Faces/planes

soco · 14 Jan 2009, 12:10

Good morning!
Having further cleaned up my CAD floorplan and started my model again things are going much better. Mostly I can generate faces by tracing one side of a shape in the imported, exploded floorplan, which is a revelation! However it happens quite frequently that I cannot generate a face and this seems to be because one or more of the points involved has a Z co-ordinate of approximately(indicated by squiggley line)0 instead of 0. Is this another messy CAD issue? I draw in 2D only in CAD so assumed all lines in a plan would have the same 'Z' co-ordinate (ie. none at all). Is there some way of establishing a groundplane in SU with a fixed Z co-ordinate and 'gluing' the imported floorplan to it?

Gaieus · 14 Jan 2009, 12:23

Hi and good morning (it's already afternoon here )

There are several ways to "flatten" a sloppy CAD import (although flattening it still in CAD seems to be the safest way prior to import).

Anywy, there is a $ 10 plugin "Flatten.rb" at Smustard which can do that. If you are planning to use many CAD imports, it's well worth (just think about the time you have alreadyinvested in this particular problem). There are also other scripts there that help with sloppy CAD files.

Then you can always draw a big face under the imported linework and using the Drape tool of the Sandbox, simply "project and intersect" your lines onto that - obviously co-planar - face.

A third, quick,manual method (onlyif you have few faulty endpoints) is to move the vertices to 0 Z height. Deselect everything and hover over the culprit endpoint with the move tool. When you get the "Endpoint" inference, click on it, press the Up or Down key (to lock the move on the Z axis) and move it down to zero by inferencing to a known, good point.

With this latter method, you can often quickly fix some minor problems of lines/vertices out of alignment in other cases, too.

soco · 14 Jan 2009, 13:04

I just used the Drape method (discovering Sandbow tools in the process)and it's worked perfectly.
Thanks a million!

Gaieus · 14 Jan 2009, 13:23

Great!
Please, come back when you get to the next phases.

soco · 14 Jan 2009, 14:10

Well just when you thought it was safe to come out, I'm back! It looks as if I spoke too soon...
About 30% of my groundplan endpoints ended up with a Z-coord of 0.05, while the rest are at 0.00. I have doublechecked my groundplane mesh, which has all corners at Z-coord 0, and re-Draped, but the renegade endpoints won't shift. I completely exploded the CAD groundplan before export. In order to Drape it on the groundplane mesh I had to make it into a SU group (as I can only select one entity to drape) - could this be the problem (ie. will elements within a group drape properly)?

Gaieus · 14 Jan 2009, 14:40

Yes, groups should drape properly. Try to move your plan a bit above the face you are draping on. The drape tool should "project" all the lines smoothly.

soco · 14 Jan 2009, 15:40

I did that and re-Draped... I lost a few lines but those that did reappear were all on the correct plane. Redrawing a few lines is a tiny price to pay for having nice clean plan to extrude from!
Thanks, again.

soco · 16 Jan 2009, 10:48

Hello again,
Progress is good with the new model! I'm nearly ready to start roofing and was wondering: do you have any tips?
I have the pitch of each roof plane, its starting(lowest)level and its plan dimensions, but not the exact heights of all the supporting walls. I have extruded those walls to the datum of the lowest point of the corresponding roof plane.
What is the best way to bring the (level)top face of walls up to meet a pitched roof undercroft?
If I draw a roofplane so that it projects over the external walls is there an easy way to trim back projections where necessary (using an intersecting face, for example)?

Gaieus · 16 Jan 2009, 17:24

Yes,intersecting will be your best friend here.

First of all, make a group of what you have now (especially the walls) so that when working on the roof, you won't affect them.

Now enter the wall group and copy the very top face (which is "covering" the wall) with a simple Ctrl+C after selecting it.

Then exit the group, go to Edit > Paste into place; it will be placed to the same location and you can work on it so that it can be part of your roof and the roof line will perfectly match the walls.

You can even hide the walls now...

soco · 29 Jan 2009, 10:05

Hello,
I think I've got the hang of SU basics now, mainly thanks to the help I got here!
I'd like to put the model in its landscape context:
Should I start a new model of the landscape, building up the contours etc, and then import the building model into that file? or should I draw the whole thing in one file?
Do you have any tips on the best way to build up landscape? I think I can use the Drape tool to soften out contour edges I have drawn... can I then 'drop' my building into this landscape?

Gaieus · 29 Jan 2009, 10:33

@soco said:

Should I start a new model of the landscape, building up the contours etc, and then import the building model into that file? or should I draw the whole thing in one file?

Either way is just fine (especially with a "not-too-complex" model).

@soco said:

Do you have any tips on the best way to build up landscape?

It depends what kind of "input" yoou have;

contour lines
you want to work from "scratch"
point cloud
you can even import a Google Earth Terrain
etc.

@soco said:

I think I can use the Drape tool to soften out contour edges I have drawn...

Well, I don't exactly understand what you mean here but the Drape tool is for something different; for "drawing" contour lines of buildings, roads etc. onto a softened surface (i.e. terrain/landscape).

@soco said:

can I then 'drop' my building into this landscape?

That would be the Stamp tool (of the Sandbox).

kwistenbiebel · 20 Feb 2009, 06:18

Make that 200 lines.

Rubbish!

kwistenbiebel · 20 Feb 2009, 08:07

The drape Tool sucks big time for projecting lines on a surface.
It only works when you have less than app. 1000 lines.
Anything higher?: Crash guaranteed!

I need this urgently in a project and I am really swearing. Damn Sketchup.

Wo3Dan · 20 Feb 2009, 09:39

@kwistenbiebel said:

The drape Tool sucks big time for projecting lines on a surface.
It only works when you have less than app. 1000 lines.
Anything higher?: Crash guaranteed!....

I just used it to drape an organic shape (3236 edges) = about 2 to 3 minutes.
Turned on "hidden geometry" (now 4733 edges) = about 3 minutes
Deleted all faces BUT ONE => about 3 minutes

The results are exactly the same. Meaning projected (thus coplanar triangulating) hidden lines are not included.
Have you in any way skrewed up how you set things up?

NO connection between whatever you drape and the face(s) you project on.
NO connecting faces underneath each other. Otherwise all will be draped upon.
(this will multipy time needed for all faces underneath are projected upon)

Otherwise I would suggest to copy both subject(s) and horizontal face(s) into a clean
SU instance to do the operation separately.

p.s. My old machine with XP seems to come to halt at about 45% but I give it some time.

Wo3Dan

kwistenbiebel · 22 Feb 2009, 15:05

Thank you for the tip Wo3Dan,
I'll keep those tips in mind for the next time.

As my file kept crashing by using the drape tool, I handed it over to a colleaugue who did it in 1 minute using Rhino.

The trouble with the sketchup drape tool is that it is basically a ruby, and thus has difficulties with large amounts of geometry....and in a lot of cases, DWG site imports are full of it.

Friday was really a day of Sketchup frustration.
Anyone sells a SU stress ball?