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@Rich-O-Brien said in Trees and SU's OpenGL:
But if you assign the backface material with a 99% opaque version of your front face you get decent enough viewport results but your carrying an extra image.
Thanks Rich, I never thought of assigning front face to back...despite using it all the time in other situations.. It does look slightly better, but as you say, there's a performance hit so I'm not sure it would be worth it if there were several high-poly veggies in the scene.
I recently uploaded a collection of low-poly, temperate trees to CG Trader. Most had previously been on FormFonts, but I tidied and tweaked them a little. It was only when loading them all into the same SU file that I realised that a couple were horribly mis-sized (sorry about that; corrected now).
As you can see, they render okay and are passable...if a little flat...in plain vanilla SketchUp.
I've always wondered about producing higher poly versions for SketchUp that are actually usable, as opposed to some of the ripped-off commercial content that gets pasted to the Warehouse and can sometimes be tens of Mb.
It seems, however, that SU's use of OpenGL really doesn't like intersecting, transparent images. I even switched from using transparent png files to tiffs with an alpha channel in the hope that the green background might eliminate the halo effect around all the edges. It made some difference but it still looks horrible in native SketchUp.
It's a pity, because it renders just fine and can stand any amount of zooming-in, but for an off the cuff walk-through, as opposed to a pre-rendered video tour it would just look weird.
I've attached a high and low poly tree for people to play with. The HP version is about 3x the size of the LP version. The Tiff files themselves, which are 512x512 pixels are the best part of 300kb all on their own.
Maybe I should produce just a few, so that one can be stuck in the foreground of a render, to give a suitable LOD.
@Alohaa
Leider werden die Kreise nie ganz rund sein. SketchUp ist ein Programm zur Polygonmodellierung und verwendet daher keine Bézierkurven, sondern gerade Liniensegmente.
Das Beste, was Sie tun können, ist, die Anzahl der Segmente auf Hunderte zu erhöhen ... oder ein anderes Programm zu verwenden.
Ich habe Ihre Zeichnung genommen, die Kreise so gedreht, dass die Segmente ausgerichtet sind, und dann jeden Kreis auf 256 Segmente erhöht.
Entschuldigen Sie mein Deutsch
I'm clearing some old stuff off my hard drive and thought these might be useful for some people, if only as small pieces of decor..
I don't like uploading stuff to the Warehouse. We tried that in the early days of FormFonts, to advertise our presence. But in a matter of weeks they were lost in an avalanche of rip-offs. God knows how many 'tuned' versions of my Porsche Boxster are on there now.
They'd probably 'tune' Apollo or Zeus as Priapus. 
I should add that these are, as usual, fairly lightweight. Even the Lincoln statue is only 7,600 faces.
Abe Lincoln statue.skp Apollo Belvedere.skp Zeus_Poseidon.skp
When someone requested this a few years back, it was initially quite a daunting prospect. But actually turned out to be fairly straightforward. The flat sections which lie along the floor are simply repeats of a single component, comprising rib and 3 short section of 'track'.
The looped section started life as a completely circular array. I then had to count the number of ribs involved, then simply calculate how far the end of each of the 3 sections of track in the repeated component had to be skewed sideways in order to offset the whole thing by its own width after a single rotation.
There's a slight vertical adjustment too, but what is good for the very first section, joining the start of the loop to the last rib in the flat array is good for all the others too.
Yes, I probably could have used one of the helical plugins, or extrude along a path, but the thought of how to do that hurt my head more than simply going back to first principles.
There are only 3 components in the entire track; and one of those is the flat rib at either end. It's 8000 faces, including the cushions. Sometimes, the simplest way is the best.
Apparently it doesn't take 5 days; the first collections are now online. I'm currently processing a large collection of about 180 men and women. Yep! they're all getting loaded into the same skp file for rendering the preview images...that'll be fun..
@pixelcruncher Thanks for the compliment, Thomas. I really like the look of Rayscaper, but unfortunately it won't run in my SU version as I've stuck with the last one that has a lifetime license, which is V18. Doing what I do, I simply don't need any other features beyond that...and I'm not fond of yearly subscriptions for what is essentially the same product.
In fact FormFonts used to output all models in V7 (which is positively antique...2008) , because that supported Dynamic components and there haven't really been any significant upgrades in the file format since then. Obviously, if you are distributing one-off meshes in a variety of exported formats then something like Live components isn't really necessary.
Next up, Medical, probably followed by the start of the generic figures and some vegetation. It'll be a week or so (I think) before this stuff actually starts appearing online. There will be things that don't fit easily into collections; in which case I'll likely post them here.
BTW for those unfamiliar with this content, most of the models are vertex painted directly in SU, allowing easy editing of clothing, skin tone and hair colour. They are also somewhat modular, allowing swapping of heads, upper and lower body, or modest repositioning of limbs..
I have produced some fully UV mapped models, but I tend to work with SU rather than against it. So on this model of a Vancouver Canuck, for instance, the stripes are actually geometry (yes it adds a bit, but the entire model is still only 2.5K faces) but the logo is a simple texture. projected onto the chest. I then sampled the blue background to the logo, got the RGB value and made a custom colour that is painted onto everything else that isn't already striped.
Thanks Rich, the offer of help is much appreciated. No problem with the closed thread.
TBH I'm quite happy to use the forum to give updates on the progress, if that's okay? I'm thinking of releasing content in compilations of about 50-70 models each, so perhaps a few suggestions on groupings that people might like. There's the obvious ones like business people and casual people, or vegetation by region and type; but if anyone has other suggestions I'll be happy to consider them.
The main problem is sheer numbers. In a way it would be simpler to upload just single figures for $1 each and let people take their pick of exactly what they want, but that would be an open invitation for the entire collection to appear in the Warezhouse in no time flat; and SketchUp's response to copyright violations appears to be non-existent.
Like I said earlier, I am updating some stuff as I go along. Compare the FF biker with the 3D Figures one...spot the Sons of Anarchy influence. 
Hi all, Rich marked the query about FF disappearance as solved, so I've had to start a new topic. Yes, sadly, FF is no more. Personally, I was never entirely happy with the the subscription model as being the sole means of distribution...even less so with SU itself going down the same path, but that's another story and water under the bridge.
However Gabriel and I have got thousands of models between us that it would be a pity to let go to waste. I was in contact with him a while ago and confided in my plans to start selling my stuff retail. He may well do the same. The price point is about the same as it was way back around 2000 when I brought out the first SU People CD...$1 per model...slightly cheaper, in fact
It was that venture that led to me being contacted by Fred Abler, who had already started Objective Networks (of which the 3D Warezhouse is a direct rip-off, except for the major factors of ON having a quality control and approval system, which filtered-out all the junk and pirated content)
That in turn led us all to attending the very first SU basecamp in Boulder...when even Coen was a member of the team. History lesson over. 
It's quite a job, given the sheer scale of the resource, but I'm busy going through my entire inventory; and now I've started updating and repackaging the figures and vegetation ready for resale. The equipment will take a little longer. I assume Gabriel is doing the same with his stuff.
I've got the barest bones website up and running at [http://3d-figures.co.uk] which I'll be using to simply link to the model collections hosted on established digital content sites. I've already got a collection of Pool People (and equipment) hosted on Turbosquid (only did it yesterday) but the uploading procedure there is very lengthy and precise and they take a massive commission for anyone starting out, so I may try various other options. I loaded the same collection onto CG Trader this morning, but they say it can take 5 working days for approval, so no sign of it so far. It's only $49.99 there.
Here's a few of the supporting graphics. I'll be in touch as things progress.
Hi Joe,
I run SU on an ageing but fairly hi-spec gaming machine. I've got the anti-aliasing set to 0. I tried it on 4 and can see absolutely no difference, so I changed it back again...the higher it is, the more work your graphics card will have to do. I'd choose fast feedback over higher multi-sampling, as your system will run faster, especially on larger models. I think SU checks whether you can run higher sampling and fast feedback together on start-up. If your card is not up to the job, it will grey it out.
It sounds like it might be some sort of memory or cache problem. You don't have it saved as a component, do you?
One thing I could suggest is that instead of trying to import the new ring, you open it in a separate file, then copy / paste it into the project file. You'll have to resave the imported geometry as a new component if you need it to be.
Fixed it. The .rb file was pointing to a _loader.rb file in the plugin folder. It's actually a _loader.rbs file. I've informed them. It's still unclear which format will become the standard for AR viewing on smartphones etc....Apple's USDZ or Google's glTF.
I'd advise replacing some of the default toolbars...like Getting Started, with more specific ones. That way, you don't get duplicated icons. There was a thread some time ago in which several of us showed how we arranged our toolbars around the drawing window. It's here, https://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=37748
Keeping an actual screenshot of your favourite configuration helps a lot when re-installing or upgrading SketchUp.
It's also a good idea to turn off the tools that you don't use very often, so they don't clutter the place up. You can do this in View > Toolbars.
Hi all. I noticed that TIG posted a reply in the Newbie forum last year in answer to a question about converting to Apple/Pixar's new USDZ format for AR. He linked an online conversion site.
But I also realised that SimLab has recently posted a new export extension for this. https://extensions.sketchup.com/content/usdz-exporter#
I installed this, but unfortunately keep getting a load error...that it can't find the loader.rb. Anyone else come across this problem? The file seems to be right there where it ought to be.
Thanks for any help. If all else fails, I guess I'll have to contact them directly.
As someone who went down that route...Graphic Design - Illustration (yes, that avatar's a self-portrait), I'd advise that you're careful to avoid anything that might detract or distract from his current enthusiasm for natural media. The general attitude of most design courses would be "Just give me someone with imagination and creativity who can draw...we'll do the rest." I'd imagine the same could probably be said about architecture, plus a decent grasp of mathematics and physics.
There are a multitude of programs (cheap or free) that are very fun to use and can turn out (superficially) very impressive results. You just have to be careful not to encourage style over substance.
It depends very much on the age of your nephew. Younger kids can get a lot of fun from playing about with such programs; and it makes a nice break from traditional media. As they get older and still have a desire to follow the graphic design route it probably makes more sense to start using programs which are roughly comparable to the industry standards of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator...although personally I always preferred CorelDraw to Illustrator.
The closest free alternative to these would be (for raster images) The Gimp; and for vector images, Inkscape. Some experience with these would at least provide a grounding in the basic concepts of the software likely to be used at college level.
As to the proggies which actually cost serious money, CorelDraw actually comes as a suite, which also includes Photopaint, which is also akin to Photoshop. As such it works out much cheaper than buying the two separate Adobe products.
Quite a few people at the illustration end of graphics (as opposed to maybe typography at the other end) have also moved over to digital media. Corel Painter is a popular choice. http://www.painterartist.com/en/pages/masters/
Krita is an excellent free alternative
https://krita.org/en/features/highlights/
@hellnbak said:
I don't know if SU itself has a fork in it's future, but I do know that these forums are not what they used to be. For several years it seems member participation has pretty much died down to just a predictable few. Sad
Can't argue with that. I joined the SketchUp forum only fairly recently, so I'm barely past newbie status yet...but I'm spending far more time over there now.
Yeah, no idea how they're going to meet the deadline...and I couldn't really care. It was a major company, so maybe they had a whole load of other sub-contractors they could pass the extra work onto. But that's a lot of work to spread around over very little time.
I was an illustrator before I got into this game (book covers or entire kids' books.) Publishers were just the same. They seem to think you're hanging on the end of the phone with nothing better to do, just waiting to commit yourself fully to their demands.
You can do that fairly easily. Just make your component folder with all the required sub-folders...and even sub-sub-folders. Then copy or move the root folder (and hence the entire hierarchy) to the Components folder in your SketchUp program folder...right alongside the Component Sampler and DC training folders.
It will then show up in your component browser. You can then navigate backwards and forwards through the hierarchy using the arrows at the bottom of the Components window.
I've played around with this myself before today, but I've never seen any logical connection between what you set in Preferences and where the browser looks for the files.
I concluded that the best way was simply to keep a master folder of components somewhere and then copy it to program's component folder after a new install. Keeping a master back-up is probably safer too.
Thanks for the interest, suggestions and PMs everyone, but we decided not to go forward with this.
The client revised the deadline even tighter...to the beginning of November (after we'd been dangling for nearly 2 years.) Every freelancer knows the feeling.
Wiggle room for extra work we could have managed, but finding space for something like 1500 man-hours in little more than a month, even with extra help...no way.