I am looking for the best, or maybe quickest, way to produce 3D terrain from a 2D plan with contours, like this: [Screenshot 2021-08-20 at 10.37.01] I can import all the lines satisfactorily into SU. I could easily create a kind of terraced appearance by making surfaces and raising each by a met…

I think I have answered my own question by finding this tutorial: Terrain Modeling in SketchUp with Sandbox Tools - The SketchUp Essentials #31 - YouTube Looks like Sandbox tools are made for the job.

That’s interesting. The inbuilt sandbox tools work very well but if you start with contour lines in the same plane (as I did), you do have to spend time moving them. The extension seems to speed this up by allowing you to ascribe height data to the lines. Is that the main advantage?

[image] simoncbevans: Is that the main advantage? I also think that TopoShaper creates a quadrilateral mesh instead of the heavily triangulated one by the Sandbox from Contours tool. Both have their uses.

[image] simoncbevans: you do have to spend time moving them Or you can use Elevate Contours plugin [Elevate Contours Extension for SketchUp]

Cheers. That certainly speeds things up.

What are the circumstances that would prefer one to the other? Does one make for a smaller file size, for example?

[image] simoncbevans: What are the circumstances that would prefer one to the other? Autostarting at 0:33 (to 1:26) [Sandbox bonus tools for SketchUp]

Can Vertex Tools or Quadface Tools be used for any of this in place of Sandbox Bonus Tools?

@RTCool , try this to replace a surface of irregular triangles with a quadrilateral mesh [image] Hobby mihai.s Gallery Fill in and converting irregular mesh terrain to quads/triangles starting from this discussion: [Fill in terrain, convert to quads/triangles | …

Creating a terrain from contours

SketchUp Pro

mihai.s August 21, 2021, 4:15am 11

@RTCool, try this to replace a surface of irregular triangles with a quadrilateral mesh

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Creating a terrain from contours

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