From 2004 to 2006 my job was just what you are asking for: making 3d city models. Our workflow back then was (in 3dsMax): start with some sort of planning / script so you know what needs to be in 3d, what can be a billboard/panel and what can be skipped. Edit: there's a big difference in a walkthrough model and a birdseye view model. get the contours of the houses (2d dxf city data) -> maybe OpenStreetmap? take photographs yourself of all the buildings you need to model roughly model the shape of a building by doing: 4a. model a shape using the 2d city data (contours, streets etc). The 2d city data helps here because now you have the contour and exact width of the individual buildings 4b. Add a texture to the facade. Scale(z) the facade with the texture so its proportions are just like in the photographs 4c. add all the 3d details that define the building (overhangs, chimneys etc) 4d. use some sort of hierarchy in the model Name your models and textures so you can easily find something. 4e. edit the textures in Gimp/Photoshop to remove perspective in the windows, people, bicycles etc. Back then we used a constant TexturePerMeter for the textures so all the textures had the same sharpness / blur. Because of the limitations of hardware we used 32 pixels per meter. With the modern graphic cards you can go much higher for the curbs and roads we used a lofting technique with tileable textures you really need trees, streetlights, streesigns, cars, decals etc etc to make it come alive This is a very very very brief explanation. Feel free to ask more specific questions. Edit: if you brief allows you to keep all the buildings white instead of textured, you will save a TON of work. Edit: added a picture of some of our projects in 2004-2006 edit: think about a consistent level of detail. Max [image: f0OZ_city3d.jpg]

Revit will never be Sketchup, you got that one right for sure. Sketchup starts as a simple and intuitive software. However Sketchup could eventually be a Revit competitor. That is only a matter of wanting to deveop the right plugin. Plusspec claims something along this line right? (Not quite there probably, I wouldn't know.) I believe it would be a matter of choice for the trimble team, but I bet they prefer to keep SU within a wider scope as a modeller, than try pursuing Revit...

Actually, Trimble recommends that you don't just copy the plugins folder from one installation to another; you should install them properly. In any case, some extensions (like certain renderers) will install themselves into their own program folders...just putting a loader rb into Plugins. You won't have that program folder on a new system; plus you may have more than one Plugins folder. The default for 64bit versions is in Users/AppData..... but there's often another one in Application Data. It depends on what you've installed. I would recommend making a list of all your current plugins and extensions then installing them one by one using the Sketchucation Plugin Store (rapidly evolving into the Extension Store) plugin. This will create a Bundle that you can then rapidly copy to any other SU installation. As for the toolbar arrangement, I've made a screenshot of my preferred layout. I just import this as an image into SU, Zoom to fit, then arrange all the toolbars to match it. Also don't forget any custom templates, material libraries, styles etc. They'll need to be ported-over too. I'm currently running SU on 3 different systems. I just use it on 1 system at a time. It's likely that the latest release of SU will be out shortly. It's also possible that it may need a clean install...ie uninstalling the old version first, so having a bundled version of up-to-date plugins that can be installed with a single click will probably prove more economic in the long term. Like everybody else, I used to just copy-over my old plugins folder, but you can end up with a whole bunch of outdated plugins that way....except for Fredo's, which have a checking gizmo. You can also end-up with several plugs all doing effectively the same thing. I've just installed on a new laptop; and I took the opportunity to make a fresh start. The point about the SCF Plugin Store installer is that it will automatically install the latest versions directly from here, rather than copying some old version that's been knocking around on your hard drive for years.

It's true that both formats are saved in simple text format...what appears to be a list of vertex coordinates; but it's how those vertices are referenced that appears to be different. I think a translation from rof to obj would require at the very least some kind of batch Find and Replace script.

Check out HideAll (free on smustard.com) Select entity and rt/clk for contex [Hide All Unselected] Will save with scene if wanted Bread and butter app and thanks to Todd Burch for the freeBee dtr

Thanks a lot! That looks good. I'll download it now and have a go!

@deanlegg said: Is it possible to import solidworks files into SU? Not directly. Third party software may be used to convert the file into something that Sketchup recognizes - like Frederik mentioned. Even better, if you have access to Solidworks, you can save the file as DWG (or DXF, STL, etc.), and import that file into Sketchup. If you don't have access to Solidworks to convert the file, feel free to PM me the files and I can help you.

It works alright for me, but check the button with the three vertical lines. It will try to keep the offsets as untouched as possible

Thanks all. I bought the smustard one and it didn't work! $5 wasted! haha. But sdmitch your plugin works great, thank so much. S

@jql said: Has anyone had any success in usin Autodesks's 123D for Architectural purposes? I'm in need of something that can, with more or less effort, 3D scan buildings: Facades; Interiors; Staircases and complex interior rooms. I tried it a while ago. See http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=169%26amp;t=62602%26amp;hilit=+123d#p573897 Personally, the results aren't good enough yet to use them for my projects. For now it's just for fun and personal research. Exteriors might go ok. There are a few examples on youtube. Interiors could fail if the individual photo's don't have enough unique markers to match them. Rooms with large white walls and a polished concrete floor most likely fail. Reflective surfaces most likely fail I would expect some trouble with staircases if there aren't enough unique markers on them. Complex interior rooms could go either way. Maybe someone else did some more testing and had some better results?! Max

OK, Rich, thanks!

@dave r said: Next time try resetting the workspace. [attachment=0:3ig1rkuu]<!-- ia0 -->Reset.png<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment:3ig1rkuu] This happened to me recently, too. This fixed the problem. thanks, it worked for me

My limited experience SU primitive geometry contributes as second order impact on processing speed: Usually its is the graphics processor and computational load of the image textures; I some times save model and use that, delete all materials and see what the speed a nd program size is; That at least gives you some idea of the problem facing you. The actions can be done: Model work in monochrome mode since it reduces the processing load; 2 Save the materials as a collection. That creates a skm file and since you can open in the windows explorer you will have an idea of which materials are causing the problem and take action to change size if possible, usually it seems a few are culprits. ( If you want to open change extension to zip and the you can open.; You gave no info on machine and sku version you have, but make sure the graphics card is set for operation when running SU. You can also particularize its setting for SU by using its control panel. My info on that is out of date but someone will have it for you. Can even give NVIDIA a call. Select the widows styles and deselect enable transparency because that make process load more, also it sees thru the material or set opacity also., use layers to minimize processing load and scenes to help with navigation. The new task manager ( came in about vista time frame? ) at bottom right corner has greatly expanded info ( resource monitor ) you can get, read its help, understand and then use that. It may point finger at problem area. Shut down all other threads running you can. Just some thoughts :smiley

Fixed. Just tried geo-locating & it works as normal. Glenn

Yeah, thanks for those settings, srx!!! I reckon they've really sharpened my screen up!!

If real warehouses were organized like 3Dwarehouse we would never get delivery of anything.

New to Sketchucation and I cannot see how to raise a new post so I hope this presses the right buttons. I have recently added Sketchphysics to my SU. I've found some basic tutorials but I have hit a brick wall naming controllers. The box is blue and whenever I try and enter a name I get an error message. I have seen a post that talks of entering a name between the quotes but this did not work either. I'm trying to get on top of Sketchyphysics but so I can passs on the skills to my design students so a tad frustrated. Is there a good potted tutorial?

Surely we can crowdfund this one??

Hi TIG, thank you very much! I missed deleting the rb file and deleted only the plugin's folder and subfolder files. After deleting the rb everything is gone just like I wanted. The plugin was gkware stairmaker btw., sorry for not mentioning that, thought it wouldn't make a difference. Cheers Mikar

I have updated my Mac to current OS 10.11.1 & AmbientOcclusion plugin works well.