Free-form play area [artificial turf]
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Hey guys, bee a while since I've posted; its been a busy few months leading into Xmas.
I'm doing this public space on a project where I want to build a raised level platform for events, stage, etc and drag one side of it off to the outer edges of the space and contour it for kids play space with a few mounds, etc..... [see attached image]
Not really sure about the best way of doing the curved surface.... Ideally I would use the native SU Smoove tool but manipulating the surface to a ground plane is a little more difficult than I thought...
Any suggestions?
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i didn't 100% understand what you are tryng to achieve, but when it comes to irregular curved surface and flattening planes and curves and so on, the smove tool is a toy compared to vertex tool.. try it!
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Hey thanks for chiming in, Marcello!
Your 'attempt' file is probably close to what I was thinking; I like how you've graded the front edge down to the ground but I want to be able to manipulate the surface into soft mounds...Might be time to buy Vertex tools!
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If you use small enough segments in your sandbox mesh and vary the radius of the smoove tool you can create very smooth and detailed surfaces.
I've just pushed this about a bit to give you a rough idea, but with some nice sculpting then intersect it with the shape you want you have a nice golfcourse like play area.
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Thanks Box, I might even give that one a try!!
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Since I have never worked with a mesh, I have to ask what tool you used to convert his original drawing into a mesh.
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@utiler said:
Hey thanks for chiming in, Marcello!
Your 'attempt' file is probably close to what I was thinking; I like how you've graded the front edge down to the ground but I want to be able to manipulate the surface into soft mounds...Might be time to buy Vertex tools!
so you need sort of a mix of those two shapes?
a dense quadmesh like the second file shaped like the first model? -
@ntxdave said:
Since I have never worked with a mesh, I have to ask what tool you used to convert his original drawing into a mesh.
are you asking me? in that case..
i selected only the bottom face of the original model and erased the rest (keeping a copy for height reference) than used mainly native offset, split tools and quadface tools "add loops" and "connect edges" to get the main quad subdivision then started shaping it whith vertex tools and finally subdivide and smooth to get the higher poly version..
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@panixia said:
@ntxdave said:
Since I have never worked with a mesh, I have to ask what tool you used to convert his original drawing into a mesh.
are you asking me? in that case..
i selected only the bottom face of the original model and erased the rest (keeping a copy for height reference) than used mainly native offset, split tools and quadface tools "add loops" and "connect edges" to get the main quad subdivision then started shaping it whith vertex tools and finally subdivide and smooth to get the higher poly version..
Thanks for the reply. I have been sick and have not been online for a few days.
I am not sure what tools you are talking about when you sap "split tools and quadface tools 'add loops' and 'connect edges'".
I tried doing some research about how to create a mesh (which I assume is what you mean by quad faces).
I also looked at your model and tried to us the Smooth tool but it would not allow me to enter anything in the VCB. All I could do was use the Move tool to change any of the terrain.
I can seem some potential down the road of wanting to use this kind of capability (event though my normal work does not include anything like this).
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you need a bunch of plugin to do this sort of stuff.. sketchup don't support it natively..
here is a list of the most useful for this kindof modeling there is a lot of tutorials on youtube for each of them. also give a look at this and also similar videos just in case you are wondering why quad is better https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_S1INdEmdIquadface tools
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=39442vertex tools
http://sketchucation.com/shop/extensions/297-vertex-tools-for-sketchupsplit tools
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=43376curviloft
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=28586extrude tools
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=25362artisan
http://sketchucation.com/shop/extensions/254-artisan-organic-toolsetthru paint
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=323%26amp;t=44552%26amp;start=60sketch uv
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=44501joint push pull
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=54771beziere spline
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=13563 -
You might be missing some of the basics about using sandbox tools.
You can adjust the grid size and the radius of the smoove tool.
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@panixia said:
you need a bunch of plugin to do this sort of stuff.. sketchup don't support it natively..
Thanks a lot. I will check all of these out to "educate" myself. I think this is exactly what I was asking.
@Box - Thanks to you as well. I had watched some very interesting tutorials (The Sketchup School and Harcast) and understand how to use the Sandbox tools. However, when I tried to use the Smooth tool with panixia's (playspace organic)skp file, it would not allow me to set the radius for the Smooth tool.
My initial curiosity was how to divide the face into quads. While I understand how to create the TIN with the Sandbox tools, you can only do that by defining a rectangular area. What if you have a different shaped area (like the original post) where you want to define some terrain or other surface (like a human form). It appears that you need to use something like the tool panixia has pointed out.
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Here's an oldy. You can start there. Some advances and techniques have been added since. Tal shows how to create an irregular sandbox shape from scratch among other tips.
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@pbacot said:
Here's an oldy. You can start there. Some advances and techniques have been added since. Tal shows how to create an irregular sandbox shape from scratch among other tips.
WOW - What a video.
This addressed exactly the kind of issues I had in the back of my mind. I have stored a reference to this video. If anyone is working in landscaping or needs to create something like a canopy type object this is a MUST video to watch.
The replies from you guys is exactly why I come to Sketchucation every day.
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