Converting from SketchUp 7 to Vue

There have been so many questions lately about how to move a model from the free version of SketchUp 7 into Vue 7 (Infinite, xStream or Complete). Here's a tutorial on what I've found works.

Free OBJ export plugin for SketchUp can be found HERE.

UPDATE: NEW METHOD FOR EXPORTING FROM SU TO VUE

Thanks to Alex Jenyon, a great discovery today.

1. Using the Free version of Google Sketchup (v7 anyway), export your model to Google Earth (.kmz)
2. Change the file extension to .zip
3. Open the zip file, and inside the "models" folder is a .dae file which is the Collada version of your SKP model!
4. Import the Collada model into Vue, and (for some unknown reason), scale it by a factor of 3.937 and it will match the Sketchup dimensions.

Not bad huh?

Thanks Alex!

Quote - "4. Import the Collada model into Vue, and (for some unknown reason), scale it by a factor of 3.937 and it will match the Sketchup dimensions."
Vue's internal unit is 1dm and 3.937 is the conversion factor to inches.

Convection Station

This prospecting platform of the future uses Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) to capture green hydrogen which it transports to the mainland via underwater bubblelines.

What is OTEC? The ocean's surface in the Gulf of Mexico can be eighty degrees in the summer. Three thousand feet below the surface the temperature hovers around forty degrees all year. OTEC is the process of producing electricity from the energy generated as heat transfers from one temperature to the other. Although the temperature difference in one gallon of water would only be worth about 300 hundred BTUs, multiplying that by a functionally unlimited supply would provide a great deal of usable energy.

Another speed render, this is a simple scene, all objects created entirely in Vue. I was playing around with terrains, and created a scaffold like rock shape. I then inserted some GridModeler boxes into it, added the metablob housing area, and added a few metablob vehicles from previous scenes. Finished it off with a couple Metapeeps on deck and a single background terrain masked by a low lying cloud layer. The antenna structures are a simple EcoSystem on top of the main quaters. The spinal cord looking elevator is just a replication of my default house shape used for my freebie: Understanding Fog and Haze over at C3D.

Levels and minor tweaks in Photoshop.