Sketchup Roads - how do you make your lines?

[clubber2k]

How do you usually detail your roads?

how do you make the dashed center line?

I actualy draw every part with as 2D cad and transfer it to surface.

 

is there a better way? some fast way of doing it in sketchup?

I saw instat road online but looks like a way to make a new road surface, not detail one you already have.

 

thanks

[Chris MacDonald]

I create a line with a thickness (say 5mm) and array it along the centreline of the road using 1001bit tools plugin.

[marcelo fernandes]

Hey!

I used to model the lines and everything, but now i just found a new trick.

I have created 3 materials

-simple tarmac

-tarmac with lines

-tarmac with a crosswalk

and I simply cut the road where i want and introduce the mappings.

 

When i have more time, i will redo the maps and create real bump and glossiness textures. But for now, it has been doing the trick. I just use the same bump as diffuse.

 

[M V]

That's a nice workaround. How does it work with curves?

[marcelo fernandes]

That's a nice workaround. How does it work with curves?

 

It doesn't. HEHEEHEHEEHEEHEHEEHEHE.

 

Till now i was lucky that most of my projects were in crossroads or urban places that are regularly straight. If not, you can always export a plan view of your files to jpg, draw the lines in photoshop and use them as a mask for a vrayblendmaterial, for example.

 

Or you just model them. I draw the lines in a seperate group and then put it like 1mm higher than the road. If you start complicating the road surface with looads of wholes and stuff, sketchup will evevntually stop making sense. This way you acan also instance the lines.

[Jason Matthews]

I will model the road in sketchup with no other geometry. I export it as 2D linework (DWG) and bring it into CAD. Then I draw over top of it, adding the striping and other detail. I make sure to create all the linework as closed polylines where possible. After I am done, I import the CAD file into sketchup and align it in the X and Y direction and move it in the Z direction by a few feet or so. Then I stamp it onto the road. I then delete the CAD file and assign material or layers to the new stripes. Then I delete the layers created by importing the CAD file.

[marcelo fernandes]

Sounds like a plan. Good luck!

 

I will model the road in sketchup with no other geometry. I export it as 2D linework (DWG) and bring it into CAD. Then I draw over top of it, adding the striping and other detail. I make sure to create all the linework as closed polylines where possible. After I am done, I import the CAD file into sketchup and align it in the X and Y direction and move it in the Z direction by a few feet or so. Then I stamp it onto the road. I then delete the CAD file and assign material or layers to the new stripes. Then I delete the layers created by importing the CAD file.

[Reitveld]

I just apply a asphalt material to the road, then make a component for a dashed line (or parking stall line) and raise it 1/4" upwards. Then I just array then component lines. Quick and easy.

[Tim Nelson]

Usually I have to deal with parking stripes instead of center lines, but I just take them from cad and add a sweep modifier with a very small thickness. It's a lot easier than having to make a texture, but if you have time to paint in a texture it will come out more realistic with the ability to add dirt and rough edges etc. In reality though no one will care about your parking stripes. I work in Max so I don't know if there is an equivalent in Sketchup, but I always disable shadow casting from my parking stripes especially when dealing with topographical sites so even if they are raised up a little too high the effect will be minimized in render.

[alexisbosscher]

It doesn't. HEHEEHEHEEHEEHEHEEHEHE.

 

Or if your model is modelled in a certain way you could use the Sketchuv plugin:

(at 10m36 you see it aplied on a road)

[M V]

If it's a flat terrain I just use a cut face component for the stripes. If it is a terrain with topo, you can draft all of your parking lines in 2D above the topo and then stamp them into the terrain or you can try using a texture like above. To answer Tim's question, you disable shadow casting in both SketchUp (in Entity Info) and V-Ray for SketchUp (through the material editor).