Would SketchUp Make (Google) work for Trainz?

Did someone say "Sketchup to Blender to Trainz Tutorial? Never fear, TomixNscale89 has already done it! Here is the video!


I followed the tutorial and was able to reduce the model by 1000s of polygons but I can't export it, I keep getting the message that export failed, check blender console window. I even tried exporting just the start up cube when blender opens and the same error. Can't find any helpful google pages on it either, can anyone help? I have the file saved as a blender file if someone wants to try. I am just curious to see how it effects my TS12 route in play.
 
That is also true of Max. If its not textured it wont show up in Trainz, and yes I know that from experience - Ive tried it :) Trainz actually like the model but wont produce anything on screen as it has nothing to show.
 
I followed the tutorial and was able to reduce the model by 1000s of polygons but I can't export it, I keep getting the message that export failed, check blender console window. I even tried exporting just the start up cube when blender opens and the same error. Can't find any helpful google pages on it either, can anyone help? I have the file saved as a blender file if someone wants to try. I am just curious to see how it effects my TS12 route in play.

One asset prob ably won't make that much difference but when a scene has many assets that are a thousand polys rather than 70 polys then it really has an impact.

Cheerio John
 
One asset prob ably won't make that much difference but when a scene has many assets that are a thousand polys rather than 70 polys then it really has an impact.

Cheerio John

I did notice that for the silo right hand wall SU used about 20 polys, some of them just a sliver. I tried manually deleting them in B. but was unable. Still through deleting doubles etc I was able to reduce a huge amount but I am a show me kind of guy, I want to see how my system chugs with it on the route.
 
You only need 5% of Blender for Trainz so books like Bender for dummies give you too much information. It really is better to use the Trainz specific Blender tutorials that are floating around.

TC-ccg content creators whatever page 348 gives the max poly count as 300 for a large building by the way. TS12 is more forgiving.

Cheerio John
 
The link I gave earlier can get you up and running fairly quick. The guy is a high school teacher teacher and lays it out very well. One week following him and I got a good grasp of the program. Watch his downloadable videos. Good stuff.
 
The problem I have found with video tutorials is a lot of it is "click here, here and here" rather quickly. I checked out that link and spotted the PDFs but was disappointed when his very first pdf, yellow submarine, is already finished which makes me wonder why it is 01-01.

I would rather be able to flip through a book to find what I need then try to locate it in a video myself, and if I am going to learn it then I might as well learn it correctly. I only gave up on SU because I can't get my model to UL, keep getting script errors.
 
Im not sure how far you went into looking at that first tutorial of the yellow submarine. But when I looked at it just - yes it does show the completed object but then goes through a fairly detailed explanation of how he got to that point.
 
I just looked at 01-01, perhaps that was sort of an introduction. Anyway, the Blender for Dummies is not a very good book so I checked out the first 4 vids from Blender and I have been able to get things going. I just have to find out if there is a measuring too like a tape measure in it like SU has. I know of putting in the dimensions but I found I could use a tape measure too. Also, is there a way to force all objects to sit on the ground at the same level? For instance, I created the main building and moved it up to be flat with the grid, if I create another cube it will be below the first building and the only way I have found so far it to use the Z axis to manually move it.

I will take a look at the next PDF in the series.

***Ok, that is strange, I went back to the yellow submarine pdf and this time there were a ton of pages to it, when I checked it out before there was only about 6 pages, very stange***
 
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Finally got my RP exported to Trainz using SU, it ran well but the green siding didn't have any detail and the silver silos were white instead. Will have to check and see what I did wrong. On the bright side, there was no more stuttering than normal which isn't too often on my machine, but enough to be annoying. Still going to finish the model in Blender for comparison.

Sketchup version of Richardson Pioneer.

7e53913a2bchris750_20140307_0000.jpg
 
<snip> I just have to find out if there is a measuring too like a tape measure in it like SU has. I know of putting in the dimensions but I found I could use a tape measure too. </snip>

There is a rudimentary tool in Blender 2.69 called "Ruler/Protractor" at the bottom of the Object Tools panel (Hotkey "T" for that panel). I find it a little maddening to work with, but it may be of assistance to you. The documentation for it is here.

BTW, your building/silos look good to me. :)

Andrew
 
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I saw the protractor, didn't know it was a ruler too, thanks. I noticed on real closeup the green does have texture, but the silver silos keep coming out white and my sign disappears. Thanks for the compliment though.
 
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