Thursday, April 7, 2011

Using SketchUp models in 3DVIA Scenes

Cliff Medling is my counterpart over at Dassault Systèmes; he’s the Evangelist for 3DVIA. Since we’re both in the business of spreading the word about the power and glory of 3D modeling (regardless of which tool you choose), we figured it would be productive to work together from time to time.

The first fruit of this collaboration is a video that Cliff made specifically for SketchUp modelers. It shows how to use 3DVIA Scenes to explore an imported SketchUp model by walking around inside it. The killer app (in my opinion) is a feature that lets multiple people explore the same model simultaneously as avatars. SketchUp’s Walk Tool offers a similar, first-person experience, but having the model online and accessible to anyone with a web connection is enormously powerful.


Two things: Cliff tells me that Mac compatibility for 3DVIA Scenes is on its way. Also, the clever folks over at Dassault have built an iOS app (for Apple mobile devices) that lets you view and interact with models you’ve uploaded to 3DVIA.com. Since COLLADA (.dae) is one of the formats they accept, you can use these apps to view SketchUp models, too. 3D everywhere!

Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Evangelist

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14 comments:

  1. SoloApril 7, 2011 at 3:50 PM

    I get the work-flow, I even get the avatar colaboration part, but I do not get the why part, why would you want to "meet" online in a model? Can you meet with client to make changes? Does not look that way.
    What are the advantages for this? who would use this?

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  2. AnonymousApril 7, 2011 at 6:35 PM

    They are clever folks at Dassault, they want us to upload models to their database for having the same functionality that we already have ("walk tool").
    Also they must have forgotten the link to the mandatory Android App (this is a Google Blog, isn't it?)
    ;-)

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  3. UnknownApril 8, 2011 at 9:20 AM

    I like this, and I can see many possible uses for this in my line of work, being able to walk clients through a model property without actually being there is great. However when I export my model as a collada file, any textured sketchup material is removed, then when uploaded in
    3dvia scenes, any surface that had textured materials, appears plain white ? Not what I want to show my clients !
    Am I doing something wrong ?

    ReplyDelete
  4. EricWKApril 8, 2011 at 9:50 AM

    mcpcorey,
    I solved your white-out of textured mats problem. I had this happen myself. You have to upload your associated model material files to your 3Dvia account prior to uploading your model. After that, it all works.

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownApril 8, 2011 at 10:25 AM

    Thanks EricWK, I will give that a try, I noticed that when I export to dae, a seperate file was created containing the tex materials in question. I am new to this, and never would have thought of having to upload that file first.
    Thanks for your input!

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  6. EricWKApril 8, 2011 at 1:59 PM

    I just tried a little more, and it looks like you may opt delete your associated materials from your 3Dvia library after your model is loaded in. I have tested this a little and it seems like they stay embedded to the model. Give it a try. Have a good weekend everyone!

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  7. Cliff in 3DApril 8, 2011 at 8:35 PM

    mcpcorey,
    You also should be sure to upload a .zip file containing the .dae file and the textures. That may help. I'll be interested in seeing if that solves the issue.

    ReplyDelete
  8. UnknownApril 8, 2011 at 10:24 PM

    Thanks Cliff, & Eric,
    Uploading the texture files does address the issue !... However as Eric noted you can then delete those files, and they stay with the model in scenes.
    I also noticed that if I did not delete those files, and then upload another model, and its associated texture files, the first texture files take over on the next model, and all the colors and textures are wrong on the second model. Perhaps I am doing something wrong here also ? Is there an easier way ?
    I had to stop playing with it today to get some actual work done, I hope to resume my experimentation with it this weekend. I am also having some other inconsitent issues happening, but I expect it is me and my inexperience with 3dvia scenes. When I get back to testing it out, I will post again to advise if I have continuing issues.
    Thanks Again

    Corey

    ReplyDelete
  9. yoo.seApril 10, 2011 at 4:49 AM

    nice i have too put in my work
    www.Joachimvonrost.se

    ReplyDelete
  10. filipepgmApril 12, 2011 at 5:04 AM

    If you export your model to .kmz it includes everything, so you only need to upload the .kmz file, the textures are inside it. It's easier, so I usually prefer to uploadmodels this way.

    ReplyDelete
  11. UnknownApril 12, 2011 at 9:56 AM

    Can you communicate with others that you have invited to walk through with you? Point out things to look at, discuss design issues etc. That is the only way it would be really useful.

    ReplyDelete
  12. filipepgmApril 19, 2011 at 5:04 AM

    Yes, it has a built-in chat.

    ReplyDelete
  13. zamreMay 20, 2011 at 11:23 PM

    Nice.. better ...
    Zamre Bin Ab. Wahab

    ReplyDelete
  14. BenjaminMay 3, 2012 at 7:39 AM

    I meet a problem when I want to export to 3dvia Studio.
    The name of all elements becomes their ID, instead of keeping their original name given in Sketchup. Do you know a method for keeping the same name of the element in 3Dvia Studio ?

    thank you,

    ReplyDelete

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