Roof tiles without textures?
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Michael, let me know how you get on. If you need help, don't hesitate to ask.
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If you go down the 3d geometry tile route then please remember not to make each tile component too detailed.
Although adding them as component-instances will help greatly you will still have loads of potential geometry in the model that will never be seen, but which Sketchup will need to consider when it's rendering any views - even if it subsequently decides if not visible; also with shadows 'on' they could be thousands of extra shadow calculations to do that again are not eventually used.
So don't model the the tile in any great detail - especially the back [e.g. don't stamp the back with the manufacturer's name or have rear-nibs with rounded corners or include the nail holes!] and also remember that the top parts, like curved surfaces on Roman-tiles should not have an excessive number of segments - at a distance 6 [or even 4] will usually look fine when 'smoothed' - certainly using 12 or 24 would be too much [unless you are planning on looking at an individual tile in a close-up assembly detail]; and don't 'round-off' edges either - just smooth that edge with Erase+Ctrl if you don't want it to look like a 'hard edge'... -
Hey TIG - Thanks for those tips
Yeah I'll try to be sensible!How do I set up the instancing of components? Or is this a silly question that I could find out on my own (Google's)
Can't believe I haven't got round to this yet, but a client who is special forces is leaving today so I had to prioritize his interior
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Make a copy of a component and you've got two instances of it.
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Get the instant roof plugin here
I'm pretty sure you can create your own component tile styles and modify it. If not directly I'm sure there is a workaround to be able to use that plugin with custom tiles by replacing some of the components. If you can't do it inside the plugin itself, then just create 3d tiles or whatever and then select instances and replace them- it's still an amazing plugin to build roofs.
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I agree with Patrick. That plug-in rocks with clay tile roofing. I would just shoot an email to them and ask about customizing the tile itself. I think there is a forum on their website that has info on the plug-ins. Maybe someone has figured this out already.
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The first (and only) dynamic component I made in SU was a roof tile that would add more tiles when scaled, with the correct distance between them. It was quite a lot of work to make it though...
My suggestion is to make a very simple component of one tile (with no faces on the underside, which won't be visible anyway).
Use Move/copy to make a copy sideways at the right distance.
Select the 2 tiles and move/copy downwards at the right distance.
Make a new component of those 4 tiles.
Now you can easily fill a roof by move/copying inside the component/group, using the distances between two of the tiles as reference.
Lots of extra work on roofs that are not straight saddle roofs.But I think I'd still vote for TIGs suggestion - make textures instead of 3D tiles...
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Hmm good to have more opinions.
Instantroof plugin sounded like the solution until I noticed their site/videos don't mention using your own tile. If it can be done though that'd be great. Just instancing myself though doesn't sound too hard.Why do some of you think it'd be better to use textures? Would 3d tiles be too taxing on my system?
mike
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Mike, you might have a look at Piece Tracer http://www.piecetracer.com/?tp=3
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Thanks for that Mike
In the video the tile is very simple. Do you have that plugin? Anyone who could quickly test or give experience is great. -
No, I haven't got it but will see if I can get the developer to chime in
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Textures would be better if you can use them because they would be easier to exchange, they trim automatically at edges and you would have fewer edge and face entities so you might have better performance. High res texture images can also slow things down but you don't need high res images anyway.
Have you started drawing your roof tiles yet?
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Hi,
I'm the developer for PieceTracer. It's designed for this sort of thing so I recommend that you try it out. You can download a free trial here: http://piecetracer.com/download. Check out the demo videos for instructions.
As for filling in the pieces at the edges, that's functionality I am considering for the next version of PieceTracer, as described here: http://piecetracer.com/fillandshear. Your comments on that functionality would be much appreciated.
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Hello Evan,
thanks for replying to my thread I'll look into your software
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