How to convert SketchUp's Triangles to Quads?
polycounter lvl 7
Hey guys, this is my first thread in polycount 
Recently I came back start using SketchUP pro, it's really nice, fast program for modeling, it gets strong when you collect your extensions and plugins,
I've collected many for mine! I have a nice going with this app, but with one big major problem which made me to forget about it couple of years ago! but this time I don't want to give up! I want to find a solution! :poly136:
The problem as many of you may know is the Triangles! when you export your models from sketchUp you get triangles! if you don't click export as tri, you face even more problems, gaps, flipped normals...
So how we can fix this? please help me out here, I'm hopeless!
I've tried many ways, some worked half way, like I used Zremesher from Zbrush, but the models won't be sharp, when re topologizing it (maybe i need to work harder with Zremesher!), using manual re topo is time consuming,
There is an extension called Quad Face Tool in Extension Warehouse, it's handy but won't work with Boolean models,
You can use draw tool inside sketchUp to make more quad faces but it's not enough...
Editing the Mesh from your primary tool is helpful but still not perfect solution (I use Modo mostly)
So yea If you have any solutions, plz share it in comments, tnx.
P.S I attached some hopeless efforts of mine with Zremesher!
Recently I came back start using SketchUP pro, it's really nice, fast program for modeling, it gets strong when you collect your extensions and plugins,
I've collected many for mine! I have a nice going with this app, but with one big major problem which made me to forget about it couple of years ago! but this time I don't want to give up! I want to find a solution! :poly136:
The problem as many of you may know is the Triangles! when you export your models from sketchUp you get triangles! if you don't click export as tri, you face even more problems, gaps, flipped normals...
So how we can fix this? please help me out here, I'm hopeless!
I've tried many ways, some worked half way, like I used Zremesher from Zbrush, but the models won't be sharp, when re topologizing it (maybe i need to work harder with Zremesher!), using manual re topo is time consuming,
There is an extension called Quad Face Tool in Extension Warehouse, it's handy but won't work with Boolean models,
You can use draw tool inside sketchUp to make more quad faces but it's not enough...
Editing the Mesh from your primary tool is helpful but still not perfect solution (I use Modo mostly)
So yea If you have any solutions, plz share it in comments, tnx.
P.S I attached some hopeless efforts of mine with Zremesher!
Replies
Hi, well as you know for baking the textures and unwrapping, triangles are not good, but yea for static meshes it's okay though I like to find a way to achieve quads with sketchUp!
You need to bake with triangles. It's the standard workflow. Never bake with a low poly mesh made of quads.
Makan it is optimized, why do you think i used triangles in the first place. Beside that we don't care about triangle since we bake and use a plane afterward and slap a texture over it.
Yes sir, I want to turn SketchUp models to this type of polygons, sorry for my bad English, it's not my native language (though I think I'm doing good!).
Hello Makan
subdividing the low poly increases it's vertex count and contradicts the high poly to low poly work-flow.
Triangulating the low poly before you bake effectively locks the normals of the low poly, so in the game engine you are ruling out "normal errors".
All game engines use triangulation and that is why it's the rule of thumb to triangulate the lowpoly before you bake. If you let the game engine triangulate the low poly (if you import it as quads) the baked normals will not match because you baked using quads and the game engine triangulates the mesh on import.
good luck
Great info! thanks, I didn't know this, so it's Important to use Triangles for static meshes for game engines, for things like normal maps and whatnot, but we should use Clean Triangles like the blew picture from our friend to be optimized.
1-First of all in sketchUp try to use your draw tool to make reasonable quads for your model.
2-Use Groups and Component a lot to separate shapes, this create new elements and considered as new static mesh, it all depends on your model though, if your model has parts that has Boolean, try to group that part and use your draw tool to make quads to lower odd shapes you get from Boolean operations.
3-The other fast way is to import your models to Zbrush, and use Zremesher, to get the best out of Zremesher tool, you should use Zremesher Guide Brush, it will help a lot, remember to Group your model's part bring them in Zbrush each in their own subtool.
Explanation for pictures: (from left to right)
1-This is a model I've made in sketchUp I didn't use Draw Tool for cleaning up for this one, and I Grouped each Boolean faces and exported separately and brought them to Zbrush and used Zremesher Guide Brush, I held down shift key while drawing and nicely it chose the edges around the hole for me.
2-And I used Zremesher, the result was really satisfying.
3-I used Zremesher for other parts.
4-This picture is a model I've made in sketchUp but this time, I used Draw Tool to clean around the hole, and I got Fairly nice result, with nice quads and triangles.
After these methods you can edit more further in your primary app, like maya, max, modo...you can weld those separate meshes again and start unwrapping,...or add clean triangles for baking textures (I learned this today in this post have to try it).
tnx.
Here is mine for you to practice baking, feel free to put it in your own work if you want. Let me know if you have trouble with the host.
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=06227869581249275184
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Great Idea, tnx, I'll try, Actually I'm working on a Oil Project now, making these Subsea Booster things, I'll share some of those models soon as examples of optimized files from sketchUp.