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Grading a terrain

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  • D Offline
    DickWolf
    last edited by 21 Jan 2020, 16:19

    Hello

    Can someone please help me with this project

    -I've replicated the terrain from contours from municipal map
    +Then rounded with Instant terrain

    -Made a road with Instant Road plugin

    Now i don't understand how to grade this terrain to make:
    -smooth parking lot
    -Leveled earth plot (green color horizontal to banked to horizontal again, also seen in real life picture)
    😐

    Please check out:
    https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15f5OwxcQXz5fEQKOSYTGw-3MpRgF-YnN?usp=sharing

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    • T Offline
      TECHDAVE02
      last edited by 21 Jan 2020, 16:41

      Did you try sandbox tools??

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      • P Offline
        pbacot
        last edited by 21 Jan 2020, 17:05

        My process lately has been to create the hardscape (except roads) by drawing like a structure and join to the existing terrain that remains as cleanly as possible. I often use the existing terrain's face edges as a starting point for excavation and work to that--keeping as clean a geometry as feasible. But I also use intersecting planes such as curbs or projections of grade cuts to, well, cut the existing grade.

        For driveways and some other paths that follow the terrain I might work with a copy of the terrain or sandbox tools. A good tool is Soap Skin Bubble for putting geometry into a hole such as a complicated driveway on slopes. You take the outline of the driveway and run SSB on it. Afterword you can adjust with Artisan for adjusting slopes meeting the roadway or buildings.

        For specific grading and hardscape I don't try to manipulate the existing terrain model into submission anymore.

        MacOSX MojaveSketchUp Pro v19 Twilight v2 Thea v3 PowerCADD

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        • D Offline
          DickWolf
          last edited by 21 Jan 2020, 21:46

          @techdave02 said:

          Did you try sandbox tools??

          I dismissed the idea because it's too much of a manual work.
          I was hoping there might be a better solution.

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          • D Offline
            DickWolf
            last edited by 21 Jan 2020, 21:55

            @pbacot said:

            My process lately has been to create the hardscape (except roads) by drawing like a structure and join to the existing terrain that remains as cleanly as possible. I often use the existing terrain's face edges as a starting point for excavation and work to that--keeping as clean a geometry as feasible. But I also use intersecting planes such as curbs or projections of grade cuts to, well, cut the existing grade.

            For driveways and some other paths that follow the terrain I might work with a copy of the terrain or sandbox tools. A good tool is Soap Skin Bubble for putting geometry into a hole such as a complicated driveway on slopes. You take the outline of the driveway and run SSB on it. Afterword you can adjust with Artisan for adjusting slopes meeting the roadway or buildings.

            For specific grading and hardscape I don't try to manipulate the existing terrain model into submission anymore.

            Thanks, good to know how a pro would approach this.
            I'll try to make the driveway and earth banks as separate objects and then connect them didn't think about that, because i thought it would be too much of a mess and wouldn't look realistic (rounded) at the connection points or lines.
            I'll try out the Artisan tools, but i struggle to understand how you could incorporate the SSB plugin here from what i have seen on youtube demos. 😕

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            • P Offline
              pbacot
              last edited by 22 Jan 2020, 04:49

              You can work from an edge you create in the terrain using intersect faces so you don't totally create the new element and then join it. I have used drape and stamp for some things on a terrain or a copy of the terrain. I feel it is limited since the results are sometimes messy. You have Instant road, and that might be used for driveways. There's a video online of SSB that shows a difficult driveway fill. Yes the connection still needs work in having no bump off the terrain, but the fill is very believable and workable, if your contours (outline of the driveway) are believable.

              Actually drawing the hardscape and cuts allows you to start out with rough shapes and think out the slopes and logic of the build as you go, you can always refine them or use plugins to fill in or smooth areas later.

              MacOSX MojaveSketchUp Pro v19 Twilight v2 Thea v3 PowerCADD

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              • F Offline
                freebs
                last edited by 23 Jan 2020, 13:54

                Do I have the video for you.

                This guy - "Winning with Sketchup" - is by far the best sketchup-in-the-real-world teacher I've found on the net to date. He's clear, succint and shows you which plugins he uses. Most are those we already have, but used well as part of an excellent workflow. He's a pro that actually uses Sketchup.

                This helped me do almost exactly what you're trying for:
                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bA4tGgOFQJQ&t=602s

                Also see these ones (2-part series):
                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWjVrL0oetQ&t=330s
                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T6xe3z0SEo

                Cheers,
                Brett.

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                • P Offline
                  pbacot
                  last edited by 23 Jan 2020, 17:39

                  @freebs said:

                  Do I have the video for you.

                  This guy - "Winning with Sketchup" - is by far the best sketchup-in-the-real-world teacher I've found on the net to date. He's clear, succint and shows you which plugins he uses. Most are those we already have, but used well as part of an excellent workflow. He's a pro that actually uses Sketchup.

                  This helped me do almost exactly what you're trying for:
                  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bA4tGgOFQJQ&t=602s

                  Also see these ones (2-part series):
                  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWjVrL0oetQ&t=330s
                  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T6xe3z0SEo

                  Cheers,
                  Brett.

                  Thanks for the links! That's exactly SSB video I was thinking of!

                  MacOSX MojaveSketchUp Pro v19 Twilight v2 Thea v3 PowerCADD

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