Do it right, do it now! ... Sketchup CSV import.. *nearly*!

Dear Coaster Crazies,

Sketchup is a fast and very easy to learn modeling software. Until it comes to texturing and other advanced stuff like...

Keyframing (as example).

ALSO:
Sketchup??s DEA exporter is a mess, like the 3ds exporter was.
I highly recommend Blender. It doesn??t cost thousand of dollars. Even not hundreds. It??s free. For everyone.
It allows you to do keyframing, to texture a model like it should be, you can also create UV maps, Light Maps, Ambient Occlusion Maps, Bump Mapping, Specular Maps, Vertex colouring, ...


Blender can export multiple UV Maps. The new Cycles Render with the nodes mode is awesome. Yes, i do think it??s awesome.

In sketchup you can easily paint both sides of a face and that??s not a good feature. ESPECIALLY for game assets. Most of the inexperienced user doing it accidentally.
Sketchup, sorry, will not advance your skills beyond a defined point. And to export from Sketchup into blender or any other program is not the way you want to do either.
The longer you work with sketchup, the harder it will be to switch your modeling skills into another program.

The most common thought is: Blender is complicated.

But it isn??t. If you give it a chance, it will love you back.

OF COURSE you??ll watch a lot tutorials.
OF COURSE you??ll spend a lot of time to learn some techniques...
...but those techniques are really powerful!

Side Note:GeForceFan wrote a "add on" script in python, for *csv* import into Blender, it works perfectly.

What are you waiting for!?

If you really interested in all that advanced and fancy stuff, you could do.. do it.

Without spending hundreds or thousand of dollars!

Blender. Get it, learn it, have fun.

(commercial end here)
Just my two cents. I hope Blender will pay me this two cents back XD

Why i wrote this.. well, i have some experience in some different kinds of software. And believe me or not, sketchup has too much restrictions and too few features.
If you plan a BIG park,.. you??ll need the features of Blender, that sketchup doesn't have. If you want something fancy, you won??t do it with sketchup. If you want to change some complex geometry at a later point.. you know.. sketchup? .. nope.

Of course, if you're not interested in fancy, industry standard modeling.. well.. sketchup is not THAT bad.
if you give Blender a chance, you can use all the nice and fancy features, NoLImits2 has to offer.. easily and the best thing: it will work!

Have fun!

[TTD03]

Welcome back to the forums! Very good points! Thanks Magu!

Can I import Sketchup ferris wheels from the 3ds warehouse and get them to turn in blender?

I tried to import a ferris wheel from the Sketchup Warehouse into blender but it seems like it needs to be a certain file type.

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model.html?id=u308a21f2-f2e8-40af-b8a9-62999f4ad2a2

It it currently a .dae file. I have the free version of sketchup make.

The only other option is a google earth kmz file. I already deleted the door from one of the cars so you can walk right in and ride it.

Thank you TTD03! It feels goood to be here

@cool5: To animate a ferris wheel with such a count of gondolas .. will be MUCH work .. which will cost a lot of time. Very expensive!

I agree with this post completely. I only started using Blender about a month ago and I already see it's exponentially more powerful than Sketchup could ever wish to be. How does it compare to other similar 3d modelling programs like 3ds Max and possibly Maya? (I obviously don't have the cash or the x64 bit computer to use them so I don't know)

cool5 wrote:

Can I import Sketchup ferris wheels from the 3ds warehouse and get them to turn in blender?

I tried to import a ferris wheel from the Sketchup Warehouse into blender but it seems like it needs to be a certain file type.

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model.html?id=u308a21f2-f2e8-40af-b8a9-62999f4ad2a2

It it currently a .dae file. I have the free version of sketchup make.

The only other option is a google earth kmz file. I already deleted the door from one of the cars so you can walk right in and ride it.

Yes you can. But it will be tricky to animate it

Thanks for sharing such useful tips and the hope, Magu!

So .. it??s almost weekend .. time for some weekend-madness!
All of you, who still really want to stay with sketchup,.. after my explaination about the AWEsome Blender Software...
... and having the Pro-Version of NoLimits 2 (if not i??m sure someone who having it will help you out).. and are able to export CSV data..

Take a look at this:
http://extensions.sketchup.com/de/conte ... t-importer

That??s how it looks "INgame" of Sketchup:

Ingame.jpg (61.72 KiB) Viewed 1743 times

And that??s the result:

You get at least a few points of your track into sketchup.
I don??t give any support for this, because i don??t use it, .. simple as always, play around with it and please share your settings and results *here* ..
So others who want to try it, will get a benefit from it.

...happy weekend at all!