[Plugin] Terrain Reshaper

[Didier Bur]

Hi all,
The excellent method to "reshape" a terrain by Plot-Paris has been implemented in this beta version (French version also available soon). Quick start PDF included.
Feedback welcome !
Enjoy,

terrain_reshaper.jpg

[pav_3j]

wow, thank you very much didier!

and thank you plot-paris, wherever you may be!

pav

[plot-paris]

Didier, this is marvellous! thank you so much!

some observations after a first short try.

after completion of the process you have to smooth the terrain manually (context click > soften/smooth edges). does it make sense to automate this process or would that bring disadvantages?

indeed, with the "merge coplanar faces" function you are likely to use some faces, especially near the border.

really great is, that the borders are maintained - thus the reshaped terrain does still perfectly fit into surrounding geometry.

what would be great: if holes in a terrain would be cept. but thats probably the same mentioned issue you want to fix in the next release (if you do succeed in fixing it, you are one step ahead of SketchUp's from contours function ).

[alexschreyer]

Great plugin! Looking forward to trying this out. Maybe this could be the start of a panelizing plugin as well (similar to the Rhino version). At this point it seems to implement a regular grid on the projected surface. Would it be possible to re-use code from the "lines on surface" plugin to make it possible to apply a grid directly to the surface?

[ilay7k]

Thank you!

[Edson]

great work, didier! you --and a few other ruby coders-- are taking SUp to a very high level.

regards.

[marcosrodrigues]

(...) Maybe this could be the start of a panelizing plugin as well (similar to the Rhino version) (...)

[Didier Bur]

Hi,

thats probably the same mentioned issue you want to fix in the next release

Exactly: faces outside borders and in "former holes" will be removed automatically.

does it make sense to automate this process

That's very easy to do by script but IMHO this will have to be an option of the dialog box, I don't intend the user to have a smoothed/soften terrain if he doesn't want to.

this could be the start of a panelizing plugin

Call me stupid but I don't know what a 'panelize' operation is ?

[ilay7k]

I don't know what a 'panelize' operation is

http://en.wiki.mcneel.com/default.aspx/ ... mands.html

[marcosrodrigues]

c'est pas grave, Didier not a problem
http://en.wiki.mcneel.com/default.aspx/ ... mands.html

I used it to do this: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3104/267 ... 1d61_b.jpg

oh, you beat me, Ilya

[ilay7k]

sorry
--
it will be nice to see grasshopper-like plugin too - http://grasshopper.rhino3d.com/

[Didier Bur]

OK, I'm less stupid now than this morning

[cyan.archnet]

Marvelous plugin, THANKS A LOT!

[urgen]

...thanks Didier,very useful!

[juju]

Didier, you're the MAN! *thumps chest twice with thumb side of fist*

The smoothing can be done with Matt666's smoothing plugin, should work like a charm...

[chango70]

Man u are the reason Sketchup is half as cool as it is for me! Keep it up!

[boerenkool]

Mille grazie !

[redot]

Thanks Didier. Great plugin

[plot-paris]

hi Didier,

I just wanted to clean up a terrain. I used the options

-create group: yes
-delete original: yes
-merge faces: no
-size 600mm

when it was finished it looked like this

the original terrain had not been deleted. but the new terrain was incomplete where the old mesh was visible (see image above). no idea, why it didnt work. just thought I would tell, in case you have a clue.

[Didier Bur]

Hi,

The smoothing can be done with Matt666's smoothing plugin

Fredo6,Matt666 and me, the french connection

@Plot-paris:
Could you PM me the SKP file ? I'm curious to know what bug's still there

[Pilou]

And if Ruby was my cup of tea, that will the The Four Musketeers!
Frenchy Pilou

[REGIS]

And if Ruby was my cup of tea, that will the "club des cinq"

@Plot-paris:

Can you show us or share the starting idea, I would like to see before you apply model with contours.(perhaps I've got an idea using your technic to model terrain).

After a few tests using different methods, I let you guess
who's who.

contours.jpg

regards

[plot-paris]

good morning REGIS,

the initial idea was discussed in this thread.

for the who is who test - could you give us some multiple choice answers?

[putnik]

Didier, amazingly useful tool! Thanks so much! Thank you plot-paris and everyone else from this topic for this most excellent idea

[putnik]

Didier, don't know if it's possible to do, but it would be helpful (me thinks) if the the script somehow retained the information collected at the "Parsing terrain.." stage, in case one wants to reshape the terrain again with, say, differently sized triangles.

[johnnybfunk]

Hey,

I've imported 6-7 GE terrain meshes, exploded them, put them all in a group, and then tried to run didier's plugin. It didn't come out as expected.
The problem is, i think, that i didn't really merge the different meshes before runnig the script, and that all 6 or 7 of them reacted as independent meshes.
Does anybody have a quick and easy solution for stitching together different meshes imported from GE?

Thank you,


Félix

[Chris Fullmer]

Hi Felix, I think that the problem is just that you need to select all the terrains you want to reshape and turn them into a single group. Then just select the 1 group and run the plugin. It will not accept a selection of loose geometry. Only a single group.

Hope that helps,

Chris

[JClements]

Didier:

Suggestion/Request

When dealing with a large terrain surface, the Parsing, Triangulation, and Merging functions of the script can take quite a while.

I was wondering if at the end of each function (before the user goes to the next) if an elapsed time could be shown. At the completion of the script, then a final dialog would be displayed showing the elapsed time of each function.

This way, if you had to convert a series of similar terrains, you wouldn't have to wait around at your computer ... just go do something else and come back according the to elapsed times of the first reshaping session.

[olishea]

effing fantastic plugin. i could have done with this a few weeks back, works great

[plot-paris]

sometimes, when you have got a terrain with a lot of detail in places and very little information in others, the terrain reshaper has to be set according to the highest level of detail. that results in models with unnecessarily large numbers of vertexes.

therefore the idea for an improved plugin - the Dynamic Terrain Reshaper! you define a maximum vertex size and a minimum vertex size. then the plugin calculates the whole terrain with the large vertices and subdivides, where neccessary, until it reaches the minimum vertex size limit.
was that comprehensible?