Maxwell Render

My apologies for this duplicate posting (I posted this in the Sketchup forum by acciwdent).
I just bought some Arroway textures and have downloaded Jason Maranto's MXMs. I must be doing something wrong, because when I open any of the MXMs, MXED tells me it can't find ANY of the textures. The dialogue says Texture not found, then gives me the path it expects the texture to live on.

It refers to a C drive for a start - I'm using a Mac, is that a problem? At first I thought I could work round this by directing the application to the location of the missing files, but that didn't work..

MXED specifically asks if I want to find a replacement, rather than look for the file somewhere else other than at the end of the expected path. I find that confusing. Has this something to do with the way MXMs are created?

Do the textures have to be on the same drive as the operating system?

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Mac Pro early 2008; 8 core 3.2GHz; OS 10.6.8
24 GbRAM

Where are you putting the MXMs? They should reside in the same folder as the textures -- if they do then Maxwell should automatically find the textures, unless the texture names are different (which can happen since Arroway changed their naming conventions in the past) or the file format is different (meaning these MXM's are meant to be used with the full-rez PNG files, not the half-rez JPG files).

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

I've copied all the maps and your MXMs to the desktop in the same folder. All the MXMs and the maps are in the same folder. I click on an MXMS and I get the same dialog as described above. JIt always refers to a path. Is this a Mac/PC issue perhaps?

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Mac Pro early 2008; 8 core 3.2GHz; OS 10.6.8
24 GbRAM

Sorry about the typos. I hope you understand the post.

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Mac Pro early 2008; 8 core 3.2GHz; OS 10.6.8
24 GbRAM

I see in your first post you specified MXED -- alright try this:

In MXED and Maxwell Studio go to: File>Preferences and choose Materials>Textures and add a path to the network folder(s) where the textures are.

Likewise, in the SketchUp plugin you will need to go to the "Options" tab and choose the "Search Paths" section to add a path to the network folder(s) where the textures are.

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

Hi Jason, thank you. I did try that in prefs, Folder 2. Pointed that to the maps folder which also contains the MXMs. Still the same dialog...

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Mac Pro early 2008; 8 core 3.2GHz; OS 10.6.8
24 GbRAM

Are you sure you have the correct name/file format for those textures? Give me an example of one of the texture names you have (eg: "concrete-004_b005.png").

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

Maybe I should post the exact details as an example.

I try to open arroway_pavement 01.mxm created 4th April 2012

Maxwell says it can't find the texture. C:\Program files\Next Limit\Maxwell 2\materials database\mxm files\arroway_v2\Arroway full rez\Pavement\pavement-01_b030.png

Used in material arroway_pavement 01

Do you want to find a replacement?

I locate the first file. It's an arroway file, one off the DVDs that arrived yesterday. Same result.

I examined the files again and it turns out the texture I have is called pavement+01_b030.

Is that why it's not working??? But wouldn't MXED just replace the desired file with the 'new' one?

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Mac Pro early 2008; 8 core 3.2GHz; OS 10.6.8
24 GbRAM

No, the names must match exactly... I would recommend a bulk rename utility but all the ones I use are PC only -- hopefully another Mac user can step in and give you a link to a good Mac app for renaming a bunch of files quickly.

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

I'll rename a set of maps for one of your MXMs and hopefully that will stop me going insane! Fiddly work...wouldn't want to rename incorrectly!

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Mac Pro early 2008; 8 core 3.2GHz; OS 10.6.8
24 GbRAM

just dump the mxm's into the same folder as the textures. That way things always work out. At first I thought it was a bit of a crazy idea but actually it does not matter really. You can specify the folder in the search path option in the plugin. Since I did this I never have a texture not found.
Francois

Francois, I did this. The main problem is the files' names are inconsistent, not exactly the same syntax. Not sure why, as I downloaded the Arroways and also tried the files off the DVDs. Jason says he used the latest textures in his MXMs...

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Mac Pro early 2008; 8 core 3.2GHz; OS 10.6.8
24 GbRAM

I suppose it is possible the naming conventions have changed again, but I've never seen any normal Arroway texture with a "+" in the name...

It's worth checking to make sure you are not attempting to use these MXM's with the free Arroway "samples" that you can download from the Maxwell portal -- those textures won't work properly for a variety of reasons (most notably because they are half-rez jpegs, not png files).

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

I'll check in the morning with the DVDs and the downloads. The maps are definitely png files. Created 2004. Renaming the textures/maps has at least solved one problem - the MXMs do load!

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Mac Pro early 2008; 8 core 3.2GHz; OS 10.6.8
24 GbRAM

Yes you need to rename some of the arroway files according to the mxm paths...
arroway has modified twice the rules of naming in its textures...Edition 1 dvd needs to be renamed, and also I think concrete ( forgot, but the second DVD they made).
I have used a renaming utility to match the names exactly as the names the mxm's are looking for and not works good...
the only bummer i have ( asked the question without success further in the forum a few days ago) is that the program files folder in windows 7 pro is not accessible from any software ( renaming utility and mxed) to write directly in them ( admin protection, even when you are an admin!)....this means you need to work in another folder, then copy what you've done in program files.
if anyone has a clue how to solve it!
Nils

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