I am hoping with a nod in the right direction with this one, as it is painfully frustrating.

I've been running renders in batch mode to speed things up - I'd say about 50% of the time the process just fails to pick up on a load of the textures (grass and brickwork are the main culprits).  Doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it, I'm not changing any of the settings...when it does decide to use the textures I've no idea why it's done that.

Costing me hours and hours.  Any help much appreciated,

Thanks,

Robbie.

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Hi Robbie

Are any of the files\materials on portable drives or moved to\from other computers - if you are running long renders are you removing or changing any source files during that period? In the past I have repeatedly started a batch render overnight and at the same time remove the usb stick containing some of the files!

Boothy
Thanks for the quick reply Boothy,

I see where you're coming from there - but no, none of them are on portable drives and I'm not changing the source files. It's weird, I've just got it working...for some reason if I go in and just check all the settings (not changing anything) it sometimes kicks it into including the textures. Hmppph.

If I find out what's going on I'll post the solution!
1.Have you tried both the stable and latest beta versions of NXT? Previous betas have been known to have batch mode material issues but they both have been working ok for a while.

2.Also try looking at affected materials in the advanced material editor - there is sometimes known to be gltches may be worth trying deleting material in scene\component and re applying.

3.Are any of the faces reversed / or single sided (not a complete solid) / NXT does not like either of these structures and sometimes does not render relavant material.

iF above is not relevant - can you upload a simple scene \ relevant component to see what the problem is.

Boothy

Robbie Donaldson said:
Thanks for the quick reply Boothy,

I see where you're coming from there - but no, none of them are on portable drives and I'm not changing the source files. It's weird, I've just got it working...for some reason if I go in and just check all the settings (not changing anything) it sometimes kicks it into including the textures. Hmppph.

If I find out what's going on I'll post the solution!
Another quick thought - what image type are you using for materials - NXT does not like some filetypes like TGA for example
Boothy
I only just bought NXT a few weeks ago so I'm assuming it must be the latest version. Point 3 seems a likely candidate - the main culprits are walls made with RPWallmaker (which aren't solid blocks, it seems to produce stud walls) and the grass is being applied to a flat face rather than a solid object.

Maybe it's that, but it's the intermittency (is that word?) that flumoxes me, I'm more of a coder so I'm not used to things sometimes working and sometimes not! Normally it's either broke or it ain't!!

The images are all just materials that shipped with NXT - ie grass or brickwork textures that ship with sketchup. I've uploaded the model (it worked this time!), just a bog standard semi-detached house external view.

Thanks again for the help, I've got more of an idea how to debug it if it happens again. Cheers :)
Attachments:
Well it's not a proper fix yet, but your ideas have already got me progressed in the right direction Boothy. I started looking at the folders that the batch render produced and the issue is that none of the textures were being exported to the Batch_Sketchup_Textures folder.

Seems obvious when it gets pointed out to you but I never actually looked through those folders. So at least it'll save me time because from now on I'll just check the folders and not even bother to start rendering an image if there are no exported textures.

We'll call this one a partial success! Have half a beer!
Strange that only some textures are being carried accross - Rich Hart is the expert on materials editor - not seen a post from him in a while - probably shut up in some dark corner coding something!
Which batch method are you using - I usually use the `named`version which copies all relevant file to named folder rather than the `standard`option - this separates folder a little better - also always best to rename SU file each time so it does not overwrite named folder.I have also found if you have worked previously on another computer that selecting the standard switch then switching back to named mode makes sure a new named folder is produced in `my document>irender folder`these self contained named folders are also better for transfering batch jobs to other machines.

Have I earnt that other half pint yet!

Boothy

Robbie Donaldson said:
Well it's not a proper fix yet, but your ideas have already got me progressed in the right direction Boothy. I started looking at the folders that the batch render produced and the issue is that none of the textures were being exported to the Batch_Sketchup_Textures folder.

Seems obvious when it gets pointed out to you but I never actually looked through those folders. So at least it'll save me time because from now on I'll just check the folders and not even bother to start rendering an image if there are no exported textures.

We'll call this one a partial success! Have half a beer!
You might want to send us a model and the batch folder that you get when it fails. I could then compare the folders that we get when it works and try to fugure out why the textures aren't getting saved. Just send them to me at rich.hart@renderplus.com, or we can use USendIt, if the files are huge.
I actually working on the interface to the new Advanced Material Editor as I write this...

Boothy said:
Strange that only some textures are being carried accross - Rich Hart is the expert on materials editor - not seen a post from him in a while - probably shut up in some dark corner coding something
Thanks very much for the help and replies guys, I really appreciate the effort.

Rich, I've sent you the file on YouSendIt - I feel a bit guilty dragging you away from the coalface of the advanced materials editor. Don't worry too much about this, I've got it finished now and there's no issues. I suppose it would be helpful to me (and others) for the future to understand why this was happening though, if anything jumps out at you then let me know.

Cheers and best regards,

Robbie.

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