@outland86 said:

Hello again all

there is a reason why i asked the question before and after reading the responses i feel compelled to ask another question and would be interested to hear your replies

if as a designer you could use your skills to create sinple and even complex designs and products that could be reproduced on robotic tools like CNC routers and Mills and lathes even hotwire foam cutters etc
that you could publish through a common website and make money from your work on an ongoing basis by way of sharing royalty with the publisher of said work.
not unlike turbosquid with 3d models or itunes with musicians songs would that not be a cool way to over time be fairly compensated for your work. the more prolific you are the more you could earn. the better the designs the more you could charge.
would this not be a great way to supplement your income and help offset some of those large costs and thousands of hours put in to learn this craft ?

Roboitc tools are coming of age and in the near future i see robotic routers in every home depot and hardware store, opening up a huge oppurtunity for you modelers artists and designers to supply a hungry global market of hobby and semi pro robotic tool owners with pre packaged design content FABS

all that was needed was a few standards and basic rules to follow so that the end user or robotic tool owner could simply plug and play the files....... follow a few simple instructions inculded in the FAB and presto your design pops up in workshops dens and basements all over the world.... distributed manufacturing green and clean and a new way for you to make a living

i am building a website just for you guys and Gals and maybe just maybe it will work

its a work in progress but i am working hard to get it up and running

check it out

FabsCity

We offer a large collection of high quality African Prints, Laces, Satin, Cotton, velvet & much more! We ship worldwide! Fast DHL Express shipping available for many common countries such as United States, Canada, Australia and many others. This means the transit time for these locations is 6-7 business days.

FabsCity (www.fabscity.com)

Add a Historic preservation element to what you are doing, and I'm there.

Here is a little taste of what I mean.

Error 404 (Not Found)!!1

(sketchup.google.com)

@arc said:

In China less than 20 Cents/hour.

There! fixed it for you

Send me a location of your property. Like an address or something, and I can take a look on Google Earth. Might be able to do something for you remote.

I think this brings up a subject I have been interested in find out about, and have tried researching for awhile now.

1. How does a modeler gather information about buildings that no longer exists, and get information about buildings that do exists without being dependent on city administrators who may not have accurate or up to date information?

2. Has anyone developed away to use inexpensive methods for gathering accurate information in the field for things like building footprints, elevation building heights?

It seems that with a combination of tools like SU, GE, GPS, and digital cameras, one could gather information locally without having to depend on others. it's been very frustrating for me to try and get information about my own town from those in charge of the information. Budget issues seem to keep them from even spending the staff time to look things up. I'm sure I'm not alone.

Maybe if someone could come up with a simple outline of good questions to ask city administrators, and some resources that won't break the bank, we would have a lot more independent modelers accurately restoring and retaining some towns and historic buildings for the records.

Unfortunately, I can't even get our city excited about modeling for the Google contest, so I'm really on my own, and again, I'm sure there are others experiencing the same thing.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Harmony Outdoor Living.

Do a search for them on the 3D warehouse. Quite a few models there, and there is a link to their site off of the models. They do some nice stuff. They might have some spec information their also. If you call them, talk to Joe. He's a real nice guy. Tell him Jack from Jax Coffee House & Roastery sent you. Me and Igloo Studios are doing some work with Joe and Belgard.

Belgard Hardscapes is another one you can do a search on at the 3D warehouse.

Post it here and they might build one for you. There is a bunch of creative guys hanging out there.
http://www.rccrawler.com

Tell them jaxcoffee sent you.

@chris fullmer said:

I foten take the best info I can get. In your case, that is the .shp files that are outdated. Then go through and identify all the areas that are innaccurate. Then see if Google Earth has image info for those blocks. If it does, then use G.E. to trace the footprints of all the buildings. Also update any city block outlines that need to be updated. And also any road centerlines that need to be updated. Just make sure to keep everything organized well. Keep the same layers that you got from the .shp files. They probably gave you a block outline, road centerline, and hopefully bldg footprint files. So when you add your data, just follow the same scheme so that it is all organized correctly. Then you can export your block layer (or component) out as a .shp file. And same for all the other layers you have changed. To recap:

• Take base .shp file info
• Determine the blocks, parcels, roads, buildings that need to be updated.
• Use Google Earth Images as a new base for those areas.
• Just trace what Google Earth shows
• Export everything as .shp files.
  And that is probably how I would approach it. If there are areas that Google Earth is not current on either, you will just have to go out and measure it by hand if possible.

Thanks so much Chris,

Used older version of SketchUp (version 5 with .shp plugin) to read the shapefile, and saved it to a skp file. It shows building foot prints, and that is all. They are like a component, and I can double click on them to open them, and then right click to edit, and pull up a building. The zip file I got from the city has other files besides the shapefile. How do I read those, and glean the information from them?

Can I overlay a graphic pulled in from GE with the shapefile now turned .skp file, or the reverse so I can reference one with the other?

The city says the GIS file I recieved is all they have, and would be more then happy to get updated information, and also mentioned getting that information of GE would be accurate enough for them. Is that true? And can I export a Sketchup model out as a shapefile?

OK! The biggy Chris. Can I get you to create a plugin that could automate all of that? LOL! I heard you could!

Chris

@chris fullmer said:

SketchUp has the SU to GIS plugin that probably creates .shp files. I've only gone from GIS into SU, not the other way around. But I would guess that you should be able to draw all the building footprints right in SU pretty easily. Then export them as your shape file.

Do you have GIS? Or what are you planning on doing with the shape files?

Chris

Thanks Chris,

What I'm trying to achieve is three fold.

1. I want to be able to model from shapefiles, but I need them to be updated, and I do not want the expense of GIS software, and the city doesn't want the expense and staff time spent to update and area of our town we want to model for the Google contest "Model Your Town."

2. I'm using the fact that the contest being supported by the city does for them and for us what we need. We get accurate shapefiles to model from, and the city gets update information. Not to mention an inventory of 3D buildings for their use, and an army of folks that will be interested in modeling everything else in town. You know how the sickness is. Right? Once they get the bug, the city wins big time.

3. So we want to create a layman's ability to:

4. Gather accurate building footprint information that could be gathered from Google Earth or site location easily and it has to be inexpensive.

5. Be able to upload that information into a program like MapWindow and create shapefiles from it.

6. Use those shapefiles to model accurately, and provide the updated shapefiles to the city for their records to be up to date for little or no expense.

Doable? Or am I heading in the wrong direction?

I was wondering if one could write a plugin for this program, since it's open source, that would utilize information from Google Earth, create that information into shapefiles, and then be able to model from that shapefile. Does that make any since at all, or am I on the wrong trail here?

My cities information from the GIS expert is way out of date for an area I want to model, so I thought that if I could get that type of information easily it would benefit us both.

Anyone?

Page not found · GitHub Pages

(www.mapwindow.org)

I would like to accomplish something, and I'm asking here to get feed back from the pro's

Have worked and modeled off shapefiles I received from the city I live in, and found out the information dates back to 2005. There has been a lot of new construction in the area, so it started me thinking about how one would model, gathering their own information, creating their own shapefiles, and being able to model accurately by getting good and updated information and little or no cost.

So.

1. What equipment would be needed to gather the right information on site?

2. What software would be needed?

3. Can the learning curve and expense be little or none?

I would like to be able to train up an entire army of information gathers to involve the community, and to provide good accurate information to the city for getting them on board to modeling our locations and historic buildings.

Not to mention being able to equip sketchup modelers with a simple way and workflow for gathering and modeling their locations.

Well pro's? Post away.

@andrews said:

@unknownuser said:

Sorry Andrew about that but I was unable to locate v6 within google? I'd happily delete the link if you can provide a link

Rich,

Part of the licensing arrangement we provide, and in some ways, a feature of Pro, is that we provide ongoing access to several back-revisions of the Pro product for download directly from Google. It is still possible to get the latest maintenance revisions of SU 5.0, SU 6.0, SU 7.0, and SU 7.1 if you seek the Pro product.

As for the free version, we believe it is in everyone's best interest (ours and our customers) to upgrade to the latest available and for us to concentrate our resources on using, improving, supporting, and patching, only the latest available free version. Therefore once any new version of free is provided, the download links for the previous version are taken offline.

Hi Rich,

Could you tell me how to import shapefiles. I have Pro Version 7.1 and tried downloading version 5 on another system for importing these files, because I heard version 5 had that capability, but I'm not seeing it. Is there a simpler answer to this? Sure would appreciate the help.

@earthmover said:

I'm up for anything. I like the idea of collective problem solving using our combined Super SU reasoning and a satchel full of shiny new plugins.

Pete, ever consider a Process This (Post work challenge)? That should yield some interesting results....

How about something like a stone wall or column that looks real when you come to the corners? That would be organic.

Or something that would show lacing pictures for textures together to form a complete rounded object.

An Oak tree would be cool also. Full grown 100 year old oak that is!

@dedmin said:

@cadward said:

Thanks!......I just picked up a copy of 3DS Max Design 2010 ....trying to learn it on my own ......this should help greatly ...now all I need are good resources for the modelling part ....

http://cg.tutsplus.com/category/tutorials/autodesk-3ds-max/
http://www.3dsmaxtutorials.net/
http://www.creativecrash.com/3dsmax/tutorials/
http://www.3d-tutorial.com/tutorials.php?cat=7
http://tutorialoutpost.com/tutorials/3d-studio-max

I would highly recommend these guys.

http://www.go-2-school.com

@gaieus said:

Hm. Interesting. I am at my machine now (with SU on), I have so far

1. edited the texture image (made it a bit seamlessly tilable)

1. rounded the corners
   but when I want to use the UV Tools plugin, I constantly get a bugsplat.

Would you mind if I posted the column in the ruby forum for Whaat (author of the plugin) to see what the problem can be?

As for splitting - yeah, I think (after all this) I will at some point.

Very good. I think this will help even with those that are modeling walls. One has to come to a corner sooner or later.

I actually was having problems with SU recognizing the rounded corner plugin. Any gurus out there that could help?

I would also say post away Gaieus. I would appreciate any feed back I can get.

Thanks.

@gaieus said:

Hi Jack,

What I would do with those columns is

1. Round their corners a little bit (something between 3-5 cm / 1-2"radius with like three segments would be fine) with Fredo's Round corner plugin

1. Use Whaat's UV Tools to map the stone texture cylindrically around the columns.
2. When you made one column, make it a component and re-use it and rotate the instances randomly by 90 degrees so they don't all show the same side/pattern
   With a good texture (and as I can see from here - where I have no SU installed - the texture is fine) you should get a pretty good looking set of columns there.

(If we eventually go into a longer discusion about this, I will split the topic).

Thank you so much Gaieus

I will try your suggestions and post the results. If you would like to split this topic I think it would be a good idea, so that the information and results could be referenced by others.

Thanks again.

I have a question along the same lines. I have used a picture of the original walls of this winery I am modeling, and also made textures from pictures of the columns. View model here.

Error 404 (Not Found)!!1

(sketchup.google.com)

I don't like the straight lines at the corners of the tapered columns. Does anyone have a trick or method on how to model this type of stone more organically? I would really like to roughen things up on the corners to get a more stone like look. Appreciate the help.

@tim said:

@jaxcoffee said:

Can't fix things on this rock, why waste time and resources looking to go somewhere else.

You know why the dinosaurs became extinct? Because they had no space program.

The sun will die. We should be somewhere else.

I always had a feeling that was what happen.

Can't fix things on this rock, why waste time and resources looking to go somewhere else. Fix the water issues here, instead of looking for it on another planet. Chezze, what a waste. OK! Rant over.