Greetings,

I am having issues getting the Relief terrain to import. I have tried it on both SU 2016 and 2017. I use the location tool to geo-locate and then Relief but the window hangs and just continues to process without importing any data.

I have tried this both at home (no firewall) and work (we have a firewall - but we checked it to make sure it was not being blocked).

Any suggestions?

Thanks
Daniel

Awesome. Another very needed plugin to help sort and organize. This will get a ton of use.
THANK YOU
Daniel

This looks promising and needed. Thank you!!

Awesome!! Really awesome. Thank you.
Daniel

@solo said:

@Mike, thank you for your vote of confidence, however flattering I do not consider myself a master by any means, I still ask noob questions on Render forums, I also forget basic stuff if I do not use an app consistently.

Regarding Daniel Tal, who is a friend and a hell of a nice guy, I have his previous book 'A Guide to Modeling Site Plans, Terrain and Architecture' which is a great informative book which I learned a lot from, Daniel is a landscape architect and that book plays well into his strengths.
I do not own his new book and can only comment based on what I read on Amazon. To me it looks like a great book for beginners to intermediate to learn the basics and learn some of the easier to use Render apps available, I'm guessing it covers more than just the rendering and also talks about modeling with the goal of rendering. I also see a very large mention of Shaderlight, which I believe is Daniels choice of engine and one he has been vocal about recently. I understand that he could not possibly cover all render options as there are just too many, however I believe Vue could have been mentioned (cannot confirm that it is not as I have not read the book) as it hands down is the best landscape package available.

All in all I think this will be another informative book and if his last book is an example of his work then this book will also be well written and easy to follow. Regarding him being a master, I do not believe he considers himself one, but does offer the process of rendering, where a master will not only know the process but also have an artistic element which is something one possesses and cannot be taught IMO.

As for me writing a book, that will not happen as even I know my limitations and writing is one of them.

Hey Pete,
Thank you for the kind words and endorsement. I really appreciate that. Writing is hard but once a book is out and your out in the open its like walking around with your pants down. I know this book will take some lumps but its about rendering so its to be expected.

VUE and other external rendering programs are not part of this book. The publisher wanted a reference manual and it became a big project. 41 chapters with another 7 chapters online for free to download - so over 700 pages of material. Thankfully itdfoes not need to be ingested all at once, mostly for reference. Trying to tackle studio-rendering programs would have been really hard.

And to endorse you in return - I am not sure I know anyone as talented and with the type of skill set you have. Your work is amazing and I show people your website, renders and models in workshops and presentations. If you are ever interested in writing a book, I have some suggestions. You would add a great deal of value to SketchUp community beyond what you have already done. Your product modeling alone would be worth tutorials and there are ways to publish these days and make income out of it (take a different path than the one I took for sure).

Thanks
Daniel Tal

Hello all,
I would like to thank Brian for the review. I was not invovled with the post being a promo in anyway. To address the question of ‘master renderer’ that Brian included in the review, while I appreciate the compliment, I would say that I in no way claim such a title. I would agree fully with Mike Lucy about Solo - simply some of the best work I have ever seen - that is an expert rendering artist.

If anything, in the book I say do not expect to hyper-realistic results or becoming an expert renderer. The book is intended for people who are brand new to rendering or have been rendering and struggling with trying to get rendering working for them.

In fact, I am trying to address what Adam Hailsis saying in his post: “It's either you are born with artistic vision, high aptitude, massive memory and technical inclination, or you are not. The majority of people are not. The unique thing about 3D rendering in my opinion is that it takes a lot of both left and right sides of your brain”

That is a very valid point. Spend enough time teaching people SketchUp and you see an interesting spread - of 10 people in a class, 1 to 2 people will not get it all, 2 to 3 people will run with whatever you teach them and the remainder (5 to 6 people) will need to work at learning how to model on their own and with diligence.
So the book provides specific settings and approaches to help the 5 to 6 people that need more specific approaches.

In terms of making an income on books, well, honestly its a labor of love. The return comes from intangibles, getting more work, speaking and teaching related to it then the book itself.
Thanks
Daniel Tal

From Contours needs a tune up or a replacement.

would LOVE this tool. Very needed. amazing as usual Fredo.

From the Article - Trimble: SketchUp fits with decade-long strategy:
"Today, there is not a good facilitation from the data captured in the field through the workflow to the various back offices of the design and architecture firms and out again through to the contractor who is actually performing the work. "

This is what I was hoping to hear. Having a clear consistent work flow and easy to obtain and manage data to create a model based on existing conditions is the missing piece. Google Earth Road View, aerials and terrain hinted at the possibilities but was never enough to get into the meat of design. The data was not clear or clean - pasting photos of buildings on surfaces is not accuracy nor is 50' interval terrain data.

Pipe dream but if I could obtain a 3D Site Survey and use it to model that would be amazing. AutoDesk Labs has been playing around with it as is the TIG3D Plugin. Take snap shot and create instant model.

Then on the other end, when doing CA, if your in the field, grab your camera or ipad, take a snap shot of detail in construction, have it transformed into 3D SketchUp and sent off as an annotated RFI to designer/ back to the office, would be another aspect.

Its about data integration and making it useful, at least to me. My own speculation, hopes and dreams.

Sorry if this has been posted (did not see it in the thread) but friend of mine, John Pacyga, shared this article in which a Trimble VP is interviewed and talks about his views on SketchUp:

Trimble: SketchUp fits with decade-long strategy

http://www.sparpointgroup.com/News/Vol10No20-Trimble--SketchUp-fits-with-decade-long-strategy/