Grampa,
This shouldn't be a problem if you build the model on a GE terrain from the beginning. Open GE and find the place where you want to build the model. Zoom in close enough so that you can clearly see the roof of the building you want. Keep GE open and open SU. In SU choose Tools-Google Earth-Get Current View. This will bring in the scene as shown on the GE screen. Now build you model on top of the roof image.

When you're finished with the model, you can view it in GE or upload to 3D Warehouse and the file will contain all the location info to place the model exactly.

Tom (fellow grandpa)

David,

Thaks for the Texture site. This is wonderful and I can use a lot of the samples here.

Tom

David,

I've also been thinking about gutters. Since I make my models with GE in mind, I tend to see them from above or at least at an angle from a high view point. So, I've sometimes put the gutters on the same plane as the roof material itself. Sometimes this looks OK; other times it looks silly. I've attached a recent model of a church tower with the gutters incorporated in the roof plane. This one seems OK.

But in the real roof on this tower, there are mold and stains on the hips of the roof. This is one of those that I had in mind wwhen I posed the question in the first place.

I've been thinking about an excursion to Malvern to photograph different roofs from above: good hill in the town.

Tom

Tower.skp

David,

Here's one that I did with a smaller file size.

Tom

Temp.skp

Hi Remus,

Out of curiosity, what's

@remus said:

didiers component spray script
?

Best,
Tom

David,

Cheers. That's just what I have in mind. I'm going to try to build up a library of different types of roof detail, e.g. Welsh Slate, red tiles, etc.

Thanks,
Tom

Bob,

Thanks, these are some good photos. Here's another one.

(www.maintainyourchurch.org.uk)

Tom

Hi All,

I mostly make models of old buildings and I've thought for a while that roof details make a big difference in realism of the model. the trouble is that I almost always take photos from the ground, which gives a distorted image of the roof. Some of this distortion can be overcome by manipulating the photos in PhotoShop (or, in my case, PaintShopPro).

My problem comes about with the tiles or slates on ridges and hips. Does anybody have ideas about how to overcome this problem; or maybe a web site with roof details that can be legally copied.

Thanks,
Tom

@bcoleman001 said:

What I've found when I bring the model back into Google Earth is that the front half of the subdivision is buried below the terrain and you can't see it and the back half is floating approximately 12' off the ground. It's frustrating, to say the least, but I'm still trying to find a solution.

Boyd,

You need to build a base with the Sandbox tools that reflects the ground directly under you model.This base sits on top of Terrain (I ususally try to get the edges of the base to be a little below the level of the terrain.) Then your model sits on top of the base. Since you build the base to fit the model, nothing floats or gets burried. You can use the color JPG download from GE of your scene to paint the base to match the surrounding Terrain.

Good luck,
Tom

Thanks Paul.

Hi all,

I often need to build a Sandbox base for my models to compensate for the averaging in the terrain layer. Here's what I do: When I download a terrain from GE into SU to start a new model, I save a JPG of the scene from GE at the same time. Later when I build the Sandbox surface, I smooth it then import the JPG to paint it to match the surrounding terrain. The problem occurs when I try to match the I import the JPG image. It should match the Snapshot layer I already have, but it doesn't. When I turn off Perspective view in SU and swith to the top down view, the snapshot isn't square (rectangular) whereas the imported image is. I finally figured out the the plane of the imported image isn't parrellel to the plane of the Sanpshott.

This makes it nearly impossible to match the image to the sanpshot, a job that should be easy.

Is there an easy way to overcome this problem?
Thanks for your help,
Tom

You can also purge unused textures by using the Model Info button, then go to the Statistics page and click on Purge Unused. I alwasy do this when I'm finishing up a model, especially a complex one, just to clean up stuff and minimize the file size.

Tom

.... followingon, Use the Export from the File menue, You get a choice of 2D model. I've used this feature to resolve difficult photo problems. I export an elevation then open it in my photo program and fit the photo to the elevation and save it as a new JPG. When I open this one in SU as a texture, it fits perfectly.

Tom

Daniel is right. I've had this same problem. If you catch it right away, the Undo button works fine. After you've saved the model, it's do-over time. In my case it has happened when there are elements in one lkayer attached to elements in another. Move a line in one and it effects the unseen layer as well.

One protection for it is to make groups before the line is moved or the Push-Pull is used. If you edit the group, it doesn't change the elements outside the group. After you done, you can Explode the group.

Tom

I appologise; it should have been "Jakob"

Hi Jacob,

Your question is interesting. My approach is almost the opposite. I use layers a lot when putting together the the components of the model. I find it easier to keep track of the faces and lines that way. Then, as the model comes together, I dump the various layers into Layer 0. I have had some problems with using distortion tools in one layer that effect another layer: View Hidden Lines helps to spot these right away. I also need to use the Intersect with Model a lot to get all the lines to work togethr properly.

I hope we see more of this type of technical discussion.

Tom

Hi Richard,

This looks like a tiling problem. Not all render images lend themselves to tiling very realistically. I tried the same thing with a JPG image from the fencing selection in SU and got a similar effect. If you right-click the image and select Texture then Position, you can drag the image out to fit the fence and see the render as it was meant to be.

Hope this helps,
Tom

Cheers, Modelhead!

Re cameras: I use a cheap digital camera with a built-in lens. It would be nice to have a good one like Modelhead describes; maybe for the future. The important thing is that, if you want realistic models, you need to spend a lot of time with your Photoshop type program to get the textures right.

Thomas,

I frequently have similar problems. With bushes, trees and inconvenient property boundries, I can't always get a square shot at the face of the building. I use PaintshopPro (a lot cheaper than Photoshop) to work the photos. I've noticed that the doors and windows are the most problamatic issues for realism. When you photograph a window from the side angle, you only see one side of the frame. This looks strange when the perspective is corrected. So, I now make a habit of getting cloe up shots of window and door details. I can then correct the distortion in the main photo and paste the close-up of the window into place. The result works pretty well. In extreme cases, I've built a whole wall from bits and pieces of other photos, like stone walls or bricks.

The other thing I often find useful when a wall has lateral symmetry is to get a good shot of one half and then paste the mirror image into the photo for the other half. With a lttle touching-up this looks OK.

Tom

Hi Remus,

I've been thinking about the same thing. I have a collection of old English buildings, mostly churches, and I often find it useful to use elements from one in another model, e.g. roof tiles for a building where I can't easily photograph the roof, but I have a similar one from another building.

Let me know when you start your 3DW collection and I'll make some contributions.

Regards,
Tom