[Now there is a new plugin at SCF however: "Originate component axes". It will take all top level components and move their component origins to the world origin of the model they are in.]

There have been a couple of topics about basic alignment in Lumion (which is often also required or at least handy when animating/rotating objects).

This tip is about how to prepare a SketchUp model - more exactly how to do it easier. In this topic, I have already shared some screenshots. How to prepare a model. The basic idea is to move the component origin of each element we want to export separately to the same spot then save the component and export it separately from its file.

This can be tedious however. If I have a building that I want to show with/without certain elements, if there are many of them, I may need to do this many times and there are chances of mistake.

Now there is a new plugin at SCF however: "Originate component axes". It will take all top level components and move their component origins to the world origin of the model they are in.

Now you can use the saved out components either together with the master model or just with each other.

Nested components are not changed so if you have a bunch of windows inside the "walls" component for instance, they remain intact.
If there are more than one instance of a top level component in a model, each is made unique (obviously).

The idea here is not the "general" use of components (i.e. any repetitive elements) but to separate (say) everything on floor 1, floor 2 and finally the roof so that you can import them separately into Lumion, hide/show/drop them separately still be able to precisely align them together.

Note: Until we have the ability to apply the same custom material to several objects in Lumion, unfortunately each element of the imported stuff needs to be painted/tweaked separately.
This has been solve already in Lumion!

Note to forum administration: although this is not a "real" tutorial, until there is a place to post such and you feel this place I posted is not the best, please, feel free to move the topic around.

Thanks Gai.  This is extremely useful!  Also a good tip is to create a new folder for the model, and right click "save as" for the components/entourage you want to bring in separately, saving them to the new folder.  Running the Batch DAE export plugin will export all the components in the folder at the same time.  You can also create two folders and batch export some of the components with their own origin point as needed (furniture, plants, etc), and then run the "originate" plugin and batch export other structural elements with the world space origin.  Batch DAE exporter is found here - http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=39304

See, I have missed that plugin so far. Thanks!

hi, the plugin has to be tested.
but what happenes, when a model is far away from the world-zero ? are the components origin then at 0/0/0 ?

i use following:
in every model there is a first scene called "export" or "save" to be defined.
in this scene the coordinates of the top-level-component are saved. until you save the componets within this scene, the reimport in sketchup-masterfile and redifine of components in it works without any problems, since the axis-position is always fixed, no matter, how you change the axis-system in other scenes in skp.
so the city models is composed from several (lots) components in differen design-stages, and in the master i can easily redifine (sketch / design / finish) every component.

in lumion then, reimporting those components is never a problem, since the axis never change.

regards stan

All right, I was going to refer to this topic from your other one but I see you've found it.


Now your questions...

A model "the" model in a SU file) should never be far away from the world origin because you will get all sorts of problems. Now if we speak about certain elements (components) in the model: they should work just fine. As long as the "worlds" of both SU and Lumion are based on a rectangular (orthogonal) axis system and not like GE, things should align nicely.

I do not fully understand your workflow but one thing is sure: if you do no change the component (more exactly the exported model) axes after you first import it into Lumion, reloading should not be a problem.

Thanks Gai.  This is extremely useful!  Also a good tip is to create a new folder for the model, and right click "save as" for the components/entourage you want to bring in separately, saving them to the new folder.  Running the Batch DAE export plugin will export all the components in the folder at the same time.  You can also create two folders and batch export some of the components with their own origin point as needed (furniture, plants, etc), and then run the "originate" plugin and batch export other structural elements with the world space origin.  Batch DAE exporter is found here - http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=39304

Very helpful to me, thank you!