I do a lot of interior architect work and I find that one of the most tedious things is making the moldings, especially the base boards. I usually have to make a profile and place copies where the edges would be interrupted by doorways and openings and do followme one area at a time. It's simple but time consuming.

I been thinking of learning how to make a script for this operation to make my life easier. I imagine clicking the edges where I want moldings and then clicking on a plugin from the the menu where I can choose a profile type and set parameters such as height and thickness similar to the lattice maker and get instant moldings on the highlighted edges.

I never did coding before but I'm willing to learn but don't know where to start. Is this idea even possible to do? Any help is appreciated.

Dennis from Brooklyn here. Just read through some of your website. Nice work you have in there.

Nice photograph
Can't wait to get Thea.

Box I agrre with you 100%. If the design was up to me I would design the house so that the containers would not have to be cut. Just use the full dimensions of the containers in a modual way.

Hi Box.....you are correct about recycling existing material. Empty containers don't get sent back to china. Shipping containers are definately not popular right now. To me it is an underated material that can be used for many purposes. The architect I work with is one of those pushing to bring awareness about using shipping containers as building material. If you do the math, you can build a house at a fraction of the price you would doing it the conventional way and have better insulation. This render is ambitious though as it is an attempt to use SCs for an apartment building which is not impossible. If you search the net you will find some very nice homes made from them. So multiple things happen when using them; you help the environment, use good quality building material and you save a lot of money.

Here's 2 more of a smaller house design I'm working on.

Thank you. Nice work.

Nice work. I love the concrete work. As a painter I can tell you that using an off-white will help. Though it won't be pure white, it will still be "white" without being so bright. Or if you can manipulate the color just add a little black (just a touch) to shut it up a little. From what I see it seems to be an issue of color choice and material for the building. Try to stay away from primary or bright colors. You would be surprised what lighting will do so don't be afraid to go darker or dirty up a color in a paint program. Even just changing the wooden beam textures to darker wood with a bump map would make a big difference. Aside from the color choices on the building, the scene is very nice.

Very beautiful. I usually paint landscapes. I am gearing up to do my first 3D lanscape and this scene is very inspirational. Can you tell where you got those palm trees please? And can you give me advise on how to incorporate a natural background. I'm using Kerkythea right now but I plan on buying Thea really soon. Thanks.

@ramy_ramroum said:

nice pics, were did you find the trees please ? thanks

Thank you.

The trees are Sweet Birch from xfrog. See here: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=80&t=6114

@Will03.....thanks. To get soft shadows from the sun you right-click the sun in the side bar and click edit light. Click the checkbox for soft shadows. I would then go to Render/setup from the top menu and put soft shadows to high, highest or fine. And in the other tab "Global Illumination" put accuracy to at least "Very Good". Hope that helps.

@Paul.....Like I said in earlier post I'm no expert but think about it, shipping containers are waterproof and built to withstand harsh conditions as they are made to travel across oceans and can be stacked 9 containers high. I also get my source from real liscenced architects. I like your ideas about their use though.

@arcad-uk said:

Hi Mistro, nice renders but I'm more interested in your structure. I see how you arrive at the volume from your sketch above but the floor plan suggests you the remove most of the internal structure as the container walls and the finished walls are in a different location. Does that not seriously compromise the container and offset the benefit of using the established volume? I'm not criticising, the concept has been about for a while and I'm interested to learn the implications of their deployment and how they are being adapted.

Sorry for the delayed response. I'm no expert on shipping container homes but I do know that some conventional building is still required in most cases. You cannot just stack these things, they must be reinforced from what I learned so far.

The frames of the containers are still intact. I hid the beams in the floor plan render to give a clean view of the apartment. the containers most modified are the 2 in the front. The entire frame remains but the walls are taken out. The 40' can keep part of the inner walls where the stairwell is within the building. The wall of the stairwell is about 8 feet in and can encase that portion of the container. But the outer most walls are completely intact. There's only 16 feet of space between each lot (building) so you have the inner walls of each building for integrity.

Hope that helps.

@box said:

They look very nice, but I'm confused by the dimensions.
I don't understand how you have used the containers, the standard 8' x 8' x 20'(40') doesn't seem to fit with your description.
Perhaps another image highlighting the structural element of the containers would help me, and possibly your client.

I put two 40' containers to the back and 2 modified 20' containers in the front. There's no 16' containers so 2 twenty footers would be cut and welded to make 16'. These containers would be 9 1/2' in height for the top 4 stories and standard 8'x2 to make 16' height for the commercial level.

@Daniel: Yes that would be better. That image was actually a test render just to showcase the building by itself. The apartment entrances are to the sides of the retail space with one stringer stairway in the center of the the outer wall.
The following pic shows the entrance and stairway from the side. Please excuse the lack of textures at the bottom. I happen to have this test render in my folder.

I'm still new to architectural visualization and also post production. I did the block in a few hours just to populate according to the tax map and actual buildings on that block. This is my second such project just to get my feet wet. since this is my first year in this industry, I'm more like an apprentice at this stage. For now the architect I'm working with is dealing with those ADA guys.

Using the shipping containers is more of a matter of building cost (as it is cheaper to use them than conventional building materials) and yes we are going for the finished product to look conventional. Shipping container homes are not popular in NYC so it may be a tough sell all though shipping containers exceed all building codes. I have some more renders going including a green roof version and will update soon with some more details. I'm having a lot of fun with this and learning many things people take for granted about their environment.

Thanks for the links. Very helpful.

You are my grass teacher. Very nice.

I finally got up enough nerve to post here in the gallery. I peek in here for inspiration and thought it's time for me to share. In this set I was asked to work with shipping containers for three 16'x56' lots adjacent to each other. Commercial space on the ground floor and 4 stories with 2br. apartments. Freedom of design was given to me from there so I worked it from scratch. Hopefully the client will be talked into making them 1br units.

I'm still learning how to make textures, refine the materials for rendering and post pro techniques. I used Sketchup+Kerkythea.

Very nice!

Can anyone point me to some nice quality hardwood floors please. I searched through many texture sites but mostly run into old looking wooden planks or the planks are too short for the look I'm going for. I see in many renders floors that have long planks giving the floors a cleaner look. Thanks in advance.

Thank you so much.

I like the render. Very cool.

Can you please share how you did the trees and foliage. I'm currently on the hunt for material to do some landscaping and natural environments.

Everyone who commented basically covered my thoughts. Very inspirational....thanks for sharing. Want to say more but I'm speechless.

Oh! Pics 3-6...how did you do that dome? I have to do something similar for a museum lobby.