Posts made by matteo

A project for a condo in Merano, south tyrol, Italy.
The style is composite, with mediterranean influences.

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wow! gosh! gulp! i do love how you modeled the wings

in order to help you, let us know something more.

which program did you use to render it?

what about the background? if you could use an hdri image it would improve your lighs and shadows.

to achieve some good motion blur, if yout render engine doesn't make it, you can use any image editor like photoshop, paint shop pro, the gimp, project dogwaffle and so on.

matteo

ross,

forgive me for the off-topic that will follow. first of all, congratulations for your inkwash work: at first i was attracted by the image you posted here.

reading through the comments, i've found the posts of rodrigo and solo - what a coincidence!
i was asking myself the some question last night, before sleeping. i was just focusing mi attenction on some inspiring drawings of lebbeus woods - http://lebbeuswoods.net/ - i wish i could find some time to redraw some of his masterpieces in sketchup, just for fun. one of his works is called solohouse - http://lebbeuswoods.wordpress.com/2008/12/01/solohouse-20/ - and this recalled me our solo. in italian the word has the some meaning as in spanish and this makes me curious about this nickname too. then, thanks rodrigo for asking about it.

I have not found any good alternative to sketchup, but I use wings 3d, the free modeler, http://www.wings3d.com/ when I need some features that sketchup doesn't have:

1| the ability to handle a high number of polygons
2| it's a subdivision modeler: subdivide and smooth on steroids
3| the selection tool is powerful
4| it can export to 3ds, obj and lwo

I usually start a model in sketchup and when I need to add more definition to it I switch to wings 3d. You need to have sketchup pro, since it doesn't import skp models, so you must convert your model to 3ds before you can edit it in wings 3d.

Grande! Ho visto anche il topic più dettagliato in inglese e ti faccio i miei complimenti per l'idea e per i risultati.

matteo

bookmarked. thank you Jim.

@unknownuser said:

hi stu, I havent tried v7 yet, but if the improvements to layout are as they say, it will be worth the 180 for that alone, i hope to throw the other cad apps away for ever!

baz

righteous!!

@unknownuser said:

I remember when ruby was first introduced many users thought "ho hum what's the big deal?". With time we saw the true importance of the ruby feature thanks to inventive users willing to share or offer reasonably-priced scripts that added new useful features to SU. I'm predicting the new Dynamic Components feature will have a similar path. I'm thinking it may lead to some exciting new & powerful components that will blow us away.

totally agree with you Ross!

btw: the pdf 2d export works still bad

I don't know you, but I believe that most of the pro users come from the @last age: the update fee is not so expensive and I must admit I really need some of the pro features, like importing and exporting to dxf/dwg and the possibility to save big images.
If you really work with sketchup, 500$ is a reasonable price for me too.
Otherwise let me know if there is a reasonable alternative to sketchup ( heresy ) for less money.

But now, let me introduce a couple of videos of the new born sketchup 7:

[flash=425,344:1fpqvsjf]http://www.youtube.com/v/4X0RzqAz-lI&hl=it&fs=1[/flash:1fpqvsjf]
the new interact tool

[flash=425,344:1fpqvsjf]http://www.youtube.com/v/XbjqpeIvzjE&hl=it&fs=1[/flash:1fpqvsjf]
overlapping lines intersection

[/matteo]

all I can tell you is following: make a group with your walls, and edit your insulation outside the group. While your group won't change, you will be able to edit the thickness of your insulation material - I suggest you to use the joint pushpull ruby to save a lot of time.

@rhankc said:

Does Strokeit interfere with other softwares that have an internal mouse gesture command structure? I have been hesitant to experiment w/ strokeit for caution it may not behave with others.

Thanks for the great demo..

as far as I know it does not interfere, but I have not your same software and hardware I use the "magic formation" start menu, which also is invoked by a gesture and my firefox has some addons that enable gestures for the web navigation.

Since Strokeit gestures are activated by a right mouse button click and drag, it may occasionally interfere with some context menu actions, or some programs: in total commander I can select multiple files inside a directory with a rclick + drag
and this activates stroke it too, but you can configure stroke it so that if total commander is running, it will not interfere.

Generally, if you experience some trouble, you can rclick over the tray icon and simply disable it - the icon changes color from white to red - and later restore it with the some action.

I believe you have just to try - it is easy to uninstall, if you don't like it.

if I understood well, you want a cad-like feature, where a wall is defined by a sequence of layers like an onion with many skins (concrete, plaster, tiles and so on)

In programs such archicad, when you change your wall properties, the 2d drawing and the 3d model are automatically updated, so that you can see your changes.

Sketchup has not a standard feature like this, but the new coming profile builder ruby ( http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=13958 ) might do what you ask.

remus, sorry to read that it slows your machine - I've tested it both on xp and vista and it runs just fine;

how its author says: "The installer is around 120k, with the recognition engine weighing in around 10k. Normal memory usage varies by system, but is generally is between 70k and 300k. StrokeIt does not require any additional files or libraries."

It should be a compatibility problem with the aero interface: A meber of the Strokeit forum found a working fix for Vista users:
DISABLE all Visual Effects for the OS,
Go to System Properties, Advanced System Settings, Settings Button for Performance, and set to Adjust for Best Performance.
that should most of the issues with Strokeit, to including a listed bug for using the "W" for IE. and will improve the performance of vista. The problem lies is Vista's Aero functions, Video desktops, transparency, ect ect. I personally dont care for it. and have not since 5348 when i was beta testing it.

Yep! I've also disabled all video "enhancements" (read parasites) on vista to give my skechup all the power; that's why I've encountered no problems.

If you want, you can try another free alternative like this: http://www.handform.net/gmote.php

as soon as I can, I'll post a short tutorial on how to configure Strokeit for sketchup.

[/matteo]

Ever tried to use sketchup without keboard and three button wheel mouse?

[flash=425,344:14zrwqon]http://www.youtube.com/v/9erMF14AEnE&hl=it&fs=1[/flash:14zrwqon]
The video above is made working with a stylus on a tablet pc screen.

It was made possible by this tiny application: http://www.tcbmi.com/strokeit/
It is higly customizable and converts your gestures in keyboard shortcuts or macros.

That's surely not the fastest way to model something, but it's astonishing when you show your work to your clients with a tablet pc.

simply amazing! I wonder why google should release sketchup 7 when you continue to provide such incredible scripts.

many thanks for your efforts - it works very well.

oh! these things make me happily crazy: lovely and brilliant styles you made.

My favourite is Ulead Mediastudio.

It's the first software of this kind I've found quite intuitive and now I use it just as habit. It is not better or worse of many other programs.
I could make a long video (45 mintes) assembling a plethora of small clips (more than 50) with all kinds of transitions and post effects.

The trial version is fully functional and expires after one month.

If you don't have particular needs, Ulead Videostudio is a cheaper solution: it comes boundled with many cheap hardware pieces. You may get it with a pci firewire card, or usb card found for less of $5,00 on some internet auction.

actually, there are two ways to export a pdf with sketchup:

the first one is to use a virtual printer to create a pdf, like rsw said.
The result is always a bitmap image (jpg) enbedded in the pdf - this action will keep the scale and the original style you choosed, plus textures, shadows and enviroment settings like fog, sky and ground.
If you plan to print an A0 file @ 300 dpi and you have enough ram (!tons!) installed, you will avoid an out of memory error and output a huge pdf file.
Your plotter or printer must also be able to handle such big files or you will not print them.
In few words, this procedure is possible, but is a computer killer.
I've found that it is much easier to export a big jpg file and edit it with some good dtp software. It allows you to enter and edit text + graphics - you can also optimize your pdf output and suite it to your printer - moreover you can create a layout template to use for every page you will print, or for future documents.
Sketchup layout should be able to do this, but at present it is still unstable.

The second way is to use the internal pdf converter of sketchup.
This tool is not able to export bitmap entities like textures and line styles. Also forget to export shadows and fog. You will just export the vector edges and, if you're lucky, some flat coloured fillings between the edges. The result depends on the combination of your cpu, graphic card and memory - it is quite unpredictable. If your model is enough complex, you'll print a white sheet because your pc is not able to calculate it.
This method works quite good to export b/w technical drawings, but is not suited for artistic outputs.
The good thing is that you can produce big format drawings that weight a few dozens of kb, then you will not need such a powerful workstation to print an A0 sheet.

I hope this helps you
/matteo