Sketch up to BTB help

[graham027]

I am trying to use Google sketch up to create pit buildings, and then use these on bobs track builder however i am a complete novice with all of this and not sure how to do it, if possible could someone please post a step by step guide, or video that would be sooo helpful! I noticed a few tutorials had been posted on here a year or 2 ago but i cant access them now so maybe someone saved them?

Thanks in advance, Graham

 

[R Soul]

Someone made a some videos for sketchup 6:
http://simtrackipedia.wikidot.com/objects:sketchup-to-btb

Note that after bringing the object into XPacker, the author swaps the textures. Sketchup does something awful. When you load textures, it uses copies that get renamed to boring things like texture0, texture1 etc. That's fine if you only use one object, but if you import a second object, that will also have textures called texture0, texture1 etc. In Sketchup, XPacker and BTB that's fine because each set of textures are stored in separate folders, but when you export to rFactor, RBR etc, there will only be one file called texture0, and one file called texture1.

 

[Jakub Sulej]

1. make object in sketchup
2. export 3D as google earth 4 (*.kmz)
3. unpack folder (*.kmz). Only models and images into one folder
4. open Xpacker. Name your Xpack, save
5. add object (from your object folder)
6. If you want write properietes etc.
7. go into materials, "add from textures", put textures from "images" folder
8. start replacing old materials into same, but dds. files. (Replace, next click pick)
9. Change your materials properietes
10. export Xpack into BTB

Hope everything is clear, but I'm not sure of it, it is easier than it looks:wink:

 

[graham027]

Thats great thank you, i now have an error message but will try to work out why.

 

[Jakub Sulej]

the video is way better than my tutorial:tongue:

Dont read what I wrote before, because you will be lost!

 

[graham027]

I now get this error message. Thanks for the help so far!

See the end of this message for details on invoking
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.


************** Exception Text **************
System.Exception: TODO: mesh parts have different vertex buffer definition
at BobsBits.Collada.Conditioner.Reindexor(Document doc)
at BTBXPacker.frmXPacker.ImportDAE(String Filename)
at BTBXPacker.frmXPacker.butObjectAdd_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnClick(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnClick(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mevent)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Button.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

 

[QuadCoreMax]

Interesting output, had the same message when importing collada DAE files, which I haven't be able to import to Xpacker yet. If someone knows, how to import directly with a DAE file, let us know with a little tutorial !

If you load that dae file from kmz into 3DSim & then just re-export as 3DS, you shouldn't have any problems with Xpacker. Uh, ugly, I'm working with Maya & BTB & lately, get bored of not being able to communicate with BTB directly...

 

[ebrich]

Hi graham027. This is the tutorial that I followed with success, eventually. I wouldn't try this on a project already under way but make a Test project and test Xpack etc which when things don't go the way intended, can be deleted. Looks like you could scroll down to 'Select File > Export > 3D Model.
I export to GTL (EVO) and dont have any problems with .PNG files but if your using PRO then it looks like you will have to change .PNG for .DDS Textures. Good tutorial from R Soul's reply.
Let us know if you have any problems. Dont forget --Sketchup 6 -- export as Google Earth 4 (*.KMZ)
View attachment Sketchup to BTB.7z

Sorry its a bit squashed but the original is a pdf and to big. It was written by Biggles1212. and is a lot clearer. Its called "Making Objects For BTB".

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

It's faster to change to .PNG to .DDS with notepad and using Replace All (png -> dds). This of course requires that the DDS has the same name as the PNGs and resides in the correct folder.. For me it works as my PNGs always has DDS copies, just a part of workflow. And i feel that windows explorer is faster and easier to copy files from one directory to another than doing it one by one.. Latter is less accidentprone but slower.

png works on all levels, BTB and game but it doesn't have mipmaps. DDS is more optimized for GPUs than JPG, BMP or PNG (well not sure about BMPs, there could be memory issues... uncompressed anyway should be faster but that's offtopic..)

It would be possible to make a script that does that all automatically (edits the XML, replaces png with dds and keeps the folder structure, all in one go..)

 

[maxrod]

Export all objects from google sketchup 3dsfiles all textures need to be changed to dds as can use photoshop or simed, they can be changed when creating the xpack in materials, add from textures then replace, the best way is to try and build a test track as if this is done wrong you can have problems, don't name two different textures the same name, you can open up a xpack by unzipping it then put it back into the xpack folder, this will give an idea of how it was done.