To achieve an accurate context for a model, I tend to import the civil site plan for the project to grab curbs, roads, sidewalks, etc. This allows me to drape the drawing on to the geolocated site and extrude these site details without having to redraw the entirety of the site plan in sketchup. This is usually my end result, and what I am currently trying to achieve with this new project.
On previous projects, there was some major cleanup involved with preparing the cad for import and cleaning up the lines in sketchup. This time consuming cleanup was solely done to fix the issue of apparently closed shapes not forming/cutting surfaces on the draped terrain (1), a common issue from a cursory read of this forum.
Now, I am having an issue with previously curved polylines/arcs in autocad not draping on to the surface (2). (If anyone has a suggestion on how to prep curved polylines in cad to import into sketchup without having to redraw might solve this). Not only does this occur on the terrain surface, but on regular surfaces as well.
However, I need a new workflow for this. The first issue was tolerable, but combined, these pose a major time issue for this current project. In fact, the cad itself is not complex nor large, it just incorporates a generous amount of curved sidewalks. So I want to know: how do you provide the site in your model?
Am I really forced to use the blurry google earth texture as the ground for my models? Is it preferable just to redraw all sidewalks, curbs, and roads even though I have cad already drawn of this? Certainly this can’t be the case.
Please let me know if more context needs to be provided.
(1) This example is of a curb off of a house on the site plan that was draped on a flat terrain surface. Even though these lines intersect, they refuse to form a closed shape on the surface without being redrawn at multiple intersections, even though they were confirmed intersecting in the cad.
After fixing:
(2) Lines are not being draped from the imported cad.