Site Plans

[Josh1587140445]

So what do you guys do when it comes to creating site plans?

 

I am torn on how I am going to accomplish this task. I am currently working on a presentation for a fundraiser and they obviously want a site plan. So I have narrowed it down to two techniques.

 

1. Color pencil on 11x17 and then scan at a high enough resolution to potentially print out at 24x36.

 

2. Model the site and do something similar to this guy’s technique (http://www.ziteplans.com). And the main reason why I think I may want to go with his technique is because I have already modeled the building. But the major drawback is that there is a significant amount of topography change.

 

Of course, you have the potential for last minute changes, and neither of them have an easy solution to correct it.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

Proabably not as detailed as what you are looking for, but I did this in Illustrator about a year ago. It was quick, got the point across, and easy to change.

 

Between the 2 methods you mentioned, I would be a little hesitate to do it in model form. It will take more time, changes will be painful, and they are more likely to ask for changes since it is digital. They think because it is in the computer, that all you have to do is hit a few buttons, and everything is adjusted.

[Josh1587140445]

Well unfortunatly our office is a little low tech. Or well that is my PC term for cheap. I work with PaintShop Pro here and unfortunatly I have not profected/attempted the digital painting technique.

 

I wish I could do the type of plan you posted. But my real issue is what I will do to show the topo.

 

Here is an image of what I have to work with.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

...nice radial plan.

 

we did this one mostly in formZ. we built a step model, then mapped a green gradient onto the side of it. set it up so that the gradient fades as it goes up. don't use curves of any type, but use a poly line, and space the point kind of far apart to keep the poly count down.

 

the underlay was done in freehand by our graphics dept., but you could probably produce this in formZ also. just create the graphics, and render a straight down view. then map the rendering back onto a plane under your site.

[Josh1587140445]

I like that option a lot. It is very conceptual. I need to show my boss on how to read this stuff as a conceptual tool. He loves detailed realistic models for the early schematic phase.

 

So did you just use the glue tool to get the road to follow the topography?

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

i am not sure what the glue tool is. i differenced the roads, and made them another color.

 

....is there really a glue tool, or are you joking around? ....hmmmm.

[Chad Warner]

Glue is a plugin for MAX/VIZ that will take an object and "glue" it to the terrain. Josh must not have read that you were using Form-Z. Nice models by the way!

 

-Chad

[Ernest Burden III]

...we did this one mostly in formZ...don't use curves of any type, but use a poly line, and space the point kind of far apart to keep the poly count down.

 

I tried doing exactly that last night. I could not get FormZ to make the terrain. I had all polylines, but the 'shape' was a closed polyline. I thought that would work. It never liked the 'shape', so I did the surface in Datacad. I like that you used the gardient mapped vertically. I have mapped lines vertically to put topo lines on a surface, but not a gradient. Nice idea.

[Josh1587140445]

i differenced the roads, and made them another color.

 

Ok, I was thinking of using the shape merge tool.

 

And yes there is a glue tool. It is by Itoo Software. Here is the link so you can check it out. I works pretty nicely.

 

Just follow the link and go to free plugins.

http://www.itoosoft.com/english/frameset.html

[Josh1587140445]

Travis - I must say thank you! Maybe I can even buy you a beer next time i am down in Columbus. I was able to spark some nice discussions with my boss about the level of detail needed for the site plan and not having examples of my own, I used yours as an example.

 

So I am happy to say that we are not going with a photorealistic style, but more of a stylized plan. I will definitely post next week after the public unveiling of the project.

 

Again thank you to everyone.

[Iain Denby]

Here's one I did last year.

A simple coloured up AutoCad drawings in PS

[STRAT]

the site plans we create are exactly the same style as CHG posted.

 

we cad them up in 2d in autocad, then export them via distiller or eps into photoshop and colour them up that way. easy as pie

[garethace]

What do you find the best printer to output that sort of image from Photoshop Strat?

[STRAT]

for A3 or A4 we use our inhouse Ricoh colour printers - http://www.ricoh-usa.com/products/printers/features.asp?ProductId=28 which gives us brochure quality. anything bigger we use our hp colour plotters

[garethace]

Interesting.... Ernest named what he uses too recently... I think it was an Epson of some sort.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

Travis - I must say thank you! Maybe I can even buy you a beer next time i am down in Columbus. I was able to spark some nice discussions with my boss about the level of detail needed for the site plan and not having examples of my own, I used yours as an example.

 

So I am happy to say that we are not going with a photorealistic style, but more of a stylized plan. I will definitely post next week after the public unveiling of the project.

 

Again thank you to everyone.

 

haha. i will take you up on the drink soemtime.