solution? Thanks.
Luc

[opaplano]

Have you seen this Tutorial (and saved a copy of it for reference) ?

http://www.calclassic.com/sketchup_tutorial.htm

Hope that helps.

[lucio49]

Hi David,
That's one of the - excellent - tutorials I have read over and over, even before downloading the Sketchup utility. Unfortunately, I can't see an answer for this precise trouble.
Thanks anyway.
Luc

[Sidney Schwartz]

I had the same experience. The cause was that the object was too complex...to many triangles. When I simplified the model so it had fewer triangles, the problem was solved. Click the Object Information button in MCX and it will give you a triangle count.

[lucio49]

Thanks Sidney,

I was suspecting something like that. But not really sure. Maybe then, the solution could be to save the skp project in 2 (or more if needed) dae files, using the hiding tool every time. Of course, this will result in multiple mdl files, but avoid scale problems when placing the objects, wich I usually do with ADEX9. And, if I'm right, all could be compiled in a single bgl file. I'll let you know.

[Sidney Schwartz]

I think breaking it into multiple mdls is probably the best solution. If I'm making something particularly complex now I try to design it so that I can easily seperate sections of it and compile them seperately if necessary. It means a bit more work when placing the finished object in the scenery, but at least it all shows up the way it should. This is also why I never do detailed interiors of buildings.

[lucio49]

This is also why I never do detailed interiors of buildings.

You're more than right. Too much details, that's precisely my problem. Though I allways begin a project by saying "let's make it simple".

[Sidney Schwartz]

I know what it means to be a detail junkie. One of the things that I had to learn about designing scenery objects is that at some point you have to declare it done and move on.

[lucio49]

Problem solved!!!

My scenery was far too complex for MCX to handle I had to split it into 4 mdl files. All are compiled into 1 bgl, so that's not so bad. Placement trial and error is just a bit longer, but it is worth the extra effort (for me ).

[Sidney Schwartz]

Glad you got it worked out. I forgot to mention one other thing that helps...removing unecessary surfaces. Any surface that is not going to be visible is unecessary. The undersides of those benches and the bottoms of the bench legs would be an example. Did you remove those? Also, depending on how you made the walls, there may be internal surfaces between all those sections. I call this the "cleaning up" phase of making an object. Not very enjoyable, but it needs to be done.