Must have plug ins for Arch Viz?

[squeegie]

For all those out there that do arch-viz on a regular basis, what are the must have plug-ins that you use? I know we have a lot of people breaking into this line of work, and a list of some of the big time savers would really help out the up and coming artist.
List what you can't live without, and a brief description of what you would use it for if it is something obscure, as well as a link.
Here are a few of my favorites:

LWCAD (great modeler tools)
http://www.wtools3d.com

Better Bloom (MUCH better bloom control)
http://lynx.aspect-design.de/plugins...bloom_info.htm

Skylight (environmental texture for GI)- http://perso.orange.fr/dpont/plugins/Download.htm

UV Imaginator (export UV mesh as image for painting UV map in PS)
http://www.3dcybercorp.com/software/uvimaginator/

[Pavlov]

So many ones, but i'd start from these:
- Fprime and Kray : both are a must for pros who live out of archviz.
- LWcad and Pictrix's plugins collection; modeling without these would be kinda a jump in mid 90s.
- Dpont's nodes - skylight and most procedurals in primis.

Paolo

[bjornkn]

FPrime for textures and light
HD_Instance for trees, grass, cars etc
Trees Designer/Leaves Generator
Move_Point_On_BG for adding/moving things around on a topo mesh.
SketchUp (for modelling most of the objects, from2D/3D dwg sources)
LWcad for some LW modeling
PLG UV tools
UV Road

[Vujaka]

Which of Pixtrix tools do you find usefull?

[colkai]

Thanks for the heads-up on better bloom, didn't have that one in my toolkit. :)
As for the others, no LWCAD means no fun, this is one of the coolest plugins around.

[tijgervisuals]

Link got cut-off...

Better Bloom
http://lynx.aspect-design.de/plugins/betterbloom_info.htm

[Captain Obvious]

Kray is the shiznit.

[Exception]

Here are some more:

Picky:
Color picker that lets you pick HDR colors (very handy for your own sky gradients)

MergeTrigonsX:
To clean up those pesky .3ds models by merging triangles into quads

SetScale:
This is an extremely useful plugin if you have to import things from cad or other 3d applications and need to properly scale the imported files.

Greetings from Hong Kong!

[vsele]

Here are some more:

Picky:
Color picker that lets you pick HDR colors (very handy for your own sky gradients)

MergeTrigonsX:
To clean up those pesky .3ds models by merging triangles into quads

SetScale:
This is an extremely useful plugin if you have to import things from cad or other 3d applications and need to properly scale the imported files.

Greetings from Hong Kong!

Links please.....:D :thumbsup:

[manholoz]

a9cad to clean and export dwg files to dxf files.
www.a9tech.com

[colkai]

Couldn't agree more!

[bjornkn]

It seems to be 2D only?
If you need to view/convert also 3D I am using Acme Cad Converter. Works very well!
But most of the time they load just fine into SketchUp anyway:)

[Exception]

Accutrans3D!

Never look back for all your dxf, obj, stl, 3ds, vrml, lwo, DEM elevation data and hundreds more needs.
www.micromouse.ca

[Riff_Masteroff]

Yes, Exception's recommendation of Accutrans is spot on.

This translator is optimized for exporting to *.lwo files. Its one thing to get something imported into lw, its another thing when it comes in pretty dern close to its original state.

[Exception]

Yes, Exception's recommendation of Accutrans is spot on.

This translator is optimized for exporting to *.lwo files. Its one thing to get something imported into lw, its another thing when it comes in pretty dern close to its original state.

And the creator is really responsive, friendly, courteous and willing to help out if you run into trouble.
I think the only thing accutrans doesn't convert in LWO's is metanurbs and powergons, but I actually think that it's not possible to convert those.

[Tzan]

Maybe those people that want Collada should ask him for that.

[MicroMouse]

I have not studied metanurbs and powergons and thus do not know how much work would be required to convert them to a polygon mesh.

Collada export has been added to the next version of AccuTrans which will be released in November.

Wayne

[jwiede]

Accutrans3D!

Never look back for all your dxf, obj, stl, 3ds, vrml, lwo, DEM elevation data and hundreds more needs.
www.micromouse.caIt's really unfortunate that it isn't available for Mac, has anyone pursued that topic with the author before?

[Exception]

It's really unfortunate that it isn't available for Mac, has anyone pursued that topic with the author before?

The author posted the message before yours, perhaps you can ask yourself :)

Concerning metanurbs, Wayne, I don't think there is a large desire to convert these. Same goes for powergons. I think the LWO implementation of accutrans is currently the best of any translator.
Have you looked at the FBX or Collada standard? Is there any chance of those being integrated?

[Tzan]

Have you looked at the FBX or Collada standard? Is there any chance of those being integrated?

Yeah he said Collada in November. In that last post :)

[MicroMouse]

I have requests for both OSX and Linux versions of AccuTrans.

AccuTrans has a GUI so I would have to spend a lot of time to learn the programming interface to those operating systems plus the problems and quirks with those operating systems, build the GUI, trouble shoot the GUI and add new features to the GUI as required.

Currently I prefer to use all that time to do other things so there will be no OSX and Linux versions.

----

Collada import might come sometime in the future.

----

I haven't looked at FBX.

Too many things to do and not enough time.

Wayne

[Lightwolf]

...build the GUI, trouble shoot the GUI and add new features to the GUI as required.

If you want to pursue that idea, have a look at http://www.wxwidgets.org - cross platform, free, C++ based. I've used it for a few projects and really like it.

And sorry for being OT...

Cheers,
Mike

[Captain Obvious]

I think wxWidgets is what Gwynne used for ModoMojo, his render farm controller for modo. His Python and GUI code ran, without a single code change, on both platforms. When he got his Mac, he just ran the same code on it and it worked. I think that's pretty amazing.

[MicroMouse]

Thank you for the link, Mike.

Wayne