Need help with two issues please

Dear Group,

I am a landscape architect. I use adt 2004. I have two issues I need
help with:

1) I have been using edgesurf to make mounded surfaces but find it
very cumbersome as I not only have to be sure there are 4 edges, but
have to turn the UCS every which way in order to form the edges which
must go in the z direction. Even then, the mound form is governed by
a fairly limited set of edges. Is there a better way to do this?

2) I am in desperate need of landscape materials such as turf,
different types of stone, plants of different types. I find the lsnew
and lslib very limited, hatching is okay but cumbersome on extruded
faces. I have some 3dsin objects created in 3d Studio as meshes but
these are also not entirely adequate. Does anyone have nice bushes,
turf objects/hatches, soil textures, trees of various species, etc.
either as 3d objects or as symbols in plan view?

Thanks much,

Michael

 

Michael, you didn't like my response to your previous post?

Marc

 

Marc,

Perhaps I'm a bit addled. I can't seem to find your reply. I am
interested however. Can you repost or direct me to the subject
heading or..........

I had communicated with someone who's post on another topic came to my
attention, but I don't think it was you.

Looking forward to it.

Thanks much,

Michael

 

Marc,

Can't seem to find your reply. Please help by reposting and copying
me on e-mail.

Thanks much,

Michael

 

Here's my original reply:

Good to find out about somebody suffering the same way I am! I do
architectural renderings for a living, using ADT 2004 too. Modeling the
buildings is a snap, it's always the landscaping that's a killer. Here are
some tricks I've found:

First of all, for your mounds, trying drawing multiple cross-sections of the
mound as 2D polylines, , then use the 3Drotate command to flip them up into
the Z axis. Put them in place and use either the edgesurf command (that
would require connecting the ends with plines or splines) or the rulesurf
command (which would not, but can be balky) to create the surfaces.

When I have to make a road curve as it goes from one topo elevation to
another, I will often break the 2D polyline between topo lines, then use the
divide command to create 11 points along the polyline, then move the points
up one inch at a time ( assuming the overall rise is one foot), then joint
the points with a spline to create a smooth curve rising from one elevation
to the next, and fill in the surface with the edgesurf or rulesurf command.
Cumbersome yes, but it does the trick.

For plants, well I've never bothered to use the VIZ program that comes with
ADT, which I assume you're using for your renderings. Check and see whether
it will accept RPC (Rich Photographic Content) objects. You can buy all
sorts of plants and other photographic objects at www.archvision.com. Check
'em out. I use them quite a bit, but they're expensive.

Another option is to use the rendering program I use, Accurender
(http://www.accurender.com/). Accurender runs as an add-in in AutoCAD. It's
extremely easy to use (you just assign textures by layer), not too
expensive, and best of all from your point of view, comes with an extensive
plant library. For instance, just looking at the conifers that come with the
program, I see three species of arborvitae, eight of cedar, six cypress, six
fir, two hemlock, ten juniper, 14 pine, and so on. You can even edit the
plants or create new ones, and can download additional plant libraries from
the user group site, www.accustudio.com. Same goes for ground and grass
textures. The down side is that the plants really slow down the rendering
time.

I've attached two sample of my work. The yellow office building uses
Accurender plants and RPC people; the house uses RPC plants and Accurender
people. I've also attached a lsp file that will convert 3D meshes to solids,
which I've found useful in creating natural contours along building edges (I
just create the edgesurface object without worrying about it going into the
building, then use the lisp to convert it to a solid and subtract out the
shape of the building). Finally, if you decide to try Accurender check out
the ar3 news group at news.mcneel.com. Lots of good ideas and advice.

Feel free to contact me at if you're interested in more
info about these options.

Best,

Marc Clamage
www.emasary.com