I’ve managed to replicate the span gap in the bridge. It took some doing but I was able to figure it out…
The bridge’s main span was designed so that it could be converted into a “lift bridge”, in an “emergency”. This modification was never actually implemented but they did build the bridge to be ready for this.
I personally didn’t know this until recently in fact. I wonder how they would have actually implemented the modification for this if they had decided it was necessary…
I even managed to connect the drains below the street deck to the downspouts mounted alongside the box girders. Not like anyone will ever know the difference, but still…
By the weekend I expect I’ll be erecting the streetlights.
The message means that you have put ungrouped “raw” geometry on a layer that you have then hidden. You should almost never do that. The lines and faces, even while invisible, are still present in your model and interact with what you do.
I’ve yet to experiment with grouping “raw” geometry. All I know is that I’ve hidden the various bends in the bridge so it looks more organic as it curves.
I was able to kinda cheat it by manually drawing lines before the extrusion hit the offending hidden line(s) and stitching over it. If that makes any sense.
Also, I’ve only ever dealt with layer 0. Should I have used other layers?
You should look into it as it is how to stop geometry sticking together, plus components, among other benefits, when used multiple times are related, so change one you change them all.
Your rail brackets for example should be instances of one component, so if you added a bolt head to one it would automatically be placed in all of them.
No, if you are only using raw geometry then you should only be using Layer0.
Only Groups or Components should be assigned to other layers.
When I hide the lines to make the pavement appear smoother, they still are in fact somewhat visible. They shimmer and whatnot when moving the camera around the model.
I really think you should put your Bridge model aside for now and concentrate on learning more about modelling.
Then once you understand the tools more you can return to the bridge and build it better and quicker.
Right now you are simply working too hard.
And for what it’s worth, I am learning about 3D modelling every second I spend on this project of mine.
I try to figure things out on my own, and when I hit a brick wall I try to find the answers on the Knowledge Base. Often that fails, so I post here. And so then I learn.
Case in point was your reply earlier; I hadn’t thought that the reason the hidden lines were remaining visible was because of geometry underneath the asphalt layer. I might have accidentally discovered it in the near future but as I was stuck I felt that I should post here.
I’d like to apologize to anyone who has read my posts and thought to themselves, “Geez doesn’t this guy know ANYTHING?”
I only discovered SketchUp because I was looking for ways to make 3D models like those found in Google Earth and I’d like to accomplish this project of mine because it’s dear to me. No, I’m not a professional modeller. Hell, I mangle model cars 90% of the time I try to build them.
I do appreciate it when people respond to me and take the time to show me how it’s done. I’m not certain if I convey that adequately enough.
I understand what you are saying, but learning on something that is dear to you is never a good way to go.
Learn on something that doesn’t truly matter but is interesting, then when you are more proficient move on to the thing that is dear to you and you’ll have a better result that you’ll be happy with longer.
One of the things I do is teach people how to make stained glass, they always want to jump right in and make their front door or something else equally dear to them. I try to convince them otherwise, do several practice pieces before you attempt something that you want to keep. In the long run the ones that jump right in are never happy with the results, because pretty soon they learn more, get better and then all the faults in their first piece annoy them.
I’m quite loathe to start over on the bridge model especially since it’s taken so long to get even this far on it.
I’m not certain that I’d be able to adequately reproduce the same positioning of the pier footings, and that is what determines the shape of the bridge…
I could never do anything like this in the real world, because as is probably apparent I’m somewhat inept with geometry. The stupid thing would probably fall as soon as someone tried to cross it. Oops.
I didn’t say start over, I suggested you leave it for a while and do some practice models and tutorials and come back to it with new eyes.
By watching ‘how to’ videos now you will start to easily see things that will help you because you will already have tried to do it in your bridge model. Having struggled along for a while like you have will have set certain questions in the back of your mind, so you’ll spot the answers in the videos better than someone looking at them without any experience.
