hey all it's your resident SketchUp pusher... I wanted to let everyone know about some of the kool plugins made for SketchUp (a free 3D program from Google). SketchUp uses Ruby coding to aqllow users to build plugins that they wish existed. here is a forum where you'll find a list of most of the plugins currently available. http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=28782 p.s. that forum is full of helpful people that will guide you through the software. the first and most interesting for the track modders will be Instant Road. found here http://www.valiarchitects.com/sketchup_scripts/instant-road this plugin will allow you to take a piece of terrain and then a single line or an outline of a road and then connect the two with optional settings like shoulder width, road width and curb height. it will also automatically cut grading. View attachment 1375 View attachment 1376 this software is awesome, very time saving... I know the creator and will be asking him for a special deal for the Instant Road alone to offer to you rFactor Builders.... there is a Pro and Free version Pro is $25.00.
no it doesn't export directly to rF2 but it will export directly to 3DSimEd and it Exports Directly to 3D Max which in turn exports to rF2.
another reason this is helpful is that you can grab a track from Google Earth Directly and then have both texture and terrain data about the track and surrounding. plus if there is any 3D buildings in the area then it can pull those in as well. View attachment 1441 View attachment 1442 I might add that if someone is proficient in 3D Max then this will not be of value to them, this is for novice 3D users who need free software, simple user interface, tons of free models, satellite terrain data and custom plugins...
I use GE and Sketchup occasionally to capture terrain and export it to max. There are some rally tracks Id like to make, but modeling out 10 miles of terrain is just to much work. This method could solve that problem, especially the way it merges the road to the terrain, and that's a big hassle for rally tracks. The one thing that makes it tough is that when I capture terrain Scetchup only keeps the area that's in the view port rather than a designated swath, and the polys get skewed if the view angle isn't facing straight down. This makes matching up multiple meshes imposable because they start and end unevenly, and the skewed meshes make it even harder. Is there a plugin that can capture single a large swath of terrain and still get an accurate and high density mesh? Ive also been looking into tools that can convert USGS data into a usable mesh. No luck yet with that.
if you use SketchUp 7 to get GE terrain it will grab a larger area. not sure why they limited it in 8.
here is a plugin for sketchup that helps automate that stitching of the terrain mesh from google earth. http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=40627
Author of that plugin has ton of other stuff too, has also tutorials how to use etc: http://sdmitch.blogspot.com/ Might be useful at some point for something, even I am more towards max there is room for every tool, so thx
I add bit more of this stuff, looks pretty neat and handy to me http://sketchup.engineeringtoolbox.com/ Engineering toolbox itself is useful for car modding also on physic side of things too. edit: Oh yes, I use sketchup mainly to make model of my house and planning bit of renovation and see what is worth doing and what is not, there are software like sweet home 3d for that, but sketchup is really nice for that kind of work too, it is nice to see lot of plugins have appeared since I last time checked and many things are now possible which were not before, some of that stuff is of course handy for track making too.
I have so many plugins that I can't load them all at once. I have this one called Artisan and it does really nice sub-divide and smoothing. http://artisan4sketchup.com/ and TGi3D is a crazy sweet plugin but costs some money after the trial... http://www.tgi3d.com/