MAN!!! so much goes into such a simple function. I have never considered that so many different things have to be taken care of. WOW. It all makes sense, but it is like an iceberg - so big under water.

Dennis

it does, but only one at a time.
If there was a possibility to have a life reading in multiple locations, that would make a big difference.

on top of that, if it was possible to collect them all into a table and make calculations - it would be a rudimentary BIM.

Anyway, maybe someone already made a ruby like that.

Hi,
I was looking for ways to dynamically reflect face area. I know if you point the leader tool to a face, the text in the box is going to show the area of the face. However, that number does not update if the area changes.
I was wandering if anyone came across a plug-in that allows to see a live value for face area?

Dennis

numbthumb, that is so good!!!

to everyone who will read this post: if you use texture to speed up your design - post here, maybe we can learn something from each other.

Hi everyone,

doing early stage architectural design, I discovered that it is so much easier to paint windows and curtain walls on to the building rather then modeling it. It speeds up the design process tremendously. You can see a snapshot of the project I'm currently working on, using this technique. I learned it from all the great Google earth models and figured that design could be done in this manner as well. What I was doing so far is dismembering Google earth models to get textured wall systems. However, as you all know the resolution there is minimal.

So now comes the BIG question: Did you ever encounter a wall system textures library? (and where it could be found)?

@ecuadorian said:

Did you try Fotolia and Dreamstime?

fotolia seems good,

hm, It is hard to believe no one lined up a business providing people for SU workflow.

fantastic source.
However, something tells me there is got to be other sources fitting right in to the SU-Podium workflow

Hi everyone, does anybody know what is the best source for Photo real people (free or payed)?
and what are the best technologies for incorporating them within SU-Podium workflow?
I remember there were RPC people but I don't know how to incorporate them into this workflow?
What are the new advanced ways of doing it?
Maybe someone can even post "how it all worked out".
Dennis

this site doesn't show here in china. many sites are blocked here for political reasons but there are also innocent victims like twilightrendered.com.
if you post it here, there is a chance that it could be seen in China as well.

wow, seems like I got to take a look at this twilight.
do you have any pictures with well expressed DOF?

there is Depth Of Field in twilight?

wow, this thing Rocks!!!
I love the fact that if you can dream of something, it is possible in SU (and someone already built a plug in for it )

interesting? what is it?

hm, another idea - is to copy roads into the middle of the exploded trees and then intersect with the model. triple click the resulting geometry and erase.

Solo, thank you so much for a fantastic texture.

The problem I face is a bit more conceptual rather then immediate.
If there are "clouds" of trees just like you show in a variety of cloud configurations, how do I create a form in SU that would repeat the shape of the cloud and resemble a forest. (without clogging our video cards with hi-poly, heavily textured vegetation)

What I used to do is to create a octahedron, paint it green, spread copies along the whole site and use a random scale & rotate plug-in to break the grid. Then I went with an eraser and erased all the trees that grew over roads buildings and so on. Then dropped it to intersection with the terrain. Done

It is a bit of a brute force approach to tree patches, not an easy one. Besides it doesn't look like the woods you showed here.

So, maybe someone already came up with an idea on how to populate variety of complex shapes with an impression of woods that is somewhat forgiving on CPU. Maybe just extruding the "forest cloud" then warping it with some plug-in to make it look like a collection of merged spheres, then applying the forest texture on top? The problem is: I have no clue how to do that kind of warp in an automated manor.

Any ideas how to simulate a forest?

Hey everyone there, I\m contemplating on how to make massive patches of trees to look good (at least in plan view.
Usually it is either a green "cloud" or satellite photos of forest. Neither solution looks acceptable in SU.
Anyone has an idea?

lens blur is particularly effective.
I felt like I'm back to school and staring at a photo of a card board model.

for some reason the image does not show up here in China.
could you repost it?

Rob,

I'm not an expert on baking but the word suggests a process of preparing (in our case textures).
if I may put it this way, I see power texturing as making a sandwich with a pre-made egg salad. Where baking would be actually doing it from scratch.
The reason I don't feel that power texturing is baking, because there is no process of preparation. However, I agree that the core nature is the same - you get the egg salad sandwich. That is why both are discussed here.
One way or another - this discussion helps to refine whatever it is.

sample

Richard, thank you for the support.

I'm not sure I got it correctly: why to re-import the watermark lines?

Thanks to you I finally got it. Baking textures - is a way to save processing time for animations. It seems to be a very good idea for an architect as well - if I have a very heavy model, but need to show the client a "live" SU presentation on a slow laptop (witch is often a case). Then baking textures is a way out.

Richard is right, what I was doing here in not exactly BAKING. I simply didn't have anything to bake. Just scrambling to make a simple volume to be presentable.
Let's coin this process as "Power texturing" after this forum thread. (unless someone already named this specific process, or used this term for something else)

the core reason for this "Power Texturing" method is to be able to show a live model in front of the client.

Post processing is no big deal when we have a view or two. However, when it is an animation or even better - live model - the post processing is simply not an option.

That is why "Power Texturing" is so convenient.

1. you save time on modeling,
2. save time on post processing,
3. It enables live model presentations.