What’s happening ladies and gentlemen,
this is Minh from Architecture Inspirations.
Today, I’m going to show you a plugin
for importing 3D models into Sketchup.
Let’s get started
If you’ve tried to import 3D models into Sketchup before,
then you’ll know that it’s not as easy as it seems.
Because there are so many problems
For example, it could be because the model you want to import
is too heavy and it might crash
Or maybe you can import it
but it doesn’t come with any textures or materials
And sometimes you can’t even import it at all
because Sketchup doesn’t support formats
like OBJ and FBX
Well, there’s a new plugin that solves all of these issues
and makes importing 3D models into Sketchup
so much easier.
It’s called Transmutr.
Transmutr is a plugin that takes various 3D formats
such as fbx, obj, 3ds, and dae
and convert them to SketchUp files,
and make it ready for render softwares
such as Vray, Enscape and Thea
There are also other cool features
like geometry simplification
and Megascans integration
which I will go over in this video.
You can download a free trial
or buy Transmutr using this link here,
After you’ve installed the program,
you can launch it right inside of Sketchup
using this button here.
First you will see this window,
where you can open a model
that you want to import into Sketchup.
I can drag and drop a model here
or simply click this button.
After you’ve opened a model.
You can see the preview of it on the left side.
You can orbit by dragging the Middle Mouse button
and if you hold down shift at the same time,
then you can pan the model.
You can also Zoom in and out by scrolling the wheel.
And click this button here for Zoom Extents
You can see that the model is not oriented correctly.
So first I’m going to use the Up Axis option
and change it to make it correct.
I can also change the Origin of the model to Center,
Bottom Center, Top Center, or Default
Then I can also adjust the scale
using the Units Conversion
In this case, it looks like centimeters works best.
I can use the entourage here
as a reference to adjust the scale
Furthermore, change the scale using the Scale Multiplier.
While adjusting the scale,
I can look at the Stats section
to see the specific dimensions of the model.
Aletrnatively, I can manually edit the dimensions,
which will also affect the Scale Multiplier.
When I’m happy with it, I can click here
to transmute or convert it.
After it’s done converting,
the model will automatically be imported into Sketchup.
Here you can see that the model has lots edges,
so you can smooth it
by using the soften edges option inside of Sketchup.
Alternatively, you can specify a Smooth Angle
right inside of Transmutr.
For example, I’m going to set the smooth angle to 70
and transmute it.
As you can see, this time, when I import it,
it will automatically be smooth.
Now it’s ready for render.
Remember that Transmutr is compatible
with Enscape and Thea as well.
Another cool thing about Transmutr
is that it converts models with Render Ready Materials.
To look at the materials in the model,
I can go to the Materials tab.
Here I can click on each material
to see more of its settings.
Or I can also hover on the preview on the left,
and click on a material
to automatically show its parameters on the right.
If the original model comes with textures,
Transmutr will try to load the textures
and adjust its settings appropriately.
As you can see here,
my materials are imported with maps
such as diffuse, reflection, and normal
already loaded in the correct places.
So I can just render the model right after import.
Sometimes the model comes with textures
but it doesn’t load automatically for some reason.
If that’s the case,
then you can load it manually
by clicking on these buttons here
and just load in the appropriate texture maps.
There we go, looks pretty good.
Transmutr also has a really cool Mesh simplification feature.
Just move this slider to the right
to simplify the geometry of the model.
This will reduce the number of faces
while preserving the shape of the original object.
And you can look at the stats section
to see the number of faces or triangles
before and after it’s simplified.
This makes it super easy to import large objects
such as this huge mountain here.
By default,
Transmutr will convert the model at full-geometry mode,
but you also have the option to export proxies
for Vray, Thea, and Enscape. I’ll use Vray in this case.
And here,
you can choose the different types of placeholders for the proxy,
these include bounding box, face skipping, bill board.
After that, just export and import to Sketchup.
and it’s ready for render.
You can also use Skatter to distribute your proxies
and make a forest in an instance.
Finally, it’s the Megascans Integration.
If you have access to Megascans,
you can also load in any 3D object
using the direct link right inside of Transmutr
Just choose a Megascans Object that you want to use,
and click export.
Make sure this is set to Custom
and use the socket port number 24981,
Then just export it
and it will be imported directly into Transmutr.
Now just make adjustments and import to Sketchup.
As you guys can see,
Transmutr is just an amazing program
that makes it so much easier to import 3D files to Sketchup.
This will really improve the speed of your workflow
while expanding your 3D model library.
So be sure to get this program now by going to this link here.
And that’s all for today guys.
Leave a like if you enjoyed the video,
comment below if you have any questions.
Stay inspired guys, and I will see you
next time ;)