Varying thickness on edges

Xcalibur

Hi there,
My first post at this forum, I hope this topic hasn't been up already, couldn't find it.

I've got a task where I need to use a sketchy style on a sketchup model to make it look like it's handdrawn. Problem is I need some of the edges to be thicker and some to be thinner. I was told Style Builder would be able to do this for me. However, even though I can use it to create a style with varying thickness on the edges I see no way to manually control which edges these different strokes are applied to. This seems to be done randomly.

I also tried checking the "profiles" option. This kind of does what I'm after but I need more control.

Does anyone know any way to solve this problem?

Cheers!

Dave R

Unfortunately there isn't a way to manually control which edges are thicker and which are thinner even with sketchy styles created by Style Builder. As I'm sure you've seen already, applying a line style is an all or nothing affair so you can't selectively apply one style to some lines and another to other lines.

A possible alternative would be to create two scenes with identical camera placement. Scene 1 would be the model with the thin line style applied. Scene 2 would be for the thick lines. Working in Scene 2, Copy the entire model to a second layer. Call that layer, "Thick Edges" and make all of the components on that layer unique. Uncheck the Visibility boxes for the other layers. Edit all of the components to Hide those edges that you don't want to be thick. Apply your thick line style and choose Hidden Line and a white background for the Face Style. Update Scene 2.

Reverse the scene visibility for Scene 1. Set up Scene 1 with the thin line style and whatever Face Style you want. Update Scene 1.

Export JPGs or PNGs of both scenes and then use your image editor (I like Paint.NET) to combine the images putting the Scene 2 image over the Scene 1 image. Make the white background of the Scene 2 image transparent and you should be all set. Really very little work in the image editor. Depending on the edge styles, you may need to hide the "thick" edges on the components in the Scene 1 so they aren't rendered with the thin line style.

I can make a graphic example if you want.

TIG

'Profile' makes edges thicker than other lines.
'Depth cue' makes edges further away thinner.
'Fog' fades more distant things.

Xcalibur

Thanks for the fast reply.
I'll try to make use of these advice. I'll get back to tell you how it went.