Hello,
I think I've got the hang of SU basics now, mainly thanks to the help I got here!
I'd like to put the model in its landscape context:
Should I start a new model of the landscape, building up the contours etc, and then import the building model into that file? or should I draw the whole thing in one file?
Do you have any tips on the best way to build up landscape? I think I can use the Drape tool to soften out contour edges I have drawn... can I then 'drop' my building into this landscape?

Hello again,
Progress is good with the new model! I'm nearly ready to start roofing and was wondering: do you have any tips?
I have the pitch of each roof plane, its starting(lowest)level and its plan dimensions, but not the exact heights of all the supporting walls. I have extruded those walls to the datum of the lowest point of the corresponding roof plane.
What is the best way to bring the (level)top face of walls up to meet a pitched roof undercroft?
If I draw a roofplane so that it projects over the external walls is there an easy way to trim back projections where necessary (using an intersecting face, for example)?

I did that and re-Draped... I lost a few lines but those that did reappear were all on the correct plane. Redrawing a few lines is a tiny price to pay for having nice clean plan to extrude from!
Thanks, again.

Well just when you thought it was safe to come out, I'm back! It looks as if I spoke too soon...
About 30% of my groundplan endpoints ended up with a Z-coord of 0.05, while the rest are at 0.00. I have doublechecked my groundplane mesh, which has all corners at Z-coord 0, and re-Draped, but the renegade endpoints won't shift. I completely exploded the CAD groundplan before export. In order to Drape it on the groundplane mesh I had to make it into a SU group (as I can only select one entity to drape) - could this be the problem (ie. will elements within a group drape properly)?

I just used the Drape method (discovering Sandbow tools in the process)and it's worked perfectly.
Thanks a million!

Good morning!
Having further cleaned up my CAD floorplan and started my model again things are going much better. Mostly I can generate faces by tracing one side of a shape in the imported, exploded floorplan, which is a revelation! However it happens quite frequently that I cannot generate a face and this seems to be because one or more of the points involved has a Z co-ordinate of approximately(indicated by squiggley line)0 instead of 0. Is this another messy CAD issue? I draw in 2D only in CAD so assumed all lines in a plan would have the same 'Z' co-ordinate (ie. none at all). Is there some way of establishing a groundplane in SU with a fixed Z co-ordinate and 'gluing' the imported floorplan to it?

Okay, thanks for the pointers... onwards and upwards!

Don't worry, that's exactly what I was expecting. I'm very methodical usually, believe it or not, but since it was a first attempt I thought I'd throw caution to the wind (and hopefully learn from my mistakes!) Probably not the best building to start on, what with the irregularities. I will start afresh tho. Thanks for you help!

PS Can I remove the attachment now that I've embarrassed myself?

Thanks, I see it now, cunningly concealed:)
Here is my masterpiece/mess so far then...

SU_model_130109.skp

The Axes highlighting tool helps too... I realise I'm not drawing what I mean to draw much of the time! I've got the go-ahead to post a model, can I attach it to a post? If so, what's the best format?

Great, I'll try that too... Thanks.
Re posting of model (though I'm not sure you could call it that!) we have a pretty strict IT department here, as well as a raft of security regs, so I'll have to run it past a few(dozen) people before I can do that. I'm public sector, not secret service, in case you're getting worried!

Thanks for the swift reply. Great tip re the text tool... very enlightening!
I also have trouble 'snapping' rectangle corners to endpoints of skp lines. Would this be because the rectangle face and the point to which I want to snap are not coplanar? (I suppose a face can only be manipulated in the plane on which it is originally drawn, otherwise the face would have to split).
I am struggling to place a pitched roof on skewed/curved walls: is there a quick way of trimming one face (eg.a wall) with another, intersecting face?(eg.roof)? at the moment I am extruding the wall from ground level to just below the roof and then trying to bring the wall to meet the plane of the roof, segment by segment - it is very laborious and it's not always possible to snap a point on the top edge of a wall to the roof face.

Hey,
I'm trying to create a simple model from an imported Autocad floorplan. I have been trying to trace walls from the imported plan and extrude the resulting faces, but I find that often a face isn't generated by the lines I draw. To get around this I draw a rectangle and move its corners to resize the face to match the imported plan lines. Often, though, the corner won't 'snap' to points on the imported plan. Does this mean that the face I have created is not in the same plane as the imported plan? How can I ensure lines are drawn on a particular plane? Is my approach wrong altogether?

Sorry if this is a bit garbled - I haven't grasped the skp lingo yet!
Thanks,
Soco

I have had trouble extruding faces, particularly with one irregularly curved wall.