Ever since Datasmith for SketchUp was introduced, I've had issues with the scale of materials. Not always the overall scale, but sometimes the scale on a single axis too. I was hoping it was fixed with the Max UV option in the new TM, but alas! Time to report it :-)
To demonstrate here is a basic model from SketchUp 2022 on the right, and TM on the left. I have also added a 1m³ primitive to the TM model for reference. This is imported via datasmith link, with all options set to their defaults.
The pink wall in SketchUp is just a colour, no texture applied. The wooden recess is just a standard SketchUp timber material.
In TM I have dragged 3 different instances of the same TM brick material. As you can see, the UV's are all over the place, however the TM primitive works as expected.
The wall scaling is extremely small (that of the pink colour in SU), and the timber recess is closer scale-wise, but is stretched in one axis.
If I inspect each of the 3 materials within TM once applied, they all have exactly the same settings in terms of scale, axis, UV etc.
To make it work I have to scale the wall material instance to 119, and and where the timber was, I have to scale the material by 3.8, then stretch it on the X axis by 5.5.
Apply a texture to all geometry in Sketchup and use only phototextures and not colors.
Do not leave geometry in Sketchup Default Material prior to importing.
It is my understanding that the colors and SU Default Material do not have a scale applied to them however the photo textures do and that information is transmitted during the import to set the scale of the materials in TM.
One note. When in Twinmotion if you apply material from Sketchup geometry and to a TM primitive object, you will need to duplicate the material then rename it and use it for the TM geometry and adjust scale. Be sure to use the correct Apply to Object or Replace Material also.
Thanks for that! Unfortunately the purpose of the post was to demonstrate that this still isn't quite right.
Agreed, colours don't work. They seem to have the wrong scale applied.
The textures aren't quite right either. If you look at my example where the recessed part is, I used a SketchUp phototexture called "Wood Floor Light"
In TM, when I apply the brick texture to this, yes it's much closer to the correct scale. However look at it closely. It's still too small, and it's wrong on one axis. The closer I look, it seems like it's been squashed on the Z axis to 'intelligently' match the SketchUp texture.
I don't understand this behaviour at all, since pre-datasmith, the old importer worked just fine whether it was textures or just blocks of colour.
When I'm doing a model in SU, I'd rather just use a series of colours, rather than a load of SU materials. Although I've been using your method up until now, it's not bulletproof :(
Thanks for taking your time to reply though, I really appreciate your input.
Just to add to my previous message, I assumed perhaps that it was the random wood material that I'd used. So I tried some different sketchup textures to check. Same result.
This is SU with 2 wall materials applied:
"Brick Rough Tan" which has a scale in SU of 660x560mm for the texture.
"Brick Antique 01" which has a scale in SU of 1473x940mm for the texture.
So all in all, I'm not sure it works like it's suppoed to. The old importer worked perfectly for any texture, or colour. Datasmith messes it all up, at least for me.
For reference this has been the case in both SU 2021 and 2022, and eversince DataSmith has been in use.
Finally, if I export from SketchUp as an FBX and import it, TM does obey the SU material scaling. But the default SU texture sizes/plain colours are still wrong when replaced with a TM material.
Well it works just fine for me. The primitive is for visual reference of the correct size and scale. You still have to use the Sketchup material or whatever material replaced it in TM on Sketchup geometry and the duplicate instance of the material on the other TM geometry. Do not use different materials in Sketchup and then try to replace them all with the same material.
You show two totally different brick textures on red and one tan and then try to replace them both with one TM material. That will not work.
All Sketchup geometry textured in Sketchup. Do not mix Sketchup textures and then try to replace them with the same TM texture for them all. Each Sketchup texture for Sketchup geometry is assigned to ONE TM material. In most cases the different Sketchup textures are not at the same size. Therefore you get the result of TM material scale all over the place.
Do not use the TM material you assigned to the primitive on Sketchup geometry. Create a duplicate, rename it, adjust the scale and position and then apply it to the Sketchup Geometry ONLY and the separate other original TM material to TM Primitive Geometry ONLY. Do not mix the applications as of course the scales will be different.
Good Luck. Its not TM. TM is working fine. The problem lies in the application of how you are applying the materials.
"Do not use different materials in Sketchup and then try to replace them all with the same material."
I didn't. Each time I added a new instance of bricks from TM. Therefore although you may see the same material, it represents 3 individual materials within TM. This applies to point 1 and 2 as well.
It's not TM. I agree.
It's datasmith.
The way it was pre-datasmith is that regardless of texure, or no texture in SU, dragged materials onto objects always came in at the same scale as what it would on a TM primative.
Secondly, if I only put in *one* material in this scene onto those recessed window shapes, the material (whatever it is) is squashed by around 0.6.
So as I said, the UV's are all over the place, and it's most likely down to Datasmith - not TM, not SU.
One note also. I typically only use Datasmith one time to import the model. I do not use the LiveLink.
If I make changes to the model, copy them and then import them separately as a separate file and delete the portion that changed in TM.
I have not had much success with the LiveLink maintaining any adjustments made in TM after the first import. Materials and scale all have to be reset when I tried Live Link.
Using Sketchup Pro 2021Classic here Fyi. Not sure if the same issues are in SketchupPro 2022.
I too have encountered the problem that when I import a Skechup model both the model scale and the material scale are incorrect.
I think I have found a solution.
Before exporting the model from Sketchup I had to change the unit of measurement of the lengths used within the Sketchup from meters to centimeters (I use the decimal system), leaving instead the unit of measurement of the surfaces and volumes in square meters .
While waiting for the developers to definitively solve this problem, I hope this solution of mine will be useful to you.
I experience the same result. If the UV mapped textures set inside sketchup are ok when importing the model into Twinmotion ,the same material applied to other blank objects in TM is not efficient.
I made a simple model with two cubes. One has a matarial applyed in sketchup with correct texture placement ans UV MAP; the other ihas no material applied to it. Once I've imported the model inside TM, I pick the material and apply it to another object, the scale is lost and totally different from the one set in sketchup. In my case, I had to scale up the twinmotion global material scale to 71.00 ... But if the X scale is ok, the Y scale is streched down, even if both parameters are set to 1.00
I found I had to set the X value stretched to 0,3937... Looks like inversed inch to cm conversion
I tried to convert the units in sketchup before importing in TM but it doesn't solve the problem
The volume on the left in the attached image is textured in sketchup, the one on the right is a copied material that had to be scaled
One more thing; The Stetch on X and Y values are inversed. It's strange to enter values that are lower than one to stretch up
Decided to try again to see if it works nowadays (still on my Intel MacBook Pro)....but sadly still not.
With the latest version of Sketchup Pro 2023 23.0.418, Twinmotion 2023.1.0 (24853495) and the Datasmith plugin for Sketchup 2022 (no newer version yet...) I still have to scale all materials by (at least) 100x.
I created a brand new file in Sketchup with a 1m cube with no materials on it and another with a red color.
So my SKU model doesn't contain any materials and after importing the datasmith file (or live link) or even .as a obj file the object doesn't apply material UV scale correctly in TM.
When I add a native TM 1m cube (same size as SKU model) and apply a material to that it works fine...so the materials behave differently to the imported model as to a native cube. So sad this problem still exists.
I import from SketchUp using plain colours to designate areas for TM textures. Why is it that although the same colour is used on different surfaces the scale of the TM texture is often different. The walls, floor, and a nib wall all painted in the same colour and textured at the same time each had a different scale. When the texture was copied and renamed, and applied to one of the surfaces which had the wrong scale, the scale didn't change and attempts to alter it affected the original also. This happens a lot and occurs even if I apply a new texture, and the only way I've found to eliminate the problem is to delete the surface that's out of scale, and replace it, in SU and reimport.
Unfortunately, for most people here, they have learned to use CAD programs such as AutoCAD, Revit, and SketchUp. However, as a result, they are not familiar with UV mapping, retopology, and other concepts. A 3D CAD user, not a 3D user, may struggle to meet the needs of Twinmotion - Unreal Engine, leading to inconsistencies in textures and anything related. It would be good for them to refer to and learn basic concepts of UV texturing, UV mapping, and retopology. They should not be burdened with things that have already been outdated for many years. CAD users, and it's understandable if they are not familiar with basic functions of UE-TM that are crucial for starting the transition from CAD to 3D modeling. For example, users of 3ds Max, Blender, Maya, etc., know that for their models, whether static mesh or organic modeling, to be successful, they need to understand UV mapping and retopology.
Thank you for your time, but don't struggle to solve issues that should have been addressed beforehand to properly integrate the model into Twinmotion.
TM is actively marketed to the architectural community, with absolutely no mention of mapping requirements in models prior to import in the documentation, indeed there is an emphasis on the ease of applying materials in promotional material. It would be good receive some constructive answers rather than unfair criticism. UV mapping is not an alien concept to most TM users for sure. UE automatically maps geometry on import, so really this issue which is random, but extremely annoying, shouldn't happen.
I didn't want my criticism to be seen as unfair, I just wanted to present the true grit of things because many users are trying but to no avail and for that reason they blame twinmotion, I just wanted to make them understand that they need other knowledge than cad software
Possibly you may still need to adjust the material scale, position, and axis stretching or shrinking to EACH of the three individual materials separately to set their correlation with the SU material and the TM material that it replaced.