Setting Ground
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Hello.. Does anyone know if there is there a way to set the ground? Say if you have a surface, terrain or other.. can that be set to be the ground so that shadows reflect on it. In my case the surface I would like to use as ground is translucent, so when I have shadows, then the ground shadow is cast on to 0 level but there is no ground there. Is there a solution to this? I searched the forums but could not find anything yet.. Thanks for answers.
-Teo -
Hi Teo,
In your shadow dialog (Window menu), when shadow is set, at the bottom, you can uncheck "On ground". This is the most you can do.
If you want t translucent ground and use a SketchUp colour, make sure you do not set it more translucent than 70% (i.e. the opacity should be more than that) because there will be no shadow. If you want it completely translucent but still receive shadow, you need to use an image material that is transparent. Here is a "Dummy" material you can use. It is completely transparent but still receive shadows.
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Thanks for the superfast answer Gaieus. But I cannot seem to open that file, it does not show up as one of the supported image file types.. FYI here is the image. I would like shadow on the "water" from the boat that takes off of it. Do you think it can be done?
Best reg. Teo
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Ok, I figured out that it belonged in the color folder in the program files. I tried it, but it does not receive shadows.. Oh, and I just discovered that the shadow which is present at 100% opacity (it should read 0% btw.), goes away at 99% opacity not 70 in my version of sketchup (7) anyway. Maybe that is the problem. Thank you anyway. -Teo
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You are right. A transparent material (with a transparent image) does not receive shadow (just casts shadow). Sorry, I was wrong.
And you are also correct that it does not receive shadow over 70% opacity. It only casts shadow when it is over. I do not know why I remembered incorrectly.
In this case however, I can see no way you can cast shadow on a transparent surface - unless you draw the outline of the (supposed to be) shadow and make it darker this way "baking" it in the model. But of course, that will never be interactive (like when you change the sun position).
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