sorry, couldn't resist

@al hart said:

You might appreciate this next weeks tip: Use 2 pt perspective for better vertical alignment

And the tip for the week after that:Tip Of the Week after Next Week.

.

Reflection, glossiness, fresnel ,to show what each parameter does.

Reflection and glossiness probably speak for themselves.
'Fresnel effect'= the fact that the amount of reflectance you see on a surface depends on the viewing angle.

(values are Vray )

materials with a very high IOR(index of refraction), such as metals:

For unbiased render engines like Maxwell, other specific variables like 'roughness','ND' etc.. are used.

It seems that you are forgetting other parameters as well. Glossiness, for instance.
In your example render, most 'reflective' objects all have the same (none) glossiness, which looks unnatural.
Maybe you can make another thread "Rendering Tip - Use Glossiness".
What about specularity? Caustics? Fresnel effect? etc.. man, you have some work to do.
I doubt however that you will post any render tip about a feature that your render product does not support.

Nah, didn't offend me.
Actually it's a smart marketing strategy.

What if your project hasn't got reflective materials?
Do you think you can't make a realistic render in that case?
I tend to disagree.
Besides, using too much reflectivity kills realism as well.

Not sure if this really is valuable 'tutorial' material.

Sometimes the solution is so simple

I hardly ever use HDRI for interiors as it easily produces washed out lighting.
Using directional light, either of a physical sun or other directional lights, produces a more exciting output in a lot of cases.

So, saying that using a HDRI will produce better interior renders is just not a fact.

Also, saying that using reflectivity will increase realism isn't a fact 'an sich' either.
Saying that materials that have reflectivity in real life should be assigned reflectivity in a 3D scene...then yes, you are right, but that is evident!

It's like saying that all green objects should be green.

You make it appear as if Render Plus is the only render engine that supports reflectiveness
(the 'read more' links through to RP)

Is this really information, or viral marketing (spam)?

Princedragoncok posted some tests here on SCF before....

Or 'Copy' and 'Paste in Place'(Edit menu)

Thank you Thom.
This will come in handy to clean up imported files from Rhino's sloppy .3ds/SU exports.
Rhino has the tendency to triangulate each and ever surface at least twice and I always had trouble getting rid of those coplanar edges.
Will be trying the plugin tomorrow at work. Thanks

Tremendously useful for me
It seems like a good plugin to make the curves as a start for a soap-skin-bubble session.
Thanks Kirill!

Another annoying thing about the entity panel: You can NEVER find it.

Somehow the entity panel always seems to float somewhere hidden behind other panels.
And I need the info in there once a minute while i am modeling.
This makes me think that the entity panel should get a fixed position, maybe next to the VCB?

Indeed, very interesting and affordable as well.
I am wondering: will the filesize of the obtained 3D PDF be in the same range of the native SU file?

I had a look on their website and the OSG Composer looks handy as well. A bit like DeepExploration?

@ecuadorian said:

You could also try this:

-Start with frozen tiles (Right click > SP > state > frozen)
-Put your building upside down over the tiles. No need to put the whole enchilada, just the outer skin. It seems you'll need to divide it a little bit so you can use connected "convex hulls".
-Let it fall on the tiles
-Hit the pause button as soon as you get what you want
-Select everything you need > Ctrl+C
-Delete the selected objects
-Edit > Paste in place.

The last three steps are the only method I've come up with to "freeze" the action, but there must be a smarter way.

Fantastic suggestion! You da smart boy .
I'll try it tomorrow at work and let you know how it goes.

I reduced the tile size and things seem to improve.
I think I'll stick to the smartdrop.rb plugin and experiment some more with it until I get it right.
Thanks again Miguel for your input. Much appreciated.

@Solo, yeah I'll ask some of the Rhino users in the office to give it a go.
Grasshopper might be the way to go here...
Sketchup remains a bit limited for this kind of stuff.

I tried the smartdrop.rb but the result was not satisfactory.
The goal of this arch project is to let the building appear to be breaking out of the pavement.

So I made an array of hugh tiles and put it above the object, selected them and used the smartdrop plugin.
Unfortunately some of the tiles just disappeared and some didn't move at all....so it didn't really work.

Here's the result.....any input is very much welcomed....

see image:

Thanks Miguel for the link to an alternative and perhaps easier solution.
I'll let you know if that works. Sketchyphysics isn't the easiest of tools, although I think it has lots of power.

Hi,
I need to drape multiple square shapes over a convex shape for an architectural project I am working.
I though that sketchyphysics could help me to simulate that by 'dropping' the objects by gravity.
As the squares hit the convex object and groundplane, unfortunately, the squares bounce back.

Is there any way to prevent the objects from bouncing back as if the elasticity was reduced to 0?

thank you in advance for your answer.

Regards,
Kwistenbiebel

I can't be bothered upgrading from Vista (x64) to Windows 7.
All works at it should so why would I want to change OS.

The only reason to upgrade for me is when I would buy a new PC.
I am not going to tangle with all the installed stuff on my box because Microsoft says it's better...