[Plugin] Bitmap To Mesh

Ben Ritter

Ben, look at my example of roof tile above very closely - you will see that you should use a TINY .bmp... I mean TINY.

Then scale the mesh that is generated UP in SketchUp, then PROJECT your texture DOWN onto the face. Be sure the texture position is set to PROJECTED.

Remember that BLACK is the lowest point, and WHITE is the HIGHEST point on the final mesh... so make sure to create your displacement map appropriately... a sketch like that is not likely to give you the exact results you want... depending on what you want I guess.

Thom Thom, I used your plugin to helpme create this image... thanks again!
It is KEY to use a very good displacement map and very small resolution.

Fletch, thanks for the reminders. The bmp was a scanned in sketch that I tried. Perhaps not the best to use. Thank you anyway.

Gaieus

@thomthom said:

Fletch - how did you do that?
A plugin that inserts components at vertices?

Here is a bit of the workflow.
http://twilightrender.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=2208

thomthom

@unknownuser said:

The board requires you to be registered and logged in to view this forum.

Gaieus

Ah yeah, that is a restricted area for license holders.

Anyway, it's drop.rb.

thomthom

Version 0.3.0b

Renamed Mesh From Bitmap to Mesh From Heightmap
Added new Mesh From Bitmap
[attachment=0:3etwkcol]MeshFromBitmap.png[/attachment:3etwkcol]

Known bug:
Flipped image isn't properly recognised.

jeffschaid01

Hello,

After importing the bmp, I've adjusted height, width, etc. The program then follows through by indexing points and generating a mesh. After that I'm attempting to export as a vrml and the program continues to crash at 49%. I'm sure doing something incorrectly but not sure what. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Jeff

jeffschaid01

Hello,

Are further steps needed prior to exporting as vrml after height, width and depth adjustments have been made along with point indexing and mesh generating? All of these steps have been completed but SU is crashing at the 49% mark while exporting as vrml. Any help will be greatly apprecaited.

Thanks,
Jeff

thomthom

@jeffschaid01 said:

Are further steps needed prior to exporting as vrml after height, width and depth adjustments have been made along with point indexing and mesh generating? All of these steps have been completed but SU is crashing at the 49% mark while exporting as vrml. Any help will be greatly apprecaited.

VRML? What are you using to export that?

thomthom

@jeffschaid01 said:

Hello,

Are further steps needed prior to exporting as vrml after height, width and depth adjustments have been made along with point indexing and mesh generating? All of these steps have been completed but SU is crashing at the 49% mark while exporting as vrml. Any help will be greatly apprecaited.

Thanks,
Jeff

If SketchUp crashes when you export then I'm afraid I can't help, as this plugin has nothing to do with the exporter.

jeffschaid01

Are there further steps needed (other than the ones mentioned) prior to export or should the file theoretically be ready for export?

thomthom

No additional steps. Once it has created the geometry it's done its job.

You're problem appear to be with the exporter.

You're exporting to a 3d printer? Isn't there a different format then VRML you can use?

jeffschaid01

Yes. I can use other file types such as a 3ds or stl. However, I've tried exporting as a 3ds as well and again, the program crashes at 49% for some reason. Very strange.

thomthom

How big is the geometry you export?
Did you use a large bitmap to create the mesh from?

Maybe SketchUp.exe is running out of memory.

Can you give an example of an image you converted to mesh, which you try to export?

Does it happen with all meshes you've generated?

jeffschaid01

In sketchup format (after converting to mesh) the file size is 13megs. I've attached the image for which I'm creating the "bitmap to mesh" from. Its size prior to converting to mesh is 44kb. I think you might be on to something as far as SU running out of memory. Possible work around?

thomthom

First verify it's a memory issue. open Task Manager and monitor the memory usage of SketchUp.exe when you export.

thomthom

That mesh I got from that image you posted was pretty dense. 85K triangles.
I ran CleanUp on it afterwards, resulting in 34K triangles.

If SU is running out of memory, I'd suggest you try with a smaller bitmap. Also, try to run CleanUp before exporting to get rid of co-planar faces.

jeffschaid01

Thanks very much for the help. The cpu usage is at about 250,000k when the export process hits 49% then climbs to 270k and the program crashes and closes. Is this beyond SU capabilities?

thomthom

No - it'd be at about 2GB. (Unless you have a 64bit OS and SU8M1 with more than 4GB RAM installed - then it can use up to 4GB.)
It must be something else.

jeffschaid01

Is the "cleanup" process a function of SU?

thomthom

@jeffschaid01 said:

Is the "cleanup" process a function of SU?

It's another plugin of mine: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=22920