DLVP and Exporting to Sketchup

[John Meunier]

Ok, I have no idea what the workaround here is going to lead to but I'll explain the problem.

Some history first:

The job is a 105 unit multifamily site with 5 different unit types each type has 3 different styles, different colours. The different units are arranged to form 34 buildings.

There are 4 vectorworks files:

1) DP Common contains the title block wich the layer is referanced into each other file.

2) DP Unit plans contains the unit floor plans for every type and style

3) DP Block Plans contains the block plans which are referenced DLVP from the unit plans, as well as the roof plan

4) DP site Plan and Sections contains topographic information as well as DLVP to create a complete site plan with roads, roofs, buildings, all that fun jazz.

The Problem:

I want to export the site plan with all of the data, roof plan floor plans roads and topo information into sketchup to do some renderings. The site plan exports all fine and dandy, however the DLVP which make up the main Floor, second Floor and roof plan do not export the way I need them to. When exported as 3ds the DLVP just don't export, when exported as a DWG, VW exports them as individual DWG files. For example, the site has 105 units so on the main floor the is 105 VP on the second Floor there is 105 VP on the roof plan there is 34 VP because there is 34 Blocks.

Aside from exporting each unit and editing in sketchup then positioning on the site and so on, basically redrawing 2-weeks of work, I was wondering if any one has a work around for this?

Thanks for any ideas, I will elaborate if need be.

PS I have attached an Image file showing a wireframe outline of the entire site for clarification.

[Kevin McAllister]

If you have one file that everything is referenced into, you could try saving it as a new version and then deleting the references. When you delete references, Vectorworks gives you the option to keep the referenced information in the file. This should give you a single file containing your entire project if I'm not mistaken. This file could then be exported to Sketchup.

KM

[IanH]

Have you looked at Piranesi?. You appear to have all the 3D info you need so exporting it to Piranesi either via epix or dxf/vedute then hand painting it will, IMHO, unless you want many different views, will give the possibility of better final results.

Many people use Sketchup as a modeller to Piranesi, in fact, probably 90% of the Piranesi gallery will have been done this way. Using Vectorworks as a modeller and Sketchup as a renderer seems counter intuitive to me, although I do accept that there is an additional cost, slightly more than Google Professional, involved with Piranesi.

There is a low resolution (800x600) trial version with limited textures and props available on the Piranesi website. Learning Piranesi takes probably a day experimenting to produce the first sketch. Its then substantially faster once you have it sussed - I spend about an hour per 'render' when I need to produce a client image. If you can use Photoshop, you can easily adjust to using Piranesi.

Edited November 11, 2009 by IanH

[MacG3Freak]

My suggestion is making a duplicate version of your VW files, and converting everything in the files to polygons. Then export the files to 3DS with textures.

And I'm not sure why you'd want to use Sketchup as a renderer, Renderworks is the same renderer that's in Cinema 4D and besides PIXAR's RenderMan is probably the best one out there. Definitely the best for the money.

[John Meunier]

Thank-You for your suggestion,

I want to use Sketchup because of its "sketchy look" there is a almost childish quality to it that makes for an interesting image.

I will look into Piranesi as a render.

I guess the only course of action to get the file into google skectchup though is to import the base units and reposition and redraw the 3d site.

Thnaks

John

[MacG3Freak]

use Sketchup because of its "sketchy look"

It is possible to get a similar look from Renderworks look at my file, you can get them even closer, but I did it in about 2 minutes.