Hello from Greg: Need to build a skatepark!
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Hello Everyone,
I have been a Graphic Designer and Illustrator since about 2000. I have just recently found out about this awesome Google SketchUp program and have watched several dozen videos(50+) on YouTube and created the first floor of my town home(fun).I am going to create a specialized skatepark for a friend, in 3D. It seems I need to master the Sandbox tools to create surfaces that would imitate the up and down hills of a golf course, for example. This is not going to be your typical skatepark, but a special one never done before. No vertical surfaces like a pool has.
I believe I am going to run into some problems. I have two computers, one is a few years old(PC) and my Mac G4, 466 mhz, is about 8 years old. Currently I am running SketchUp on the PC which is a Intel R, 2.93 Ghz,504 MB RAM.Is this enough to make a tiled area that I can then use the sanbox tools to bump moguls up and down like a golf courses landscape. I see myself starting out with an acre size rectangle, push pulling it up about 8-10 feet, then using the sandbox tools to go to town. It is going to have a low area snake around like a stream, let's say how the river in the Grand Canyon, splitting apart the hillsides, only these will be more like moguls instead of steep cliffs!
What problems do you see me facing with the free version of SketchUp, plus my computers abilities.
Any tips or advice would be great, thanks you in advance!
Greg
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are you just trying to design this thing for illustration purposes or are you going to seriously try to build it? a one acre concrete skatepark is nearing the one million dollar mark in construction costs...
as far as drawing a snake run in sketchup, it is possible but i would definitely stay away from the sandbox tools.. you're better off using arcs with the follow me tool and/or the soap skin & bubble ruby for a lot of it..
do you know much about skateboarding and/or what types of radii work best with it? actually, before i ask too many more questions, i guess i'll wait to see the answer to my first question...
fwiw, this is what i do for a living... http://teampain.com
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fwiw part 2...
btw - this type of stuff is built all the time.. pretty much all of the 70s skateparks were built as you describe but people still take elements from those days and incorporate them into modern times.. i could go on a picture hunting fest to give you some ideas but i don't have the energy right now.. here's one that i have close by that has a sort of 'golf course' feel.. designed in sketchup..
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Wow Jeff!
I guess I asked the right audience. It is for illustration purposes with the hope to attract investors. I wasn't precisely told to keep any secrets, but I would rather respect this guy's vision as it is going to be different than what you posted, especially the objective. Perhaps similar in some ways though(how different could it be, considiering you showed me golf course looking parks). THat is amazing that you responded so fast. I want to tell you more, but you understand, I should talk this over.
Personally, I'm a surfer not a skater, and this guy who's idea it is, you probably heard of. It is going to be cool nonetheless.
If all goes well, I want to output it with a 3D printer, and add trees and stuff!
The actual park may be done more "Freehand" or "spontaneous" than actually creating it exactly from what I design, just need to get the idea across and look professional!Do I need the Pro Version?
Are my computers adaquet enough?
Do you build these parks, starting with SketchUp?THanks for sharing!
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I just finished looking at your site and I'm impressed. This is a great opportunity for me to be part of this job, something I have been looking for. Although you and your team could do all this designing and constructing with your eyes closed, perhaps the actual construction should be made by professional like yourselves. I will bring you guys up for sure when I get my designs ready!
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Hi Greg, this whole thing sounds pretty exciting (although I'm not an architect so I won't be able to give relevant advice on it).
As for the SU versions; now only the export options are different as outlined here.
If you are thinking about 3D prints, you may need to export your model in one of those formats the Pro version can only (I'm not sure about your printer however).
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@gorygreg said:
Wow Jeff!
I guess I asked the right audience. It is for illustration purposes with the hope to attract investors. I wasn't precisely told to keep any secrets, but I would rather respect this guy's vision as it is going to be different than what you posted, especially the objective. Perhaps similar in some ways though(how different could it be, considiering you showed me golf course looking parks). THat is amazing that you responded so fast. I want to tell you more, but you understand, I should talk this over.Personally, I'm a surfer not a skater, and this guy who's idea it is, you probably heard of. It is going to be cool nonetheless.understandable.. we have a couple of clients which we're under a NDA with.. we can't even show pictures of the stuff we've built for them much less mention their names..
@unknownuser said:
If all goes well, I want to output it with a 3D printer, and add trees and stuff!
The actual park may be done more "Freehand" or "spontaneous" than actually creating it exactly from what I design, just need to get the idea across and look professional!yeah, that's basically the way it goes.. we'll generate enough drawings to lock in the job but (and we stress this in the bidding process) the actual structure is going to differ.. we're a design/build company and much of the actual designing is done as we're building.. it's always a work in progress until the final nail.. this style of building definitely results in much more functional ramps/parks than strictly building from a print (and trust me, there's a lot of these style of cookie cutter parks being built now by people with nearly zero comprehension of skating... it's a bummer)
@unknownuser said:
Do I need the Pro Version?
Are my computers adaquet enough?
Do you build these parks, starting with SketchUp?THanks for sharing!
1).. no, i don't think so though as gaieus mentioned, you may run into output problems with the free version.. the actual drawing function will be the same..
2).. yes. my jobsite computer is an old mac laptop and it does ok (1.3ghz, 1.5g ram)
3).. no.. old fashioned pencil and napkins are a good starting point.. for the most part, i use sketchup as a sort of visual calculator.. the drawings i sometimes make look absolutely nothing like a skateboard ramp but they make total sense to me... i'll sometimes make highly detailed plans if time permits but even then, we'll make on site changes as we see fit..
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Jeff,
I think I will need the Pro version if I want to use that skin and bubble tool you mentioned, right?If I don't use a 3D printer and just use SketchUp to make a simple layout due to my degree of knowledge, I might try to make a model by using some kind of foam that I could mold and still have it light!
Any suggestions there, the old school way!(Kinda like the way they make train set scenes I am thinking!..I already made a model at the beach, like a sand castle just for ideas!). -
Greg, for the Soap Skin & Bubble plugin you won't need the Pro version. Go here and download/install it and try with the free version.
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i really am the wrong person to ask about the free version because i've used sketchup for a few years now.. before the free version came out..
i used to work out certain shapes using foam core board (and sketchup saved me the agony) but i've never tried any freestyle small scale organic models.. for that, i've done it full scale using dirt and machinery.. if i felt the need to try it, i'd probably use clay or something that allowed fairly easy experiments and manipulations.. with the foam core system i used, i'd often have to start over if i wanted to modify something...
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Thanks for the information Gaieus and Jeff!
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I downloaded that awesome soap, skin and bubble plug-in, it is really cool.
In order to use it, I imagine that I have to be very careful with the number of Tiles I should use.Even if the surface has less planes to make a curvy shape, is much of this corrected/softened when you add smoothing?
Would buying more Ram make the computer able to handle the entire park during rendering, or is it a proccessing speed delema. It seems one skating feature(mogule) seems to be alot, I need to add a couple dozen. I am thinkihng that perhaps I need to create all the geometry, then do effects like softening at the last step.
I might start with a rectangle that takes up the space of the park, put it on its own layer, then add the skins on top of that layer, also I'll have vertical lines of various hieghts just to use for referencing. Or should this mainly be done on the first layer adding the skins to a base.
Don't feel obligated to answer, but I would listen to any comments...oh yeah, I need to search for a beziere-curve plug-in.(sp?).
Thanks for any advice!
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Hi Greg, here is "BezierSpline.rb"; the most advanced and complex bezier tool you can get.
As for layers; yes, try to use them extensively. The most importand things however;
[list=][]always model everying on the default Layer 0;
[]only move grouped geometry (or components) to other layers (thus even your rectangle ground plane);
[*]create several layers to control visibility and if you have a really big and heavy model, try to keep only the items (layers) that are relevant at your current work turned on[/list]
As for ram and processor; both are important at computing geometry. Also, leave shadows and colours/textures turned off while modeling to save on video card memory.Search these forums for these hardware issues, there are a ton of discussions about them.
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