It does appeal to me. I expect to model until I'm 90 and that is not far away. I can see that this could be a way to extend my time as a modeller. Probably a good idea to get started soon as the transition in terms of muscle memory could get tougher year by year.
Thanks!

If you are new to rendering you are biting off too much. If it takes this much trouble to turn a light around isn't it about time to pack that one up and move on? What happens when there are 2000 lights? I mean really why are companies still torturing us with front ends that require forensic examinations before you use them. There are many other very easy rendering engines out there. Wrong answer I know but I suffered for hours doing what you are doing. It continues to outsmart me so I have had to move on to easier tools.

"to have interpolation generate the terrain and all details" I agree that would be a trick. I use your wonderful tools-on-surface (and a couple other rubies) to build terrain. I can't guess how many square miles. I do believe your tools are the best. I am saying for me at least generating a terrain with cloud point is not very exciting. It would be selfish to say I would rather a talent like you work on other things.

I think it will depend on it's capability for detail. I don't find getting the raw terrain down is very difficult. It is all the detail that has to be built into it...i.e. garden beds, curbs, sidewalks, ditches, medians, grass edge transitions,...etc. For every minute I spend creating the ground, I spend ten on the detail.

I like the idea and when I can afford to I will likely give the Space mouse a go. I can see that working without lifting your hands would help depending on the labour required to build your model. My only concern is comfort. I tend to be a hyper-focused modeller. meaning I forget how many hours I have been working and get soar muscles in my hands, sometime shoulders. I have tried many mice and found the best for me is the smallest and lightest. I also don't want the button configuration in the road. I want to be able to hold the mouse comfortably.

Right click...>select....>All with same material

Useful tips. Thanks guys! (always seems so simple when someone shows you.)

Beautiful if not awkward from a design view. Great model. I'd like it to have more bump and more displacement though.

It is rated 7th behind the 780,970,black. The 780ti is rated 2nd. (http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html)
I guess the demand has slipped. The 970 looks like the best bang for the buck.

I know this was more than a year ago but I am curious.....hey Solo!!! Did you find a solution to this enquiry?

"you don't want 64 bit?"
Yes but I don't need it. I have plenty of hardware horse power 6 gig GPU 32 CPU.liquid/overclocked. Not sure whether that maters but Sketchup doesn't complain about my large mesh at all. I simply do illustration and animation so Sketchup 8 is just fine. I have always been slow to upgrade anything. I like you guys to do the testing first....lol.

Thanks Box, I saw the thread it is good stuff.

Lumion gets a bad knock because it is expensive. But it has one thing that no one has....SPEED!! It is just too significant to ignore now.

I can't sit around for hours waiting and I am not interested in the complicity of a rendering that requires a farm.

Depending on who's hands it is in Lumion is now coming within a hair of the best in render quality both interior and exterior.

It is so easy to set up and run that anyone can do it and of course there are some pretty wonky works of art out there in Lumion. There are also some masters.

One last point that was the deal breaker for me the licence holds its retail valueand can be sold on the open market.

I have tried all the others but Lumion has really put me into production. I actually make money now selling renderings.

If you are landscaping I suggest you get the free version of Lumion and build a forest. Then go build a forest with your favorite second choice. That will do it for you.

Thanks box, good advise although there is nothing in 14 or 15 that I need. Being clumbsy as I am I don't want to add another level of versioning complexity. I'll get there eventually if I live long enough.

I get it now thanks. I am sticking with v8 (also windows8) for now as I have software that still has issue with 2014 and 15. 15 in particular doesn't like a couple of my model exporters.
Once my vendors catch up I will move ahead as well. I'll just keep an eye on the little gremlin for now and if it misbehaves I'll kick it out.
Thanks again for your info.

Thanks TIG, Yes I extend my desktop quite far and run v8. It lands always on my second monitor over V8's replacement for the old start button.

I don't usually leave stuff lying around on my desk so it is a bit of a conundrum for me.
The installer is a good helper.
It pings back on Java script calls? Isn't there a more elegant way to do that?

I just installed the plugin installer and it is very helpful thanks.
There is a small minimized dialog box with SCFapi for a label that appears. It has a text box, nothing else. The odd thing is it shows up on a monitor other than the main window tucked away in the bottom left corner.

I am probably in the wrong spot posted here...so sorry but any help understanding what this is or removing it would be much appreciated.

Love to see the model progressions...thanks!!

We are standing on a GE snapshot that is now at 6000 pixels wide.
You can go 2.5 more times that size if you really want to paint in the daiseys.

Nothing but google snapshot........700 pixels wide

I found an image with more detail at 2700 pixels
I pushed the GE snapshot to 2700 maintaining it's original aspect ratio.
Then just cloned on some detail of the green.

Brightened up the green area and added solo just so you can see the clarity.

Pushed the GE snapshot again to 6000 now so I could paint in finer detail, texture in bunker...smaller print

I've added some contour to the SU mesh now

There are many ways to finnish but here I have marked out to areas in the mesh, one is for my own grass material and the other is for lumion ground paint so I can blend in clover sand rocks...etc.

Finnally...I did all of this in about 30 minutes so it is very rough but I think it shows at least what Lumion can do.

Doesn't have to be one big image either. If you are using Sketchup you can project multiple images anywhere on the mesh and detail them individualy...then refresh the high resolution in Lumion. If you want to paint flowers you can.