I got this, just 1.5 day frestyling
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Does Blender offer any advantages as a pathway for importing 3D DWG into SketchUp? I’ve had frustrations with what a number of manufacturers offer as CAD symbols of their products in that format.
I don’t know about Blender, but I share your frustration. Often the manufacturers’ content is based on manufacturing models made in Solidworks, Inventor, Fusion or the like. They are overly detailed and NURBS-based solids and surfaces gain far too many polygons when imported into SU directly.
@chippwalters can probably tell if Blender has the tools, what I recommend is to import the file first in an app that can do the nurbs to mesh conversion in a controlled way, and to additionally further reduce the resulting polygons. I have used Rhino for that.
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Moi3D also seems to have a good NURBS to mesh conversion, I’ve never used it myself, but it’s getting praise for that. (it’s also a lot cheaper than Rhino)
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I’m trying to get used to Blender too. Sometimes it seems very not intuitive, but you are right 30 minutes a day is a good way.
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The next Rhino release V7, V6 owners can already use the beta, will incorporate an outstanding quadremesher that really improve the workflow from nurbs to meshes.
If you have any example I could try it.
I agree, it is not intuitive at start. But it not illogical, and I am surprised to be more and more confident.
I think I will focus on rendering for the moment, because this is the first thing to push me to product with. I will take a look at what can replace Dynamic component : constraints and Shape key maybe, as a friend told me.
About camera there is interesting script that add more more easy function to create them !
I have seen interesting function as Zoom extents equivalent, and I will make a try to develop script, I think it will be nice
Right, the Moi3D User interface is very nice.
This is a new STEP file importer for Blender:
That said, I agree, MoI3D has the best and most flexible NURBS to polys exporter I have ever seen. Michael Gibson, the developer, is a super guy and has probably the best product support of any 3D program I have seen.
This video goes over a lot of interesting UV techniques to create a low poly photoreal model quickly. The same technique was used in the other models in the animation at the beginning of the video. It’s pretty basic and hopefully easy to follow.
@TheGuz should check into whether that seems to be the case (that manufacturers are adapting NURBS-based models for use in 3DWH).
I am just a week and a half away before I can go go back to SketchUp 
but for now here is some progress from week 6 of my Blender Course.
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Great stuff Liam! Cool to see your output from Blender after all the great SU work you’ve posted.
Would be interesting to hear your thoughts in comparing workflows between the two…
By now you must have modelled enough spaceships, speeders, walkers and mechs to populate an entire movie — is there one in the works?!
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There is a minor one (no narrative or dialogue) but it will take some time, maybe one more year. In fact its why I bought my drone so I could film and then composite the models in Blender with the video footage, still a lot to learn however it was much harder than I thought!
Here is Week 6 submission for my course, just one more week to go (next weeks final project is Jaguar E Type!).
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So, is this a photo/model compositing image? I would like to see more about how matching photos or video works in Blender.
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Your link led me to this very interesting discussion:
At first they discuss how suitable Blender is for BIM use and IFC classification.
Sketchup isn’t here right now?? Since it has an IFC classifier.
I found it fascinating when the author of BlenderBIM mentions that he had developed a QUALITY CONTROL MODULE for his IFC classifier.
Another interesting comment from the author of the plugin was:
"A project I am on has demonstrated that we were capable of modeling a 5 storey building down to the curtain panels, screw flutes, baffles in the precast panels, backing rods, sealant and packers, in a meager few weeks, whilst simultaneously designing the building (and doing things like changing the grid - a very parametric modification). This model can then be brought back into a documentation tool like Revit to have sections / plans cut out and placed on sheets. The model has been animated, rendered (in real-time), experimented with lighting and texture, and had prototype sample designs in minutes while they were being discussed in meetings. "
I think Sketchup is not far from all this. I like Blender better just for the realtime rendering.
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A free course on just that:
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With a few extensions, the classifier works ok, you just have to dive into it, like Blender.
Personally, I like to have correct ifc mapping in SketchUp natively eg. without the need for add-ons.
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