Polygon reduction plugin/software

SketchUp
,
1

Hello,

What I wanted to know are there any plugins or a free software that can reduce the number of polygons. For example, a truck/bogie for locomotive would have 100,000 faces. I would want to reduce it by half. the total of faces would be 50,000.

it could be the entire model or just multiple selections on parts of the model that I want them to be reduced to a low number of polygons.

Why am I asking is due to the fact I wanted to create 2 different level based on a high polygon model:
-Low polygon Model
-Medium polygon model

It would take a lot of time to build 3 different model with 3 level of details. I would appreciate your helping with this, so thanks in advance.

1 Like
2

Thereā€™s Whaatā€™s Polyreducer.

3

Yeah, I tried Polyreducer. it is not exactly working as it should be.

it just doubles or triples the number of faces. I donā€™t know why.

I used the wheel of the truck/bogie from a locomotive as a test model.

4

Sorry. I suppose it hasnā€™t been updated for a long time. Thereā€™s a poly reducer in Artisan and thereā€™s a 25% off deal right now. Buy Now ā€“ Artisan Organic Toolset for SketchUp

5

Thatā€™s cool. I donā€™t know there is another software or plugin other than WrapR for Sketchup. I gotta say it has the unnecessary tools that I donā€™t need to use. I only need polygon reduction tool for now.

6

I suppose you could redraw it manually. That would be free.

7

Meshlab have that feature http://www.meshlab.net/#features

8

You can also check SubD from thomthom, you model the proxy in very low poly, and choose the level of subdivision for higher polycount:

https://extensions.sketchup.com/nl/content/subd

9

Ok. I have tried Meshlab and itā€™s not giving me the result I expected to see. :frowning:

10

Oh, thatā€™s a useful tool, I am getting it. Thanks for sharing that information with me, I donā€™t know it existed.

but one question, is it possible that you can use SubD to reduce the detail on a high detailed model? Or does it has to be starting from a low detail model?

11

Okay. Is there a plugin that can do a feature of what I would like to change the detail of 1 model to a low polygon. Hereā€™s the example:

[Album]

on the left side, You can see that the polygon counts on the curve are a total of 24 sides. and on the right side, the model has a count of 6 polygons on the curve.

There should be a tool that allows me to change the face including the lines (the curve line) to a low polygon without re-building the model again?

12

You could try using Blenderā€™s Decimate modifier with the Un-Subdivide option.

https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/modeling/modifiers/generate/decimate.html

Ideally, youā€™d be doing this the other way round. Youā€™d make a low poly model then subdivide it at the end so youā€™re working on a simpler mesh all the time.

13

most 3D software will not allow ā€˜destructiveā€™ changes from code without user inputā€¦

the main reason is it complicated and users can lose their workā€¦

in your simple example, I could guess you want to keep:

  1. the base rectangle
  2. the height at each end
  3. the height at the start and end of each curve

but how can ā€˜codeā€™ guess that?

if it was modelled at origin with the correct axis orientation, then the bounding box may help with 1 and 2ā€¦

if the ā€˜curveā€™ really is made as a curve, circle or arc, then the code could possibly target thatā€¦

but what happens to any attached faces when it replaces edges with a different set?

they no longer exist, and code canā€™t put them back so needs to make new onesā€¦

MeshLabs have some of the best algorithmā€™s available to do this, but even it requires a substantial amount of user input to come close to what you wantā€¦

and you need to load your item on itā€™s own and define what to keep to get any level of accuracyā€¦

there have been a few plugins like ā€˜Polyreducerā€™ over the years, but they simply canā€™t cover all possible modelling stylesā€¦

SU is a quick modeller, it is easy to make 3 versions of the same item if you make them in parallelā€¦

it is easy to switch them once they are madeā€¦

it is almost impossible to do this on a ā€˜finishedā€™, unprepared modelā€¦

john

14

alright. thatā€™s a good explanation.

about my previous post, what I meant is there a plugin that allows anyone that can select a face that has the arc. At this point, where the face is selected with ā€œblueā€ā€¦ all of the lines shown blue, that should allow the user to change the segment on both sides. This is just like in the picture, where you see the model on the left side would be changed to the model on the right side. This is where I donā€™t have to use the Push/Pull tool again to pull the model back in that type of model once again.
EDIT: Another way to say it is the method is to do multiple lines on both sides and change their segment (you can assume all of their segment has the same count of sides). when both sides are changed, the face will be also changed as well.

Or is there no plugins that can do this. Thatā€™s the question but the method I explained in this post and the previous post are more like a simplified method to change the detail of a model. I tried the method where I started with a low polygon model and when itā€™s finished. I would try to turn it into a high detailed model using a plugin or other software.

a few models that can work are wine glasses or glasses, a helmet, the body of a car. But I already mentioned that I am creating a truck or a bogie that locomotive/train use to move along on the track. The truck/bogie will not work like glasses or a helmet. I am trying to find out if there are plugins that can save me a lot of time on building 3 different level of details on a truck/bogie

15

Mootools Polygoncruncher

Itā€™s not a SketchUp plugin though.

16

Replying to Julian_Smith

Alright, Iā€™ve checked it out. I cannot find any good review regarding the Mootools polygon cruncher. Iā€™ll have to leave it at that. I also noticed that it is both freeware and payware software that can be used to do the work depending on what 3D modeling software you are using. I am sure you already know that freeware has limitation while the payware does not have any limits.

17

Take a look at the sketchUcation review, not too recent but not too distant either. IIRC at least 2 updates have been released since the review.

18

This topic was automatically closed 91 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.