In Google SketchUp (free version, but check the licence!)
– Make sure normals face the right way.
– Try to keep faces as ‘quads’ rather than n’gons as SU’s triangulation on export is poor/unpredictable.
– Turn ‘view hidden geometry’ on, switch to wireframe view, select all, switch to shaded view and ‘hide’ the still-selected edges. This stops edges as well as faces being exported.
– Export KMZ, rename file ext. to ‘.zip’, unzip and locate the .dae file within.

In Blender (also free)
– Delete the default object. Use the newest collada importer on the .dae file and check Blender units match scale. Users often let 1 Blender unit = 1 metre.
– Import puts the model in a new ‘scene’. Go to the ‘shading’ and ‘world’ panel and make sure ‘WO:World’ (the default one) is selected. Now AO rendering is allowed again – whether for standard rendering or UV maps for realtime use. Next steps are just for realtime use:-
– Select the mesh, go into edit mode, press ‘u’ to UV unwrap the mesh with ‘unwrap (smart projections)’ – the most efficient for buildings/massing models. Here’s where SU’s poor triangulation can lead to inefficient or lower quality UV layouts.
– Split the main view panel to show ‘UV/Image Editor’ and create a new image using an OpenlGL friendly size.
– Finally… Use the ‘Bake render meshes’ to bake the ambient occlusion to this new image. Tweak AO quality setting as required, saving the resulting UV mapped image.
– If the interactive parts from the old ‘walkthrough.blend’ file are used, an interactive runtime file can be produced with gravity, ‘solid’ surfaces, mouse and keyboard controls. That’s where making sure the scale is correct pays off!

Check this Blender file to get an idea of its potential – the framerate of newer Blender versions (2.47) is much improved. Choose ‘start game’ to play it: http://www.archive.org/download/mikepanblendergameenginedemo_0/gt7a_packed.blend

If you’d like more or examples for a new blog article, post a reply with contact details and I’ll get in touch with you…

Sorbus

Using the same product for both modeling and rendering might ease the workflow. 🙂

Rendering SketchUp models with Kerkythea

http://www.alexschreyer.net/cad/rendering-sketchup-models-with-kerkythea/

Here’s a SU model of our workspace, Santa Fe Complex, rendered in Blender:
http://www.santafecomplex.org/SantaFeComplex_green.jpg

And here’s some Venice boats also modeled in SU and rendered in Blender:
http://www.redfish.com/Venice/Venice4BoatsRender.jpg

Relatedly, here’s a Venice building footprint GIS shapefile extruded and rendered in Blender:
http://www.redfish.com/Venice/VeniceCityScape_Blender.jpg

Skylights are still a little bit of a pain to set up in Blender…but it’s improving every month! We’re excited by the apricot.blender.org project to get improvements to Blender’s real-time game engine which should be helpful to DigitalUrban fans.