ZBrushCentral

Sketchup and QRemesher Test

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hey everyone-

I’ve been looking for a way to take simple base meshes out of Sketchup and bring them into Zbrush for further editing.
In the past, many of you have criticized my want for this workflow - honestly - its all about speed for me.
I can create very complex shapes in minutes with Sketchup, something I cant do in Zbrush.
Mind you, many people can do this easily in Zbrush - I just haven’t reached that level yet… So I’m trying to work within my means.

I’ve exported the .dae from Sketchup, and quickly realized that Zbrush has no idea what this file is.
I then imported the .dae into Blender, and exported that as a .obj file.
Imported the .obj into Zbrush, and - tah-dah, it works!.. well… kind of…

The imported Sketchup geometry is all based around Triangles - subdividing hell.
This makes it virtually impossible to play with in Zbrush.
So…

I tried making a Dynamesh to convert it to quad geometry.
It worked, but could never retain the hard edges (played with blur, etc).
So…

Then came QRemesher…
I thought this would be the answer to my prayers.

I opened up Sketchup and created a quick 5min design of some sort of modern dwelling.
Again, this was a quick test, so I was not concerned about prettiness :slight_smile:
Did the Sketchup > Blender > Zbrush trick again.
Fired up QRemesher, and got this:

I ran QRemesher on its default settings.
It created nice quad geometry, but created these holes around some of the corners of the structure.
Any thoughts on how I could clean this up?
I am almost there, I can taste it! :slight_smile:

Just for kicks, I created a far more intricate dwelling, to test how it would react
with some more intricate plane changes:

Unfortunately, any attempt to alter this with QRemesher (on any setting) created an error that
aborted the QRemesher-ing (lol, yes it is now a word).

So…
I wanted to see if any of you could help me get this workflow working.
Any help you could lend would be greatly appreciated!

Also, I would be happy to supply the .obj files for both objects if any of you wanted to try it out.
Just let me know.

Thanks again!

Attachments

ZGrab01.JPG

ZGrab02.JPG

#2

I’m using sketchup as well. We needed spline curves tool, arc curves tool thats available in sketchup for Zbrush.

Here is what i would do:

  1. Import your obj into Zbrush, click “Crease”

  2. At dynamesh section, turn on Project, Polish and set Res to 1024. Then turn on dynamesh.

  3. Click GroupsLoops.

Done.

#3
  1. Avoid .dae Sketchup format.
  2. Download and use TIG’s excellent free obj exporter instead
    http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=33448
    read instructions
  3. Before exporting, make sure that all normals look outside. (no blue faces)
  4. Make sure that there aren’t any internal faces connected (non-manifolds)
    Here a simple plugin for this job. Difficult to find these days
    http://forums.sketchucation.com/download/file.php?id=86061
  5. Sketchup exports non welded vertices, that will be a problem for Zbrush. Before importing, have a look on export panel, try tris to quads as possible, weld slider full on the right.
    Or, recommend import in blender first, [W] remove doubles. This last welds vertices. Select all, ctrl+N, fixes possible normal issues. Export obj.

Now You’re ready to try all new features of zbrush.
Qremesher won’t help you at all. IMO.
Use the crease all command as suggested, dynamesh as suggested except this 1024 hi res. SU usually export huge meshes, a 128-256 sounds more reasonable. Else you may expect an out of memory warning.

It’s time to start learning blender and forget SU, am i right?
A question: Why do you need zbrush for such meshes? If it is for painting, bumping etc, then you’re in the wrong app. Blender can do it just fine, 3dcoat can do it even better.