modeling work-flow

[syburn]

im just wondering what common work flow you all follow with regards to building / designing in SU.
Do you use layers very early on?
Do you build a lot of elements, group them and then assemble the final thing from many groups?
Do you tend to make many many groups (for each part or model) or try to keep them to a min by adding extra faces to the main box sort od thing?

P: syburn

[Gaieus]

Syburn,

I have a model with a lot-lot of polylines and repetitive entities (certainly they are components) but to be able to model this in SU I really needed to think about layers from the very beginning so that I can "handle" the model on a "medium capacity computer".

Thje whole file is somewhere between 6 and 7 Mb now but "poly-wise" I couldn't have done it without using grouping and layering from the very beginning.

Here's a video (220+ Mb though - uncompressed mpg):
http://www.gaieus.hu/Laci/Egyetem_Univ.mpg

And here are some pics of the workflow (the "sk" and "sketch" ones at the end of the list are 3DMax WIP images):
http://www.gaieus.hu/GothicPecs/

[boofredlay]

For me I do not concentrate on layers at all.

I use the Outliner to organize my model. The outliner shows the components and their nested components.

I use components for everything. I separate the model with components as much as I possibly can.

Hope that helps.

[Sawduster]

I think a lot depends on what you're modeling as to the work flow. I make detailed furniture plans and basically every piece is a component that makes up subassemblies which are also components. I use groups occassionally, but generally on a temporary basis such as to copy and paste an assembly or entire piece elsewhere and to make the entire thing "unique" from the original to create exploded views without the original coming apart.

I've recently started using layering which helps to get "inside" of pieces to work on them by removing panels, drawers, or tops to make alterations to framing members. Placing dimensions in a separate layer also helps remove clutter.

[Archi Rag]

in terms of buiolding it depends on the accuracy i want, i quite like to draw plans in autocad and then import and extrude, this (for me) saves a lot of time when typing dims etc. into the prompt

[syburn]

well i will have to try a few different ways - see what works.

Im mainly working on interiors but as i want to design with this toolas well, i was thinking that i should create a layer template to make things easier.

P: syburn