Maxwell Render

You will find links below for my SketchUp materials (SKM) that will allow you to texture in SketchUp (as you normally would with any SketchUp material), but automatically have the high-resolution Arroway MXM materials appear in your Maxwell renders. The MXM files that these SKM materials are linked to should be downloaded here: http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=38473

Follow the directions on that thread -- the versions you'll need to make this work are the "Relative Tiling" sets.

Those MXM's should be installed into the following folders on your system (create the structure if it does not exist):

C:\Program Files\Next Limit\Maxwell 2\materials database\mxm files\arroway_v2\Full Rez\Concrete
C:\Program Files\Next Limit\Maxwell 2\materials database\mxm files\arroway_v2\Full Rez\Edition-1
C:\Program Files\Next Limit\Maxwell 2\materials database\mxm files\arroway_v2\Full Rez\Wood-Flooring
C:\Program Files\Next Limit\Maxwell 2\materials database\mxm files\arroway_v2\Full Rez\Tiles
C:\Program Files\Next Limit\Maxwell 2\materials database\mxm files\arroway_v2\Full Rez\Stonework
C:\Program Files\Next Limit\Maxwell 2\materials database\mxm files\arroway_v2\Full Rez\Wood-1
C:\Program Files\Next Limit\Maxwell 2\materials database\mxm files\arroway_v2\Full Rez\Wood-2
C:\Program Files\Next Limit\Maxwell 2\materials database\mxm files\arroway_v2\Full Rez\Wood-3

Here are the download links for the SKM sets:

Concrete
Edition-1
Wood-Flooring
Tiles
Stonework
Wood-1
Wood-2
Wood-3

Install these in your SketchUp materials folder.

These SKM materials will work in both the Stand-Alone and Render Suite versions of the plugin, however there are some platform specific issues to be aware of:

On the Mac OS version of SketchUp saved material libraries do not retain links to MXMs -- so in order to use these materials on a Mac you will need to do the following:

1) Enable "Auto-MXM"
2) Add a search path for the folder(s) where the MXMs are located.

If you have any older versions of these materials from me already, please delete the old version and install these instead -- these are newer and better.


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

awesome stuff Jason. I hope arroway sent you a t-shirt or something for your effort

-Brodie

Hey Brodie! Long time no see -- I hope things are going well in the new digs.

I could not have done it without the work of excellent testers, and alot of help from the people at Maxwell and Arroway.

I'll tell you though, the best thing I got out of this project was a greater understanding of just how powerful and useful PyMaxwell really is...

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

Hello Jason.
thank you very much...it was huge task...somehow Skp materials still don't translate to hi-res when exported to Studio.I did name paths in Studio preferences.Jason, looks like i am bit dumb but when should one use Real scale /Relative tiling...what is the difference.
all the best now and thank you for all that work.
tony

Hi Tony,

RealScale is for when you have normalized UV's (1 m x 1m) like you can create within Maxwell Studio -- it is of limited usefulness to SketchUp users because SketchUp creates the UVs at the texture size you specify in the SKM material.

Relative tiling (the MXED default) when set to 1 x 1 will allow for the material tiling to adapt itself to whatever UV's SketchUp has created.

So you should always use the Relative tiling Arroway MXMs when working in SketchUp.

If you are having any trouble with Auto MXM then maybe JD can help there, but it should "just work"...

The idea with Auto MXM is that it searches the paths you provide to find any MXMs that have the exact same name as the SketchUp materials and automatically replaces them at render time -- this is a very old technique and one that almost did not make it into the new version of the plugin, but it is a good thing it did because the Mac Version of SketchUp is broken in regards to reading custom SKM data (which we would need to read SKM files with linked MXMs). On the PC version of SketchUp this is not an issue.

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

The problem is, I don't know what this means:


Are Jason's materials showing up as being linked to their related MXM files, if you inspect them in the plugin's material editor? If not, then you need to:

1. Add a search path, in Options > Search Paths.
2. Enable Auto MXM in the Output > Export.

The reason is: if the plugin does not know of the existence of the MXM file, it cannot write the MXM file's data into your MXS file. Since you are having a problem, we are assuming you are on Mac OSX.

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Next Limit Team

hello guys...thanks for your help....today I have installed Max 2.6.10 and new plugin for Skp....when trying to export from Skp to Studio, message is "Maxwell Studio was not found"
???
maybe you can help
thanks
tony

## textures are somehow still not linked to hi-res mxm

I still don't know if you are on Mac OSX or not. If so, what happens if you double-click an MXS file in Finder? If it does not open Maxwell Render or Maxwell Studio, then you need to fix that first:

1. empty the trash
2. re-boot the machine
3. open Finder and locate an MXS file
4. right-click the MXS and choose Open With
5. click Other...
6. browse to your Maxwell 2 directory
7. check the "Always Open With" box
8. choose Maxwell.app or Studio.app

Then test whether it worked; sometimes it doesn't. For the plugin to find Studio or Maxwell, though, it is necessary that Finder thinks they open with one of those. So check this first and let me know if it helps.

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Next Limit Team

sorry, yes, I;m on Mac...I have done it in meantime(found same directions in manual), and have restarted computer, but Skp can not find Studio, still. I can open Studio and Max Render from desktop, no problems,
thanks
t

Well, something isn't right, because the plugin asks Finder in order to learn the location of Studio. So to be perfectly clear, I am not talking about starting Studio/Maxwell from the desktop -- one of them needs to open automatically when you double-click on an MXS file in Finder. Do I understand correctly that this is the case?

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Next Limit Team

yes, just rebooted again,double clicked on mxi file on desktop, it opens with Maxwell...as it always did, and to open mxs,I right-click and choose studio.
there is no problem after upgrading to 2.6.10.......only Skp plugin (which I have installed today-upgraded version...I can see new Fire icons) cannot find Studio nor Max render.
I will go to sleep now...it's 5,20 am...maybe it will work tomorrow?
thanks again
tony

MXS files (MXI do not matter) need to open in Maxwell or Studio by double-click.

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Next Limit Team

Yes, MXS opens in Maxwell by double click.....

just one think, may be relevant...I have installed new plugin 2 or 3 times....thinking that my solve the problem.

You can try that, but I see no logical reason for it to make any difference. It just seems like OSX is behaving randomly, which is not too strange, in my experience.

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Next Limit Team