Best way to build a road, then lay on a contour map?
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Hey guys, been a while since I've been on here. You've helped me out a lot, and I've learned a lot. Now I've moved on to bigger things.
My client has fully designed and developed drawings for a community. So far, the design includes 6 buildings, plazas, and surrounding roadways. My job is to take these drawings and turn them into a sketchup model (with client specified adjustments). My focus right now is on the contour map, and the roads.
I've already imported a contour map from autocad, created my landscape, trimmed it down for my own purposes, and imported a flat drawing of the roads. They (should) rise and dip with the slope of the land, including a traffic circle at one point. I plan on modeling up the road with correct elevations, then stamping it into the contour map.
I'm having some trouble making this road work correctly. I have the geodetic elevations for the road at (seemingly) random points, so I know how high it should be and where. I've tried breaking up the existing 2D road drawings into chunks, rotating them as I've needed, and sticking them together. It made a real mess. So I'm wondering, what's your recommended process for making roads?
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Have you tried Push/Pulling the road through the contoured ground plain and then select all, right click and 'intersect with selection'? Then erase what you don't need, you will be left with the road layout 'projected' onto the ground. This only works if the road layout is flat and projected vertically.
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Also you could use the drape tool in sandbox
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Instant Road is a great plugin for that kind of work:
for $25.00, it's a bargain.
There's a limited free version if you want to try it out.Good Luck
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Ah, right, the push/pull command!
I ended up drawing a simplified set of planes (like a bunch of playing cards glued together end to end, at different elevations) then push/pulling the road drawing through the ring of cards, and intersecting with model. Worked like a charm. I also downloaded Instant Roads. Going to try out the demo some time in the future.
Thanks for the help everyone
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