A Welcome Message to New SketchUcation Members

deathcloud · 17 Jul 2008, 21:16

sir gaeius can i link this forum to our forum permission from you sir

Gaieus · 21 Jul 2008, 07:54

Hi JC,

Sorry for not answering so long but I was away for a week.

Sure you can link this forum to anywhere - links are "free" on the internet!

ArchieB · 21 Jul 2008, 15:05

Hello
i am a student who loves to build and design any thing. As a kid i played with Knex and still do. Soon i'll be off to university and can't wait. I came across the sketchup software on a free ware site and after downloading it i was instantly drawn to it's realistic graphics,the tools and plugins designed for the software oh and the fact that it was free!

Bahkieh · 21 Jul 2008, 21:01

Hi!
I recently discovered SketchUp while doing work for a drafting company.
I love the program and love being able to do things, even without AutoCAD knowledge.
Hopefully I browse and learn tons more from this forum!

Thanks!
Bahkieh

Gaieus · 22 Jul 2008, 01:05

Hello Both and welcome to the forums. I'm sure you'll have lots of fun using SU and also hope you'll have lots of fun getting to know the members here.

j_a_g.2012 · 23 Jul 2008, 20:27

hey all!

i'm jim from the uk and i'm new here and to SU - downloaded it last friday, after struggling with some naff 3D animation progs over the years. I learnt 2D drafting and wireframes (A-CAD) in my 20's for hobbyist purposes, went on to 3dS and then got diverted in life (marriage, kids etc). Now i've found SU, played a little, to help shake off the rust and ended up by replicating a little "Wall-E" character/model for my 6 yr old son!! now looking to get into making buildings and very intrigued by the sketchyphysics plug in which i just installed.

looks like the learning curve is there, but thanks to the expertise here, possibly not as steep.

and i may not even get to use my favourite 3d modelling term of the early 90's : Non Uniform Rational B-Splines (ok, so that time doesn't count, does it?).

i might not be able to offer much in the way of advice, but i am keen to learn

cheers to all
jim / jAg

solo · 23 Jul 2008, 20:29

Welcome to SCF Jim.

I am sure you will enjoy your stay and learn much from many seasoned users and before you know it you too will be offering advice.

j_a_g.2012 · 23 Jul 2008, 22:02

@solo said:

Welcome to SCF Jim.

I am sure you will enjoy your stay and learn much from many seasoned users and before you know it you too will be offering advice.

thnx. i'm just awed at the skills present here and the excellent tutorials.
i'm just going to take things slow & easy and re-learn that which i'd forgotten.

glad to be aboard

jim

Ross Macintosh · 27 Jul 2008, 14:48

@j_a_g.2012 said:

I'm just going to take things slow...

Slow & steady is good, but the best advice is to keep having fun! The Wall-E model is a great idea for a fun learning project. (Now that you have him done you could turn him into a component and create a Wall-E assembly line -- or a Wall-E army -- or a... ). Jim I also hope you'll consider giving your clever son the opportunity to learn SketchUp. Kids can definitely learn SketchUp too + it can keep him off the street!

Jim - please post your Wall-E in the Gallery Forum.

To all the new users: Keep having fun! Push-pulling is fun! Just wait 'till you try 'Smooving' in the sandbox. (For adults only).

Regards, Ross

xiaochouya · 7 Aug 2008, 08:26

我来自中国，谢谢

Gaieus · 7 Aug 2008, 09:00

在这里欢迎

chris1184 · 10 Aug 2008, 09:34

Hi guys i'm new here. Have been looking for this forum for a qiute long time I would like to tell U something about my SU project!
So...i'm reconstructing old city in my home town (Gorzow Wlkp/Poland) that was destroyed in II world war. Almost 50% of building located inside old city wall was demolished so i decided to reconstruct them Sometimes it's hard becouse materials and pictures that i gethered are not enough to reconstruct in the way i would like to. But i think it looks not so bad for a amateour (using SU since july 08).
Why I use Scetch Up? Becouse it's easy becouse it gives me fun and becouse my projekt grows very fast every day.
This is the link to my site where i'm uploding nev photos of landsber-gorzow projekt http://landsberg-gorzow.blogspot.com/
If you guys have some questions ore notice something please leave your comment, i'll be thankful.

Chris

Gaieus · 10 Aug 2008, 09:49

Holy smokes, Chris, this is gorgeous! And you've been using SU for just a month!

I can only give one suggestion really: since you are modeling very detailed, the profile lines ruin your details a little bit (as well as probably make detailed/high poly modeling a little slower fro your machine). So if you go to the Styles dialogue > In model > Edit tab, in the edge settings you can turn them off.

Now save this file (along with any further changes you wish to make in your custom Template) into the Resources/en_US/Templates folder in your SU application in Program Files (provided you use Windows) with a custom file name.

Now go to Window > Preferences > Templates and choose this as your template. But I'm pretty sure you have already known this anyway.

Also, for your gallery pictures, it is good to export your 2D images with a higher (say 2x) output and resize them in an external application - it will give better results (nice, finer lines etc. - which may be useful when you model so detailed).

There are a couple of people ehre who deal with historic reconstructions however (if you are interested): ELYSIUM (the ancient Rome), tomislavm (historic downtown Osijek), Julius (Pont du Gard), Pichuneke (Roman theatres) and others - search for their posts to see.

And please, post in teh Gallery, too (and not only links but images - people are too lazy to follow links )

chris1184 · 10 Aug 2008, 10:36

Gaiesu thanks for your suggestions. I didn't know about those details!! I was furious when i did pictures of this project and the profil lines cover other lines and make it all not clear. Ofcourse i will post them in the gallery after transforming this projekt with your suggestions so it looks nicer

Gaieus · 10 Aug 2008, 11:15

Cool, I'm really glad that I could add something to these beautiful models.

You really seem to have the skills and enthusiasm for modeling so obviously you only need to pick up some small tips and tricks to make them perfect.

Do you also model the buildings from inside? At lest the church and stuff like that?
I have the plans of my cathedral from before it was rebuilt in the 19th century and I'm planning to make all its "versions" back to the 12th century as our episcopate will celebrate its millennium next year. All the Gothic vaultings and such - it will be a fun project!
This is a video of it in the 14th century (wmv - 14 Mb) modeled in SU but rendered in an external application. Though this one is not modeled from inside, the other churches in the distance are.

the shield · 11 Aug 2008, 14:20

Hi,
Just signed up.

Struggling to get my head around animation/ flythroughs in SU. Can anyone shed some light on this or show me some good step by step links.

Cheers, Matt

remus · 11 Aug 2008, 16:09

Hello matt, and welcome.

If your looking for info on animation check out the tutorials forum, theres a lot of stuff on it in there.

Gaieus · 12 Aug 2008, 08:40

Welcome Matt,

You have to start with Scenes to create/export an animation afterwards.
(Note that the

feature label is outdated - animation export is now available in the free version as well).

Also make sure that you set your preferences for the animation in the Model info dialogue.

deathcloud · 13 Aug 2008, 00:09

sir ive used the animation for my previous presentations when i projected it through an OHP the lines were so pixelized and it seems like an old film.. is there any additional setting for this?

Gaieus · 13 Aug 2008, 08:00

In the animation export options there is a checkbox "antialias". Did you check that? Also turn off profiles at the Styles dialogue and maybe try to export in a bigger size.