Making Contours problem

[Krisidious]

slicer3.rb could do it for you...

[TIG]

Actually my Slicer tool came from my ContourMaker tool - that adds contours at ANY preset height increments through a selected group/instance... http://rhin.crai.archi.fr/rubylibrarydepot/plugin_details.php?id=83
this should do what you want...

[Starling75]

1001bit plugin make contour tool works pretty good ...

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[jim smith]

Thank you Kris, TIG and Starling75.

The 1001Bits trace contour worked.

Slicer worked - sort of- It would cut the contour lines but would give me a screen "no volume to cut" and when I click ok - the contours dissapear. I varied the slice thickness but no change.

I have used slicer before, but never got that kind of dialog box.

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[TIG]

Unless you make the surface a 'manifold' volume Slicer will give that error - the surface is simply a rippled sheet and so there is no volume to slice up...
I would use my 'ContourMaker' to add contours to the form at your desired vertical spacing...

[jim smith]

Thanks TIG, the contour make works fine.I understand why the slicer would not work. All other times I have used it was on solids.

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[EarthMover]

Silly question, but how do you get the Google Earth terrain data into Sketchup? I spent hours one day trying to figure it out and never did. Looks like it would save me a lot of time.

[wind-borne]

@earthmover said:

Silly question, but how do you get the Google Earth terrain data into Sketchup? I spent hours one day trying to figure it out and never did. Looks like it would save me a lot of time.

When you import your location terrain comes along as separate layer.

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[EarthMover]

Thanks, I found it in the layer winder. I never knew it also came in to scale. That's pretty amazing and the contour drawing will save me so much time on my outdoor construction projects with a lot of grade changes.

[Krisidious]

hmmm... I always just used the "toggle terrain" button. I didn't know it was just a layer.

[wyatt]

I'm having a related problem. I imported a GE terrain, but when I use Create Contours it only contoured half the model. So I used Drape Cpoint and created a second surface with the Sandbox tools and ran Create Contours again. Same result. I also tried copying the Sandbox terrain to a new file and also tried again after smoothing. No change. I know there is Z data in the surface. Why won't it create contours there?

[Edit]
Problem solved, although it's an annoying solution. Apparently, Contour Maker won't make contours that are below the axis. A simple fix is to raise the GE terrain, make contours, and then move everything back down to its original location. Would a better solution be to try and modify MakeContour.rb or is this something better for Google to try and fix in the next update?

[TIG]

Here's Contour Maker v1.5 - http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=273795#p273795
It does now make contours z<0 and is tidied up - it was 5 years old...

[wyatt]

Works great TIG. Thanks!