Hi marcell86,

Take a look at this fountain model in the 3D warehouse. It is a 3D G-clef. I think, it does something similar to what you want to do as explained in the skp file you attached.

Error 404 (Not Found)!!1

(sketchup.google.com)

Our customers have been asking for a “single user license” where they could install a Tgi3D plugin on multiple computers (upto a certain number) for single concurrent use. While we are considering such alternative licensing schemes, we have devised a very attractive promotional sale for those of you who don't want to wait:

Buy one get one free!
You will receive two licenses of the same Tgi3D plugin in a single purchase for the price of one. You can then install the software on two different computers, e.g. one at work and one at home, and obtain two independent permanent licenses using the same activation key and e-mail.

Our existing customers: Get your second copy now, free of charge!
We appreciate your business. Therefore, we made sure that you also benefit from this sale regardless of the timeline you purchased the product. Simply download the latest version of the software from here and install the software on a second computer and use your existing activation key and e-mail to activate the second licensed copy of the plugin.

Enjoy!

Are you simply trying to avoid doing follow-me 13 times? Because I do not see any other complexity, all you have to do is create a curved path from the center of the bigger circle and use follow me 13 times and you will have your tube consisting of 13 tubes bended together as you want...

In addition to the other suggestions, I would like to demonstrate, if I may, one other option using Tgi3D SU Amorph tools. Below is a quick video showing in real time how to create a curved hull quickly using Tgi3D Bezier curves and Bezier surfaces.

[flash=480,385:3k81xrsv]http://www.youtube.com/v/fd-7D0MgI2A?fs=1&hl=en_US[/flash:3k81xrsv]

@pixero said:

@gaieus said:

What if I have SU installed on several computers? A typical example case would be to have a powerful desktop in office to work with and a laptop to go out to the site or field to (say) take measurements and quick drafts.

Yeah, a three for one deal and I might consider...

Edit: I think Thea's license is great. Install on up to three computers but only use one at a time.

Currently our licenses are issued "per computer" (allowing faster, local license verification without internet connection). However, we do have plans to move to the "single-user license" scheme, which permits multiple copies (up to a certain amount) to be installed under the same license but allow single concurrent use. This requires that the software be in contact with the license servers at all times and allow only one copy to be operational at a given time.

Migration to the new licensing scheme will take some time given its own development time and our current development schedule. But we have been preparing for a "promotional sale" that will be a very nice solution in the meantime.

Watch for the news!

We have listened to our customers and decided to release the 30-Day Trial Edition of Tgi3D SU Amorph so that our customers can test the product without the vertex count limitation imposed on the Free Training Edition. You can download the 30-Day Trial Edition from the Downloads page on Tgi3D website.

No worries: Tgi3D SU Amorph Free Training Edition lives on...
Please rest assured that this announcement does not mean that the “ever popular” Free Training Edition of Tgi3D SU Amorph is abondoned. You can continue to use the Free Training Edition, but if you are thinking about the next step to purchase the plugin and want to experience the full capabilities of Tgi3D SU Amorph before the decision, you now have a chance to do so.

Enjoy!

@gaieus said:

I think the restrictions are only that you can edit a certain amount of mesh at a time.

Tgi3D SU PhotoScan 30-Day Trial is unrestricted.

Indeed, PhotoScan would be a perfect match to create an accurate 3D model of the statue from photographs. If you have several photographs of the statue taken at different angles making sure that each point is seen at least two photographs, you can use PhotoScan. Even when you have missing views, you can create a 3D model that "best fits" the photographs using the rest of the Tgi3D modeling tools included in PhotoScan.

I would not promise the world here though, there is a bit of a leaning curve and 24 hrs may not be enough time to master the tool. In fact, we are currently working on features specific to PhotoScan to make it easier and faster to master. But if you have the time, I would say, it would be worth to take a look.

@bjornkn
Thank you for your kind remaks and suggestions. You are quite right about the word "photogrammetry", we do use it at certain places but not quite the "right" places, I guess, to generate search results.

BTW, we have released new versions of our plugins that include some of the most requested updates, see the announcement in the following thread:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=36051

@pixero,
This new version loads much faster now, I hope you give Tgi3D another try

We have released the new versions of Tgi3D plugins. You can download the new versions from the Downloads page on Tgi3D website.

We have a few of the most wanted improvements in this release.

1. Tgi3D now loads much faster!

2. The texture maps are preserved during Tgi3D's own edit operations, i.e. the texture map dynamically adjusts as the surface is edited.

[flash=480,385:3cpkiwz3]http://www.youtube.com/v/Rz6NF_WBed8?fs=1&hl=en_US[/flash:3cpkiwz3]

3. You can “safeguard” and then “restore” texture maps for other edit operations that break the texture.

[flash=480,385:3cpkiwz3]http://www.youtube.com/v/f828QRYJIDk?fs=1&hl=en_US[/flash:3cpkiwz3]

4. You can optionally compress the Tgi3D context menu items through a single “Tgi3D commands” submenu.
   To do this:
   -- Click on the Tgi3D Settings button on Tgi3D toolbar.
   -- Turn off the "Direct context menu access to Tgi3D commands" option under "Global Settings" in “Tgi3D Settings” dialog.

Enjoy!

Hi bjornkn,

Sorry for the late reply. I do checkout SCF during the weekends and try to answer any questions as fast as I can but this weekend was a bit busy for me outside work.

@Rich, Thank you for answering with bjornkn's questions in the meantime.

@bjornkn said:

Sorry, but it isn't quite clear to me if Amorph is included when you buy PhotoScan?

Yes, Tgi3D SU PhotoScan includes ALL the capabilities of Tgi3D SU Amorph, and to answer your later question: If you want to buy PhotoScan after you have already purchased Tgi3D SU Amorph, the price of Tgi3D SU Amorph will be deducted from the purchase price of Tgi3D SU PhotoScan. However the price deduction process is not automated on our website. If and when they decide to upgrade their copies of Tgi3D SU Amorph to Tgi3D SU PhotoScan, we would appreciate our customers to contact our customer support so that their Amorph licenses can be invalidated and new PhotoScan licenses are issued to them together with the price deduction.

@unknownuser said:

Yes Amorph is included in tgi3D Photoscan. Photoscan is a standalone piece of software that exports to .skp. In fact when you choose export, SU will open with your Photoscan calibrated images loaded as scenes. It Photomatch on steroids

Tgi3D SU Photoscan "includes" a standalone executable "called the Tgi3D SU Calibration and Metrology Tool" which does exactly what Rich describes. The second part of Tgi3D SU PhotoScan is the plugin to Google SketchUp which includes ALL of what Amorph has PLUS the "automatic 3D surface fitting to photographs" feature. (BTW our team is working on some powerful improvements to this feature as well to improve the algorithm efficiency and quality of the match)

@bjornkn said:

They both seems to be able to make good models from photos.

That is correct but I would like to make a clarification at this point to avoid any misunderstanding. Tgi3D SU Amorph does not include the Tgi3D Calibration and Metrology Tool. So if you can get good calibrated image sets from another software into SketchUp all the tools Tgi3D SU Amorph has, together with its "view locking" feature, enables you to create 3D models from photographs. One other feature missing from Tgi3D SU Amorph is the "automatic 3D surface fitting to photographs". This feature makes it a lot easier to create surface meshes that match the surfaces accurately especially for complex, organic shapes.

@bjornkn said:

I've been using Imagemodeler and Photomodeler for many years now, combined with SketchUp. Since Autodesk bought RealViz and removed Imagemodeler from open/single sales (need to buy Max or similar), and Photomodeler is not quite so good at modelling (and also quite pricey and with a very expensive licensing policy for us that don't live in USA/Canada - being forced to buy from local dealers with bloated prices), the availabilty of easy-to-use and affordable photogrammetry software is very limitied. That LockView tool looks very promising!
It looks like PhotoScan (Amorph) will do the job fine?
There's no calibrated cameras, but I hope that they take into account lens parameters/distortions

Yes, Tgi3D SU Calibration and Metrology tool DOES take into account lens distortions and parameters. There are no calibrated cameras but we do in situ calibration for each set. This avoids errors due to environmental changes and aging.

Hi misterdemo,

Is this what you are looking for? This is done by clicking the Tgi3D SU AMorph's "upsample" command a few times depending on the level of detail you want.

Free Training version of Tgi3D SU Amorph will probably not be enough for this unless you want to work in smaller portions each time, but you can download the 30-Day Trial version of Tgi3D SU PHOTOSCAN (another plugin) to try the "upsample" command without vertex limitation. Tgi3D SU PhotoScan includes ALL the capabilities in Tgi3D SU Amorph (and additional features for creating accurate 3D models from photographs.)

You could also use Tgi3D SU Amorph's "create mesh" command. There is a free Training Edition with a limit on the number of vertices to work with. It may be sufficient for your model here.

Simply select any closed loop and click "create mesh". Create mesh generates mesh surface inside a given boundary with optimum smoothness.

Jason, Rich and Adam, Thank you for your kind words.

@earthmover said:

My only request would be that the check for updates feature at startup be either streamlined or set to a manual check. Ever since installing the free Amorph edition, my waiting times at SU startup have tripled.

Adam and Jan, we have been looking into this issue. "Check for updates" is not the problem. In any case it only checks for updates every 10 loads or so, not in every start. We have some ideas we are testing right now and hopefully we will be able to speed up the loading process.

Hi Rob,

Currently we do not have a way to edit the UV map. We do have plans for additional mapping methods, other than unwrap and spherical. For now, you can try following approaches here.

1. Try "spherical" as the mapping method. If the resulting UV map is not distorted too much, it may be a better mapping method here. To minimize distortion in this method you can work with smaller chunks.

2. You can select the area that had an overlap and portions from the surrounding area. Use "create texture" again on this area. The texture that has already been mapped will be preserved and then you can fix the texture to fit seamlessly with the surrounding texture in the image editor.

3. The "unwrap" method tries to map the geometry with no distortion, so in order to minimize overlaps or unusual tears you may try to apply texture in smaller chunks (in your case two chunks may be enough). Using a similar idea described in (2) you select second chunk to include portions of already textured area together with the non-textured area and then fit the following texture seamlessly in the image editor.

Hi Pixero,

Thank you for your interest in Tgi3D SU Amorph.

Currently our licenses are issued "per computer" (allowing faster, local license verification without internet connection). The scheme you describe, what is called "single-user license", permits multiple copies (up to a certain amount) to be installed under the same license but allow a single use at a given time. This requires that the software be in contact with the license servers at all times and allow only one copy to be operational at a given time.

We are aware that many users now own multiple computers (at least one at home and one at work) and need to be able to use the same software on each without any additional cost. We are trying to figure out a remedy for this, we may move to a similar licensing scheme as described which will require some development time or maybe have a "2 for 1 sale" .

To our existing customers; please rest assured that any remedy we come up with will be "backward compatible", i.e. you will be able install multiple copies for single concurrent use (if we move to user based licensing scheme) or get another copy for free (if it is a sale)

Thank you!

OK here are a couple quick unedited teaser videos to show what is in the works in terms of preservation of texture during edits...

Video 1: texture map dynamically adjusts as the surface is edited with various Tgi3D's own editing operations.

[flash=480,385:39nu876v]http://www.youtube.com/v/Rz6NF_WBed8?fs=1&hl=en_US[/flash:39nu876v]

Video 2: The texture map is "safeguarded" and then "restored" when using regular SketchUp editing operations.

[flash=480,385:39nu876v]http://www.youtube.com/v/f828QRYJIDk?fs=1&hl=en_US[/flash:39nu876v]

Hi Rob,

I am not sure I understand your question correctly but here is my answer to different alternatives:

1. If you are asking for a UV map editor like in 3DS Max; No, we do not have such an editor.

2. If you are asking whether you could "edit" the texture that was already mapped on a surface; Yes, you could certainly do that from "edit texture" in SketchUp. What Tgi3D has additionally is that you can select an area that has already texture on it, the uv map will preserve it so that any further edits you do on the texture will merge seamlessly with the existing texture (second paragraph in Rich's quote essentially talks about that as well)

3. If you are asking whether you could preserve the texture while editing the surface, current version cannot do that, i.e. when you edit the surface the texture breaks. However we do have a very soon to be released new version where you would be able to do exactly that, i.e. the texture map dynamically adjusts as you edit the texture.

Hi mitcorb,

@mitcorb said:

Hi, Gulcan:
I have visited your website and scanned through the amorph users guide pdf. The closest thing to what I asked for seems to be redistribute vertices in a mesh, using the Y tool. This interacts with Bezier control lines, is that correct? According to the copy, the action will move vertices in a group and maintain smooth surfaces, or non smooth if desired.
The video demonstrated a progressive step by step shaping.

Yes. The redistribute and smooth function (Y) and the smooth function (U) do interact with Bezier control lines and maintain smoothness as desired.

The surface mesh editing functions do have a limit on the number of vertices in the free Training Edition of Tgi3D Amorph. If you want to see the full functionality you may download the 30-Day Trial version of Tgi3D PhotoScan as it also contains the surface editing features contained in Tgi3D SU Amorph.

As a side note, we also plan to release the “trial” version of Tgi3D SU Amorph (we will continue to maintain the free version as well) , as we realize that it may be harder for the users to distinguish exactly what is included in Amorph when trying PhotoScan.

Hi mitcorb,

You may want to take a look at Tgi3D's cross section editing tool. It is already included in the free Training Edition of Tgi3D SU Amorph with NO vertex limitation. The first 1.5 mins of the video shows how you can resize and move (longitudinally and transversely) the cross sections. You can easily do the same on a tube created by "follow me" tool on a bezier curve.

[flash=480,385:oulgi8ap]http://www.youtube.com/v/11mhfNJlduE?fs=1&hl=en_US[/flash:oulgi8ap]

below is an example created very quickly