A quick play. Works great! Thanks again. This will be great for retopology of high poly terrain data or terrains made with From Contours!

[flash=800,600:3go1iq6p]http://www.youtube.com/v/cWgJeIonBhU[/flash:3go1iq6p]

Wow, that was fast! I'll give it whirl and let you know how it works.

Try this - http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=1530

Jan, definitely looks like you are one to something. From what I can tell, you are using the auto unfold that exists and using it to glean the texture coordinates of each face, which are then re-applied back to the "folded" geometry.

What if once unfolded, you could also initiate the combine textures option, which would create a single texture in the material window of the unfolded faces combined. One could then take that texture and export it to a photo editor as a sort of packed UV map, add a texture, paint on it or whatever and then save it back into sketchup. From there, those coordinates are re-applied to the "folded" geometry. (I believe TGI3D has a feature similar to this)

I like the direction you are headed. Keep pondering this and don't let the lack of response be discouraging.

I believe that LumenRT was the first of it's kind to support .exe output and work within sketchup. Perhaps try LightUp? It requires a player (similar to Unity) rather than a stand alone .exe, but the footprint of the player is quite small and installs in seconds. Might not be too burdensome on a client. There are also talks of Lumion going to .exe output in V2, but that's a few months out yet.

TIG, would it be possible to add an option which is drop verts to =Z /to intersect. Meaning if you had the subdivided plane above, let's say a smaller box, then all verts would drop to the specified Z, except where they intersected with the box. Perhaps adding a "Drape Verts" choice to the submenu. It would essentially do what drape Cpoints and triangulate does, but with a predefined mesh.

Thanks for your work on this again. The new features are great.

This is really progressing nicely. I'm starting to get excited about the possibilities here. I don't think this should be viewed as a mere hatching tool. This could be a serious modeling tool as well.

Eventually I would like to see this be able to store user made hatch "stamps".

If this is true, one could save some serious time by storing repetitive lines used in modeling.

For instance if I'm building a house. I could have a pattern saved for roofing tiles, one for siding, one for decking etc. One could then just apply these to the faces of the geometry and cut the lines into the face for further extrusion. Perhaps an option to intersect the hatch, keep it as a group or apply it as construction guides.

In essence you could create a Pattern Stamp tool. One benefit would be dropping in hatches and the other for modeling work.

I work with a lot of curvey patio and pool deck shapes with a multitude of the different patterned stone. I would love to be able to store all of these different patterns and then be able to run the plugin, set the overall size of my stamp and then stamp a pattern into curved edge shape. Right now I do it manually and it involves intersecting and a lot of cleanup.

There have been a lot of requests for floor generators and brick and tile makers, etc. A user saved pattern database which could be stamped to surfaces would be half the battle and fill those needs.

Honestly I would pay for a tool such as this.

Keep up the great work Joel & TIG. Definitely got my eye on this thread.

Very nice TIG!!!! This is a much needed plugin! As soon as I get some paying work again, I'll definitely drop a ten spot in your paypal account!

Water looks great. A little too much saturation / vibrance in the post pro for my taste. Nice composition though.

@patrickbateman said:

I think giving a lot of requirements would be prohibitive. I think by nature that it would be from the sketchucation community would weed out most of the crap and encourage people to share. I don't think a ratio system or restrictions should be in place. Maybe have a one-time mandatory upload before you can download anything and get access? So every user would have to upload a quality model and have it get approved before gaining access to download anything.

The point is to stop the leeching. It's essentially time sharing. A professionals time spent on giving something away is time not spent earning money. If it is reciprocal then it's not just time spent to provide the lazy with a means take and profit from anothers generosity. I mean let's face it, there is a whole arm of the 3D industry that does nothing more than build boxes and fill it full of stuff they've leeched or pirated. To them 3D visualization is like playing with a doll house and rearranging furniture. In the end, the clients have no idea, but the integrity of the industry suffers greatly.

I think I misunderstood what you wanted to do. I thought you just wanted to flatten it out.

Are you trying to do something like this?

[flash=800,600:1twzfjd5]http://www.youtube.com//v/9J-GMg1t9e0[/flash:1twzfjd5]

What would interesting is if someone could write a plugin that would do a "Vert Drop" Essentially letting you drop all verts in a selection to a specified z plane.

I definitely like the idea of the Sketchucation Model Repository.

How about a ratio system. You need to maintain a certain give and take ratio in order to have downloading access to models. You have to give one for every two you take or something. Also a mandatory rating system. If you haven't rated your previous download, you temporarily lose downloading privileges until you add the rating. If a model gets more than 10 minimum ratings, then it's removed.

Nice work bro. That should finish the model off nicely.

Whoa! That's great news. Sure beats the $10K price tag! I'm assuming it doesn't come with the compiler?

I've been playing with the UDK version and I love it. It's just so darn fun to model in. I guess I'll start saving my pennies!

I'd imagine there are several reasons. I don't use the warehouse much personally to know if it's declined or not, but the times I have gone there have resulted in more frustration than satisfaction. Generally speaking, the sketchup community has more amateurs than it does professional model builders. There is no screening of models that I know of, but a rating system to try and put the better models to the top of the list. If people don't use the rating system however, then the weeding out process suffers. There is also a lot more leeching than there is seeding and people who tend to want everything free and prebuilt for their models can be assumed to be on the lazy or not as skilled side when it comes to building stuff to contribute. So, if everyone takes and no one gives, then over time there will be a decline in quality. It's also subject to the field which you work in and what you are looking for, as some fields have been using sketchup longer and so there is more content built up over a longer period of time. All in all, it's free, easy to use and open to anyone. You have to know that what you get from the warehouse will most likely need to be cleaned up and fixed before it is usable in a professional scenario. I would rather spend 10 or 15 minutes building something that I know is made properly and is unique to me and my project, than milling around for 20 minutes with another 5 or 10 minutes of cleanup and re-texturing. I think a lot of professionals probably feel the same way. If I do want to get a statue or something that will take me too long to build, I'll glance through the warehouse, but most likely end up at archibase or another free quality model site. You gotta figure too that sites like FormFonts can be successful for a reason. If the warehouse was full of fantastic, easy to find and well built models, they would probably not be as successful as they are. just my .02

The warehouse is great for finding specific manufacturers appliances and fixtures. But if you want plants or a table set, etc. it's hard to find professional level quality.

You can select each row of edges and use ThomThom's Edge tools to make them colinear on the Z axis. Or using Vertex tools, select the whole mesh and use Make Planar. Or Artisan's Make Planar and choose the XY axis. Also ThomThom's Flatten Script will do it on click as well.

Select all the verts and using VT to scale them down on the Z will decrease the overall size.

I like it like I like handcuffs. Wrapped in fur.

Something is causing and issue. I tried to render the file as well and it crashed my sketchup. I would start by opening a second sketchup session and start copying and pasting in place your model into a new file. Start with the building first. Bring it into the new file and try a test render. If it is successful, then start bringing in one row of display booths at a time. Try and isolate what is causing the issue and then fix that in the model with all the vray materials setup.

I've had this happen to me before in the past, where I can't render or export a model because it causes crashes. I'll typically have to go through and find the issue. Usually it's caused by very small curved surfaces with too many segments, which I created accidentally.

You could also try and use Adam B.'s plugin Goldilocks 2.0 to analyze the geometry. Perhaps you'll find the issue that way - http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=31881&p=322181&hilit=goldilocks#p322181

Good luck with the project.

You're welcome. Make sure you group the mesh first to get the FFD box options.

FFD is not a necessary step either. Just an option if you need to tweak a little hear and there.

The Fog Color slot is intended to color refracting surfaces at a gradient from the thickest areas receiving a darkest fog color and thinner areas receiving a lighter fog color. It works best within curved glass surfaces such as bottles, wine glasses etc. Since a flat plane window has no varying thickness the fog will not color the glass. In that case the refraction color is the only option that will tint the glass properly.

You can test it by trying the same material out on curved surface.