Some other things you can do with Chief. (with help of TM) Modeling over a sq mile in REAL scale.

[VisualDandD]

You can do some pretty cool stuff w/ chief and TM.    I have found the limit recently!  You run into glitches with HUGE models in chief.  I did several square miles of lake to model this estate plot for a perspective buyer.   The lot is only 12ac but I did more than a sq  mile to give it context.    This is 4 models combined.  All DAE files.  I used GIS topo draped over aerial imagery in sketchup.   Then I brought some of the smaller DAE models into chief and added Chief elements to represent the 20,000 sqft home and how it might be laid out.   This is nothing about a home design, but all about showcasing what the land can be.

 

The only problem comes in with LARGE dae files in chief.   Once you exceed a certain size and bring them in, you cant attempt to resize them or they will auto shrink to the a default size (smaller).  That must be the max that Chief allows.  So as long as you dont have to mess with them, you are OK.   Lots of 'work arounds' go into doing this, but it gets the job done. 

 

It takes some fun work arounds to bring in DAE's into chief and then work to add to them in Chief as you lose reference.  The DAE just imports as a large rectangle.    To deal with this I imported 'pictures' and used resize and point to point.  While putting a 3d solid reference points so I could cross reference in 3d to get everything properly aligned.

 

Not the best renderings, no grass or other things that would really 'pop' but the purpose was to show what the land could become.    The sports fields are just for scale.  When you get that much land, you need some way of relating to the space.

 

It might seem a little over the top with 3000sqft guard house and 120 foot pool and 20000 sqft home, but that is what the client requested to see if it would fit and how.   Given the property is 12mil, I guess that makes sense.  Guessing this would end up being a 20-30mil estate if they purchase the land.

 

I like trying to do things that you are not really sure how it can be done.    Working with Chief for many years, 'work arounds' just make you better. 

 

 

[Renerabbitt]

@VisualDandD so I respect your learning process but I have a wayyyyyy simpler method for this that takes mere minutes.

there is a plug-in for photoshop that is called 3d mapper and it uses quite a few different resources to create a gradient grayscale map , based on GIS, that can be imported into Twinmotion as terrain data that is modifiable. It really only takes maybe 10 minutes. Why did you choose to bring things into chief as opposed to bringing them into twin once complete?

good job though

[VisualDandD]

Interesting!   I dont ever mess with PS.  I have a super old version it from like  a decade ago that barely runs on win 11

 

I brought the DAE of the terrain from SU into Chief so I could add the 3d elements.  Roads, structures, prop lines (transposed off surveys)...etc

Are you saying there is another workflow that will work?    I was tasked with not just making a pretty picture but representing the property in true scale and layout proposed roads, entrances, guard home placement and see what size structure the island itself could accommodate and the client specifically wanted a "120' pool".    

 

I would LOVE to learn more about the gradient map import as it seems like a GREAT way of getting backdrop context.   

 

My 'lake' is a 'slab' that I had to cut (roughly) around the coves as the GIS info is conflicting and small differences of a few feet VASTLY change the shape of the coves.   To get past this I made 'slabs' for the lake and converted to water material in TM.    Also the SU gis topo changes accuracy with level of zoom, so I did one zoomed to extents of property itself, and then a larger one (really big) with the entire area.    This got a little glitchy meshing them all together to be faithful.

 

LOVE to hear any of your thoughts!   Your PS work (and all your work really) is quite stunning.   Mine is a little more rough and certainly less polished  

 

 

[williambentley2]

By the way, did you correct the geometry of the GIS files in something like QGIS or ArcGIS (using projections)? Might this have had an effect on your resulting files? You have the option to input (~1m) accurate vector maps and then project from there. You also can take that data and import it into TM (without needing to use raster-based raised topography). I hope I'm not butting in here...thanks!