4 replies to this topic

[Mikio Nakashima]

Hi everyone!

 

I wanted to see if anyone else was having this issue when exporting a 3d drawing.

 

I go through the standard export to sketchup from a 3d view and once I've opened it in sketchup many of the faces have been reversed in the 3d model.

 

The textured view looks ok out of sketchup but the monochrome face view is a different story and manipulating the 3d object for export to other programs is impossible without manually flipping each face (not possible with the time I have.)

 

Does anyone else have a work around to get a model with all the right faces pointing out in the mesh ? Alternately has anyone run into this and reported it as well?

 

Thanks for the help in advance.

 

Regards,

[Keith Almond]

I've never come across it, but there again, I normally don't use sketchup textures, and always add Softplan textures. If you re-texture it in Softplan, wouldn't that solve your problems as Softplan's textures are applied to ALL faces, inside and out.

[Mikio Nakashima]

I've never come across it, but there again, I normally don't use sketchup textures, and always add Softplan textures. If you re-texture it in Softplan, wouldn't that solve your problems as Softplan's textures are applied to ALL faces, inside and out.

Hey Keith,

 

Thanks for the response. The textures in sketch up work well enough out of softplan. The trouble I'm running into is when I attempt to export the model into any other work flow for 3d modelling, printing and HD rendering.

 

Unreal engine for example has a horrible time with the model and ends up with transparent faces/ and dark windows. I wonder if anyone else if having luck exporting a softplan model in to an HD rendering software.

[Paul James]

I've had problems with this- not sure if it's the same issue. I export to 3ds and bring it into Blender.
The problem is most noticeable with window glass in certain situations, something about the surface or normals makes it render incorrectly and look odd.

[Mikio Nakashima]

Hey Gang,

 

Just wanted to give an update as I have been working through this problem for some time.

 

Softplan while exporting to Sketchup does not always properly place the normal of the face. Each exported mesh is created with a face that is meant to be seen and one that isn't. Some items are flat planes and thus will always have a visible face that won't be rendered. 

 

For the most part Sketchup does not have an issue with this particular problem because sketch up (like softplan) can take a flat face and apply the texture to both sides. Many rendering programs don't like this as they usually don't render the hidden face. Thus why your glass in blender looks funny, it is visible only from one side and not the other as it is created in softplan as a single plane without any depth. 

 

I've found some success by simply being careful as to what symbols and walls I export from softplan as a means to keep the flipped faces to a minimum. I'm also working on a couple different workflows to correct the issues I am running into. If anyone is interested send me a PM and I'll send over some details.

 

The fix from softplan would be to give items like glass in windows or gutters some depth (IE two sides)  but at the cost of more mesh when rendering. 

 

A slightly off topic gripe, I would love when exporting out of softplan to sketchup to get a better list and hierarchy  of the items being rendered. The DWG01-001 nomenclature is not helpful in identifying what items belong to what groups. Even if all the walls were grouped together under a wall heading, then electrical, then symbols any required processing would be made much much easier. Currently I don't have the patience to go through the 600 components being exported and change all the names.