Maxwell Render

One thing I've found to be true about you JD, whenever I think I have a clever idea about the plugin you have already beat me to it... it's really very refreshing. The mind guerrilla indeed

Best,
Jason.

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My Tutorial Video Series: Maxwell Render 2 - SketchUp to Maxwell Workflow - ZBrush 4 - Corel Painter 12 Advanced - Substance Designer 2.1

I know I am so behind the times, but can someone please post some basic info (tut please!) about how to use a color-by-layer workflow? Or has this been covered somewhere else on the forum?

In the layer palette in Sketchup:

You will need to create some layers to use before proceeding.

Step 1 - Organize your geometry onto layers you wish (I like to use the Entity info palette).
Step 2 - Rename Layers to exact same name as an MXM on your system you wish to use.
Step 3 - Select color by layers from flyout menu.
Step 4 - Enable "auto mxm" in the plugin Maxwell Scene Manager> Output tab.
Step 5 - Render.

Check the link in my sig for more video style tutorials.

Best,
Jason.

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My Tutorial Video Series: Maxwell Render 2 - SketchUp to Maxwell Workflow - ZBrush 4 - Corel Painter 12 Advanced - Substance Designer 2.1

Not to be contradictory, Jason, but just for the sake of completeness, I'll also include the standard color-by-layer (i.e. as opposed to the hybrid auto-mxm one you state above) worflow, which involves the following steps:

1. open a document which uses multiple layers
2. in the Layers window, enable 'Color by layer'
3. render

And the shorter version of this would be: if (if!) it is working correctly, render output with this plugin should be strictly WYSIWYG, assuming one is not employing the more advanced options (mxm-mode materials, auto-mxm, render hidden layers, etc). If you should ever find this not to be the case, please be sure to report it as a bug, because that is what it would be.

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Next Limit Team

Hey JD,

In MXED I like to set the sampling level really high and just render my previews until I'm satisfied and click it stop rendering -- is there any way to stop the preview render in the plugin?

Best,
Jason.

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My Tutorial Video Series: Maxwell Render 2 - SketchUp to Maxwell Workflow - ZBrush 4 - Corel Painter 12 Advanced - Substance Designer 2.1

Not right now, there's not, but it's been on my list of things to do.

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Next Limit Team

Hey JD!

first of all i have to thank You for this GREAT plug in!!! Very, very cool!!! ... ... ...

I didn't had the time to test the first version and installed the 2.1.1 Release Preview today.

Everything is working great except the hdri selection button... when i press the button nothing happens

Any idea how to fix this?!? I had the same problem with the old 2.4 plugin and thought that this was a problem of the plugin with v2... but now i have to think that my computer is the problem.
(Win XP x64/ SketchUp Pro 6.4)

Just so I can be sure we're talking about the same thing, could you please describe the exact steps you are using to browse for an HDRI? (I really do mean all of the steps, from starting SketchUp)

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Next Limit Team

nothing special...

- start sketchup
- draw a simple plane
- open the Scene Manager
- select the 'Environment' Tab
- select Type 'Image Based'
- click on the yellow folder button for HDRI

Thanks, it was possible for part of the old plugin to still be present on your system, and that you might have been using that, since it seemed too weird for a totally different plugin to have the exact same problem.

However, I think I have it figured out: SketchUp 6 is working differently than 7, with the way that its open-file dialog is called from ruby. So try this instead:

- go to Options > User Interface
- set File Browsers to Custom
- try browsing again

Let me know if that helps; if I am right, it should not just be your HDRI that is failing, it should be any file-browsing you do from the plugin at all. The reason seems to be that SketchUp 6 does not like me trying to pre-set the directory path of the dialog, and rather than complaining about it, it just does nothing; it works fine on SketchUp 7.

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Next Limit Team

Thank You again! "Custom" is working great!

Hey JD,

would it be possible to implement a "Copy HDRI to all channels"-button in the HDRI panel?
Like the on in studio:



Would be helpful i think

Sure, I can add that.

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Next Limit Team

Cool!!! Thanks!

Thanks for the request, by the way -- scale/offset in image based channels is completely broken, and I hadn't noticed it before.

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Next Limit Team