Curbs that follow terrain

[cullen]

My question was slightly discussed in another thread.

 

http://www.cgarchitect.com/vb/17323-topo-site-modeling.html

 

Being that it had different issues than the original thread I started this one. I have a project due Monday that I'm trying to get a handle on. I usually have no problem with 3D sites because I try to keep them as flat as possible. I currently have a project where I need to model a campus site plan but the client wants to see the elevation change. It’s about a 10’ slope from one end to the other, and the site isn't long so it is noticeable.

 

I have followed this tutorial: (Thanks Brian & Tod)

http://3das.com/2007/04/creating-3d-...ans-part-i.asp

 

However, unlike the tutorial, I have a noticeable slope and need the curb against my streets to follow the terrain. I currently have 2 separate files, 3D terrain and a flat site plan. Therefore my roads don't follow the contours and the lofts or sweeps I create are flat.

 

Advise on this situation would be much appreciated. I have searched for about 6 hours today and am truly lost.

 

Thanks,

crw

[Brian Smith]

it's really quite simple...and really the same approach outlined in the 2D tutorial with one added step.

 

after doing the boolean>cut>split and detaching the road from the rest of the ground, select the road, go to edge subobject mode, select the open edges (there's a button for this), and create a shape from the open edges. then just loft the curbs along that spline.

 

hence the power of the much ragged upon 'boolean' feature. and this is one procedure where the proboolean will not work because of it's inability to automatically select the 'split' faces (which makes detaching possible)

[cullen]

Thanks for the help Brian. That worked perfectly. I had been driving myself crazy over this one.

[adamsanders]

I do something similar:

 

1. Import cad terrain object (and do whatever optimizations you want) and cad parking lot plan if you got 'em.

 

2. Trace a new, clean, 2d spline over the boundaries of the parking lot and roads via the imported parking lot cad.

 

3. Do a shapemerge between the 2d spline and terrain object to split the asphalt areas and the grass areas in the mesh.

 

4. If you apply and Edit mesh to the terrain and go to poly mode, the areas of asphalt will be automatically selected. Detach as a new object.

 

5. Select open edges of the asphalt object, and create spline from edges.

 

6. (optional) there is a free plugin called “optimize spline” that I apply and collapse.

 

The result is usually a spline that’s clean, accurate, and ready for a bevel profile. Sometimes there may still be some points too close to each other that make the bevel profile go crazy, but it’s not bad.