Bricks in a radial pattern

SketchUp
1

The radial pattern for the bricks that I need to draw are between two arches. When I use the Ctrl+Rotate tool to create the radial pattern bricks layout around this patio, because of the arches number of sides, I get what you can see on the attachment, some lines are short and some others too long

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Even if I increase the number of the arches’ sides, I still get the same things.
Is there a way to do this in a more realistic way?
Thank you in advance.

2

Do you need the lines or are you searching for a texturing method for this task?

3

just use more segments in your arc’s to match the number of bricks required…

john

4

Lines: SplitSausage (combined with two other tools in the SplitTools) can create those lines…

1 Like
5

Cotty,
To do it with texture would be fine. Do you know how?
But just to know/learn I would also like to do it with lines without increasing the number of the arches sides. The arches would have at least 70 sides.

6

In fact, those lines (or the quads) will be helpful for texturing too, e.g. with SketchUV, QuadFaceTools, ThruPaint, …

7

Instead of copying the lines you could copy the bricks, forgeting about the arc.

Anyone using sketchup for some time would texture it instead.

Follow cotty explanation and then use … (bah cotty just poped up a the above:)

8

How do I texture a radial brick pattern?

9

Use one of these plugins

10

What plugins JQL?
Can we do it with the native tools?

11

These are the mentioned plugins:

All these can texture the brick quads…

12

Several texturing arch tutorials listed here, done by Gaieus.

13

This is a good use of that tool, but bricks are manufactured as uniform rectangles. The way bricks are placed over a curved surface is to fill in the wedge-shaped gaps with mortar.

For the most realistic representation of bricks, one should create a rectangular brick, and make it into a group or a component. This brick can then be placed on the wall and then replicated to follow the contour of the wall. Straight paths are easy to set up, using the ‘multiple copy’ feature for linear copies. Curves are covered using the ‘rotate’ tool with its copy commands (CTRL key to copy the brick over the rotation, and a number to set the number of bricks to be created over the course of the rotation). This will leave wedge-shaped voids to be filled with a separate component; either a rectangular ‘mortar’ for the linear runs, or a trapezoidal ‘mortar’ for the curved runs.

14

Not necessarily, there are such things as tapered bricks and radial bricks for that matter.

Shep

15

The answer is yes but first some concepts:

  1. SU as a surface modeler and approximate curves with line segments or chords encase of circles:
  2. As such there are no real tangents in SU meeting the mathematical definition we were taught in school;
  3. There are some plugins that make those for you. Think TIG has one and I find Fredos Bezier curves also helpful but it needs to be a second order one. Read his user manual.
    4.Using his Tools you can use it to spec the number of segments in the curve ( number or size). I used that and a plugin called component stringer a number of years ago to show approach for tank treads which worked ok but you have to watch for collisions as a function of thickness of item you are working with;
  4. IMHO think you would should use the suggestion and use photo imagery as a material and let Su do the heavy lifting for you.
  5. BTW think you should do some work on the photo and clean up for better aesthetics
    See this link it has some info, latter part tha may hel Sketchup #22: Custom Textures — Harwood Podcast
16

Don’t know if any of those plugins do this, but as a building designer who regularly has arched openings, here is what I would find useful.

Most arches would use standard bricks as special shape bricks are expensive and take a long time to get. Setting out the bricks for an arch, and to look right, you need an odd number of bricks so that you end up with a brick (not a joint) at the centre. So a given arch will have n number of bricks (where n is odd) and an even (n+1) number of joints. A standard brick width in the UK is 65mm but the joint will vary in an arch. Ideally, it will be around the 10mm that is standard for general walling.

If I want to draw an arch, I first find the length of the arc in mm. I deduct 10mm for a joint. I then divide the remainder by 75 (65mm brick + 10mm joint). The resulting number then has to be rounded up or down to the nearest odd number and can be used to divide the arc. Drawing construction lines from the centre of the arc through two division points gives me the angle for copy-rotation which I can use to create the bricks in the arch. It’s a pretty long-winded operation but, as it is almost entirely mathematical, it could clearly be automated. Is there a plugin to do that?

Ideally, any shortcut would allow you to specify the building unit size (brick, stone, etc) as they may vary from one country to another. Here in the UK, we sometimes still use imperial bricks (US too?). Also, tight radius arches often use half bricks to avoid joints getting too thick at the outer end.

2 Likes
17

simoncbevans, good post, makes sence. Thank you.

18

somoncbevans, good post, makes sense. Thank you.