Hi,

at first when looking at the warehouse you are overwhelmed with the free components. after a while you realize the 90% are really low quality and you can barely find anything that would look good on a high quality render. some are undetailed and some are just done wrong like back faces not oriented.

**is there a sketchup equivalent of evermotion arch models?**these are great high quality models for max and I have a few. I can export them from max but its not alway perfect. wish I could find something of the same quality just ready for sketchup.

looked around and didn't find. am I missing something?

thanks,

Thanks Gaieus, great answear.

hi,

Hope this is in the right section, two questions regarding terrain and location:

1. is there a difference between loading the earth terrain from google earth application or from the get location inside sketchup? are these the same map files or might one be better, updated or resolution, then the other? does one have an advantage over the other?

2. is there a way to edit the image inserted into sketchup location? i.e. the image with its terrain so you can: blur unwanted areas or manipulate the imagery in anyway? this isn't a standart image so I'm not sure what can be done. I need the 3d terrain deta so I can't just use the 2D image itself..

thanks in advance,

Just got back to this post, 10x all for your comments.

I know about the vector/raster issues. thats life.

I'm going to try layout for a while, really liked bmike's work

Thanks everyone!
you made me give layout another chance, pro3 is much more elaborated then what I rememberd, and costs the same as the 2d-shop blocks (which I have seen before and loved - but felt to expensive).

it does require me to detail each door and window correctly or maintain a separate file for the plans in layout but that feels reasonable since I already used CAD -> Illustrator -> Photoshop. replacing Illustrator with Layout doesn't make the work much smoother, but it could be slightly faster!
[I have to maintain the CAD for the construction details & sending to the different advisors.. and the PS for the finish brochure and catalogs.]

I hoped there was an all in 1 app I was not aware of but I guess not. This is something at least, thanks!

@ipsketchpi said:

"and turn it into this:"
nice work, looks like SU result , no problems to get such result in SU. The biggest problem in SU for me is that when I import dxf which I have not made myself, I must find and fix all not closed lines, clean up some lines... when it is done the rest is just a pleasure to work in SU.
Test SU pro with layout : http://sketchup.google.com/download/gsup.html

for that you can use the "stray lines" plugin

@pbacot said:

I think people might have ideas if you showed what you start with and what you want to end with. Also the workflow you envision. Are items listed in the last post related to the primary objective? Why doesn't PS work for you?

Thats allot of questions.

well to be frank, if impression worked, it would be it, you can view it here:
http://download.autodesk.com/us/impression/2009overview/index.html

I tired the free version but its an old version from 2010 that keeps crashing! (I have a powerful i5 with 8gb ram and dedicated GI card, its not my PC). I'm not sure where this app is going, but I cant really use it, if it worked. I also don't know anyone who uses it, not sure what is autodesks plan for this.

anyway, in general you want to make something that looks like this:

and turn it into this:

I think only an architect or designer familiar with CAD can help me on this..

Well yes! it does look nice.

I have a few problems with SU for that matter:

1. most important I'm an Architect and I work in CAD, the CAD drawings are always percisly updated, the SU file is not. I only update the 3D model when a major change has been done. small changes aren't noticable in 3D so it doesn't matter.
2. I use SU for exterior 3D views and large halls, I usually don't design the smaller rooms to begin with, I do have them on CAD.
3. I don't like the way most of the SU blocks look in orthographic view - I don't like most of the blocks and good one for top view are harder to find.
4. I use Hebrew fonts which are always shown back-wards in SU. in other applications as well, I know.

To be frank, when it come to sales plan and drafting, I use and trust CAD much more.

So, thanks for the thoughs, I might give SU another chance, **BUT, if anyone has a different app to suggest for that purpose, I would like to hear it too,

Thanks!**

I know this is not related to Sketchup but I love this forum and maybe some one knows:

I often need to make nice sales plan from my CAD drawings. I tried autodesk impression http://usa.autodesk.com/impression/ but it was really buggy and is not updated any more.
I am tired of styling my drawings with PS since its always the same work. and Photoshop isn't really designed for it

**I searched the google/web endlessly but cant find a thing, I find it unlikely that there isn't a program I can import a 2D cad drawings and simply:

• hatch the walls
• pattern the floor tiles
• add beautifully drawn furniture and people from a large library.**

maybe some of you have stumbled upon a great program that can do the above?? thanks!!!

@jean lemire said:

Hi folks.

See this SU file for ideas.

Great work!
That is actually what I was looking for - don't know why I did think of it myself since I'm not a beginner - but I didn't so - Thanks!

I did find a great plugin on the way anyway

@gilles said:

Projection Tools by Didier Bur, maybe this can help:http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=20140#p167471

Yup!

how did I miss this great plugin!

I had to delete the surface and only use the outline since the plugin made a projection of every small face in it but pretty good.

When creating a topo surface from cad file lines the surface is a thin chip like object.
I want to give it a real cardboard model feel by closing the area under the surface into a closed box.

whats the best way to do this? the surface has many edges and I cant make anything intersect with it in a single swipe.

attached is an image of the surface and a box under it. I want the box walls to fit the surface edge so it doesn't seem floating like it does.

is there a quick and simple way to do this that I am missing?

Thanks!

Thanks for everyone's help, I did it the "hard" way with the awesome curviloft plug-in, and draping the CAD plan on to it.

here is an image of the model base which(with the road the ramp and the parking) has small but multiple important curvatures.

now theres something to build on..

@tig said:

Here's simple version - why do you need 'curves' - it'd be easier to build as a series of ramps and platforms[attachment=0:1wd9vubi]<!-- ia0 -->Capture.PNG<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment:1wd9vubi]

thanks TIG (I use some of your plugins sometime ) for the detailed illustration!
beautiful simplicity

that is how I was planning on doing it butI want FM to smothly continue rising while turning.
when building this way FM is a flat road with no slop which isn't excatly what I want.
I need the ramp to rise smoothly from the start of F0 to R11&R22.

if curve share won't work I'll go to this way.

any other thoughts ?

@krisidious said:

you need curve shear

http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=29230&p=254687

this looks like a 1 to 2 slop, since I need to be at a specific hight at the center (2) and continue the slop from there (up to 3) I'm not sure this will do but I will give it a try!

if theres anything else of that matter I would appreciate the comments

hi fellow sketchers

I have a simple task in words, but a hard one for me in sketchup, I looked at the forum and youtube for tutorials or plugins but most of them are random complex shapes and not accurate continues roads which splits up to two directions along the way.

In action I need to make a solid continues ramp which acts as a parking area. from the entrance there is a simple curve but at the middle it splits up to two roads (heading left and right) plus, I have parking spots along the way which need to at the same slop.

simplified plan added in jpg. numbers represnt therotical rise in slop.

can you please advise on how to do, or refer me to simple free plugins or a similar tutorial you know of?

thanks in advance,
sketchuper.