more images

Thanks a lot, Csaba. I have to go through the tutorials about groups and components again. Did you use some plugin to set the faces in the right direction?
Well, I am now getting to Nero's golden house. Some explanation needed, I suppose. Excavations have shown that Nero's atrium was about 24 m. longer than the base of Venus and Rome, and we have some good hints for the plan, even if the broadness of the lake is not sure, it might be a little narrower. We'll try to get our hands on some recent excavations for that. The location of the colossus is pretty sure, the axis of the Via Sacra is at an angle with the axis of the atrium, and of course the colossus had to be seen central to both axes.
I was intrigued by the fact that by extending the base of V&R the southern cell gets to be almost exactly in the center. I thought it could be an interesting hipotesis that Nero had a temple at the center, that it was left off center by the shortening, and that Hadrian, once removed the colossus, had restored simmetry by mirroring the temple. This would also explain the tipology of the twin temples, rather unusual. But the archaeologist (my wife, can't argue with her) decided that that was not OK for an atrium. So I settled for a pond.
There are some more speculations on the back side, excavations show a wedge that was meant to hide the difference in the two axes, but it's not sure if the front was in line with the front of V&R or further back ...

Sorry, I posted before reading your very helpful hints. I'll have to try all those ... and I suppose that in the end it will be a matter of trial and error to find the right solution ...

As a matter of fact it's pretty light, the file .skp is just 100k. seems that replicating components helps a lot. Here it goes ...

Venrom.skp

Yes, it's kerkythea. And yes, I am afraid I am exceeding in detail, the poly count is not that high for the main structure, but I suspect the round colums weigh in, and that I'll have to replace them with hexagonal ones. Same for the Meta Sudans, even if the profile I used is very simple, revolving it over a circle generates a lot of polygons.
I made a component out of the first column, and then replicated it, which should lower the overall weight, but I am not too sure ...
The image is the simplified arch of Constantine ... I am now building the last organization of the area, let's say IVth century, and that's the relatively easy part. Going backwards in time will be more difficult. The idea is to put all the models in the project, and hide or make them visible in the successive scenes ...

Thanks a lot Gaieus, you are being very patient with me.
Well, I have completed the Venus and Rome model, not easy at all ...

Ok, I am proceding with DTM's and models, and it's not easy. One tip, please. The DXF's I import into Sketchup, for instance a DTM and a plan, are registered, they have the right coordinates, but when imported they are placed near the origin, independently of the coordinates they have. Scale and orientation are ok, but not the absolute positioning. It's not a big problem, I solved it by placing a reference point on the plan I use as a base, at the center of the Coliseum, and creating a reference point in correspondence in all the DTM's, a sort of obelisk of the right height in the same point, that I use to relocate exactly the DTM over the plan. It works fine. But I wonder if there are other ways ...

Some more shapes, and the basic components if somebody else wants to play ...

basic components

I do that by selecting faces, right mouse button click, select "invert faces". It works also with multiple selectons ...

Still having problems loading images ....

Just getting familiar with Sketchup, but the component tool seemed to fit perfectly an old idea I had, that couldn't easily be implemented with other software. Basically, to build a set of simple building blocks, from these compose some more complex but still modular components, and from there on build a cityscape, or sculpture.
There are two possible sets of rules, the first is no sharp edges allowed, and in that case you can only use seven basic blocks; the second is sharp edges ok, and then you add three more blocks.
Well, I don't know if somebody else had the same idea, but this is what I made up in a morning of playing with it (one image plain sketchup, the other kerkithea).

Well, tonight I thought of another method to generate a DTM, and it seems to work well. Here is the unretouched result for modern day Rome. It needs some adjustments, but I think It's pretty good. I don't intend to go beyond this area anyway.

Thanks a lot Csaba,
I've seen Rome reborn, and I am not convinced. Too slow to load, and other inconvenients. And in a situation with the terrain variations you find in Rome (seven hills they say), and the alterations through time, the DTM becomes critical, the terrain model of GE is quite insufficient ...
Your demo and film clip are very nice. I'll be doing something along those lines, but still not quite sure. I'd like something simple, like the model of the University College in the first image I posted, but much more interactive. We'll see, I'll keep in touch. I have several more questions, I'll soon get the pro version, and in the meantime I am playing with the free version. By the way, I am used to see the coordinates in the GIS and CAD programs I use, but don't see them in Sketchup. I'll look it up in the manuals, but a hint would be welcome.
By the way, the archaeologist in the family is my wife, Clementina Panella. If you don't know her by name you can check Google, there are several sites with her excavations (Conde is a guy that has a fine archaeological site with lots of info). She's the one that's pestering me to produce something ...
The image gives you an idea of the complexity of the site, the aerial photo is the present excavation, the round thing is the flavian Meta Sudans, and the smaller circle on the edge of it is the augustean fountain. You can see the arch of Constantine, and a corner of the Coliseum and of Venus and Rome.
Thanks again
Marco

Having trouble posting more than one pic. The second one is what exists today, but the underground part is not visible, at least for the time being.

I am struggling to find a software solution, been playing with Bender and others, but I think Sketchup is the best choice. Don't thing Google Earth will do. I was thinking of setting the models in different layers, and have a Ruby app. that would turn them on and off on request (all Nero's buidings, or the situation at 100 AD etc.). I don't know if that's easy or possible, or if it is possible to change the Sketchup GUI, or make the results visible on line.
The images I attach here give the DTM of the square at the very beginning. I am working at the DTM's at 0 AD, 100 AD and nowadays.
The other image gives the evolution of this area, and the third one what's visible today

Well, I have been fighting with this idea for years, and I need help! Help! Help!
I'll try to explain. There are lots of good models of ancient Rome, but they are mostly models set on a flat plane, and derived more or less from Gismondi's maquette, representing Rome in about the 3d century AD.
What I want to do, in collaboration with the Archaeology department in Rome, is a 3D dynamic model, that allows for a vision of all the phases of evolution of the city. Of course the elements themselves should be very low poly. The model of the University College I found is very much what I have in mind.
To explain better what I mean, I'll post some images of models I built with DesignCad years ago. It's a small bit of the Coliseum square, around the arch of Constantine. First phase, about 0 AD, is about 6 meters below present level. There is a temple, a small square, and a fountain (Meta Sudans). Then after the fire of 64 AD the floor level is raised to about the present level, and Nero builds his golden house and the large pond. Then after the death of Nero the Flavians shorten the basement of what is now the temple of Venus and Rome (built by Hadrian, modifying the Flavian temple, that was built modifying what had been Nero's atrium), raze the rests of the Golden House (in red), build the Coliseum over the pond, rebuild the fountain of the Meta Sudans (quite different from the previous one, and six meters above it). Then Hadrian rebuilds the temple of Venus and Rome, and moves the great statue of the sun/Nero unto the square. And finally in the IVth century the Arch of Constantine is added to the whole thing.

Hi,
I am a newbie, just registered.
I am trying to get around moving to and fro from sketchup. For the time being I only have the free program, used a plug in to export DXF files, used Blender to transform it to .obj, and imported it to Poser. Complicated, Poser won't accept the DXF but gets along fine with the .obj. So the file was a Pantheon temple built in Sketchup, and this is the render in Poser, no postwork. Still playing with it ...