SketchUP Importer in 3d Studio Max 2010

While writing posts 9 SketchUP tips for better 3d modeling workflow & Making of ‘MS House’ at dusk, part 1 i refereed to the process of exporting SketchUP models as 3DS files to be imported into 3d Studio Max for more work and rendering. Today I’ve learned that Autodesk has released a new SketchUP importer for 3d Studio Max 2010 available for all their subscription holders. Boy, if ever i wanted to be a subscription holder it is now.

The thing is a never really found any incentive to upgrade from version 9. but since Autodesk did notify all the users about the termination of upgrades for 3d Studio Max 9 starting from March 16th 2010 – it is a good time to upgrade regardless.

They posted a video presentation about it which shows it all, but to sum up the highlights :

• Support for the double-faced materials workflow available in SketchUp, so arbitrary surface orientations don’t cause models to appear to be missing faces when displayed in 3ds Max.
• Preservation of original pivot and scaling values of objects and instances.
• Consolidation of material references. Multiple uses of the same SketchUp material are collected and referenced back to a single material, saving revision time.
• Automatic creation of MR materials and MR Daylight system correlated to the SketchUP model.

This is a smart move by Autodesk supporting the very popular SketchUP and actually allow for the use of the free version of SketchUP since the importing is done on the 3d Studio Max side this time by reading the SKP file directly.

check out the video presentation for this new importer