Nodes Nodes Nodes
Well hear goes..
The exporter has lots of trouble with nodes and this is the only known way of getting them to work with it, for those who have not done nodes before, be grateful this is the simple way :P.
Positioning
Ok for this example I’m going to start with using 3 example seats and show how to place seating nodes. So after making your mesh and you wish to add nodes position your mesh so it’s behind the red line, the side with the solid green line and the solid blue lines pointing up. One edge of your mesh must be on the red line, lining it up with the axis is easiest just make sure NO part goes over the red line otherwise things will be off. Your nodes can go over this line though its just any part of your mesh cannot.
Nodes
Ok now to add the nodes. Just copy and past all the nodes from the seating example file (easiest way) and position where you want, you will only need ONE root node no matter how many seats you have. To see a nodes name right click on it and click on Entity Info and it will show a box with its name in. (Tip- open the example file delete the seat itself, make the rest a group (not including the root node, copy it separately) and copy it across then you can position each seat easier but do remember to delete the example person as they are only there for positioning. Though you must remember to explode them after your done positioning). Position the seats where you want them, if you wish to have them stand instead change Only the “seat01.Sitting” node (one at the bottom) to “seat01.Standing” . You now need the Root node positioning. This needs to be at the axis, the axis needs to be in the centre of it, an easy way of doing this is to draw a line from one upper corner of the root to the other lower across it and turn on x-ray (under view) then click to move the root from the centre of that line lining it up with the axis. Ok now you have the root positioned and all your seating/standing nodes in place you now need to go around every single one right click them all and click on “Make unique” otherwise there will be problems re naming them. Now you need to go thru every single node and change its name to make the number unique. For example the first seat will be named seat01.Sitting and then the second needs to be named seat02.Sitting and the third needs to be seat03.Sitting upping the number each time, this needs to be done for every node except the root. So you will have seat01.Sitting , Catcher01.Standing , Pitcher01.Standing , Handle01 then for the second seat seat02.Sitting , Catcher02.Standing , Pitcher02.Standing , Handle02 .Make sure to delete the # at the end of the nodes name that SketchUp makes when you clicked make unique. Now that your mesh id done and all your nodes are in place make sure your mesh is NOT GROUPED as that would course problems and make sure you do not ungroup any nodes otherwise they are then no longer nodes.
Warning – The nodes for every seat are, Seat[No. hear].sitting /.standing (the seating/standing node itself) Handle[No. hear] (this is the node where you click to get to the seat) and the Pitcher and Catcher nodes, those 2 in front MUST be kept the same distance apart, it is suggested to group them when moving them about and ungroup them when your done moving them, if not any actions people do together after buying your product will not work.
Importing
All right now to save and export the file as per usual and run the SketchUp to imvu program on the exported file. Then as per usual import to the previewer, for furniture items you still derive from 12908 (or another furniture item). Put in all the usual files in there places. You should notice your seats are now lines up to where you wanted them, but they will not be the right way around at the moment. This is because the exporter is –mumbles something impolite- “beta” as imvu put it, so we have to change there direction our self in the XSF files. To do this we go to the Special tab and then click brows, fine your XSF file and right click it. Ether click open or open with (depending on how it’s set up on your computer) with open with use notepad. Once opened you will be shown lots of text that read very strangely, this is what where changing (Tip- copy and past the file before opening it incase something goes wrong as it can). You will be staring at something like this
The highlighted parts are the useful things. The bit in the red is what where interested in. In green is the seat name (helpful to know which one it is, compare it to your SketchUp mesh to find which one it is). In blue is the bit we want to change. Translation is the position so incase you want to adjust the position of the seat (its still sometimes a little off from positioning the root and things..) and where it says ROTATION is the bit we want to change for the direction of the seat.
For the rotation these are the basic forward backwards left and right positions, you can have any direction but you can find them on your own if you need them.
0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 1.000000 Forward
0 0 0.698067 0.747006 facing Right
0 0 -0.698067 0.747006 facing Left
0.000000 0.000000 1.000000 0.000000 Back
Forward - 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 1.000000
Back - 0.000000 0.000000 1.000000 0.000000
Right - 0 0 0.698067 0.747006
left - 0 0 -0.698067 0.747006
Next you need to change the direction of the Pitcher and Catcher nodes so they face each other. These are simple, for ever seat there is one pitcher and one catcher (that’s why theirs 4 nodes per seat in SketchUp). I cannot tell you in which direction to have them as I do not know which way around they have been placed, but they both need pointing at each other and a friend is needed to help in this, without enough experience it’s the only way of doing it.
-Happy to accept gifts of what you made to NEO1471 if you found this helpful ^_^