Fractal Tree Maker for SketchUp - Free add-on

Al Hart

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?

Try opening the Ruby Console, and typing in: load('RpTreemaker,rb') and see if you get any error messages. Of if you get any error messages when you click Plugins/RpTreeMaker.rb

If there are no problems there, go to: Program Files\Render Plus Systems\RpTreeMaker
and see what happens when you run TreeEditor.exe by hand. There may be a DLL or something which is missing.

Al Hart

@alan fraser said:

Excellent Plugin Al. It's good to hear that it's technically possible to load new bark textures also.

We didn't learn that we could add bark and leaves until yesterday. If I had read Richcat's leaf post earlier (and more carefully) I would have known.

If you use your own leaves and bark and post the model to the 3D Warehouse, then anyone downloading the model and trying to use the same leaves and bark as the basis for a new tree will not have them. The 2D image will work fine - but if you want to use the .ArPlant tree definition, the images will be missing.

We will plan to store the images on the SU component as well, so that users can truly share the designs.

Gaieus

Yet another one - now an attempt to make a plane ("like") tree.

And the link to the WH:
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=2e7a72e69abb669cffe3705437c1b39c

Al Hart

@at3d said:

I have loaded the link but once back in SketchUp 6(Pro) and selecting the plugin nothing is happening...any suggestions?

See the next post )two posts down) where I offer some debugging ideas.

301 Moved Permanently

(www.sketchucation.com)

Mike Lucey

@al hart said:

@bigstick said:

I have downloaded this and it is an exe file, which means Windows only. Any chance of a Mac version too Al?

The Fractal tree software is Windows only, and I just can't seem to get the developer interested in MAC version.

Firstly a BIG thanks Al. This is very generous of you and just
further demonstrates the ethos of the SketchUp Community. I'm a
Mac user also BUT we do have BootCamp so should be able to use
Fractal Tree Maker Hey! we can't always have the best of
both Worlds

Mike

kwistenbiebel

Wow Al,
That is an amazing gift to the SU community. Much appreciated!

Any chance the tree maker would create the full 3D model as well (even though SU has trouble with polycount)?
It would be great to be able to have full 3D for rendering.

Thanks

free agent

i second that request.

EarthMover

@gaieus said:

Try again, Adam; it should work.

Working now. Thanks Gaieus! Man, everyday is like Xmas around here!

bellwells

Thank you very much, Al. This is a great tool!! I am continually flabbergasted by all the after-market superchargers.

Anssi

Thank you very much AL!

It seems to work as expected. A couple of remarks:

For me the installer did not give any "install complete" message. Is it supposed to?
What kind of render times do others get? For me it used almost 2 hrs for a "medium" image (yes, I have an old 2.8GHz P IV computer

Anssi

solo

Anssi, that's waay too long.

I did about 6 so far all at high setting, the longest one took abot 3 minutes and this is in a dual core Vaio laptop.

Stu

@anssi said:

Thank you very much AL!

It seems to work as expected. A couple of remarks:

For me the installer did not give any "install complete" message. Is it supposed to?

What kind of render times do others get? For me it used almost 2 hrs for a "medium" image (yes, I have an old 2.8GHz P IV computer

Anssi

Anssi,I think the time is somewhat dependent on the branch complexity and leaf density......try playing with the sliders and numbers.

And , no, I dont remember an 'installation compete' notice.

And Pete...Palm trees?

solo

Stu, yup.

see image.

However even with bend in editor the final image is straight.

Stu

[quote="solo"]Stu, yup.

see image.

SLAP!!! .....I missed that option all together

Al Hart

Oof - (bent trunks) - This must not be being written to the XML file properly. We'll trace it down.

See what happens the to the next tree you try to make after the bent one fails - does it start out straight or bent. (We reuse the last XML file for the next tree, so it should start with whatever settings you used for the last tree)

ScottPara

Al,

Thanks for this. Really nice of you. Just a couple notes or questions:

Can we get this to not only export a PNG but also an alpha map? As these do not render at all in Vray. Without an Alpha map it makes it that much harder.

Best regards,
Scott

Stu

@al hart said:

Oof - (bent trunks) - This must not be being written to the XML file properly. We'll trace it down.

See what happens the to the next tree you try to make after the bent one fails - does it start out straight or bent. (We reuse the last XML file for the next tree, so it should start with whatever settings you used for the last tree)

Al, After trying with a bend the angle slider reverts to zero when opened again.
[Im finding the angle and bending sliders work in conjunction]

Palm angle.jpg

Al Hart

@unknownuser said:

Al,

Thanks for this. Really nice of you. Just a couple notes or questions:

Can we get this to not only export a PNG but also an alpha map? As these do not render at all in Vray. Without an Alpha map it makes it that much harder.

Best regards,
Scott

The PNG file contains an alpha channel. I am not sure what an alpha map is.

When you render other alpha channel images from SketchUp to they work, or do you have to do anything special to make an Alpha Map?

If you create an Alpha Map - do you store it in SketchUp, or apply it separately after you extract the alpha image from SketchUp?

Are you sure you don't have the same problem that the Podium users have - that you need to explode the alpha-transparent SketchUp image into a face with an alpha material? If that is what is needed, we can make that an option for SketchUp, and perhaps set the face not to cast a rectangular shadow.

Podium users - if I set the alpha transparent rectangular face not to cast a shadow in Sketchup - does it still cast a shadow in Podium?

Al Hart

@gaieus said:

And the link to the WH:

The trees you are making do have the .ArPlant information, so go ahead and upload them.

If you use custom leaves or bark, we will want to upload them again after we make a new version next week which stores the custom images on the tree as well.

EarthMover

Prior to rendering in Vray, I had to explode the Faceme component twice, then return it to a faceme component. I had to generate a transparency/alpha/clipmap (I use Deep Exploration)to plug into the transparency slot in Vray. This worked fine and the trees rendered well. The process is a bit of a pain, but who can complain about such nice trees for free!

$http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/6563/fractaltreetestka3.th.jpg$

It would be nice to see an option added to put in a flower map. This would open up the possibility of doing and assortment of flowering shrubs and trees.