Editable roads/paths

bongo678

Hello,

I've been using SketchUp quite a bit recently, especially for garden design.

One challenge I'm still wrestling with: Drawing a road with curves is easy. And draping or stamping it onto a terrain (with slope) is easy. However there doesn't seem to be any clear way to easily edit the road after the fact. I'm constantly having to through the steps of re-generating my terrain anytime I want to change the road/path.

Hopefully I'm just missing something obvious, like a plugin everyone is using.

Tools I've been trying out in various ways:
-The default terrain tools in SketchUp
-Various bezier editing tools (which provide edit nodes) like by Fredo6
-InstantRoad by ValiArchitects
-"Tools on Surface" by Fredo6

Is there a smarter way to use these plugins to make editable-roads-in-terrain?

It seems like the capabilities are all there, and some tools just need to be integrated with each other.

A good reference for this kind of functionality is the program Realtime Landscaping which has a very intuitive way of creating and editing paths/roads and seeing the changes instantly modifying the terrain.

I realize SketchUp has target audiences and stuff, and everyone can't get everything they want, but this seems like such obvious functionality to benefit everyone?

Thx

solo

I do not know of any plugin that can achieve what you are looking for, would be awesome if there was one. Just a thought, why not create your terrain in that software and export to SU when completed?

bongo678

Yea, a potential solution, however I believe the export functionality of that software is limited or non-existent (trying to confirm this now).

In any case, it would be nice to be able to design within SketchUp. Jumping from program to program hinders spontaneous creativity a bit.

pbacot

There is a issue in this with general terrain and site elements. Changes require a lot of work and the model gets fragmented and messy. Still looking for ideas myself. Some approaches may involve keeping elements separate for as long as possible. So the road is not joined to the terrain, but the terrain is shaped to accommodate it.

Also valiarchitects instant terrain may help. One can add items and join it together with the main terrain. then retexturing becomes an issue....