Fractal Tree Maker for SketchUp - Free add-on

Stu

Stu, I have installed and located within SU but when pressed to, what I hope will activate, nothing happens in SU.

My machine is running Vista, could this be an issue?

Nup, Im running it with Vista and XP

Alan Fraser

Excellent Plugin Al. It's good to hear that it's technically possible to load new bark textures also. Regarding resolution, I've found in manually doing this stuff for FF that a resolution of about 800 pixels high for an average tree was a reasonable compromise between detail and file size, so the 900 setting ought to be about right for most uses. Pngs can get pretty big above that, as you say. On the other hand I've never found the graphics processing to be much of a problem with a decent card....not as much of a bottleneck as the geometry, anyway.

Who knows? It might be possible to combine different resolutions in a DC, giving differing LOD at various distances.

Is there any way to adjust the angle of view in a future release? I'm sure Stu and others would find it very useful to produce maybe 45 degree down versions as well as plan views for layouts.

Gaieus

Hi Al,

This looks fantastic! A long time needed and superb tool for those with inferior talents/expertise in PS work and such (not to speak about time needed even for experts to create something like this).

And all this for free!

@alan fraser said:

Who knows? It might be possible to combine different resolutions in a DC, giving differing LOD at various distances.

That was my first thought as well. And instancing these trees with Component spray tool makes really easy to create various background treelines of lower resolution samples.

If I may... I will immediately share this topic with my home mates down in the FL forums!

Stu

at3D.....it should be in your plugin folder...?

And some autumn shades

EDIT:

Apart from anything else this is a lot of fun and the range of shapes is pretty limitless. I dont think smaller shrubs will be too much of a problem.
And about a 20 minute learning curve

Autumn Leaves.jpg

Gaieus

Okay, my little "contribution"; a hazelnut like tree (at least that's what I indended to create):
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=439c4d6359efd9e3ffe3705437c1b39c

@unknownuser said:

...this is a "medium quality" (600 pixel) output of the tree maker. I wanted to create something that is similar to a hazelnut tree/bush and well... this is the first trial. It has roots as well so I placed the origin a bit higher so that the roots merge into the ground a bit but this way some of the branches do so. ...

And a screenshot:

This is a great tool, Al!

thomthom

Very interesting plugin.

Gaieus

Nice one, Alan; I haven't cared for the shadows this time (yet). Though it increases file size as well, if you mean to use it in native SU,it is necessary.

Another one of mine; a "Silver birch" (like) tree:
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=3df72c0a4f7104a3ffe3705437c1b39c

And the screenshot:

This time I think with a bit more crooked branches than in reality (BTW is this silver birch?)

richcat

Al your a

Leaf if attached if body wants.

Take a look at AndriyG81 for some bark textures.http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=13226

leaf 1.png

Gaieus

Hi Richcat,

Thanks for the leaf! And surely there are a couple of superb bark textures down there!

digby dart

Thanks Al Hart.

solo

Al

When making Palm trees the bend option shows in the raytrace but not in the component, it straightens out.

Alan Fraser

Fill yer boots.
http://local.wasp.uwa.edu.au/~pbourke/texture_colour/bark/

Plus all the leaves you could ever want.
Note: these are links to collections, not the images themselves.
http://www.3dmd.net/gallery/index-22-page-1.html

richcat

Heres another link from old post by ilay7k on leafs, but I have not tried it out yet http://www.polas.net/download/leaves.php

EarthMover

Al, thanks for sharing......this really made my morning. It's like Onyx for Sketchup! Amazing stuff! I'll see if I can do some testing as well.

EDIT - Al, when I download from the link you provided on the renderplus forum, I get a .zip file that is empty (0 bytes)......any ideas?

richcat

@alan fraser said:

I used my technique for exporting a vector outline from PS, then merged that and the image directly in SU. It takes about 10 minutes, but it's a little more controllable.

Hi Alan do you have a link to this please - I tried a quick search with no results.

Alan Fraser

This version isn't quite ready for the 3DW yet, but here's a SU shadow-casting version. I didn't use the script; I used my technique for exporting a vector outline from PS, then merged that and the image directly in SU. It takes about 10 minutes, but it's a little more controllable.

Link to tutorial

tree 8m.skp