Road Markings & SketchUp Issues

[Chumley]

Hi

I have a major civils project on the go at the moment with plenty of tarmac and need to drape the road markings AutoCAD layer onto the 3D terrain. Unfortunately the drape doesn't drape all lines properly so I have to spend a considerable amount of time cleaning the AutoCAD layer up, then add missing lines so I can texture surfaces accordingly with white paint. Additioanally, the centre line dotted road markings created in KeyLINES does not appear when the AutoCAD layer is transported into SketchUp. It comes in as a solid line.

Is there a plugin that will help here? Should I be using another mothod in SketchUp here? When I have lots of lines, chevrons, arrows and the like, you can appreciate that this is adding days to the build and causing much constanation

Any help or advice from the forum would be great.

[pbacot]

Can use of textures help? How about creating a 2d imeage of the road markings and asphalt and projecting in the SU file?

[shawb]

Import the dwg purely as an underlay. View in Parallel Projection and place a, grouped, transparent surface above the dwg and use this to trace over the road markings. Model as many markings as possible as Components and place as needed on the transparent surface. Both JHS Powerbar and 1001Bit tools have a 'copy along path' feature. Use the traced lines to array which ever component marking is required. For instance, trace a centreline along a section of road and use this with a dotted line component and 'copy along path'.

To then drape the markings onto your terrain select individual components or all instances via the component tray. Explode them and, whilst the items are still selected, drape onto the terrain. Texture as needed.

Check the licencing requirements for the extensions/plugins mentioned. Hope this helps, I would abandon the messing about trying to fix the AutoCAD dwg.

[Chumley]

Great thanks. Will check it out.