You also could try a plugin called "Soap Skin & Bubble".
Download:
http://www.tensile-structures.de/sb_software.html

You can use it to "inflate" your model, creating a 3D shape. You could then mirror it to the other side, the result should look great.

Here's a video that demonstrates how it works:

Hope this helps,

Kevin

@kathryng said:

Tried it! Brilliant! No more mumbling under my breath. Thank you ever so much.
Cheers

No problem

@jacbk612 said:

Just checked the 3D model export and it provides a dae file. But maybe there is a way to convert a dae to avi.

Jaco

.dae is a 3D file extention, I believe it is used for opening 3D files in multiple programs such as 3DS Max, Maya, Blender and even Photoshop CS6. Doesn't look like a video file to me. Can't you export your animation in a different format? When I do a simple animation, I go to "Export", "Animation" and simply select ".avi".

@unknownuser said:

I love the real concept!

That just blew my mind

Hi forum. I was just thinking that it would be rather nice to have a topic where everybody can post what they consider to be their best Sketchup work so far, models and renderings that you are proud of. I hope there isn't one of these topics out there already, because if so I missed it.

I'll just make a start by posting some of the renderings I consider to be my best work.

I hope this will turn out to be a nice collection, otherwise I would end up looking like an idiot

What Sketchup projects are you proud of?

@az770 said:

I am working on a large model and everything went fine until the model went over 10MB. sketchup started to crash and produce bug splats. It also says that the file I'm working is locked by another user, and won't let me save changes to the model.
Can anyone tell me why these things might be happening?

Thanks,
AZ770

Oh god, don't remind me... I once had a 130 MB model, imagine how that was...

What Sketchup version do you use?

Wouldn't Sketchup export the animation as a .avi or such? Then you would just load it into Vegas, Premiere or whatever you use and add your music and white dots. I have no experience with SU animations, but that is how it normally runs... I don't think you can add music directly in SU.

Exactly. When your model is in the right position, click "View", go to "Animation" and select "Add Scene". It will ask you something about saving, just click "Create Scene" and you have your camera angle saved. A small tab called "Scene 1" will appear right below the upper toolbar. Every time you click it, sketchup will set the camera angle to the scene you saved.

@pbacot said:

I found with curvizard, Cleanup contours for all curves, then simplify contours for some of the curves with larger segment count leaves you with only a couple places to fix by hand. But I think the contours show too much concentration of edges in some places and overall I would think you'll get better results with fewer and more evenly spaced segments. Rich is right and knows best how to do this sort of thing. You could also work on this with half the canopy.

I also worked at 10 time the size for good measure.

How do you arrive at the correct section and draw those curves?

Thank you so much pal, I finally solved the problem, thanks to curvizard, which I had never heard of before you told me.
All I did was simplify all the cuves, it helped a ton: there is not a single imperfection to be found in the resulting model.
The model on the right is the new one.

Thank you, pbacot!

@unknownuser said:

@unknownuser said:

What do the yellow sections mean?

Just that the perimeter is composed of different curves not welded (click on it and you will see that I say

With native tools you can't weld curves or lines so you must use a plugin
the more practical for that is Recurve by Diggsey (on Right Click)

But one more time maybe in your special case you need to have this segmentation of curves!

Thanks friend, I'll give that a try.

@unknownuser said:

@unknownuser said:

Perimeter's section not welded? I'm afraid I can't quite follow...

This...maybe that is not important...

[attachment=0:1e4ji5gj]<!-- ia0 -->not_welded.jpg<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment:1e4ji5gj]

What exactly does that image show, Pilou? What do the yellow sections mean? I'm sorry, I'm kind of a noob when it comes to this kind of stuff

@rich o brien said:

@unknownuser said:

how did you even count the edges? Sorry for the amount of questions I have

Double click the face to select face and edges

Shift click face and bottom edge to deselect these

Window > Entity Info to see number of edges

Thanks, thats good to know. So the point is, I have to plan ahead and make sure that the ribs have the same number of edges. But how exactly do I do that? What I usually do is create basic square planes with the dimesions I want and then round them off, using the curve tool. It turns out they have completely different amounts of edges, so later curviloft runs into trouble.
How do I create ribs with an equal amount of edges from the start? And is there a way to repair the ones I allready have?

@unknownuser said:

@ Gilles : no,no always old minitel just another less old version of SU! So 2 versions in the same time! Transistors will be superheat overheat!

So It was a good idea to post the file because an image or a text are never sufficient!
[attachment=0:1gysff5t]<!-- ia0 -->CArlingue.jpg<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment:1gysff5t]

Ps
Any reason for have perimeter's section not welded ?

Perimeter's section not welded? I'm afraid I can't quite follow...

@rich o brien said:

You jump from lofting 27 edges to 45 edges in one step. Then it goes up to 52 edges and back to 45/48 edges. More forward planning is needed.

ok, I see. Is it necessary to have an equal amount of edges before lofting them? And if so, how do I build the ribs in order to archive that, is there maybe a tutorial out there? and how did you even count the edges? Sorry for the amount of questions I have

@unknownuser said:

First advice is to post an SKP file of the part who has a problem!
In save as V7 if possible for a more large audiance!

Good idea, here it is:

canopy.skp

Hey forum,

I have run into trouble with curviloft once again and I desperately need help, otherwise I'm going to have to scrap my whole project. So I was modeling the canopy of a fighter jet by creating ribs and then lofting them together with curviloft. That mostly works just fine for me, but this time I ended up with a large amount of imperfections. I'll just let the screenshots explain.

This is what the problem looks like. A small gap in the surface. The outlines don't seem to be normal lines, I cannot select them and place lines to manually close the gap.

You can see, the whole model is covered in tiny gaps, after using curviloft on the ribs.

Here's another close-up of one of the gaps.

According to the internet, I seem to be the only person in the world who has this problem. Does anybody have an idea what could be wrong and what I could do to fix it?

Thanks in advance, Kevin

Hi memo333,

As to closing the gap, have you drawn a line from one corner to another? If that does not work, you probably have a gap somewhere, that needs to be closed. These gaps can be tiny, so what I do to find them is to draw many lines, creating parts of the face I originally wanted to create. That encloses the area of the gap so that you can find it. Close it and delete the lines, your done. Here some screenshots to explain:

So I have the shape and want to create a face.

I want to close it up, but only half of it does.

I draw more lines, creating more faces, enclosing the gap causing the problem.

There it is. Close it and you're good to go.

What exact transparency do you mean?
And try just googling Vray tutorials, there are many good ones out there. I believe Vray actually has a handbook in .pdf, which explains how to use it pretty well.

@dave r said:

At that size, no, it probably isn't tiny faces. That's probably the most common reason for missing faces, though.

What happens if you try tracing over the edges of the holes, can you fill them in with faces?

Why not model half the fuselage and then copy and flip the copy to make the opposite half? It would save you a lot of work.

No, I guesss its not tiny faces. Yes, I can trace over the missing faces. But If I skin the whole model, I end up with about 200 holes, I have to close... I tried modeling half the fuselage, but Curviloft produces a rounded edge on the inside of the fuselage, where I would joint the two halfs together. If I do that, I end up with a thick dark line in the middle, as soon as I put the two halfs together.

@dave r said:

Undo it, scale the model up by a factor of 100 or 1000 and try it again. I suspect your running into SketchUp's dislike of tiny faces.

I'm not sure if that is the problem, I just measured the full length of the model, its about 3600 meters...

Could it possibly be too big, could that somehow be part of the problem?

Edit, oops I measured it incorrectly its actually 22 kilometers long. Not sure if I should laugh or cry

@unknownuser said:

Add faces.rb by Tig ?

That looks like a very useful plugin. I have to get going now, but I`ll give this a try later. Thanks!