Table of Contents


This page gives information on how to import 3D models from Chaos Cosmos Browser in SketchUp.


Parameters


Downloaded Cosmos assets are listed in the Asset Editor under the Geometry section. They can be identified by the Cosmos icon. They can be renamed, deleted, used as replacements, moved, and merged.

The Use as replacement/Replace in scene option is possible only for other Cosmos Assets. It replaces all scene instances of the asset. The replaced asset is not deleted and is stored in the Asset Editor.

The status icon () indicates whether the paths to the textures and other external reference files used by the asset are valid. Hover over the icon for more detailed information.

Use Mtl Override – When enabled, the global Material Override option in the Render Settings overrides the asset. When disabled, the asset in the referenced scene is not affected by the Material Override option in the Render Settings.

Viewport Preview Offers different viewport preview representations of the Chaos Cosmos assets.

High Displays the original mesh in the viewport. Using this option with heavy meshes and scenes might take longer before the mesh is displayed in the viewport and might slow down SketchUp significantly. The process is dependent on the poly-count and the representation is quite detailed.
Medium
Low
Bounding Box – Previews are shown as bounding boxes.
Point (Origin) – Previews the mesh with its own point of origin.

Chaos Cosmos assets come with several different levels-of-details (LOD).

V-Ray for SketchUp always loads the highest level of detail when rendering Chaos assets.

V-Ray Vision always loads the second-highest level of detail by default - either Medium or Low, depending on the asset.

Chaos assets very far in the background are automatically switched to their lowest level of detail.



Merge


Converts the Chaos Cosmos asset to a standard proxy mesh with material assignments and populates the scene with materials and lights. That way, you can edit the asset's materials or IES Light’s parameters. The merge process is irreversible. For more information on proxy meshes, refer to the Proxy Mesh page.

Note that this automatically switches the asset to High LOD, and if you render with V-Ray Vision, the link to Cosmos is broken and the special LOD assignment used by Vision is no longer there. Lower level-of-detail (LOD) versions of the proxy mesh that are used by V-Ray Vision are lost.



Lights


Find all light sources, including IES lights in the Chaos Cosmos browser Lighting section.

Lights – Enables the Cosmos Light asset.

Intensity Multiplier – Multiplies the intensity of all instances of the Cosmos asset.

Color Multiplier – Multiplies the color of all instances of the Cosmos asset. For more information regarding the color swatch, refer to the V-Ray Asset Editor page.

Luminaires Enabled – When enabled, Luminaires included in this asset are used for light emission when rendering. When disabled, the original light source is used.

Cosmos assets with light sources are listed in the LightMix render channel.
Cosmos assets that rely on self-illumination through materials, do not have these controls exposed. However, the self-illumination of specific Cosmos assets can be adjusted after merging them by modifying the self-illumination layer parameters of some of their materials.

LightLuminaire lights are available starting with V-Ray 7. They are imported with Cosmos lights marked with "luminaire" tag. After the Cosmos asset is merged, the Luminaire lights become visible in the Asset Editor's Lights section.


Material Overrides


The Material Overrides section displays all materials of Chaos Cosmos 3D Assets, allowing you to replace materials without merging the asset.

Left-click on any Embedded material opens a dropdown list of materials available in the scene. Select one of the available materials to override the current one.



Variants


Asset Variants are Cosmos assets that have more than one variations regarding to materials and geometry. Each variation parameter has a label that cannot be changed, taken directly from the Cosmos asset. Some variant choices may show additional options, called sub-variants.

When you select a variant from the dropdown, it will update the Cosmos asset’s viewport, render output, and asset preview. If you change one variant to another, all values in the Lights or Material Overrides sections will reset to their default settings.





Different variants need to be downloaded separately from Cosmos. If an asset is selected, but not downloaded, the preview is unavailable and a warning appears below it. Info is shown when hovering on the warning sign.




Updates


Cosmos assets with newer versions on the server have an "update" button in the Asset Editor. Press the update button () to start the update.

Note that the update can change the appearance of the object and the rendered result.

If the asset files are missing, a Download button () is present.

The download progress is present next to the button ().

A Refresh button appears when the Cosmos Asset was imported with an older V-Ray version. Perform this action once to update the UI and unlock new features like Material Overrides and Variants. ()

If the asset has more than one version, the Download button downloads the original version and the update button - the newest one.




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