Curved Faces + Large File-Induced slowness
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Hey guys-
I've had SketchUp for a few days now and have enjoyed fooling around with it. However,
I have run into two major annoyances.- I don't know how to create a curved face. To clarify, imagine you have two congruent curved lines next to another, and want to create a curved plane. You draw lines between the ends of both lines, but Google does not fill it in because it is curved. How is it done? (Please bear in my mind I'm hardcore new to 3D modeling programs while answering.) -After I've been working on something for a while, and there are a lot of shapes and blocks and such, there is a long load time after every time I draw a line. I'm fairly sure it's not the fault of my computer-2.1gHz 2g of ram... so why the slowness?Any help would be greatly apppreciated- cheers
THANKS
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To fill in curved shapes you just need to separate the curved surface in to lots of flat surfaces. This is usually done by making the curved surface up of lots of small triangles, as triangles only have 3 edges and are thus always flat (so SU will create a face.) To relate it a bit more to your example, you'll want to select your 2 curves right click->explode curve. This makes SU treat it as lots of small lines rather than one big curve.
Once youve done that you just need to get the line tool out and start drawing triangles between the lines.
As for your second issue, have a look in here: window->preferences->opengl If hardware acceleration isnt ticked, trying ticking it (might not work if you dont have a graphics card.) If that starts messing things up untick it and try ticking fast feedback instead.
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damn, one would think that for as supposedly innovative program as this, there would be an easier way to make a curved plane... ah, well thanks
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This is just the nature of polygon modelers. There are easier ways of making curved faces in SU, but i reckon its always best to learn the lowest common denominator first, so when all else fails you can always go back to this.
Probably one of the simpler ways to make a curved face is with the follow me tool, check out the google tutorial videos on this, they should give you an idea of what to do.
There is also a curve stitcher ruby: http://www.smustard.com/script/CurveStitcher which is pretty good, although not always perfect.
Another more advanced method is to use the subdivide and smooth plugin: http://www.smustard.com/script/SubdivideAndSmooth This is mainly useful for when your doing organic shapes, though, as it isnt particularly accurate.
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Dear ?
You can use the plugin skin.rb to form a surface between the two, congruent curves, and (surprise, surprise!)the plugin is available here(go to the section on Rubies). To skin, just select the two lines and then click on the icon. To smooth the surface, use the eraser+ctrl key and run the eraser over the triangulated area.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Bob
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Sorry to go off topic but cant help but chuckle at how defensive we get when someone mentions that SU might be inadequate in some way
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Inadequate! NEVER!!!
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@themaskedunit said:
damn, one would think that for as supposedly innovative program as this, there would be an easier way to make a curved plane... ah, well thanks
That's the problem...there's no such thing as a curved plane. A curve is curved, a plane is flat. What you are requiring is a series of planes arranged to form a curve. The easiest way of achieving this is something similar to the demo by James. You are likely to end up with more than you need, then simply delete the excess.
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