Thanks guys, I think Ill try the 99$ one to start. They both look pretty good from their website....

Hey guys, Ive been gone from this site for almost 2 years now and I know alot has changed in sketchup land... (I guess I qualify as a "newbie" poster again lol) Im looking to buy a simple renderer plug in and Im looking at Shaderlight and Twilight as affordable options so far - they both look simple and good. However - I use a TON of custom 2d 'face me' components that are created using png's that have a transparent background (even though in SU I cut along the edges so I get some type of shadow silloette....). I was wondering if either of these renderers support the transparency. IF you have any other suggestions for other programs go for it! Thanks

@unknownuser said:

This is how I do all my architectural models Pete. If you ever need me just give me a shout...

I wish that after you extrude the floor plan that there was a way to "project" the linework elevation onto the sides of the building. Mabee drape could work???? I tried this method shown above a couple weeks ago...still kinda a pain, I ended up placing components on the elevations - scaling the windows ie to fit, then placing them on axis by moving the individually.

@unknownuser said:

@unknownuser said:

tracing over all those lines and then pulling them upwards is tedious

Why do you need to trace? All you have to do after you bring it in is use the 'MakeFaces' ruby. It doesn't work all the time but it does fill in most faces so you don't have to trace that much to get the faces...

It also depends on who did the drafting. I sometimes find that some people don't close there corners or intersections which can be very annoying but you have to make sure everything is good in AutoCAD before importing into Sketchup. IMO, that can be the most tedious part...

YOU GOTTA USE THE "LABEL STRAY LINES" AFTER YOU USE MAKE FACES.... IT SAVES LIVES! I also find it very useful to select all geometry and intersect selected, that picks up alot, even though SU7 is supposed to do that automatically, I find it doesn't.

@gaieus said:

You can try an easy trick: select all in your model and make a component (hopefully there are no unnecessary,stray lines miles away). Now the component will have its own axes - as close to the component geometry as possible (i.e. at the corner of the bounding box).

Now export this component as a SU model (right click > save as), open it, work on it and all and if you need the original placement, go back to the original model, right click again and reload. You can even explode the component now if you wish.

hmmm.. that sounds like a neat trick. Does that mean all the coordinate data will be reletive to the component axis and the only million feet away coordinate would be the one defining the location of the component? Ill keep you posted next time I get a chance to try it out. My only concern is how and if LandFX will be able to read the relationship to convert back to CAD.

@unknownuser said:

I see a huge amount of lines describing very little. I would have to agree that importing a 2d and tracing would get you off the ground quickly and allow for more effective construction on the surface. If you try to throw that single contour around while you are adding detail your work-flow will be slowed to a crawl.

thats because the contours were a spline from the civil engineers software, I know that you should simplify the heck out them, but I thought the spline might have had to do with the original problem!

@thomthom said:

Is it placed in real world coordinates? SU doesn't handle very large co-ordinates that well. Place everything near origin before importing. Same goes for blocks. Some times you end up with only a few blocks that jitter, then it's the block's internal origin that's way off.

Thank you thomthom - after spending all morning in the office figuering out what could be wrong, I simply moved the orgin (both manually in SU or in CAD pre-imported)and the jitter went away. You see, the problem is, I need to keep the coordinates in order to produce a seamless workflow between CAD (and all the xrefs from civil, architects, ect...) and LandFX. I can't just simply move my drawing to 0,0 - then everytime I get a dwg from the many others we work with it is a pain in the butt to align them up with my "new" coordinate. What Im really getting at is; I use a CAD plug in called Land FX that uses blocks to manage my planting plans. I link the active planting plan dwg file to a SU base that I already created the topo, place buildings, ect, and make sure the coordinates match the dwg. The blocks are then linked to components in the SU model, each plant block corresponding to a component plant. The link automattically uses the coordinates and a "grow" ruby (the opposite of drop) to place the components on my landform tin. Each file automatically updates eachother; ie. if I move a tree around in SU then save, when I open CAD that tree will be in its new place at the flattened elevation that I work in there. So thomthom, how far away from 0,0 in SU do things start messing up? If I uncheck preserve origin does it bring separate files that are on a coordinate in at the same place reletive to 0,0? Or does it pick a point on the dwg in the furthest 0,0 quadrant and just stick it there? Once again, thanks - its good to talk to someone who knows there stuff!

Hey everybody, Im having problems when importing my cad base into sketchup7. I think it could possibly have to do with the survey was created in some other program that civil engineers use alot like land cad. I followed all basic import preparation rules like simplifying, cleaning and purging, and saving as 2004 dwg. The problem is that when I view the lines in SU, they "dance around" and move erratically - not letting me pick endpoints with the line tool and other issues. Some of the cad lines come out correct and behave, allowing for the typical delete short lines/make-faces process that you usually use in an imported dwg. Also, the topo lines look like they were splines or something; I can make faces no problem, but there is alot of "shining" (the white lines and noise that shows on the faces with no explaination) The only explaination is that SU is trying to triangulate way to many faces in too small of an area. I included the model and a jpg of the shining problem. Any help will be greatly appreciated!!!

problem1.skp

Daniel Tal's presentation on organic modeling is a Godsend for Landscape Architects... Ive been figuring out how to do what he's already mastered, Its much quicker to learn from someone else!!!

here you go.... the road is broken and rotated a little to match the grade of the road, that is why you see a line dividing it. If you select just the face of the straight part you can see its broken up into little triangles, so I thought mabee this was the problem.... but I tried to stamp just the curved part of the road (it is one coplaner face), and you see what Im talking about....

base_model_test.skp