#Sketchup blocks trees how to

But notice that this only works for 3D Renderings. On the other hand 2D vegetation allows us to create beautiful scenes with less RAM consumption. You can use plugins to create 3d vegetations in Sketchup like in this example:

#Sketchup blocks trees how to

In this tutorial we are going to learn how to use 2d vegetation images as faceme components in sketchup – a must for everybody who is interested in architecture visualization in Sketchup. Why “faceme component”? Because you can define that this plane should always face the camera! This is great because now you do not have to make sure that all the trees you use are aligned to the active camera! The genereal idea is to use a cutout tree image that is mapped on a plane which can be placed in your scenery like a billboard. Here the Sketchup faceme components are ideal to use for trees. Often times we need a good result in a reasonable time frame. Read more about Bonnie.As we learned using 3d vegetations and trees components in Sketchup could bring great results, but slow down the rendering process and overall workflow quite a bit. Her materials cover general 3D design, 3D printing, geometry, interior design, geo-modeling, and more, and future books are in the works. Her website, offers a wide variety of learning materials for all ages, from kids in grade school through design professionals. Next, in Part 3, I’ll show what steps you’ll need if you want to create a library of ready-to-install, face-me tree models.īonnie Roskes has been writing tutorial-style projects on 3D modeling software, primarily SketchUp, since 2001. This perhaps wasn’t the best tree image to use, since there are some fuzzy white bits around some of the leaves, but there are many images out there that are pretty much perfect. I used the Scale tool to make them a bit more random-looking – some taller, some wider, one flipped inside-out. Here’s the little house with four of these trees.

To fix this, open the component for editing. But unfortunately, it also has four nice edges all around it. Now wherever you look, the tree always faces you. One more thing before completing the component: check Always Face Camera.Ĭlick Create to finish. If you do move your axes, be sure to keep the red, green, and blue directions consistent. Also, if you’re OCD about these thinks like I am, you might want to place the origin at the base of the tree, instead of the lower left corner of the tree face.

This should already be the case by default, but it never hurts to check. This is important: for face-camera to work, the red axis has to go along the image, and the blue axis has to go up. With the image and its edges now selected, make it a component.īefore completing the component, check its axes. To be a component, this tree has to be a painted face, not an image. First, right-click on the image and choose Explode. There are a few fixes you’ll need to get this working correctly. Orbit around, and it’ll start looking like a cardboard cutout. The tree looks good except that it’s not facing you yet. Starting in Front view makes it easy to position it vertically (you don’t want it lying on the ground).

Be sure to look for PNG files (or search for all image types) and choose to import it as an image (not as a texture).Ĭlick two corners to bring in the image at the size you want. Be sure that the file format is PNG.īack in SketchUp, choose File / Import. Try Google Images and search for “alpha transparent tree.” So many results:įor the one you want to try, right-click on it and choose one of the saving options. And they’re easier to find than you may think. I’ll start with the same model – a house that could use a few trees around it.Īll you need to model a tree is an image with a transparent background. In this post, I’ll show how to create your own “face camera” trees from scratch. In Part 1 of this series, I showed how to find some efficient and well-modeled trees in SketchUp’s 3D Warehouse.