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d12dozr

Very cool Paul, you did an excellent job representing the real home in your render

pbacot

Very inspiring! Renderings that look like photos and photos that look like rendering. Beautiful house (and site!).

In regards to framers, I once had a contractor take my 2D CAD file and develop 3D framing plans with connectors and all. He said he always models before he builds.

Thanks for the notes on SU to working drawings workflow. Always helpful to see what others are doing.

Thanks for posting,

Peter

Bryan K

Wow. Just... wow.

I too, would like to say thanks for the progress updates.

Well done.

Openspaces

An architect's dream come alive!!........ A well thought out process. Bravo!

pmolson

d12dozr - Thanks Neighbor.

Peter - Thanks for the nice comments. Heres an update on my work flow. I am now playing with using the sketchup elevations in layout at scale in my construction set of plans instead of converting them to cad files. What I do is just add notes and other information as well as dashed foundation lines in layout so I can keep the model intact and only have to change that when things need to be adjusted. This keeps us from dumping the model when we move to cad and eliminates duplicating effort. The textures and shodows look great printed at 1/4" scale on our large format non color printer. Some old schoolers may take a while to embrace this technique because it looks different than traditional line drawings, but from where I sit it only makes sense to stay with the model since were developing it for design and presentation purposes anyway.

Bryan - I have never received a "wow" before. Thanks.

Open Spaces- We are not Architects but we fake it pretty well. Thanks.

p

pbacot

@unknownuser said:

The textures and shodows look great printed at 1/4" scale on our large format non color printer.

I'm considering the same thing as I have been leaving shadows and so forth on the 2D CAD drawings for a while now, as long as it doesn't confuse anything. So far I've only used vignettes of models on the title sheets.

I am just used to having line weights, but I could always export the lines to outline what I want in CAD, laid over a pdf output from SU or LO.(my CAD program has pretty good pdf import and pdf vector translation),

pmolson

Pretty good Idea Peter. The only draw back is that it creates some fussiness when the building changes. If the changes were not too substantial it would not be the end of the world to have to update the overlay lines. I am ok with the way the shadows and texture give the elevations depth instead of line weights. Another thing I have done is to actually photo real render the elevations and put them in layout as images. They look great and line weights are not an issue, but it is extra work creating the render and adjusting them to scale in layout.

I guess we just keep trying.

p

omiKron

This construction method will be used forever, as long as it's very useful, simple and don't need lots of technology to bring up. Of course, for this range of buildings, like homes, warehouses and wide range of use architecture programs.

By the way, I like the houses, awesome work. And they are getting real too, WIN ! Keep up.

pmolson

No question about it Omnikron. 2d plans are here to stay.
Before I am done with this business though, I will do a job with
computers and large screens on the job site. Just because it will be cool.

icedkasz

I'm really curious about your use of layers and components. I try something new every time, and always find I'm flying by the skin of my teeth by the end. ...and that's just to create renders. You obviously need to keep things as neat as possible. Could you tell us about your layer and component strategy, if possible?

steelers05

very good works using podium..congrats

pmolson

Icedkasz,
Sure, I can talk a little about layers and components etc.

They are the key to sanity in modeling. I have just recently started to be more disciplined about keeping things organized and have developed an imperfect, but workable layer setup. I make layer names that will keep like items near each other in the layer manager. For instance,
001_furniture_exterior-rear patio
001_furniture_exterior-front patio
001_furniture_exterior-side yard
002_trees_rear yard-distant
002_trees_rear yard-close
002_trees_ front-boulavard

018_section planes

You get the idea. What this allows me to do is set up scenes with objects out of the view to be turned off so my render time is shorter. It also allows me to set up working scenes that turn most everything off so I don't have trees and stuff in my face when trying to select a wall or move a window.

Groups and components are of course the key to good modeling. Everything should be one or the other. I make each wall a separate group and open it to place windows. Facia, freize boards, soffits, roof plans are all individual groups. What this does is allow a systamatic process to be used when I have to move a wall or adjust an overhang or...

It seems like a lot of extra work compared to modeling free style and just going as fast as you can, but it has been my experience that you pay for it big time in the long run.

If you are disiplined with groups and components your model will be easier to modify, smaller in file size, and will make your renders and scene set ups much quicker and smoother.

That is the short answer to the question.

Hey Steelers05, Thanks!