Hi all
I am building a model of 20 acre garden with lots of orchards so I need a good tree. I’ve managed to find this one (attached) but the trunk is way too long and the outline is too crude. I’ve been trying to delete the parts I don’t want to no avail. It sounds like an easy thing to do but I can’t figure it out. Can anyone help?
Many thanks
Jo
Apple tree.skp (2.5 MB)
Have you tried using “view hidden geometry?” You can cut the trunk, lower the tree and work on the outline. Also there is extra uselesss (AFIK) geometry. You just need the outline of the tree with the texture.
Make hidden geometry visible. Using Tools On Surface plugin might be the fastest way to draw a new outline. HIde the new outline edges. Remove the rectangle and the extra outline object, whatever that is. Edit the component from the component window and set the shadow to follow the sun.
Thanks very much for this. I turned on hidden geometry and it didn’t look any different to me. But I managed to chop the trunk off at least which is the main thing. I have downloaded the Tools on surface plug in. What tool from that would I use? I am pretty new to SketchUp.
Many thanks
Jo
Hidden geometry should allow you to see the dotted outlines of the surface. That’s just edges that have been hidden using the “hide” command. In this case it is pretty much necessary to be able to tell where the surface is to draw. Perhaps, since you are new, part of the problem was knowing that you must “edit” the component to get at the surface inside the face-me component, by double clicking on it and “opening” the component. (also when you select the component there is an “edit component” command added to the contextual menu and to a submenu in the Edit menu). But apparently you’ve managed that now.
Besides the outline, hidden geometry showed me all the extra edges inside the object that are unneeded. The component, while having a nice texture was a mess. As in my posted picture, the outline is all you need (it creates the surface that the tree texture is on).
I used tools on surface because with the transparency of the texture it is difficult to always land the line tool on the surface. With the line standard tool you can wait until you see a prompt “on surface”, but that is slow. I used the so-called freehand tool that has a squiggle icon. You click-click points around the the image that you want to be the outline, one after another. you may miss some, but you can connect the ends afterward, you have to completely close the shape (or connect to the current edge) to make complete surface separations. You are separating the tree surface by outlining surface and edges to delete. Think of it as lines to cut out a clothing pattern- if you do not cut (draw edges) completely, you cannot remove the excess without also deleting the surface you need. Experiment with a regular non-transparent textured surface where you can see better what you are doing.
the standalone tree maker plugin is very good for this. free. While you create a look from 3D it outputs 2D.
This is a very helpful answer - thank you I appreciate it.
That all makes sense re the hidden lines and transparency. Thats why I was struggling to grab the surface to cut it.
I’m not surprised the tree is a mess - I made it!
Thanks again
Jo
When I am more experienced in SketchUp I will give this a go - thank you for the suggestion!
Oh, Sorry!
It may look complicated but it’s really pretty straightforward. As a separate plugin/extension it has little to do with sketchup, it has its own interface, only the resulting 2D face me tree gets dropped into sketchup.
Trees that you make and can be saved in a library so you don’t have to repeat.
Hi there
I’m working on another tree I downloaded from the warehouse. Its a great texture but it was casting a rectangular shadow. So I exploded it and cut around it, then hid the lines around it. I then tried to turn it back into a component and set the axis so it faces the camera. It hasn’t worked and I don’t know why. Do I need to start again? (it took ages to draw around this tree).
As usual, I have no idea where I am going wrong and I am on a tight deadline for my final student project (2.5 MB)
Appreciate any advice.
Many thanks
Jo
Double click on surface then right-click for the contextual menu and choose “make component”. In the dialog window check “always face camera” and “shadow faces sun”. You will want to move the axes to the bottom of the trunk, since the axes are at the insertion point you use to place the tree and the vertical axis of rotation.
Thanks for the info> I thought I did exactly that 3 times (minus always face sun) but didn’t work. I will try again.
check, ‘Replace selection with component’ is checked…
john
That worked!!! Thank you very much John
I use Laubwerks tree kits for Sketchup. They’re the perfect 3D tree resource and render out very well if you’re doing 3D renderings with V-Ray or some other render engine as a plugin. Otherwise, if you’re trying to just use Sketchup for the rendering, Laubwerks’ trees show up as low polly forms.
Probably the best choice if models are to be put through a renderer but it comes at a price, those sets aren’t cheap, but if its your work depends on vegetation they are worth it!
The low poly proxies certainly reduce the load on a model. The low poly issue only became a problem once for me when the model was taken into a virtual environment and so the low poly tree proxies didn’t look so good.
Laubwerks was smart to use low poly forms to reduce the complicated geometry of their trees while you work on your model. Some of the plants I have found on 3D Warehouse, since they go into the model as completely formed models with all the leaf and limb geometry, can really slow down your computer.
And, yes, they cost money but each tree and shrub kit comes with multiple trees and shrubs for each kit and at least 36 variations for each (winter, spring, summer and fall, plus different ages). You can also edit them. You get a lot of bang for the buck.
The only down side is, if you load your model with a lot of plants, all that geometry slows down the render time. I suggest you use photos for background trees and landscaping and only use the Laubwerks trees around the building or whatever you’re modeling. I also suggest you do multiple renders (for editability) and put the background images into the scene via Photoshop. Saves a lot of time.
Thanks for the advice. I must admit I haven’t gone into the world of rendering yet! All I do is place 2D face-me trees and some major plants in SketchUp then I add more in Photoshop. I then create a watercolour layer on top from Waterloggue. I think I need to go on more advanced Photoshop course perhaps to learn about rendering. Or maybe I don’t need to if what am making isn’t photo-realistic. One of my images is attached. Any advice appreciated!
Jo
Wow, great job!
Thanks very much!
