Is there a way to take a sketchup model of a building for example, and create a dumbed down version of it to place in the background of a site. Basically I have models for buildings that are detailed and large in file size and I want to easily create some sort of mesh/skin that can wrap the model creating one simple component that still looks the same. I want the same level of detail but do not need each individual window frame etc. and will only need the exterior nothing on the interior. as it will all just be white.
any suggestions on plugins or extensions. I have tried Mesh Wrapper, I need something like this but one smooth surface and more level of detail. almost as if you were to 3D print the model and just need an outer shell if that makes sense.
If the model is built from solid groups and/or solid components, you can use SketchUp’s right-click->outer shell command to generate the (duh!) outer wrapper with no loss of exterior detail. But it only works with assemblies of solids; it will not accept loose geometry or objects that are not solids.
hello, you could have a look at ghostcomp by fredo6. you have many parameters to simplify a component.
ghostcomp has been improved in a licenced version, fredoghost
It was originally an export from revit so there are many different groups as well as layers in the model. Unfortunately I can not share the model because it is for my job and a breach of privacy. I have been looking into this all day and still have nothing. I did find a tool in Autodesk called Shrinkwrap which is essentially what I want to do to my model but it seems no such thing exists for sketchup.
There is also a plugin from thom thom called “shell” which I thought would work and it does for simple objects but not for a building with so many groups and components.
I also looked into if I could somehow make the entire model a solid group (I have no idea how I would) I could potentially use sketchup’s outer shell tool like slbaumgartner suggested.
I suggest you export differently from revit, using filters. You can choose what type of objects you need to export from there.
you say it has many different layers, none of them could be cast away without compromising the general integrity ?
Yes the layers are directly imported from revit too (ie. window frames, glazing, walls, etc) the thing is that they all come in as groups or components and literally all I need is the outer 2D shell. The revit model export is still very big for what I am doing even with interior elements turned off. I don’t even really need wall thicknesses. This guy on this forum seems to be wanting to do exactly what I need but no one could really help him either Create an outer shell from complex model
It means that the tool hasn’t been able to communicate with the server. It generally happens when you use a VPN, or DNS of some sort (or potentially some firewall restriction, but this is less likely).
If you use any of those, try to deactivate them temporarily and let us know if that works better. A similar reported case could be solved that way (it was working perfectly on one computer but not on another, on the same network).
I still need to figure out why the server doesn’t respond in those situations (it’s in the ToDo )
)