CAD addict

Excel: Turn numbers exported from ACAD into European Format

noreply@blogger.com (Martí) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:55:00 +0000

There is a quick way to turn numbers in Excel into European format and to remove apostrophes.
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European Number Format, uses a coma as a decimal separator instead the period of the English format. When exporting data from AutoCAD to Excel using the DATAEXTRACTION command, the numbers exported are in English format, so to transform them to the European Format we need to replace the points for comas. This can very done very easy by using the find and replace function in Excel. Type CTRL + F or click the Replace button on the Editing area of the Home Tab (Excel 2007). Find Points and replace them by comas, and select Replace All.

There is an extra step needed if we want to be able to use the data from AutoCAD in Excel as numbers. All the Cells exported from CAD start with an apostrophe ('). See below.

This makes the numbers not usable as such. Luckily there is a trick to batch remove this sign. If you have a column with numbers, insert a new column to its right. On the cell next to the first number in the row enter the follwing fórmula.

Where D2 is the Cell with the numbers with the apostrophe you need to eliminate. Then copy the cell next to all numbers you want to transform. You will see now the result of the formula as the number you want to use. Something like this:

The left cell is the one still containing the apostrophes, and that is why the numbers are aligned to the left. The one on the right is the result of the formula we have applied.

A final step I would recommend is to copy all these new cells and paste them in a new column using Paste Special. Paste Special can be accessed after copying some cells by right clicking on a cell. Then On the Paste Special Window Select "Values".

That's it, now you can delete the other columns (the one with the apostrophes and the one with the formulas, and you have just the new column with plain numbers. The explanations is long, but the process takes lest than a minute.

AutoCAD: AutoLISP to Generate Multiple Hatch Boundaries

noreply@blogger.com (Martí) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:25:00 +0000

Do you need to re-generate the boundaries of multiple hatch patterns? An AutoLISP routine will do it.
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I had to work on some files converted from ArchiCAD to AutoCAD and needed to use the AEC Space entities to get the areas. Unfortunately, plain AutoCAD doesn't read the are of this objects, and by exploding them, it generated Hatch Patters that would not show their area on the properties palette.

The solution for a single AEC_SPACE, was simple, explode it, regenerate the boundary of the Hatch Pattern, and select the resulting Polyline to see the area (or to extract the area to an excel file as explained on a previous post). The problem came becuase there were a lot of this AEC_SPACE objects,and AutoCAD does not allow to regenerate boundaries of multiple Hatch Patterns at the same time.

The solution was found via DigitalCAD, in the form of a LISP routine called HATCHB.LSP. This routine when used, allows you to select as many Hatch Patterns as you want and obtain their boundaries in the form of polylines. The polylines will be generated on the current layer, and properties.

Some thoughts: This real life situation is a clear case that shows how format incompatibilities makes us waste a lot of time. In this case the lead architect works in ArchiCAD, but we as Contruction Managers have only AutoCAD, so everytime we get files from them there is a lot of information in those files that is wasted, because we can not read it properly, so we have to waste hours on retracing polylines to be able to double check the information we have received...

About me - 2010 resolution

noreply@blogger.com (Martí) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:22:00 +0000

The BIM revolution is happening right now, I wanna be an active part of it.
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I have never introduced myself properly in my own blog, kind of rude, but as some of you already know it all started as a record keeper of little things I was learning. The snowball became bigger and bigger, and then i forgot to be polite. Since this article needs a bit of my own background I am going to start with that.

My name is Martí Broquetas, I am an Architect from Barcelona. For those who don't know it I am currently studying a Master in International Building Project Management and working at the Construction Management Team at a big Project Management Company in Stuttgart, in Germany.

Before moving to Germany in September '09, I worked for the previous 3 years in Baltimore, MD in a mid sized (nearly 100 employees) Architecture and Design Firm, I worked as a Project Designer on big projects all over the world. After learning the insights of a big architectural practice i realized I wanted to get a better insight of the construction industry itself, and for this reason I chose the IBPM Master in Stuttgart.

My workflow has mostly comprised working with CAD Design softwares like AutoCAD, Microstation, SketchUp and Rhino and doing some tweaks with Photoshop and other image editing programs. This is the reason why most of the posts are related to these programs.

I haven't wrote much about BIM here since unfortunately it has not been part of my workflow since I started this blog. But I am intending to change that soon. I am very much decided on writing my Master Thesis on the role of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) to make the Design and Construction Process more efficient (I know, i need a shorter title line). I am not an expert on either, but I intend to become one.

So from now on (it might take a couple of months to really get something interesting enough to be published here) and with the same spirit of sharing knowledge that made CAD-Addict what it is, posts related to this two topics will hopefully appear here as often as possible. The idea is not only to publish posts that explain better ways to work with BIM programs like Revit or ArchiCAD, but also to encourage the discussion about the need for change in the way architects work to make building design a much more efficient practice.

The website is named CAD-Addict, and for a while i thought to maybe start a separate blog for the topic. But I sincerely think it is better to have the discussion here, since pure CAD users can benefit from and contribute to the discussion about BIM and IPD a lot. Plus, I am sure a lot of the readers of this blog are already BIM users. Aren't you?

AutoCAD: Project Butterfly Works as a Free Version Converter

noreply@blogger.com (Martí) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 11:11:00 +0000

Use the new Autodesk cloud CAD tool as a free translator between AutoCAD versions
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I discovered recently the so called Project Butterfly from Autodesk. See this previous post for a more general overview to it. It is basically a lite version of AutoCAD that resides entirely on the cloud, meaning you can use it by simply having an up to date web browser.
What i recently realized, is that this "program" can be actually used to convert files from a newer version of AutoCAD to an older one. In case you get some AutoCAD file in the newer 2010 format, but you are not using AutoCAD 2010, you will not be able to open the file. normally you would have to ask whoever sent you the file to "please save it in 2007 / 2004 version". Using Project Butterfly you can skip that request and do the conversion to an older version yourself.
Project butterfly can read files in the new 2010 format. This files then can be downloaded. the trick is that when you click on the download as DWG button on the upper right part of the PB interface, it asks you in which version of AutoCAD you want to download the file. See the image below.

Although this is not the main goal of this application, well, it can be used for that. The limitations are that it saves only in 2004, 2007 or 2010 versions, so if you are working on an older version than that, this won't work, although maybe you should consider Upgrading...
This is the link to the Project Butterfly website, you'll need to register to be abel to use it, but it takes 1 minute.

AutoCAD: PEDIT Command Without Confirmation

noreply@blogger.com (Martí) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:45:00 +0000

A trick to speed up the PEDIT command
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PEDIT is a command that allows us to edit Polylines. It also allows us to edit lines, arcs and splines, by asking us the question we many hate

"Object selected is not a polyline
Do you want to turn it into one? "

Although this might be useful to remember that the geometry selected is not a polyline, it turns to be an extra click that we would love to skip. We will skip it from now on thanks to Josh from Lazydrafter.
Josh posted recently about the PEDITACCEPT system variable. The variable is by default set to "0", and that is why AutoCAD asks us that annoying question. Well, set it up to "1", and the question is gone. Now it takes no extra step to edit lines, arcs. Spline still ask for the conversion factor, but still you'll be saving couple of clicks. All to work faster!

AutoCAD 2010: New System Variable to Fade XREFs

noreply@blogger.com (Martí) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:10:00 +0000

AutoCAD 2010 has a new system variable to fade XREFs.
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New versions come sometimes with some nice surprises. One I just discovered by using AutoCAD 2010 at work is the XDWGFADECTL system variable. We had seen long ago on a previous post how to control the fading of locked layers and the objects seen outside the REFEDIT mode. Just as a quick reminder on that since that is a very old post.

LAYLOCKFADECTL directly controls the intensity of the fading of locked layers.
XFADECTL is used to control the fading when we enter the REFEDIT mode (everything that does not belong to the XREF that we enter to edit in place will be faded).

This was what we had available so far. In case we wanted to fade the XREF, my common procedure was to set the fading of the LAYLOCKFADECTL to between 30 and 50% (depending on the screen), be sure that all my XREFs where in one layer, and lock that layer. This would allow me to see my XREFs fades, making very easy to understand what was in the current drawing and what was a reference.
The only problem with this is that sometimes, when we had to move those XREFs, we had to unlock the layer and lock it after finishing the operation. Minor nuisance maybe, but it has disappeared from now on.

XDWGFADECTL is one of the new system variable added to AutoCAD 2010 that allows to control how XREFs are faded. It is useful. It might seem a minor tweek, but when you are using a dwg as an underlay to draw something else, it is really practical to see this dwg faded. And although this could be done before with the locked layers fading, now we have a second way to do it to suit every situation (or almost every)

Remember that there is a list of all the system variables that have been explained at CAD-Addict following this link.

AutoCAD: SaveAs 2004 Script

noreply@blogger.com (Martí) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 09:25:00 +0000

A script to save your drawings on a previous AutoCAD version.
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As I promised on a previous post about Running Scripts on Multiple AutoCAD files, here comes the script to save your files as 2004 version. I found the need of this script recently, when a collaborator of mine was working with AutoCAD 2004 (i didn't know that in advance) and I was working with 2010. After finishing the tweaks on some of the files, he asked me "can you convert them to 2004, otherwise I can't read them". Well there were nearly 40 drawings, so I had no intention to save them one by one to 2004 format. I set myself to generate a script to do that for me.
This is the script file SaveAs2004.scr and let me easily explain how it works. Let's analyse it line by line.

FILEDIA 0 - This line turns off the dialog boxes (see this post for more info)
SAVEAS 2004 Y - this part is the proper saving as 2004 version. we call the saveas command, stipulate 2004 (or any other version we want) and then click yes, because the program will ask us if we want to overwrite the existing file. note here that there are 2 spaces between 2004 and Y, this is due to the fact that the first is to enter 2004, and the second is needed, to confirm the file name. (If you want to understand this better, run the different commands manually with the FILEDIA system variable set to 0, and you will be able to see all the steps I am following).
FILEDIA 1 - here I simply wanna make sure that after running the script the settings return to what they were, so i set the FILEDIA SV back to 1.
CLOSE - Closes the file, be sure that there is a space or an enter after close, since it is easy to forget that being the last text in the script file. This is generally not neecessary if you use a batch scripting program such as Autoscript or ScriptPrp, but in case you run the script directly in one file, this will close the file after running it.

That's it, now you have a script to save as 2004 version. Replace 2004 by, R14, 2004, 2007, 2010, Standards, DXF or Template, and you will save in that format.

AutoCAD on the Cloud: Project Butterfly

noreply@blogger.com (Martí) — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 13:49:00 +0000

AutoCAD goes cloudy! The future is here!
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I just learned through Revit3D.com of the existence of something called project butterfly. What is it? It is basically AutoCAD running on a web browser.
One of the latest tends in software development is to turn regular Programs into programs that can run "on the cloud". Run on the cloud means that you don´t need to install any other software other than a web browser, and that the files are stored on a public server, not in your hard drive or intranet.
For many years I have been using Google Docs, which allow you to create Word and Excel Type of files (the functionalities are less than with MS Office or Open Office) and the files can be edited collaboratively by different people.
Well, this has now arrived to AutoCAD. With Project Butterfly you can upload a file to the cloud, share it with collaborators/consultants and edit it without even having AutoCAD installed in the computer. Of course, do not expect the speed and easy of use of "real" AutoCAD, but for small corrections and collaboration, it seems like an awesome idea.See a snapshot of the Project Butterfly Interface (click the image to enlarge it)
.

You can read more on the Autodesk labs blog and try Project Butterfly here.

via revit3d.com

AutoCAD Architecture: Recover the Menus Part II

noreply@blogger.com (Martí) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:02:00 +0000

Autodesk keeps making our lives more difficult. Fortunately, there is a way around most of the time...
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I wrote the other day about how to ditch the ribbon and recover the standard Menu Bar. Well, that solution worked for my AutoCAD 2010 at work. Unfortunately at home I installed the AutoCAD Architecture 2010 Student Version (I am a student too). When I tried to follow the steps exposed on that previous post, I got a message saying, "No Menus are Defined". Apparently, Autodesk is trying to force the use of the Ribbon, so is supplying copies of AutoCAD "menu naked"
The partial solution to this problem was found via the Autodesk Discussion Group. If you download this Zip File and follow the instructions described in it, you will get some of the menus back. Although I think I am still missing some of them...With this solution I got the Menus: File, Edit, View, Insert, Format, Window and Design, is that all??

AutoCAD: Run scripts on multiple files

noreply@blogger.com (Martí) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:52:00 +0000

You can run scripts on multiple files using ScriptPro
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Imagine that you want to purge 100 files to be sure that not unnecessary information is saved, wasting space. Or imagine that you want to save all the drawings of a project to a previous version of AutoCAD so a consultant of yours can read your files. You don't want do it yourself or appoint someone to do it manually.
What you want is a software to Batch process scripts on multiple files, Autodesk actually provides the application for free.
This application is called ScripPro. You can directly download it here, or go to the information page.

For versions of AutoCAD previous to 2007, you'll need this version instead.
For thsoe who don't know what scripts are in AutoCAD, just imagine them as entering a set of commands without typing them manually. You can save them in a text file, and when you run the scrip file (by entering the SCRIPT command) all the set of commands will run one after the other.
I will post an example script soon, so those who are new to scripts can get a better idea of what they do. I already posted another example before explaining how to create a script to generate all your standard layers.

Update: The installer of ScriptPro is for 32Bit windows only...my 64bit windows doesn't like it, i get "not compatible with operationg system,,,crap!"
Update 2: I found this freeware software called Autoscript that runs on Windows 7 64bit. It adds a new menu called autoscript, that actually doesn't work!!! but if you type AUTOSCRIPT as a command it will run a program that works the same way as ScriptPro. Via Cadig.

AutoCAD: Set of Free AutoLisp Routines

noreply@blogger.com (Martí) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:07:00 +0000

A set of free AutoLISP routines for AutoCAD
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My friend Aarti just sent me a link to a website that has collected a bunch of free AutoLISP routines. I haven't had time to check them one by one but I thought I'd post the link here in case you want to give it a look.

The one she told me she used was TLEN.lsp, that allows you to callculate the total length of a set of linear objects (lines, polylines, ecs) etc. Saving a lot of time when you have to do some measurements.

Here is the link to the list of free LISP

2009 Posts of the Month

noreply@blogger.com (Martí) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 13:18:00 +0000

The most visited posts of 2009 by month.
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As I already did last year here comes the list of the most visited posts of each month. This is just a way to make old posts accessible to those who joined CAD Addict recently. Hope you find something interesting. This is the list.

January 2009 - SketchUp: Import and Export Scenes: A plugin to export scenes and import them into another model.
February 2009 - SketchUp VRAY Plugin: A Plugin to render on VRAY from SketchUp.
March 2009 - AutoCAD: How to Explode Unexplodable Blocks: Learn how to do this.
April 2009 - AutoCAD: Inster Excel Sheet as XREF: Learn how to insert an Excel Sheet to by linked and update automatically when changes are made to it.
May 2009 - SketchUp: Extra Materials and Components: Download Extras for SketchUp from Google's website.
June 2009 - AutoCAD: Convert a 3D model into a 2D drawing: Exactly that.
July 2009 - SketchUp: List of Plugins: A list of all SketchUp Plugins described on this website.
August 2009 - SketchUp Plugins: Shape Bender: A plugin to Bend an Object along a path.
September 2009 - SketchUp Plugin to Draw Polylines: Draw all sort of polylines and curves.
October 2009 - SketchUp Plugins: Make Faces From Lines: A plugin to create faces from a set of existing lines.
November 2009 - SketchUp Plugin Loft: Discover the plugin that allows the Loft operation in SU.
December 2009 - SketchUp Plugins: Round Corners: A Plugin to round the corners of 3D Objects.

Note that there are some months when the shown post is the second one because the most visited one was the same as the previous month. I did it like this so there could be 12 different posts here.

Helping Haiti

noreply@blogger.com (Martí) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 12:41:00 +0000

Give a bit to help Haiti
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After the Earthquake in Haiti the situation in the country is much worse than already was before. The reports I've been reading by some journalists, are really heartbreaking.
If you feel like you want to help, but you don't want to do it through religious organizations, the link on the image below will allow you to donate through Paypal to Red Cross International and Doctors without Borders. It takes 1 minute and less than 5 clicks. It's your call.

Click on the image or here to go to the donation page.

AutoCAD: Get Back the Menus and Toolbars - aka Ditch the Ribbon

noreply@blogger.com (Martí) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 09:44:00 +0000

Do you hate the ribbon? Do you want to get back your old menubar structure with toolbars? Easy and simple
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I hate the ribbon, I confess it. It is not only the Ribbon in AutoCAD, its the whole Ribbon concept, I hate it too since it appeared in the new version of the Office package (2007).
Fortunately, AutoCAD allows you to switch back to the old system, it is a pretty simple process. You just need to do the following:

Type RIBBONCLOSE (it will close the ribbon)
Enter MENUBAR in the command line and type "1" as a new value (it will show the menubar)
Then go to the EXTRAS Menu and go to Toolbars, here you will be able to select the toolbars you want to see displayed

Update: On the bottom right of the screen there is a Workspace control button that by default reads "2D Drafting and Annotation". If we change that to "AutoCAD Classic" we will get the standard interface we were used to before the ribbon appeared. Thanks to Helen for this tip.

AutoCAD: PREVIEWFILTER system variable

noreply@blogger.com (Martí) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:21:00 +0000

Control which objects are highlighted in the selection preview
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The selection preview is very useful to know before clicking which object you are going to select. The only problem it has is that if your objects are very complex, generating the preview might take some time, slowing down your workflow.
A clear example of objects that create issues if previewed are hatch patterns. Some time ago, I already wrote a post on How to Disable selection preview for Hatch Patterns. This post just wants to be a more comprehensive overview of how to control which objects are highlighted.
There is a system variable that allows us to control which objects are "selectionpreviewed". Te SV is PREVIEWFILTER, and as in other SV, the sum of the following values will result in some objects beeing excluded from the preview feature.

- 0 all objects are previewed
- 1 Objects on locked layers excluded
- 2 Objects in XREFs are excluded
- 4 Tables are excluded
- 8 Multiline objects are excluded
- 16 Hatch patterns excluded
- 32 Objects in groups are excluded

To exclude several object types, you need to enter the sum of the different values for this objects. For instance, if you want to exclude Hatch Patterns and Groups from selection previews, you will need to enter 48 as the value for the PREVIEWFILTER System Variable.
Alternatively, the controls for which objects are previewed can be accessed through Format --> Options --> Selection -->Visual Effects Options --> Advanced Options

SketcHup Plugins: Component Stringer

noreply@blogger.com (Martí) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 18:01:00 +0000

Place components along a path with this awesome plugin from Chris Fullmer.
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Placing components along a path is now a piece of cake with this Plugin from Chris Fullmer. The components allows several options like rotating the components as they are placed, scaling them etc. It is a very useful tool. I usually had to do this sort of task in AutoCAD using the MEASURE and DIVIDE commands. Now this can be done direclty and very easily in SketchUp. See Chris's video to get a better idea of what this does.

The plugin can be downloaded here. Big thanks to Chris for another great Plugin!

Windows 7

noreply@blogger.com (Martí) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 23:56:00 +0000

Anyone else hates windows 7 as much as Vista?
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I just got a new laptop and it comes with Windows 7, I was XP user and was quite satisfied with it. Windows 7 (which to me it looks exactly like Windows Vista, my theory is that they just renamed it...)is killing me slowly...it is such a pain, so reatarded and so full of useless stuff that I am already trying to get a copy of Win XP x64 and format the laptop...
Anyone else having similar problems?

Just a few things I am struggling:
- Some programs do simply not start (like I was using Carbonite online backup, and now only works when Windows 7 decides it wants it to work)
- The notification icons on the taskbar appear and disapear when they want, the saved settings get randomly reverted to default for no reason
- Folders "don't load totally" being unable to see the icons for each type of file.

I mean, Mr Gates, stop playing with the stupid display and transparency options, and put please some time on making the system at least as fast and stable as XP.
Sorry all for the whinning, but I had to complain to someone that would listen, what is ur experience with windows 7??

2009 Top Ten Visited Posts

noreply@blogger.com (Martí) — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 22:07:00 +0000

The ten favourite posts by the users in 2009 by the number of Unique Visitors
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As I did last year with the Top Ten List of 2008, here comes the list of the top 10 visited posts all year round in 2009. Happy New year to Everyone! Keep visiting and commenting on this 2010. All the Best.

SketchUp Plugin: Camera Recorder

noreply@blogger.com (Martí) — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 11:01:00 +0000

Record your moves and export them as a set of images to create an animation
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We saw on a previous post how to create an animation using the Flightpath.rb plugin. If what we want is to create a walkthrough, the Camera Recorder Plugin works better (at least for me). With this Plugin by Chris fullmer, you can walk through the mode using the walk tool from sketchup, and record the moves and get them exported to a series of images. See the video where Chris Explains how to use this Plugin.

You can download the plugin here

SketchUp: Exporting an animation with Good Quality.

noreply@blogger.com (Martí) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 06:35:00 +0000

SketchUp animations exports are pretty bad in quality, how to improve that?
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I had to export an animation for a recent project at school, and the regular exports from SetchUp were way to bad in quality. So I set myself to try to find a better way to do that. A bit of research on the internet showed me that if you export the animation as individual images and compile them on a movie file, the results should be better. Following some of the advice from Colin Holgate on this thread I exported my different scenes as series of JPEGs (I didn't realise it was better to export as PNG, I read the thread to quickly). The export resolution as 2048 x 1152 for a 16:9 widescreen format. Colin on his post explained he exported at 4096 x 2304 px, but my machine is old and I was time pressed to finish this, so i had to sacrifice quality for time.
Also, the methodology is slightly different, since he was exporting from a Mac and I was doing it from a PC. In any case, the steps I followed were these:

Set up the animation scenes using the FlightPath Plugin
Configure the Animation so it does not pause on each scene (see this post about it)
Export the Animation ( I used export as JPEG and quality 2048x1153px, ideally you want to export a bit higher quality and PNG format)
Reduce the Exported Images to a lower resolution (I reduced them to 853 x 480px)
Compile the images in a Movie file using Quicktime Pro
Combine the different scenes and add credits + music using Adobe Premiere Pro

This is the video after following these steps.

As you can see, the quality is still not impressive. This is due to several reasons:

I exported as JPG by mistake instead of PNG
I should have exported the original images in higher quality to reduce the flickering of lines
It was my first time using Premiere, so I had no idea which settings I was using.

As you see, I am still a newby on this, I just wanted to share the work done. Anyone who has some advice on how to better attempt to get a high quality animation out of SketchUp that is still manageable in size, feel free to comment.

SketchUp Plugins: Create a Fly through animation

noreply@blogger.com (Martí) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 19:27:00 +0000

Do you need to create a flythrough animation in SketchUp? Use this plugin to set up the scenes.
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The Flightpath.rb Plugin allows you to easily create fly through type of animation. It is very simple to use and has several options to set the target of the camera.

If you want to do a fly through sort of animation, you probably want to use the first option, which basically creates an animation where the camera follows the path (it basically uses the next node or vertex of the path as the camera target). For other sort of animations (like the one I am going to show on the next post) you can use the other three options which basically let you choose if the camera points to a single target all the time, if it changes target on a straight line from one point to another, or if the target moves also on a second path.

The Plugin can be downloaded here for free. There is a newer version of the plugin called Flightpath 2, also available at Smustard, it costs 7$, but I haven't tested it.

How do you Export SketchUp Layers to AutoCAD?

noreply@blogger.com (Martí) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:44:00 +0000

This is an open question, not a solution. Is there a Plugin for that?
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I've been asked if there is a way to export the SketchUp layers when exporting to AutoCAD as 2D drawing. All my Google searches have been useless, so here comes the question in case someone can help with this.
Is there a Plugin to Export as 2D Drawing from SketchUp to AutoCAD and get the geometry to keep the layers from SketchUp?. Right now the only thing that seems possible is to separate the geometry in Cut Edges and Profile Edges.
SO please, if anyone knows how to do this share it here! THanks

SketchUp Plugins: Extrude an Edge following two Rails

noreply@blogger.com (Martí) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:35:00 +0000

Another curved surface creation Plugin. SketchUp is becoming more powerful day by day. Thanks to TIG this time!
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Need to extrude an edge following two contour edges? A new Plugin by TIG will do it for you. The "Extrude Edges by Rails" plugin developed by TIG allows you to select the edge to be extruded and the two rails to use as extrusion path.
On the following example, see how from the three curved lines shown on the upper picture, I created the surface on the lower picture. Pretty cool ha!?

To use it (after installing the plugin) go to Plugins-->Extrude Edges by Rails. Just a bit of advice before running it, the example shown here took more than 5 minutes to be created (I am running a 3 year old Laptop 2.0Ghz Core 2 Duo with 2Gb of Ram). At some point I though the computer was hung, but it didn't, just be patient.

You can download the Plugin here. Thanks to TIG.

SketchUp: Modelling a Terrain #01

noreply@blogger.com (Martí) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:50:00 +0000

What are the steps to follow to model a terrain in SketchUp? See them following this series of posts.
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The first thing we need to do to be able to model a terrain, is to have clean topographic lines. This task is definitely better done on a CAD drafting platform such as AutoCAD.
Ideally, we want to have topo-lines all connected, without gaps in them, and of course we want each of this topo lines to be at the right height. Getting this clean geometry is probably the most time consuming proces of modelling the terrain. See below for a "before and after" version of a typical topo file.

Once we have it, we just need to import the geometry to Sketchup and we are ready to start. To model the terrain, we need the SandBox tools. Although they come standard with sketchup, they need to be activated, so if you can´t see them, go to Windows --> Preferences --> Check that the box of the SandBox is Active --> Then go to View --> Toolbars --> Sandbox.

Before we proceed to use the sandbox tool to model the terrain, I strongly encourage you to use the Simplify Contours Plugin to simplify a bit the topo lines. Otherwise, the resulting terrain might be too heavy to handle.

Once we have done this, we simply need to select topo-lines, and click on the "from contours" tool in the Sandbox toolbar.

This will create the basic terrain. As you can see on the image below.

To represent it resembling a real life model I also added the sides and to be able to understand better how the terrain works, I used Chris Fullmer's "color by Z" plugin to paint the terrain. See below.

On future posts we will see how to add simple roads, how to place buildings, how to add vegetation, context terrain from Google earth, etc. I´ll try to use this same model for the other tutorials so anyone can follow them by downloading the file.
BTW, tomorrow is thanksgiving, so those who celebrate it, have a wonderful time with your families and/or friends. Don't get too crazy with the shopping deals...we are still on recession.

AutoCAD: List of Objects

noreply@blogger.com (Martí) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:09:00 +0000

The list of all the AutoCAD object types. Links to the different categories of objects and relevant posts about them.
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
Back in September I started the series "AutoCAD list of Objects". As the series is finished right now, I thought i would be good to have a main post that works as a directory for all of the posts of the series. So here are the links to all those posts.
Remember that you can access this typo of posts that work as a directory of the website by clicking on the "directory" link on the orange navigation bar on the header.

If you find any missing objects, please don't hesitate to contact me and I'll add them on the right category. Thanks!!