@ely862me said:

You need to have an open mind when using sketchup. I am not wrong if I say I can model an entire car only with the line tool and the move tool .
Attached is a link with a video of how you can use line tool and move tool to get the proper result . http://youtu.be/tzjA0GPdQrw

Take care and have fun !

impressive! what is the plugin that splits a line into segments? and what do you use to make faces between to lines like at 5:30 min?

i briefly tried the blender tree maker before, but felt that it was kinda tideous to get good results. you don't really know what each slider actually does, and when you did find out, you forget 2 minutes later

gonna watch the tutorials now, maybe stuff will become clear then

hi,
i'm trying to get high Poly 3D trees to work smoothly AND look good in SU. this cought my attention and it is the best solution i found so far

Arbaro

Download Arbaro for free. Arbaro is an implementation of the tree generating algorithm described in Jason Weber & Joseph Penn: Creation and Rendering of Realistic Trees

sitename (sourceforge.net)

it is a java based stand alone tree generator, freeware.
it can export to .obj, which you can import directly to SU with fluid importer http://www.fluidray.com/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/download.php?id=10

i got some interesting results. if you generate the leaves as squares, SU can handle it quite well (~50k - 100k faces).

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2458938/arbaro_black_tulepo.zip here is an example

anyone got anything similar? i'm doing tree studies and could really use high poly, realistic trees

@trogluddite said:

Fascinating - I thought I might watch a couple of minutes, "for a laugh", and ended up watching the whole thing right through.
It shows well the coolest thing about Sketchup - 'brainstorming' the idea you can see in your head, and seeing how it can be turned into geometry that can become something practical (or not, and try another way!).

Very neat design too - a real 21st century treehouse. And I guess from the part at the end, kind of 'folding' and modular, so quick and easy to move trees. I will sure buy one if you ever get them manufactured!

wow, thanks. can't believe you watched the whole thing yeah, this was more of a brainstorming session. we have to hand in the designs in half a semester, so i guess a lot will change / evolve until then.

it would be so cool if everyone here would record their work and publish a timelapse alongside the final renderings just imagine seing that for the stuff posted in the "best of sketchup" thread, for example

@unknownuser said:

What is the prog who record the session ?
And what is the size of the file before compression ?

i captured it with http://obsproject.com/. it's usually used for livestreaming games, but it can also just capture fullscreen and write directly to disk. 5 hours produced a 400 mb raw .mp4 on this rather low setting (360p, 1000kbit/sec, 10 frames/sec). advantage: very low cpu usage (only about 5%).

i then put the single sessions together with http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/ and increased the frame rate from 10 to 120 (change framerate filter) and cut it back / decimated to 30 (resample framerate filter). reencoded to mpg4 x246, also 1000 kbit constant bitrate. result: 200 mb file

Hi,
I thought it could be interesting to record working with sketchup and then compile a few work sessions as a timelapse video. here is 5,5 hours of messing around compressed to 25 minutes. it's quite funny to watch it and see how much time you wasted on trying unnecessary things or just plain out failing at stuff / being bad at sketchup (like i did painfully at my first try at curvi loft and trying out different profiles:))

it's going to be a treehouse eventually btw, guess i will discard everything many times (student of architecture, very slow design process.....)

btw, i would love to see the sketchup pros of this forum do this kind of thing

fredo, you are a coding god! this is absolutely amazing.

thanks for the quick help guys, love this community!

hi guys,
i'm working on an imported model of a bonsai tree 3dscan, simplified with meshlab. looks like this: http://imgur.com/ZQahI

i think there might be some reversed faces, is there any way to see them more clearly than with face style->monochrome?

http://silentpagoda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/facepalm.gif
got it now, had to change region and language -> formats

thx man

after a rather long hiatus from sketchup, i noticed something strange: when i enter a distance by using the numpad (e.g: 2,51) i get the error "invalid distance". i have to use the dot that is on the "main part" of the keyboard. what gives? really annoying. it used to work if i remember correctly.
maybe there's an option somewhere to switch from the US decimal style 12.42 to the euro 12,42?

@soundbound said:

@peter_shaw said:

afaik u can use the pro version for a few weeks for free (trial mode with full functionality)

Actually, the full trial mode is only for 8 hours. Would have been nice if it lasted a week or so.
Thanks anyway for the suggestion!

ok, my bad. but isn't it 8 hours of work time? e.g. when u close SU pro, the time stops? with a dual installation of both SU and SU pro u could use pro only for exporting, and the normal SU for working. it would last u many weeks like that.

afaik u can use the pro version for a few weeks for free (trial mode with full functionality)

we need more information to help you. can you attach your model?

why should this be depressing? it's amazing as hell if you ask me mind blowing.

first, learn the basics by doing simple stuff. just give yourself a task and try to do it. SU is really intuitive. when u hit a brick wall, use the search function on this forum.- also read this thrad http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=79&t=12706 and this one http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=17315&p=360018 over and over

here is a thread with .gifs of some good plugins http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=16909&hilit=plugins - but dont use too many plugins before u have the basics down.
here are all plugins in one thread: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=250026

for archviz i mostly use Fredos Round Corner, Joint Push Pull, Selection Toys, CleanUp³. I have many more plugins but rarely need them. but it really depends what u are doing with SU.

terrain generation: sandbox tools

for a rendering beginner, i would recommend free maxwell. u basically just press a button and get a photorealistic rendering.

@tig said:

Isn't that a 'pano' ?
Try this http://www.smustard.com/script/CubicPanoOut there are undoubtedly others if you google...
[tutorial is here http://www.cad-addict.com/2009/04/sketchup-plugins-create-360-degree.html ]

this is for 2D panorama pictures. he needs a sequence of 3D images if i understand correctly

wow boofredlay, thats amazing, so much to learn from that short video!

amazing, which plugins did u use?

doesnt seem like there's a script like that. i suck at ruby, never tried to do anything, but it shouldn't be that hard to write that IMO.

in the meanwhile u could do it manually: also never actually tested it myself, but maybe advanced camera tools will do the trick? placing the 2 cameras on a platform and rotating the platform in 1° steps. when u safe each view as as scene (2x360 scenes, lot of work i know, i know ), u can batch render them with vray for sketchup. there might also be a plugin for batch exporting scenes as jpg.

also, there might be some render engines that can do stereo-images, that would save u some work

hope someone else can help, cool idea!