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Home ? Tips & Tricks ? Sketchup export model to Muvizu Play and AVI tips

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30/06/2016 11:07:10

unlimitedmagic
unlimitedmagic
Posts: 53 		After fiddling around with the current Sketchup, I think I've got a good path to reliable model exporting to Muvizu. This might be covered in another thread but I often find new nuggets in related posts.

1. Make sure the center of the model you create or download from the 3D warehouse is in the center of the world coordinate lines in Sketchup. If you have several models, just hide the others as you export one at a time. If it is not in the center, the model will jump around randomly in Muvizu when you import it.

2. Export the model as an FBX. If you have image textures on the model you'll see a sub-directory folder with the same name as the model that contains the image texture files. These have to be in the same directory as the FBX model or Muvizu can't find them. The easiest way is to simply drag the FBX model into the same directory as the textures. Then import the FBX model under CREATE/IMPORT in Muvizu play.

3. If you want to map video on your 3D Warehouse model from Sketchup, be sure to apply an image texture to the part of the model you want to have as video in Sketchup - it doesn't matter what the image is as you'll be replacing it with an AVI clip in Muvizu. In Muvizu Play, click on the object's properties tab and select an AVI clip. The AVI files should be short as there is a size limit in Muvizu. Also, if you get a strange flickering black line at the bottom of the model when you try this, it's a problem with the video codec. Muvizu only seems to like AVI files that are compressed with the dvix codec. You can adjust the opacity of the video portion on the model the same way you can slide the opacity slider for an image.


Hope this helps!


Bob
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30/06/2016 15:40:04

ziggy72Muvizu mogulExperimental user
ziggy72
Posts: 1988 		FBX in Sketchup? Which version are you using, and is it included with the package or is this an addon you've bought?
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30/06/2016 20:42:14

unlimitedmagic
unlimitedmagic
Posts: 53 		ziggy72 wrote:
FBX in Sketchup? Which version are you using, and is it included with the package or is this an addon you've bought?


Good point! Only Sketchup Pro allows you to export FBX files.
edited by robert-j-ladrach on 30/06/2016
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30/06/2016 21:19:36

ziggy72Muvizu mogulExperimental user
ziggy72
Posts: 1988 		Thought so - it would be so awesome if the free version of Sketchup supported FBX, all our lives would be much simpler!
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30/06/2016 22:52:39

primaveranz
primaveranz
Posts: 520 		ziggy72 wrote:
Thought so - it would be so awesome if the free version of Sketchup supported FBX.


It's like there is some kind of conspiracy going on between all the free/ affordable 3d software makers. Some do thi,s and some do that, but there never seems to be any combinations that will let you convert something from the particular format you have, to the one you want without some kind of problem
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30/06/2016 23:21:19

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		the free autodesk FBX utility goes a long way toward making it a non-issue that specific 3D programs don't allow FBX export.
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30/06/2016 23:32:47

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		robert-j-ladrach wrote:
ziggy72 wrote:
FBX in Sketchup? Which version are you using, and is it included with the package or is this an addon you've bought?


Good point! Only Sketchup Pro allows you to export FBX files.
edited by robert-j-ladrach on 30/06/2016


do you use Sketchup Pro?
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01/07/2016 01:13:32

primaveranz
primaveranz
Posts: 520 		PatMarrNC wrote:
the free autodesk FBX utility goes a long way toward making it a non-issue that specific 3D programs don't allow FBX export.


I tried exporting a Sketchup 13 model as .DAE, used the utility to convert to FBX and impored that to Muvizu - but I just got a fatal error so gave up
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01/07/2016 02:51:00

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		primaveranz wrote:
PatMarrNC wrote:
the free autodesk FBX utility goes a long way toward making it a non-issue that specific 3D programs don't allow FBX export.


I tried exporting a Sketchup 13 model as .DAE, used the utility to convert to FBX and impored that to Muvizu - but I just got a fatal error so gave up


ah, now that you mention it... I paid for a Sketchup utility that lets me import and export a lot more formats, because I normally use the OBJ format as my universal format and for some reason Sketchup is the one 3D package I have that doesn't support it.

I think there's at least one free utility for exporting from Sketchup as OBJ... and the FBX utility does accept OBJ.

Also, if the utility accepted the DAE file, then the problem might be in the FBX version... Muvizu doesn't support the more recent FBX versions apparently.

The utility allows the exporting of different FBX versions. Try one of the versions from around 2012 and see if that works.
edited by PatMarrNC on 01/07/2016
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01/07/2016 04:25:42

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		followup to prev note about FBX converter:

I just exported an attachment from Sketchup as DAE and loaded it into the FBX exporter. From there I exported it as FBX 2013, and it loaded into Muvizu successfully.


I imported the exact same DAE file to Blender and converted it to FBX there, and it came into Muvizu at a much larger size... Interesting. Apparently 3D programs don't adhere to an absolute size standard.

I notice the FBX converter utility creates FBXs that are about the same size as the ASE files created in Sketchup. (At least, when I exported it from Sketchup as DAE)

There's a lot of weird JUJU in the world of 3D
edited by PatMarrNC on 01/07/2016
edited by PatMarrNC on 01/07/2016
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01/07/2016 05:39:33

primaveranz
primaveranz
Posts: 520 		I just tried again with FBX 2012 and it works!

The best thing from my point of view is that SketchUp allows me to put transparent windows into solid objects. Something that I couldn't achieve with Milkshape-created FBX files.


So thanks for that tip Pat, I have learned a hell of a lot from you guys in the last week
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01/07/2016 06:41:19

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		primaveranz wrote:
I just tried again with FBX 2012 and it works!

The best thing from my point of view is that SketchUp allows me to put transparent windows into solid objects. Something that I couldn't achieve with Milkshape-created FBX files.


So thanks for that tip Pat, I have learned a hell of a lot from you guys in the last week


cool! Are you saying that the transparency in your Sketchup model transferred successfully to the FBX? and persisted when you brought the FBX into Muvizu?
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01/07/2016 07:01:18

primaveranz
primaveranz
Posts: 520 		Aw wait a minute...maybe not....I need to do a bit more checking. I thought it might be too good to be true...
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01/07/2016 08:38:05

primaveranz
primaveranz
Posts: 520 		Nah. It's a bust.
I thought I read recently that you have to make sure to use GIFs instead of PNGs to allow for transparencies but that didn't work and neither did TGA. I tried .DDS too but Muvizu can't handle them.
edited by primaveranz on 01/07/2016
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01/07/2016 09:03:39

primaveranz
primaveranz
Posts: 520 		I can create objects with windows in them using Milkshape but Muvizu won't let me assign textures only colours in-game.
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01/07/2016 10:36:59

Machiya
Machiya
Posts: 16 		PatMarrNC wrote:
I imported the exact same DAE file to Blender and converted it to FBX there, and it came into Muvizu at a much larger size... Interesting. Apparently 3D programs don't adhere to an absolute size standard.

Watch out for this (below) in Blender (ie. turn it off).... just stick to the 16u = 1ft / 52.4934u = 1m... and you should be OK on size!



Mind you it still flips in MU? I cannot solve that. A number of UE3 modellers rotate the mesh ^minus^ 90X whilst keeping the object's origin in the same position, but I haven't tried that yet

G
edited by Machiya on 01/07/2016
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01/07/2016 11:06:43

Machiya
Machiya
Posts: 16 		Just checked FBX from Blender. Below, its a common workaround for ZUp (vs YUp) modellers in the UE3 community.
Why it cannot be easy? I don't know. But then everyone could play. Ghessh, where is the fun in that...




G
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01/07/2016 11:49:28

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		good information Machiya! Thanks!
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