Hey, does anyone know how to flatten curved surface? I need to make flat path from those projected lines on the surface. Thanks 
There are a lot of ways to do that, but with different results as well. It also depends on how was the terrain modeled, if it was using quads I’d use vertex tools increasing 1 or 2 meters the soft radius of selection so the surrounding ground bends smoothly close to the path. You can also use native tools with the sandbox stamp tool but depending on the shape of the terrain you could end up with a flat path but a 2 meters terrain wall. If you share your file we could help you to figure out how to do it better.
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Here´s the model, thanks
terrain.skp (440.6 KB)
Is it like this?
flatterrain.skp (256.8 KB)
I set up a plan view and exported as .dwg then imported it back in.
No, I just want to flatten the road, not whole surface
Maybe you can add a vertical line at every intersection and redraw the road flat at a random height above the model and then pull down the planes into a 3d shape lower it into the model so it intersects where you want the road to be flat and use the intersection with model tool to cut out the terrain mesh.
You should take a look to Holygon Landscape plugin. It’s easy to do that. Landshape for Sketchup – Design Beautiful Landscapes
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Here’s how I did it with some screenshots and videos, I name all the tools and extensions.
Up is the flattened path with hidden geometry, down is the path after cleaning with CleanUp3, some edges and components were also deleted.
I created a quad mesh using split tools, and align endpoints plugin to drop down the mesh overt the existing terrain.
Terrain made out of Quads on top of old terrain
Intersect faces with quad mesh
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This is a great workflow, thanks for sharing in such a detailed manner. I’ve been trying to figure out a way to create breaklines for roadways in SU, but have continued to revert back to Civil 3D as it is really built for such, but having this as a backup is definitely going in my back pocket for a rainy day (especially because I already have Vertex Tools!).
Question: why create the large quad mesh, was it simply too cumbersome to use the ground surface from OPs original file?
The original terrain didn’t have enough geometry to be able to make a smooth transition using the soft radius selection and the flatten tool from vertex tools. Creating a quad mesh is very easy using either subD or split tools and with the align ends plugin it takes just a few clicks to create a new terrain.
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That’s what I figured, I just wanted to make sure. Appreciate it and great job.
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