Export Nodes to Lumion from SketchUp

• How to Export Nodes into Lumion
• What If You Only Have the Free SketchUp License?
• Related Webinars

If you want to take your planting design into Lumion, you can use these steps to export the population of trees and shrubs as nodes in your Lumion render.

This process is currently only available via command prompts through our SketchUp 3D Connection extension, available for download in the Extension Warehouse within SketchUp.

How to Export Nodes into Lumion

1. Export a planting design from another platform, such as AutoCAD, using the Land F/X 3D Connection.

2. In SketchUp, open the Ruby Console. Note that the location of the Ruby Console has been updated with SketchUp version 2021.1.299.

 

Sketchup versions 2021.1.299 and newer:

Extensions drop-down, Developers submenu

 

Previous SketchUp versions:

Window drop-down

3. In the Ruby Console command line, type Landfx.useNodes=true

4. Verify that you've achieved the correct result, pictured to the right.

 

You can then close or minimize the Ruby Console.

Error: NoMethodError: undefined method 'useNodes=' for Landfx:Module

Are you seeing this error in the Ruby Console? If so, make sure our Planting F/X Plugin for SketchUp is updated to version 4.55 or higher. This error was fixed in that version.

 

How to update the Land F/X SketchUp plugin

5. Now run the Land F/X Import tool:

 

LandFX toolbar, Import Plants button

 

Land-FX menu, Import Plants option

6. Click Import in the Land F/X Import dialog box.

The plants will still show as their Land F/X assigned components here. You can still click Import.

7. The plants will all place, at elevation, as uniquely colored nodes on the default layer. The nodes will be scaled to the spread of their plant, which won't matter in Lumion but gives you a nice easy-to-read preview of the layout.

8. Open the Ruby Console again, and type Landfx.exportNodes in the command line. You'll receive a message that the export is complete.


9. Navigate to the same folder where your open SKP file is saved. There, you'll see individual SKP files for each species.

 

You can use these files to import into Lumion and assign plants there.

10. If you change species, or even the planting layout, just import the nodes with UseNodes again, and then ExportNodes again. Any old versions of the files will be overwritten.

11. (optional) You can change back to components in SketchUp by typing Landfx.useNodes=false Ruby Console command line.

12. Follow Lumion’s workflow for importing nodes and applying plant items. See the Lumion documentation for these steps.

What If You Only Have the Free SketchUp License?

What if you have the free SketchUp Land F/X license only? Don't worry – you can still export your nodes to Lumion.

1. Use our Place Tree and Place Shrub tools in SketchUp to create your planting design.

2. Use our Export Design tool to Export your planting design to the 3D Connection Cloud.

You're not taking your design anywhere outside SketchUp at this point. Exporting your design just allows the Nodes tool to use this connection data.

3. Follow the steps to export your Nodes into Lumion above, starting with Step 2.

If you found this process helpful, you'll likely find many more tools you never realized were available in our AutoCAD-based Design F/X, Planting F/X, or Irrigation F/X licenses. You can request a 30-day trial of Land F/X and see what you’re missing without our 3D Connection.

Related Webinars

• Turn a 3D Render into a Video with Land F/X, Lumion, and Davinci Resolve: Join Pat Pabich from YTL, Inc. as he outlines his most important considerations for making a 3D video rendering. Pat goes over some helpful tools YTL uses to move from CAD to 3D and even further to a polished, color-corrected professional video. (1 hr 30 min)