In this tutorial, I will teach you how to make a simple furniture node for your mesh. A furniture node will act the same way as a node in a room does, allowing you to drag any product onto it and have it snap to your mesh. Which can then be locked to your mesh.

Step 1) Make a basic cube. The cube can be any size but it is ideal to have it smaller than the area you're placing it on. For example, if your node is going to be placed on top of a shelf, make the cube smaller than the shelf.

Step 2) Select all the edges and faces of the cube. You can do this by simply drawing a selection around it or double clicking on one of the faces.

Step 3) Make sure all of the faces and edges of the cube are selected, then right click on it and choose "make component".



Step 4) In the name field, type "furniture.Floor.01". Make sure you capitalize Floor and include the periods. If you are making more than 1 node, you would name them like so: "furniture.Floor.01", "furniture.Floor.02", "furniture.Floor.03" and so on and so fourth.

Step 5) Click Create and move this newly created node to wherever you want the node on your mesh to be.

Step 6) Move the node halfway inside your mesh like this:



Note: If you're using the new version of Meshout, you can skip this step. In the new version, the bottom of the cube is the bottom of the node.

You do this because the middle of the cube is actually the bottom of the node, if you don't do this, your item will hover above your mesh when you drag it onto the node.

That's it, you're done. If you want to make more nodes to add to your mesh then simply repeat this process as many time as you like, but make sure to name the new nodes accordingly.

TIP: To save time, you can copy your existing node and paste it somewhere else to make a new node. Then just right click on the new node and choose "Entity Info" and edit the name. However, make sure you right click on the new node and choose "make unique" otherwise when you re-name it, it will rename your other node(s) too. This will allow you to easy and quickly make new nodes to add to your mesh.


TIP 2: You can rotate the node any way you like to make products snap onto your mesh at a different angle or rotation. For example, you can make books stand up or be on their side when you drag them onto the node. This way you don't have to manually rotate or spin the product once you've dragged it onto your mesh.

So basically, this is a node for furniture to sit on instead of a node for an avatar to sit on?

Don Von Free Credits wrote:

So basically, this is a node for furniture to sit on instead of a node for an avatar to sit on?

Yes, exactly. Sitting nodes require 3 more cubes. A catcher, pitcher, seat and handle.

Can you place furniture nodes on furniture, or are they only for rooms / scenes?

Don Von Free Credits wrote:

Can you place furniture nodes on furniture, or are they only for rooms / scenes?

Don't know for sure about that but I am pretty sure you can place any item that can be loaded in on it.

D.M wrote:

Don Von Free Credits wrote:

Can you place furniture nodes on furniture, or are they only for rooms / scenes?

Don't know for sure about that but I am pretty sure you can place any item that can be loaded in on it.

I was able to place a furniture node on furniture.

You should put your node into the 3D Warehouse, that way users for IMVU would find it, and say an Advertisement to TIM might be handy to throw in the description box while mentioning what to do when making a Copy of the Node.

hi, If you're a freelance artist, a trendy option for you should be to build your own nodes. The rewards are comparable to whatever you stand to gain because they build your own PC as an alternative to purchasing an off-the rack system; the direct influence about the components that enter in the assembling and lower per-unit expense.
You can place simply place item that can be loaded in on it. Root node is the root of your product and should always be placed at the base of your furniture model.

You can also use DM's xsf decompiler and notepad to add nodes to any product.

There is another way to add nodes to your mesh and that is to use Meshout v 0.4.33. Once you have loaded this into sketchup via the instructions you just need click the plugins tab at the top of the sketchup workspace and then click meshout v0.4.33 from the drop down menu and then choose which node you want to add ie furniture floor, furniture wall, furniture ceiling, pose group standing or pose group sitting. If you are wanting more than 1 of each of these nodes i find it best to copy the node that appears in your model and paste another wherever you want it and repeat as required. At this point dont worry about re naming the modes.

Once all your nodes are in your model that you require then click plugins tab again then meshout v0.4.33 and then click renumber furniture...this will make each node a unique number. If you have added stand or sit nodes then do the above but click renumber pose groups

et voila..... a really easy and quick way to add nodes

I only use sketchup 8 and havent tested meshout v 0.4.33 on any newer versions. The links to meshout v 0.4.33 and sketchup 8 are below

Sketchup 8: http://www.mediafire.com/download/88nr5 ... hupwen.exe
Meshout : http://www.mediafire.com/download/2pna5 ... hout04.zip

Hope this helps

That does sound a lot easier. I use meshout 4.33 with sketchup 2013 personally.


Also, I've created a thread here where all the sketchup resources are posted: viewtopic.php?t=7092&p=138393#p138393