Hi
Without going into too much detail, I’ve begun working on a housing scheme (12 units) that I’ve come to realise really ought to show a sloping gradient to the site which until now hadn’t been addressed at the sketch/feasibility stage. I’m thinking of starting out using the sandbox stamp tools for the main houses but I wonder if there’s an easy way of dropping/moving/adjusting the other items to fit to the sloping site such as fencing and other, landscaping items etc with an add-on extension to save time?
I’d like to think someone else has had this situation - Any ideas would be very welcome.
There are some extensions that might help. What version of SketchUp are you using? Please complete your profile.
In the future you should always model the site first. If this is a professional job, that should be done from a topographic survey.
Then design/model directly in the site model so you always have the topography/view/exposure in mind. It is the most important factor to a successful design.
After you have a basic concept, you can then save out the structure as a component and work on it in more detail on its own, creating the scenes that are specific to the structure.
In the site model the structure is then a component that simply needs to be updated to the latest structure model.
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Thanks for the response and the reminder to update my profile
Thanks for updating it.
Nick is correct that it’s best to do the terrain first but in this case you might be able to put an extension like DropCG from the Extension Warehouse to work. It’ll drop components or groups onto the terrain. It won’t make things like fence rails follow the terrain however so you would probably need to add them separately. Depending on the fence you might put the posts in place and then use a Follow Me path from point to point to create the rails. Or for a picket fence sort of thing you could use Profile Builder to make an assembly.
I accept your response and promise to pay attention to your advice in your book!
Just to say sometimes we have to accept what data we are given to work with without the benefit of hindsight.
Many thanks
That sounds exactly what Im looking for and has led me to ideas about Smartdrop too. Thankyou
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Once you establish this with your client, it shouldn’t be a problem. My proposals and contracts require that I am provided a topographic survey before work can begin.
The site has such a major impact on design decisions and I can’t imagine working without that information.