Sketchup minded- how to bring that into SL

I have exp building/designing in Sketchup, and I'm starting to play with building in SL... but my mind is still on the [create a cube, cut hole for a door, push/pull the sides] mentality.

Say I'm building the simplist of house/shop.. I'd like to make a big giant cube, and cut a hole for a door, and still have only 1 prim... Do I really need to make a flat floor, 3 walls, and a roof to achieve this? I'm trying to build with as little prims as possible.

thanks!

I'm not at all familiar with Sketchup, but the simple answer to your question is that you can't just "cut" a hole to make a door in SL. The only way you could make a hole in a cube is to use the "Hole Size" variable in your edit menu. That will create a hole (rectangular, round, or triangular) parallel to the Z-axis that extends through the entire cube and is centered on its x-y plane. You could use that opening for a door, but then you'd still need to plug the hole in the back of the house. And you'd have no choice about positioning the door either. It would be ugly as sin.

To see a similar lengthy disussion about options for creating windows, see the earlier thread in this forum at /8/b2/245596/1.html.

On Youtube, there are several instersting videos showing a build in a sort of time lapse sequence. Robbie Dingo's Starry Nights and another one by a guy who did a huge building fueled mostly by Jolt.

Maybe those would help you let the Sketchup mindset go, and convert over to the SL prims approach.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxVDVggLqsA

The system that Sketchup uses to define 3D shapes is completely different from what SL uses for building. It would not be possible, or at least not practical, to design an importer to move a Sketchup structure into SL as prims.

I *have* successfully used Sketchup as the basis for a terrain heightmap. If you pull up surfaces in Sketchup, and then shade the tops of those surfaces un appropriate greyscale shades, a top-down view of the Sketchup build makes a suitable startig point for a sim heightmap. Still needs a LOT of work to make it good, but the method is nice for roughing out a terrain layout and sharing the idea with someone on-line.

/me runs to youtube with prim in hand..

err.. ill keep my prim in my pocket until i learn how to use it!

ok DROOOOL
that was amazing to watch! I love the sketchy effects while building

Yeah, I love that video.

Anyway, Davin, as others have stated, SL's approach to modeling is completely different from Sketchup's. Sketchup uses simple extrusion modeling; SL uses parametric solids. There's no straight forward correlation between the two.

The answer to your question about the flat floor, three walls, and a roof, is yes. That's exactly what you would do. But you don't necessarily need a separate prim for each one of those items. For example, hollow a cube, cut it by 25%, and there's your three walls right there. As you gain experience working with SL's solid primitives, you learn all sorts of tricks for how to do more with less.

I'd recommend you spend a little time at the Ivory Tower of Primitives. It will show you all sorts of things you probably haven't thought of yet.

Ok I successfully made a big black cube, hollowed it out, and now it has 4 sides instead of 6.. I couldnt find how to cut it 25% like you said, but as it stands its already much better having one prim instead of 4.

Perhaps if anyone is going to be building soon, they might invite me to be a spectator.. I won't boggle you with questions, just watch.. I learn good that way.

I;ll spend some time at the tower today, last time I went a was simply overwhelmed I think.

Glad to hear things are progressing, Davin. To cut a prim, press the More button on the editor to expose the parameter tabs, and then look for the Cut fields on the Object tab. You'll see there are two parameters, beginning cut and ending cut. You can change either one for this. By default, the prim is "whole", so the cut begins at 0 and ends at 100%. Either lower the end to 75 or raise the beginning to 25, and you'll remove one quarter of the cube.

Ah, I was looking right past the cut option.

Voila! now it's sloppy, but I'm getting the idea.. anyone care for a look?

Mun Saari 71/113/22

The little shop is a prefab I score on slx for 10L. . the big gray ugly thing with overlapping prims is what I'm working on.. basically I'm trying not to look so puny next to my neighbor with the same size land.. And I'm working towards a 2-3 story gallery once I finger this all out.

thanks!

well here, you dont need to take time to visit.. I'll post a photo

http://f1nd.org/sl/building1_001.jpg


so far it's 14 prims, 2 stories, without a ramp yet. The red circles show my problems with overlapping and also the corners where I cut the cubes. This building fits within inches on my 512.


you can see the difference from the 17 prim prefab I have currently in this photo..
http://f1nd.org/sl/building1_002.jpg

instead of using 3 cubes per long side, could I just use a mega prim? somewhere along the way I got a box of building objects, and I have a 40x40x40 cube.. could I size that down, hollow it out, and use that for a main frame, lowering my prims even more? or is there a rule about big prims?

(edit, just read the insider.. 10m is the max in any axis.. oh well!)

People have beat the mega prim question half to death by now. There's a zillion posts about yes, use them, no, don't use them, when to, when not to, and so on ad infinitum (literally).

Just do what seems right to you

lol... *thows a pie*

thanks, Lee... I shoulda searched the forums instead of google

well gang, I've been playing.. this is only my 2nd building so far in SL..

here's the sketchup - took 10 minutes
http://f1nd.org/sl/gallerie/Illy.jpg


here's the SL version - took 2 hours
http://f1nd.org/sl/gallerie/illy-SL.jpg


problem now is learning how to make the windows match what I want. and I only used 4 mega prims, for the base foundation.. the rest are 10x10's

this is fun!