Nice job, Mike. I, too, have similar problems as you. When I'm in MoI I don't want to use other programs, and when I'm in SU mode, I enjoy it's features and dread switching back to MoI as I fear having to 're-learn' some of the more esoteric MoI stuff. One thing which has helped is I've tried mapping my shortcuts between SketchUp, MoI and Lightwave to the same same keys. So, no matter what app I'm using, I'm using T for translate, Y for rotate, P for Poly, etc.. It really helps.

I've yet to find export settings that work PERFECT from MoI to SU-- especially for big models with lots of curved surfaces. For some reason OBJ export works great for Keyshot, but hiccups on SketchUp with funky TINY polys which take forever to clean up. I think it has something to do with SU's 'auto merge' poly routines.

Speaking of Keyshot, while it may be out of your price range, but it really is dead simple and works great with MoI. Their newest version, still in beta, is pretty sweet and may soon compete with Vray for simple interiors. It's still lacking many of the basics, like atmospheric haze and true displacement, but for product rendering it can't be beat.

Thanks for sharing and I look forward to your next tute!