Material Editing in Sketchup.

Forums: Material Editing in Sketchup.
SketchUp Integrated Plugin (Integrated Plugin maintained by OTOY)

Material Editing in Sketchup.

Postby cyb » Fri Feb 03, 2012 4:15 pm

cyb Fri Feb 03, 2012 4:15 pm
Are there any plan to add basic material editing functionality in Sketchup?
Sometimes materials you want to edit are not visible in the viewport and names coming from multiple sources are not clear to make it easy to select in outliner.
For example light materials (F10, F20, F30 etc).
cyb
Licensed Customer
Licensed Customer
 
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu Sep 02, 2010 7:03 pm

Re: Material Editing in Sketchup.

Postby TIG » Fri Feb 03, 2012 5:54 pm

TIG Fri Feb 03, 2012 5:54 pm
There IS basic material editing in Sketchup - use the Materials Browser.
If there's a Texture you can edit that in an external app - you need to specify that in your 'preferences'.
You can save SKP's SKM materials as external files to use in other SKPs etc...

BUT IF you mean somehow linking OCS and SKP [SKM] materials so you can edit the materials for one in the other, it's NO.
The two applications materials are inherently different.

When you export a OBJ/MTL/Textures_folder from the SKP and use it in the OCS, Octane interprets the MTL file's data to make the RGB [for some yet to be explained reason the material's Alpha data is ignored!] and it also uses any specified texture-file, with appropriate UV-mapping, so that the SKP and OCS materials match pretty well [save for the transparency]...
Once imported, then on a re-import changed SKP-materials do not affect the equivalent named material already lodged in the OCS, only a brand new SKP-material is considered.

It may be that sometime in the future an fully integrated SKP/OCS interface could be developed, but that is not yet in prospect...
TIG
User avatar
TIG
Licensed Customer
Licensed Customer
 
Posts: 536
Joined: Wed May 12, 2010 1:25 pm

Re: Material Editing in Sketchup.

Postby cyb » Tue Feb 07, 2012 11:52 pm

cyb Tue Feb 07, 2012 11:52 pm
What I'm looking for is mostly the ability to at least specify the key Octane materials features like:
-diffuse, glossy, etc.
-Emmiter, blackbody, IES etc.
Similar to what you can do with Indigo
cyb
Licensed Customer
Licensed Customer
 
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu Sep 02, 2010 7:03 pm

Re: Material Editing in Sketchup.

Postby face » Wed Feb 08, 2012 12:46 am

face Wed Feb 08, 2012 12:46 am
Material can only be set over the obj-file and that can´t handle things like emission or ies.
But materials like glossy, diffuse and specular are working with the right obj-file parameters.

face
Win10 Pro, Driver 378.78, Softimage 2015SP2 & Octane 3.05 RC1,
64GB Ram, i7-6950X, GTX1080TI 11GB
http://vimeo.com/user2509578
User avatar
face
Octane Plugin Developer
Octane Plugin Developer
 
Posts: 3204
Joined: Sat Mar 06, 2010 2:10 pm
Location: Germany

Re: Material Editing in Sketchup.

Postby TIG » Wed Feb 08, 2012 11:30 am

TIG Wed Feb 08, 2012 11:30 am
Since a SKP cannot use anything 'clever' about a material - other than transparency 'Alpha' [which all current versions of Octane ignore when importing the MTL file's 'd' value anyway, requiring you to set transaprencies manually!] - then setting other potential material parameters within the SKP itself seems a little perverse.
You'd never get to view them until they appeared in the OCS anyway - where you can already set/adjust/view-the-results of these parameters at will...
Building an Octane-Material-Editor that ran within Sketchup would not be a simple task, and whilst Octane runs outside of the SKP, accepting only OBJ/MTL/TextureImageFiles files' data, it would seem a somewhat futile exercise to consider making it...
TIG
User avatar
TIG
Licensed Customer
Licensed Customer
 
Posts: 536
Joined: Wed May 12, 2010 1:25 pm

Re: Material Editing in Sketchup.

Postby cyb » Thu Feb 09, 2012 3:04 pm

cyb Thu Feb 09, 2012 3:04 pm
It works in for Indigo. you should check it out.
There is additional information that can be stored with skp file that is not immediately visible in Sketchup, but helps you set up the scene before you export.
cyb
Licensed Customer
Licensed Customer
 
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu Sep 02, 2010 7:03 pm

Re: Material Editing in Sketchup.

Postby TIG » Thu Feb 09, 2012 3:42 pm

TIG Thu Feb 09, 2012 3:42 pm
I am aware of how some renderers allow 'material editing' within a SKP itself, although [as you agree] you can't see many of the affects of this editing until a renderer-window opens...
The 'simple' way to do this is that a dialog opens allowing you to choose from a list a material that's been used in the SKP and then adjust its additional 'properties', perhaps adding 'glossiness' settings and so on.
When you OK the edit the SKP's material appears unchanged; however, it has been given hidden attributes defining all of these additional properties.
When you export the material into "the renderer" as part of the process, as well as the typical material's RGB/A/Texture_image_file data etc the renderer material attributes are also read, interpreted and included. In the case of an OCS the OBJ's MTL file defining the materials could hold several additional values, for 'glossiness' etc that would then be read in by Octane too... BUT considering the current issues in getting even a material's 'alpha' to 'crossover' successfully [although it is already specified in the MTL code 'd' values] it all seems somewhat academic.

I CAN see that if one day Octane is made to open within the SKP itself and it is therefore more 'seamless' ... then a 'built-in' material-editor could be very useful... Just not 'now'.
TIG
User avatar
TIG
Licensed Customer
Licensed Customer
 
Posts: 536
Joined: Wed May 12, 2010 1:25 pm

Re: Material Editing in Sketchup.

Postby cyb » Thu Feb 09, 2012 4:01 pm

cyb Thu Feb 09, 2012 4:01 pm
Got it. Thanks.
cyb
Licensed Customer
Licensed Customer
 
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu Sep 02, 2010 7:03 pm

Return to SketchUp


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 4 guests

Tue Mar 19, 2024 9:59 am [ UTC ]