Railworks America

Hi everyone,

I have put this information on trainSim.com and thought I should put it here as well.

I haven't seen this posted under RW categories so here goes.

I have been fairly succesfull in creating buildings with Google Sketchup (without textures) and then transfering them in 3D Canvas.

What you will need for this, should be interested in trying it out, is a plugin called "LTplus sketchUP PlugIN". The current version is v9.1 and it works really well with GS7.

You have to install it in GS7 main directory by double-clicking the ".exe" file.

The plug in can be found here: http://www.icad2000.de/

It is under the Download section, 3rd item in the list.

Once you are ready to export your object, click on "Plugins" in GS, then choose LTplus AI... and use the DXF Converter. 3DC can read DXF files and it's not a problem.

Hopefully, this will get stickied has I've been searching for quite a while to find something like this!

Cheers,
Christian

P.S.: My knowledge of 3DC is very limited at the present time, so if you have problems, I won't be able to help you! Sorry!

Will this work to export to Blender as well?

Well Blender can import .dxf so I assume so.

Both Blender and 3d crafter import the objects as both STL's and DXF's. The STL import may have less faces than DXF. Having done STL from ProEngineer, it only contains the outside surfaces.

Harold

EDIT: The DXF only has the outside surfaces also. The hidden surfaces from Sketchup are eliminated. That is a plus.

Of course, there is a easier way, one I discovered.

First you will have to export from sketchup in the Collada form (DAE)

And then you import it into Blender. You then select File and export your model as a 3DS file. Make sure you delete the little man and the automatic cube genergated by Blender.

You can then simply import it into 3D Canvas.

This is so far the easiest way I know of.

P.S, this is how I get a building from Google Sketchup and then into 3D Canvas/Crafter.



Sincerely jpetersjr

jpetersjr wrote:Of course, there is a easier way, one I discovered.

First you will have to export from sketchup in the Collada form (DAE)

And then you import it into Blender. You then select File and export your model as a 3DS file. Make sure you delete the little man and the automatic cube genergated by Blender.

You can then simply import it into 3D Canvas.

This is so far the easiest way I know of.

P.S, this is how I get a building from Google Sketchup and then into 3D Canvas/Crafter.

Sincerely jpetersjr

Do you think you could add a step-by-step tutorial on this topic when you have the time? I see lots of good models in the Sketchup warehouse that are screaming for export into RW.

Thanks,
Trevor

Those of course don't export right, you have to make your own. Every time I tried to bring a model from the sketchup library it just ended up busted. So I don't see any sense in even trying to bring something over from that library.

I've read here and other places how you have to export models created in Google Sketchup to a certain format, then import that file into a program like 3D Canvas. Not knowing why, I have to wonder why models created in Google Sketchup cannot be exported into the shape files Rail Works? Back in my MSTS days, I was able to use an export function created by Paul Gausden that would convert Google Sketchup objects into MSTS shape files. For me it seems odd that you not only have to take the time to learn Google Sketchup, you'd also have to learn another program like 3D Canvas. Won't it be easier just to create everything in 3D Canvas or Blender, instead of having to jump through multiple hoops? But I guess the bottom line is, since I already know Google Sketchup my question is; Is there something special about Rail Works shape files, that prohibits someone from creating a export function for Google Sketchup that will create a Rail Works shape file?

Regards,
Rich S.

Well, sketchup allows you to make something like a building easier and closer to prototype look. But appears to not be very good for building rolling stock.

I don't know why they won't make it where you can export directly from sketchup to Railworks, but I doubt they ever will.

If you tried to build buildings in crafter it would be much harder and take longer to learn how to build a decent model.

And about the last question, I think a export function could be created, "if" someone knew how. If they could create something to make the shape file igs they might be able to get it through, that is, might.

jpetersjr wrote:Well, sketchup allows you to make something like a building easier and closer to prototype look.

Easier, yes, but you can build a building just as prototypical in 3DC as you can in Sketchup.

Closer, is false. It's just the same as others. Easier, possible.

jpetersjr wrote:Well, sketchup allows you to make something like a building easier and closer to prototype look. But appears to not be very good for building rolling stock.

I don't know why they won't make it where you can export directly from sketchup to Railworks, but I doubt they ever will.

If you tried to build buildings in crafter it would be much harder and take longer to learn how to build a decent model.

And about the last question, I think a export function could be created, "if" someone knew how. If they could create something to make the shape file igs they might be able to get it through, that is, might.

I have just found out a plug-in exporter has been created for Trainz. It can reduce polys,export the textures,and create a file to make the asset ready to use. SO I have to believe someone with Ruby script experience could do the same thing for Railworks.Yes I know there is a lot of time and effort involved. But think how easily new scenery item could be brought into RW. I would love to be making assets for RW,but am a bit intimidated by trying to learn another modeling program,blender 3d crafter..... Sketchup is ridiculously easy to use ,and I wonder if there is a way to get this idea in front of a developer. The Trainz version is free,but I would be willing to pay for a good plug-in that could do this for RW.
.http://www.dhobh.net/trainz/GoogleSketchUp/RubyTMIX.htm

Well, the biggest problem resides in the textures, Railworks requires a specific sized texture to work other wards it will crash the blueprint. A bmp format is only one of the formats that you can use to create your texture for Railworks, the program 3d Crafter Pro will take that texture and turn it into the needed Ace texture for Railworks.

I've found 3D Crafter to be easier to texture the model then to try to texture it in sketchup. I also haven't been able to get the sketchup textures to work without trying to texture the entire model in that one texture.

The Sketchup to 3D Crafter route seems only good for fairly simple models, less than 2000 faces or so. Once over that, 3D Crafter is very slow. I am working on a model with exterior and interior polygons so that you can see beams and such as well as 8 windows on each side of the model. This causes 3d Crafter to be so slow as to be almost unusable. I imported the object created originally in Sketchup into 3DS and am able to work with it quite well, however I am still learning as to how to apply textures and group things so that I can successfully export it to Railworks.

With some help from some members here in another thread http://railworksamerica.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=7249&start=15 I have now successfully imported and worked with my model in 3D Crafter. Thanks to all