Topics created by bowlr

Hi Barry, A number of views, but this is the first response. This is probably because what you are asking for would probably take an entire chapter in an instruction manual.
I'd suggest you start with the Curviloft plugin by Fredo6 (see categorised list in Plugins forum)
Or you could use its commercial big brother Artisan.
There are some plugins by TIG that would probably work as well.

This will get you the curvature of the back, but you are then going to need something like Joint Push/Pull to get the thickness of the cushioning...and then Round Corners in order to get the softened effect along the edges of the cushions.

Another way would be to get the curvature on the back, then run a ready-curved profile around that to get the edges of the cushioning...using Follow Me. You'd then have to use a skinning plugin again to form the face of the cushion.

Both of these methods would need further editing with deformation tools, as the back cushion appears to be deeper at the base than at the top.

Yet a 3rd way would be to set up a low poly proxy, as in the attached skp file, then apply subdivide and smooth or its Artisan version. Both are commercial scripts.

seat_back_thumb.jpg
seat_back.skp

The seat cushion smoothed with 2 iterations will give a smoother result.
seatback.gif

Is as I thought, thanks for your time

I'm afraid not, because drawing a person in SU is pretty difficult...at least if you want to create one with a usable number of polygons. You also need to be able to draw a person with pencil and paper if you're even going to reach first base.
Almost all of the 'decent' human figures in the 3D Warehouse have been drawn in some other software...probably 3DS Max...then imported. Some have simply been pulled in from commercial collections or are imported Poser figures.

That's not to say it can't be done in SU; I've made hundreds myself, like the ones below...but explaining how would take an entire book.

Edit: ...other than Justin's blog...which I forgot about. I use an almost identical technique, but I don't think he goes into detail about how to make hands, faces, hair etc. which would require whole other sections each.

http://www.formfonts.com/requestFile.php?type=1&id=13475&img=small_FF_Model_ID13475_winterppl14.jpg

http://www.formfonts.com/requestFile.php?type=1&id=13572&img=small_FF_Model_ID13572_4346.jpg

http://www.formfonts.com/requestFile.php?type=1&id=14167&img=small_FF_Model_ID14167_steps.jpg

http://www.formfonts.com/requestFile.php?type=1&id=15749&img=small_FF_Model_ID15749_main01_04.jpg

Just an idea.

(High poly)

SDS, JPP

just an idea.skp

I have a .zip file installer/uninstaller for SketchUp (Windows.) Let me work on it over this weekend and see if I can make it safe for release (or at least testing.)

Something like this depends on plug-in authors building the .zip in a certain way. Luckily, every file I have tested is created properly .

What I mean is that when a .zip is extracted, the contents should be as they would appear in the Plugins folder:

my_plugin.zip my_plugin.rb my_plugin_folder

What about existing files, you may ask? As it is, plug-ins must use unique file and folder names, so I figure it's OK to over-write existing files and folder when installing. And safe to delete them when un-installed.

The exception is when a file is shared and installed by separate plug-ins. In this case, removing the shared file will break the other plug-ins that may use it.

@jhauswirth said:

There has been a very long-standing bug with LO where it crashes on startup.
It happens when the 8-hour demo period is over and SketchUp converts to Free.
Then when you try to start LO it isn't licensed and tries to force-exit the app,
but it crashes instead. We have mostly seen this in non-English builds.
We think we have this fixed in the next release of 8.0 (M1). But LO won't
start anyways since the license is expired.

I experienced that LO wouldn't start - it'd become unresponsive after the Tip of the Day window appeared.
My SU Pro is registered. But I had changed it from a demo license to a new one.

I restarted it a few times and got the same behaviour. Then I let it just sit there for a while, a couple of minutes, and then it became responsive again. Could it be that it was authenticating the license - and thereby hanging the app until it got response?