The texture replacement from the materials editor is the perfect solution. Thanks Gaieus!

monks

Ah Gaieus, I'm only using Sketchup 7, it won't load in mine. Sorry man. I'll try your instructions again with the objects.

monks

Thanks a million! The scaling... Yes, there is a problem with the topo map reference scaling- I inherited that (the mountain is stretched way too high). The only way I can keep the building scale correct is to rescale the mountain. I'd prefer that the buildings were in correct scale. But as I said this really is an absolute noob attempt, and I figured I'd learn a lot of stuff from just assembling models and stuff (most of them are from the (warehouse). I never intended it to be anything more than a learning experience- it got a bit out of hand though heh.

I did try the cut and re-paste in place but I couldn't see any difference. But if it *is * making a difference then that's great.

I has some problem with the terrain mesh import from dem format. I use Global Mapper and it sometimes writes out of range values (or very low values) on some of the terrain edges- a product of re-projected pixels falling partially outside the export bounding box. Well I could have corrected that problem elsewhere before import but I figured I'd learn one or two basic things if I corrected it in Sketchup. I was not entirely successful in that but once I got the photo to drape I figured it was "good enough".

I just think I need to separate the models out from the terrain mesh because I need to replace the photo drape and I figure it would be projected over those buildings. But I maybe wrong about that.

monks

Haha...well it's nothing special as you'll see- just an exercise in using Sketchup. I'm a terrain modeller, but I'm interested in learning 3D modelling more generally.

monks

I tried selecting them, then cutting then paste in place but it didn't change it. I tried taking a pic of the problem but it doesn't show in the export, and when I double click on the terrain mesh the blue highlighting switches off after a second or tow- strange that, because it never used to do that. I've uploaded it to a ftp...I think it's something like 85 MB! Hope you can help. There are a number of the towers in the model that are grouped differently than the rest of the castle model.

http://www.skindustry.net/medem/files/Temp/AutoSave_CarnDum_castle17.skp

monks

Wow, thanks a lot for this. I'll give it another go later when I get home following your instructions. Yes, I found quite a number of posts on this but the solution seemed to be something of a moving target as things have changed over time. I'm using drape in the sense that it's used in the GIS industry (as opposed to 3D modelling)- draping a texture over a heightfield (I guess that means orthographically projecting a texture onto it). The draping of geometry sounds very useful too.
I did try to do this but I had trouble setting up the rectangle, but I've learned a few more things since then. Another problem I may have is that some of my models placed onto the terrain have become grouped somehow with the terrain mesh- I posted about this elsewhere. I may need to resolve that issue first. Dunno.

monks

Hi, thanks for the replies.

If I click on the terrain mesh it turns blue as do some of the models I placed on the terrain- but others do not. So this "grouping" has only happened with a few of them.

If I double click on one of the blue objects ("grouped" with the terrain), they all show their textures as normal (ie no longer blue), but the other objects that are not "grouped" with the terrain all take on a greeny flat shading. I don't know how to determine if they are nested or not- is there a way to find that info?

monks

Hello, I'm a new user and I have a problem. I have some objects which I placed on top of a terrain mesh. Now some of the objects seem to be grouped with the terrain mesh when they shouldn't be. Well I say grouped- I don't know if that's the correct term to use. When I click on the mesh, it turns blue and so do some of the models. How can I undo this please?

Thanks,
monks

Hello to all. I'm trying to drape an image over a terrain mesh. I did do it successfully but I can't repeat it! I even wrote down the things I did, but it still doesn't work.
I have a terrain mesh, over which I have a drape. I also have models placed on the terrain. I need to change the drape to another one.
Can anybody walk me through the process? I'm using Sketchup 7 at the moment.

Thanks in advance,
monks