Artificial hills

[ED-209]

HI,

 

I'm very new to CA and I'm trying to make some man-made hills & mounds for the landscaping in my project. I've had some mixed luck with raised terrain areas, and the elevation lines & areas are glitchy as hell. I've seen on youtube that someone made a skate park, and the ramps and humps are what I want to reproduce (with different textures), the link to that video is: 

 

Also, the flower & plant library is very limited, is there anywhere I can get some as additional library items?

 

Thanks everyone,

 

Ed

[rlackore]

You can get plants, both 2D and 3D, from Xfrog.com.

 

Have you tried using the Terrain>Modifier>Hill and Terrain>Modifier>Valley tools? Here is a hill shape that took about 10 seconds. You can achieve all kinds of shapes using the Advanced Splines tools.

 

[Kiwideziner]

IMHO terrain is one of the advanced features, it takes plenty of time and practice to master

[ED-209]

You can get plants, both 2D and 3D, from Xfrog.com.

 

Have you tried using the Terrain>Modifier>Hill and Terrain>Modifier>Valley tools? Here is a hill shape that took about 10 seconds. You can achieve all kinds of shapes using the Advanced Splines tools.

 

terrain1.PNG

terrain2.PNG

I just went on Xfrog, they want £200 for it, that's a scam and a half. Are there any free ones out there? Not everyone is rich.

 

Also, I can already do that with hills, I'm looking for a way to replicate the skate ramps in the video.

 

Thanks.

[rlackore]

I just went on Xfrog, they want £200 for it, that's a scam and a half. Are there any free ones out there? Not everyone is rich.

Also, I can already do that with hills, I'm looking for a way to replicate the skate ramps in the video.

Thanks.

Xfrog is far from a scam. Can you model 3D trees? You have to pay for quality assets. Besides, there are many 2D and 3D models available from Xfrog for free.

As far as the skate ramps, this is a quote from your first post: "I'm very new to CA and I'm trying to make some man-made hills & mounds for the landscaping in my project." No mention of skate ramps. To make skate ramps like you see in the video, I'd suggest learning to create Polyline Solids from closed Polylines, and review the Primitive Solids tools as well. Or you can model them in another program and import them into Chief Architect.

[ED-209]

Xfrog is far from a scam. Can you model 3D trees? You have to pay for quality assets. Besides, there are many 2D and 3D models available from Xfrog for free.

As far as the skate ramps, this is a quote from your first post: "I'm very new to CA and I'm trying to make some man-made hills & mounds for the landscaping in my project." No mention of skate ramps. To make skate ramps like you see in the video, I'd suggest learning to create Polyline Solids from closed Polylines, and review the Primitive Solids tools as well. Or you can model them in another program and import them into Chief Architect.

 

I want to do the hills in the shape of those skate ramps. The polyline solids only offer me cubes, spheres, cylinders etc. 

[rlackore]

I want to do the hills in the shape of those skate ramps. The polyline solids only offer me cubes, spheres, cylinders etc. 

Don't confuse Primitives with Polyline Solids. You can create all kinds of shapes with Polyline Solids - simply draw a section profile, then convert it to a Polyline Solid:

 

 

The Reference Manual covers Polyline Solids starting on page 776.

 

EDIT: When building the skate park elements be sure to create the section profiles in an elevation view.

[HamlinBC]

Just to make it easy when searching for the free xfrog plants:

http://xfrog.com/category/samples.html

[ED-209]

Don't confuse Primitives with Polyline Solids. You can create all kinds of shapes with Polyline Solids - simply draw a section profile, then convert it to a Polyline Solid:

 

skatepark.PNG

 

The Reference Manual covers Polyline Solids starting on page 776.

 

EDIT: When building the skate park elements be sure to create the section profiles in an elevation view.

I'm sure I'll get you all yelling at your screens for this, but; what's a section profile?

[rlackore]

I'm sure I'll get you all yelling at your screens for this, but; what's a section profile?

 

All we're referring to is a closed polyline that describes the profile of the shape in a section view. For instance, to create the skate park sections in this picture:

 

 

...I opened a Cross Section/Elevation view and created these two closed polyline section profiles:

 

 

...then converted them to Polyline Solids.

[ED-209]

All we're referring to is a closed polyline that describes the profile of the shape in a section view. For instance, to create the skate park sections in this picture:

 

skatepark.PNG

 

...I opened a Cross Section/Elevation view and created these two closed polyline section profiles:

 

sectionview2.PNG

sectionview.PNG

 

...then converted them to Polyline Solids.

I didn't understand any of that, what IS a profile section?

[rlackore]

If you don't have any drafting or modeling experience, some terms can be confusing. Terms vary between software programs and professional disciplines.

A profile is a representation of an object in outline represented or seen in a side view.
A section is the profile of something as it would appear if cut through by an intersecting plane.

Draw something in Chief. Literally anything with three dimensions: a wall, a slab, terrain - insert a symbol - whatever. Draw a wall and insert a window:



Now cut a section through the wall at the window using Chief's Cross Section/Elevation tool:



The Cross Section/Elevation view will automatically open. You are now looking at a section through the wall and window.

To model a skate park ramp start with a blank plan. Use the Cross Section/Elevation tool to open a Cross Section/Elevation window. Don't worry that there is nothing visible - all you're actually doing is asking Chief to create a window that allows you to draw on an x/y-z plane. Now use the CAD tools to draw the profile of the ramp, just like I did here:



Be sure that the profile is a closed polyline - in other words all the vertices need to be joined to form a closed loop - no open ends allowed. Now select the profile, click the Convert Polyline tool icon, and select Polyline Solid in the Convert Polyline dialog box:



When the Polyline Solid Specification dialog box pops up you can change the properties. Use the Thickness setting to set the width of the ramp:



Click OK to close the dialog box, shoot an Orthographic Full Overview, and admire your new ramp (use the All On layerset to make sure the ramp's layer is turned on):



Once you understand the basic concepts it's a simple matter to create profile sections in Chief using the CAD tools; then give the profile section depth by converting it to a Polyline Solid. If you're still having trouble do a Google search - there's plenty of information out there. Have you downloaded and read the Chief Reference Manual? It has many topics that can help you understand the steps I've described above. I hope this helps - there isn't much more I can do to explain the process.

[HamlinBC]

Wow, Rob...great job!

[ED-209]

If you don't have any drafting or modeling experience, some terms can be confusing. Terms vary between software programs and professional disciplines.

A profile is a representation of an object in outline represented or seen in a side view.

A section is the profile of something as it would appear if cut through by an intersecting plane.

Draw something in Chief. Literally anything with three dimensions: a wall, a slab, terrain - insert a symbol - whatever. Draw a wall and insert a window:

stepa.PNG

Now cut a section through the wall at the window using Chief's Cross Section/Elevation tool:

stepb.PNGstepc.PNG

The Cross Section/Elevation view will automatically open. You are now looking at a section through the wall and window.

To model a skate park ramp start with a blank plan. Use the Cross Section/Elevation tool to open a Cross Section/Elevation window. Don't worry that there is nothing visible - all you're actually doing is asking Chief to create a window that allows you to draw on an x/y-z plane. Now use the CAD tools to draw the profile of the ramp, just like I did here:

sectionview2.PNG

Be sure that the profile is a closed polyline - in other words all the vertices need to be joined to form a closed loop - no open ends allowed. Now select the profile, click the Convert Polyline tool icon, and select Polyline Solid in the Convert Polyline dialog box:

stepd.PNGstepe.PNG

When the Polyline Solid Specification dialog box pops up you can change the properties. Use the Thickness setting to set the width of the ramp:

stepf.PNG

Click OK to close the dialog box, shoot an Orthographic Full Overview, and admire your new ramp (use the All On layerset to make sure the ramp's layer is turned on):

stepg.PNGstepramp.PNG

Once you understand the basic concepts it's a simple matter to create profile sections in Chief using the CAD tools; then give the profile section depth by converting it to a Polyline Solid. If you're still having trouble do a Google search - there's plenty of information out there. Have you downloaded and read the Chief Reference Manual? It has many topics that can help you understand the steps I've described above. I hope this helps - there isn't much more I can do to explain the process.

That was a MASSIVE help, thanks mate, I really appreciate it; you write as if you teach a lot of people.