New Method for ArchViz site modeling
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great work putting that together, and creative thinking to make it work as well.
at step 2, you might consider just raising each of the lines to their correct elevation and using "make contours" (skip connecting the lines from the survey drawing or closing the shapes to extrude) SU can fill in the gaps.
at step 4, have you considered using a style with black fog (SU fog window) to create the depth map? (bypasses color by z and might also give you more accurate displacement map)
I will have to give this a good shot when I have an appropriate project!!
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Thanks Brodie for this tutorial.
Site modeling indeed is a thing that Sketchup still has trouble with. Good to see that people think of methods to improve this.Downside is that one needs Max to pull this off. In arch offices there might be a Max license or 2, but still it would be better to have an 'all sketchup method'.
Perhaps we (should) get new tools for that in new SU versions? -
mirjman,
Thanks for the contour tip. That makes a lot of sense. I guess I didn't realize that it wasn't important for the lines to be connected. That certainly saves some time!
I've heard of that method for creating depth maps but I've never used it. I'll have to give it a shot.
Kwist,
I'm with you on developing an all SU route. If any ruby programmers think it's possible to replicate this in SU I'd love to see it. It would involve a good subdivision ruby and a displacement ruby. Frankly though, my experience suggests that with large models rubies either take far too long (and give no indication of when they'll be done) or become unstable so I hold little hope for this. I think it would take a collosal new version of SU before this sort of thing becomes feasible w/in SU. Yet I hold out hope.
It does seem a shame to jump over to a $3,000 program for a couple minor tools though. I hope there's a free or cheap modeler out there that can perform these as well. I just don't know about it yet.
-Brodie
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I know Rhino is a great tool to model terrains and get 2D lines on to a curved terrain mesh.
(I've seen someone doing it in the office in minutes)
Unfortunately it's not cheap either...and again, the learning curve.... -
Blender has a displacement modifier. http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:Manual/Modifiers/Mesh/Displace
Hopefully the UI update in the new version of Blender makes it more intuitive to learn.
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Interesting, I'll have to check out both of those a bit more. I actually have a license for Rhino. The other guy at work who does modeling/rendering occassionally to help out uses that as his primary tool. He's tried to get me to learn it and I've played around with it a bit but never taken the time to really get into it.
I've barely touched blender but maybe I'll check it out for that displacement tool. 3ds Max works for now but it's a work licensed copy so someday I'll have to do without. Always good to have more options, especially free ones!
-Brodie
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FYI, the next version of Vue (8) infinite and Xstreme will have 3D terrain sculpting tools, so you will not only be able to import your normal .dwg, .dem, .obj or however you have you terrain info as but you will be able to sculpt your terrain to precision using a wide range of brushes (like Z-brush sort of but better in the way of control and the ability to create erosion effects, snow, rocks, grass, etc while sculpting)
Now imagine importing a contour map then sculpting the fine details in Vue, being able to place your model in it's rightful terrain and even having the ability to integrate it perfectly using terrain sculpting brushes. -
pffffww...for a moment I thought you were talking about the next SU 8.
Damn. -
Vue definately looks like a tempting app. I've seen some really great environments coming out of it. Don't know if it's in the budget atm but I'll certainly look into Vue 8 when it comes out. Have they issued a release date? What sort of export options does it have?
-Brodie
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Not exactly sure but I believe Vue 8 will be available before year end, they normally catch the Christmas season
Here are sceeshots of my import and export options with Vue 7 infinite.
Imports:
Export:
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Not bad. I can do about anything with 3ds so that's good. That's interesting that it can import RAW format. Any idea what that's for?
-Brodie
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