Hi Everyone,

I am currently trying to produce a 3D model of Sheffield City centre to be CNC milled this coming week.

I have done everything including the site contours, buildings etc.

However, I am struggling to find a solution to offsetting the roads by -0.5mm. Because the surface I have generated is a smooth contour, I cant find a way to cleanly pull the roads down?

I have attached a link to the road layout so you can understand what I have so far.

I have tried the joint push pull but it errors everytime. I am assuming that this is because the geometry is imported from Revit and theres something wrong with it?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/c5hn5s9i4er6dhp/road%20layout.skp?dl=0

Thanks for any advice!

Hi everyone,

I have recently built a dual purpose machine in the office. It is used as the server (operating system is also Windows server 2012 R2) and it is also used as a rendering rig.

It has a i7 skylake processor, 32gb ram, gtx 970 etc etc so the spec is more than capable for Sketchup and Vray.

Just to give you a brief walkthrough of my process of working;

I will do all of the modelling, textures, scene setting on my own PC which is no where near the spec of the server.
I will then use windows remote desktop to load the model on the server and start the render.
Vray seems to work fine, it blasts through the renders very easily, however actual Sketchup is SO slow? Altering geometry or even just going through the menus will result in long waits while it catches up?

Does anyone know why this is the case?

Thanks

@tedvitale_cg said:

Try this glass out. You'll need to apply it to a thickened geometry for the refraction to work (model the glass pane), but it should give you a good starting point.

Thanks for that, really appreciate it!

I will get some rendering done this weekend using that glass.

@daniel said:

I'm assuming you are referring to the first two images.

I don't know anything about VRay, but I can offer some general remarks (IMHO); hope they help:

1. The composition can be improved. You've an interesting building in an uninteresting setting. A sea of paving is not a very inviting look to have in front of a residence. Add a car, some outdoor furniture or other "stuff" to show someone lives there. Add some foreground foliage. Make your image tell a story. Right now it's saying the contractor just finished building it, he did the minimalist amount of landscaping (sod on the lawn) and now its sitting empty waiting for someone to buy it.

2. Your roof texture is creating large square patterns. I feel for you - finding good shingle textures that are seamless is hard to do.

3. Your stone texture looks like you just painted with a solid color. There's no variation as one would expect to see in stone, and I can't make out any joints in the stone.

4. On a design note, those chimney pots look too puny for the chimneys they are atop of.

Overall, it's a nice model with good texturing. And I like the fact one can see some things when looking into some of the windows (as opposed to seeing a big empty volume).

Thanks very much for that Daniel!

I will work on all of those points over the weekend! I especially agree with you on the roof texture, I think I may have to look into making my own.

Hi Everyone,

I am just starting to get my head around V-ray but I would really appreciate some advice / pointers to get a better render than the below.

My usual workflow is Sketchup -> Vray -> Photoshop but I am not happy with the final outcome. First image is the base render, second is the post photoshop and the third is really what I am aiming for. (render done by someone else, I just really like the outcome)

Since doing this render, the textures for the brick and stone walls and the corner stone details have been changed so the photoshop file is a little out of date, but ultimately that has made very little difference.

Any help would really help!

Thanks

Hi Everyone,

I am just about getting my head around the settings on Vray 2.0

I am just struggling a little with the glass, I have attached an image of what I am trying to achieve with the glass. Could you anyone recommend the numbers / settings I should be using to achieve a similar result?

I seem to either get a full mirror reflection or nothing at all, I am after something in the middle?

Thanks

• Not my image

Hi everyone,

I am looking for a bit of quick advice. Basically I have built a model in sketchup and a place on the laser cutter has opened up for me tomorrow. So I am just wondering if it is possible to select certain faces within the model and rotate them (regardless of what angle they are currently at) and snap them all to an axis.

The end result would be the selected faces all aligned along an axis so that I can export the DWG straight to the laser cutter?

Cheers for the ideas!

Ha, I could not agree more!

Cheers for the replies. Looks like I am going to have to try and find a way to sort it out in Ecotect!

Yeah I see what you mean. I have tried exporting in .3ds .obj .dxf

Hi everyone,

I am currently studying Architecture and I have built a quick site massing model on Sketchup. Now that I have done this I wanted to put it through programs such as Ecotect and Vasari. However, because I used the sandbox for the gradient of the site, the model looks a complete mess on Ecotect because it has exported the hidden geometry as lines?

Is there anyway to export the model from Sketchup without the hidden geometry? Or anyway of smoothing the lines in Ecotect?

I have tried exporting in a number of different formats but all with the same results.

Thanks!

@solo said:

Hmmm...

What render engine do you use? This kinda looks like Vray and tons of photoshop (all added stuff in PS has no shadows)

Hmm I see what you mean now. I am using Podium at the moment.

I'm not to worried about the post photoshop stuff, trees etc. Its just developing a style similar to the actual building?

Hi everyone,

I am currently searching for a style to create similar outcomes to Henning Larsen's projections for "Massar Childrens discovery centre" but I have no luck so far. I have even attempted to replicate my own but I haven't managed to even come close!

Could any point me in the right direction as to where I might find a similar style or offer any suggestions on how to create it myself?

Thanks for any input!

Hie everyone, I know this is probably a very simple answer but I just cant figure it out.

I am currently building a model for my Architecture tech course and I need to show the floor build up for example.

I know how to create new layers etc

And when I draw a shape on the floor and extrude it upwards (the floor and the new shape are on different layers) to show insulation for example, it works like it should but,

when I turn off the layer below the box, the box looses its faces and just the bounding edges remain.

Am I missing something here? Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

Hi all, could someone please point me in the direction of some winter trees, either 2D or 3D. Just something to finish off a background.

I have been searching for some time, but the ones that I find are usually low quality etc.

Cheers.

Well, probably should have waited 5 minutes longer, I have found it now.

Thanks anyway everyone.

Hi again everyone.

Quick question, is there a plugin that will calculate the area of a shape?

Thanks.

That is exactly what I was looking for!

Thanks yet again man.

Hi all, basically I am trying to use Sketch-up 7 to preform a light study.

I understand how to use the shadow toolbar etc, however, I need to do an internal light study and obviously to be able to see the shadows I need to hide the external walls.

But when I do this, the shadows are obviously changed because Sketch-up see's the wall as no longer being there?

I was just wondering if there is a way that I can hide the wall, but Sketch up will treat it as being still there and keep the shadows as they should be?

Thanks.

Thanks for all of the replies.

I had a play with some of the plugins and I managed to get it to do what I wanted so thank you for the suggestions.

CubeSqaure, thanks for the stairs mate, I will check them out now.

Thanks again all!