Street Scene Rendering Tutorial
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Nice tutorial Chris
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Chris,
Can I bring in a cross section from AutoCAD, or do I have to redraw them in SketchUp?
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Yes. (at least in Pro, not sure about the free version...)
Make sure that when you import you check the import options (from the import file dialog) that the import units are correct.
Also, before you import a DWG, purge the dwg and place the lines near origin. -
OK, I have the Import working..
but it looks like i have to trace over the DWG cross section in order for it to register as a solid shape, not just a bunch of line segments. Is there a way i can lock the cross section, and trace over it without modifying the lines in the cross section? i cant figure out how to lock the segments. -
do you have an example .dwg you could post? There's a few things that might be happening. If it is drawn in autocad and all the lines connect correctly, then it should work in SketchUp without having to retrace everything. But there is also a plugin called make faces from http://www.smustard.com. Its free and it helps with what you're doing. Essentially you select all the linework and run the plugin and it will analyze your model and make faces where they can go. So d/l the plugin and put in your SketchUp plugins folder and then open SU and try the import again. Then run makefaces on it. If that doesn't work, theres more options to test.
Chris
BTW thanks everyone on the tutorial. I would have gone on and done more, but apparently the free screen grab app I use has a 5 minute limit. I could do another one for how to make and incorporate a corner into your model if you'd like next time.
Chris
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Thanks Chris,
I'll try the "make faces" plugin...
I uploaded a copy of the simple cross section dwg to my server for your reference.
The Follow Me tool is great, and I have had no problems so far incorporating corners into my drawings..
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yeah, make faces worked great for me on your section there. I also like the script from smustard called stray_lines.rb. It goes through and labels every line that does not end at another line. Generally it finds every face that isn't closed right and labels it so you can get in and manually fix the problems by drawing little lines to close faces as needed. That script is also free. And there is one line segment in the .dwg you uploaded that is not closed correctly. So get stray lines and you'll see what I mean.
BTW make faces plugin is in the tools menu once its installed.
Chris
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having a hard time extending this cross section with the follow me tool. The plug in works, sort of...
but it seems like i am missing a step, because i cant push more then one surface at a time, and once i use the make face plugin, the follow me tool will not follow curves?this is my working file...
hopefully Its a simple fix! The frustration is building pretty quick!
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I see that your model is warped a little. Somewhere in the rotation process I'm guessing, you made the profile non planar.
You are right though that push/pull only works on one face at a time though. But if you are followme, you don't need to push/pull first. Just the flat face is enough to get follow me started.
So start with re-importing the profile and then rotating it.
Chris
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It worked, but I had to follow me every single face in the drawing...
I tried to do multiple select by option clicking, or shift clicking, and i tried grouping and making a component.. none of which worked..? how do i follow me multiple faces at once? -
You cannot do that with native SU tools. Push/Pull and Follow me only work on a single face.
There is a plugin by Didier Bur (as far as I remember) however which should do that (I just cannot recall its name).
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Another option is to make a 2nd copy of the profile, after you have all the faces filled in correctly. THen on 1 copy, delete all interior faces, so it is just 1 big face. Then run the follow me tool. Then move the copy of the profile, that still has all faces in place, onto the road. It should al line up nicely and make maces on the front so you can then change the color as you desire. Hope that helps,
Chris
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Also there is a great plugin that will create dashed roadlines along any line ...
http://www.crai.archi.fr/RubyLibraryDepot/Ruby/em_arc_page.htm ... dashes.rb
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