Make more out of your sketch - the LUMION connection

[admin]

Although AREAL3D produces simple elements only,
there are many different materials implemented and defined, so further usage in some vis-programs can produce nice 'on top' effects and results.

I personaly like the output of LUMION (by ACT3D)


1. Materials

You get extremely good and quick results after the first import, when you have a predefined material table prepared / available in lumion.

But:
Lumion imports only materials used in your entirely loaded sketchup file.
Reloading a lumion material set, when new materials were imported, overwrites edited lumion materials, if you do not work very carefully during the import procedure.

To achieve a full compatibility with all your AREAL3D materials (incl. not applied ones),
AREAL3D offers a special function for creating a MATERIAL TABLE containing all project materials.

This table allows lumion to import all materials from the predefined material set, even if they are not used in the active model at the moment (using 1 face as a dummy for each material).
Additional (already existing) AREAL materials can now be applied in sketchup and will already have a LUMION-material after reimport. Edited materials will remain as they are, since no reimport of the LUMION-material set is necessary.

If you redefine your standard materials in Lumion, do not forget to save a new material file, again containing all assigned materials.


2. Elements & THE NODE FILES

The node file import in lumion allows to import a collection of components and replace them either by a tree or by a light object.

For this, AREAL3D can export trees and lights in so called 'node files', separated by category and exporting all used elements with one click to separate node files (trees and lights and (!) user-defined components).
We have 9 tree categories and 9 light categories as well as 9 user defined elements.
Now you can import file by file into lumion and apply separate objects there per imported node file.

Then, if you want to change your elements, delete them in lumion and reimport a new node file.
If the terrain changed, simply adapt all elements again. For this it can be useful to collect trees and lights to a separate layer.


The node file export offers some advantages, if you want to show your trees and lights in both, sketchup and lumion, at same positions.

EDIT:


Check also the point-cloud export/import in AREAL3D, where groups of elements can be saved and reimported in other sketchup projects.