hello everyone,
after finishing the summer semester i’ve had some time to fill up my sketchup model repository and so the first thing i decided to make were dynamic windows.
i had the DWG and PDF catalogues of some of the Reynaers aluminium windows, so i started with the CS-68 Hidden Vent model.
the modelling
the modelling consisted from three parts - extracting profiles from imported details, extruding the profiles along a rectangular path and cutting the model into 9 parts (4 corners + 4 sides + 1 middle part, although the middle was only by the glass panes).
in sketchup i usually work in [m] units with a 0,001 precision. the details were drawn in millimetres, but knowing about the autocad <-> sketchup precision issues it was safer to assume at import that 1 unit in the DWG [mm] equals 1 unit in sketchup [m].
extracting the profiles was not complicated science; one profile for the aluminium part (get the pen(cil) tool, click click click click, group), one for the rubber insulation, one for the spacer and two grouped profiles for the window panes. when i came across an arc in the profile, i picked the arc tool, set the segments to 3 and continued with the clicking.
extruding the profiles was relatively simple too. draw a sufficiently big box, delete everything except one vertical wall and rotate the extracted profiles into upward position, so that the profiles are perpendicular to the wall. then select the wall’s four edges and use the Follow Me tool on the exploded profiles. doing it one profile by one turned out to be a good strategy - immediately grouping the extruded geometry prevented the creation of geometry gluing and glitching.
the final modelling part was cutting the finished window model into 9 parts as the preparation for the creation of the dynamic component. there were two options on how to do this. take the assembled window, cut it into 9 parts and have either 9 components out of these smaller assemblies, OR have each material cut up into 9 parts. i chose the second option, because although it takes bit more time to set up, in the end the material swapping is much easier.
here are few explanatory images which will hopefully pass the idea on:
the animation
if i had to create this component in AutoCAD as a dynamic block, i guess my job would be easier, as i would have to only define four Stretch commands. maybe there is a way to simulate the Stretch command in SketchUp, too, but i’m unaware of it so all i did was constraining the sizes and positions of the small components.
final steps included creating the materials and assigning them to the groups.
[[download the file containing the component here]].
when the upload is finished i’ll put here a demonstrative youtube clip, showing off how comfortable its usage is. and believe me, it is, as you only use the scale tool for adjustments :)
here’s a demonstrative video:
have a nice day.
22nd July 2012
after some amount of testing (which can be witnessed in this SketchUcation thread) i finally found out the glass material settings, which still make the glass sufficiently reflective, but also adequatly transparent, so you can see into the interior.
here you go, both the material settings and the glass in action; click on the images to enlarge.
i have recently come across the need of creating wooden shingles, and the fastest and most convenient way of doing so was to play a bit in sketchup and create a dynamic component. thanks to sketchup components’ internal structure, however, it tends to be bit slow when changing the size (lots of recalculation taking place), but i’d say it’s still better than to create them by hand.
the parameters include the total width and length of the component, then width, length and thickness of a single shingle and the visible length of one shingle row. there are also construction lines present to help you place the component.
you can get the component here.
when using sketchup with VRay, or when preparing your sketchup model for export (to 3dsmax, for example, for later processing), it’s useful to check your normals. the most convenient way to do it is to open your Styles window and set the Back Color to any vivid color and then set the Sketchup view to Monochromatic.
just a quick note - i finally (after three years of using autocad) figured out the right configuration of ltscale/psltscale variables for me.
i always hated how the insulation lines look perfectly fit in modelspace, then i would forget to change the ltscale when printing a pdf from one of the layouts and consequently would have to reprint again.
no more hassle :)
from now on in modelspace i draw 1:1 in meters with an ltscale value set (0.05 works for me -> then insulation with scale 0.2 would mean 20cm in real life), and for each layout the psltscale is set to 0.
solves the problem for me.
how do you manage linetype scales?
From the site: “V-Ray’s Dirt map enables you to quickly add detail and depth without generating large bitmap textures.”
i would say the ideal usage for something like this would be big-scale urbanism projects or a stylized environment for an architectural visualisation.
hey, i found some czech video tutorials for V-Ray :)
the information is actually on the internet, you just need to know about it.
—-
ha, nasiel som ceske video tutorialy pre V-Ray :)
tie informacie predsa na internete su, len treba o nich vediet.
we all know that there is never enough of cutout people and trees on our harddisks. here’s one more link to enrich our databases.
TL;DR - how i learned to use proxies
let’s say you have a chunky model of a car/tree/person/anything that’s heavy on polycount, has lots of materials assigned and you need to populate your scene with it. what do you do? you use a proxy object.
TL;DR - use TexSky for GI lighting and an HDRi map for BG color.
full HDRi lighting:
HDRi background and TexSky lighting:
Notes: 1
