[Plugin][$] 3D Tree Maker - New version 1.10.14

ppoublan

Dear all,
another tip to use tree maker with better performance, to place trees within large models:

I build/change configuration of the tree in an new empty Sketchup model
When I'm happy with the result, I convert it to proxy with the integrated tree maker proxy function
Then I copy/paste this component (which is small) to the final model where I can make instances
When all trees are in place and I want to render, i use "redraw all" in the final model, this can take some time if many trees, but have to do it only once before rendering
I also use the proxies features of the renders when available (Thea, Octane, ...)
Yours
Pascal

ppoublan

I came back to the v1.06.04 because this version draws the trees in few seconds (between 3 and 8 seconds in my computer), but there is one inconvenient, you lose the feature make grass and other features related with the Materials, present in the last version.

Hi Oxer,
The main difference is that the old version is making SU groups, not components.
Using components is really more efficient when you need to place many instances, and you got also a SU file that is lighter.
So yes time to draw with the new version is a little bit more slow to draw one tree (on PC), but a lot much faster to redraw 20 or more trees as only the component is rebuild, not all instances.
This was the reason I make this change to integrate features like grass.
But as I really have acceptable performance on PC/2014 (few seconds to draw most of the trees), maybe i have a specific issue of speed with Mac.
I will try to add few time logs to the next version so see what is slowing down the most.
Yours
Pascal

Oxer

I found a plugin that it makes slow down the drawing of trees, BGSketchup_Composants.rb, with this plugin installed the drawing of tree02:Cypress takes 47 seconds, without the plugin installed the drawing takes 12 seconds, other example, the drawing of tree00:Default Generic Tree takes 6 seconds without plugin, with the plugin installed 55 seconds.
Mac OSX 10.9.4 & SU2014 with Tree Maker v1.10.11

Jorgensen

I tried to removed all plugins, and the script seems to run ok - but I still get the error.

If I install octane render, the problem happens again (things take very long time), even with the Octane Viewport closed.

So it seems that octane render somehow sesses things up in my Sketchup.

ppoublan

Dear all,
Just fixed the issue with script error when loading configuration webdialog.
New file published in PluginStore and on my website.
Version is 3darcstudio_tree_v1.10.11a.rbz
Yours
Pascal

PS : do not understand why javascript is executed differently when called from SU8 and from SU2014, but...

ppoublan

@oxer said:

I found a plugin that it makes slow down the drawing of trees, BGSketchup_Composants.rb, with this plugin installed the drawing of tree02:Cypress takes 47 seconds, without the plugin installed the drawing takes 12 seconds, other example, the drawing of tree00:Default Generic Tree takes 6 seconds without plugin, with the plugin installed 55 seconds.
Mac OSX 10.9.4 & SU2014 with Tree Maker v1.10.11

Hi Oxer,
Great to know. Thanks for tests you made.
My understanding is that other plugins may add entities observers to Sketchup to be informed of any entity change. I'm not sure if this is the case for those you mentioned but I will have a look. When this is the case, each time a change is made to an entity, the third plugin is called. As drawing a tree make lots of change to entities within tree component, it add time due to all these calls.
Yours

ppoublan

@jorgensen said:

I tried to removed all plugins, and the script seems to run ok - but I still get the error.

Fixed (SU8).

@jorgensen said:

If I install octane render, the problem happens again (things take very long time), even with the Octane Viewport closed.

I'm also using Octane and cant see important additional delay to draw tree when viewport closed, Could you make a test with SU2014 as Octane Plugin is different for SU2014 ?

Yours
Pascal

Jorgensen

Hi pascal

Not sure I understand you right, but I don't have sketchup 2014.

Maybe I should reinstall sketchup and octane.

ppoublan

You can download SU2014 for free and setup it + Octane Plugin just to see if it change the performance on your environment.

noicrilo

Hi,
this plugin is really awesome, thanks of sharing your work.
I notice on mac OS and sketchup 2014 that the tree bar (with the 4 icons) is always reloaded when program opens,
it is very annoying, can you fix this bug? I’m working with all other features and it seems all fantastic and useful

albertoricordi

QUESTION:

How can I include my own trees in the drop-down menu library?

ppoublan

@albertoricordi said:

QUESTION:

How can I include my own trees in the drop-down menu library?

Right click on a tree, then "Save as template..."

choose a different file name that the one proposed if you do not want to overwrite existing template. You can also create the preview image (that is displayed when this tree will be selected in the new list)

Yours
Pascal

ppoublan

@noicrilo said:

Hi,
this plugin is really awesome, thanks of sharing your work.
I notice on mac OS and sketchup 2014 that the tree bar (with the 4 icons) is always reloaded when program opens,
it is very annoying, can you fix this bug? I’m working with all other features and it seems all fantastic and useful

I'm not sure to understand, or maybe its not working the same way on Mac.
On PC, View>Toolbars> uncheck 3DArcStudio Tree Maker. Does this menu exists on mac ?

menes

@alan fraser said:

Brilliant plugin, Pascal...and very configurable...both during and post production.
The tree on the left is a default Olive...but with simplified leaf geometry (down to 3 faces per leaf). It is now down to only 21,000 faces.
The tree on the right is another default Olive, but with even simpler leaves (1 face) but double the number of leaves; and minus all the small twigs. This is down to only 12,000 faces. It was only 7000 before I doubled the leaf count (by simply selecting the foliage group, duplicating and rotating it.)

Hi Alan,
Great your Olive tree,
I'm struggling much, because of too much slowness of the Pc, to obtain a similar one. Too much to ask if you could give me directions on the values that you used?
obtain a so Olive tree with only 12000 faces really could help much.
thanks in any case

ppoublan

@menes said:

I'm struggling much, because of too much slowness of the Pc, to obtain a similar one. Too much to ask if you could give me directions on the values that you used?
obtain a so Olive tree with only 12000 faces really could help much.
thanks in any case

Here are few tips to improve performance and reduce size of trees with this plugin :

Tips to reduce tree size :

Reduce the number of faces and segments of the tree. It may change a little bit the way the tree looks like, but generaly you will be able to keep the same global look without loosing much quality. Only 3 or even 2 faces are often enough for small branches (branches level 2 or 3).
Use leaves with lower number of faces (as the “square” face for example, one quad face = 2 triangle faces only with 4 vertices) and apply png texture
You can create you own leaves/flowers with lower number of faces. To do this, draw a tree, open window components, add a leaf from the component list, edit it and change it. (show the hidden geometry if you want to see all the edges of the leaf faces). Hide/soften the edges. This is not mandatory but it gives a better look. Hide also outer loop edges. Save it with a new filename in the subdirectory “leaves” of the tree plugin. You can now use it within your trees

Tips to improve performance issues

Disable shadows, fog, profiles of edge styles and complex styles
Close the outliner window (do not ask me why, but its true!)
Disable plugins that add component or entities observers (they will add additional time at every tree draw). It s for example the case for the Eneroth railroad. (do not remove the plugin, I’m a big fan of it, just turn it off when drawing the trees)
Use the proxies features :
Turn all trees to proxies before saving your model, you will drastically reduce the Sketchup file size.
Work with trees in proxy mode when you are working on other parts of your model
Turn all trees to full draw only when you need to render or capture your final image

Hope this helps.
Yours
Pascal

ijmccoy

superb plugin, is there a guide for it at all?

also with the model im working on at the moment whenever i try to render the leaves disapear and ive no idea why, any help would be great

Ian

ppoublan

@ijmccoy said:

is there a guide for it at all?

Not yet, but I'm working on it... will publish it as soon as available.

@ijmccoy said:

whenever i try to render the leaves disapear and ive no idea why, any help would be great

Which render do you use ?

i've made tests with Octane, Thea, Kerkytea. I could try with your render with evaluation version.
I know some issues with the renders I tested but with good results.

yours
Pascal

pibuz

Hi Pascal! I'm an architecture visualizer and I really really think your plugin is wonderful! Finally a serious and versatile tree generator inside SketchUp!
I especially like the "render proxy" feature: extremely useful when working with big and complex scenes.
Speaking of which, I have a little request for you: I work with Indigo Renderer, and it also supports a proxy system to substitute complex models with lighter ones. You only need to apply the suffix "_dummy" to the desired proxy which will be exported and rendered as the original component (eg. "tree" and corresponding proxy "tree_dummy").
So first thing I did was checking the components window and see what happens when I convert one of your trees to a proxy: I saw nothing happens.

The thing I'd like to ask you is if it's possible for you to add an option to save the dummy proxy to the components list, and maybe name it automatically "name"_dummy so that Indigo Renderer can recognize and export the complex tree model without having to re-render it (and make the SU scene heavy).

Thank you very much in advance!

ijmccoy

@ppoublan said:

@ijmccoy said:

is there a guide for it at all?

Not yet, but I'm working on it... will publish it as soon as available.

@ijmccoy said:

whenever i try to render the leaves disapear and ive no idea why, any help would be great

Which render do you use ?

i've made tests with Octane, Thea, Kerkytea. I could try with your render with evaluation version.
I know some issues with the renders I tested but with good results.

yours
Pascal

using vray for sketchup. if i put a single tree in a model on its own it renders with the leaves but in the model ive just added trees to, they all render without leaves

ppoublan

@ijmccoy said:

using vray for sketchup. if i put a single tree in a model on its own it renders with the leaves but in the model ive just added trees to, they all render without leaves

Hi,
Does this only appears with some trees ? in this case which one ? Could you post one example.
In any case there are two issues I know with many renders :

incorrect handling of colorized textures
incorrect handling of UVs textures when material is applied to a parent group, not to the faces.

Here is an example :

I'm not sure if you are in this case, but if you used trees with PNG textures, due to the render error on UVs, leaves may disappear because of the transparency part of their texture is not correctly placed.

So I made a small script to fix it for trees.

Could you test it and let me know if it works in your case.
3darcstudiotools.rbz
install the extension
before rendering : use the menu 3DArcStudio>Tools>Fix Leaves textures...

Yours
Pascal