This might of interest especially for everybody who likes to model in SketchUp, and makes frequent use of the Push-Pull tool to inset windows, model details on the facade, etc. While this is very easy to do, it always creates shape files that have a very high (sometimes dangerously high) polycount. That's just how SU works, it probably was not designed to model objects for polycount-sensitive environments like PC games.
However, if you have 3DCanvas (or any other RW-export-suitable modeling tool) there's a good work-around. You just need some basic skills in the modeling program and can still create the basic object in SU if you want.
So, imagine you are trying to model something like this:
A large industrial building, which has a lot of exterior support beams (?) on the outside of the facade.
In a close-up, this is what looks like:
If you try to build something like this in SketchUp, on a building this size, using the push/pull tool to pull out the beams from the facade... you'd end up with an object that has many thousands of polygons. If you want to do it exactly like in the screenshot above, that the horizontal beams extend a bit further our than the vertical beams, then it might even go into the 10,000 of polygons. These numbers are guessed based on other objects, so the exact results might be different. In any case, there will be a LOT of polygons. Even with modern graphics cards, this can still be an issue, and generally "the lower the better", especially if it looks the same.
So with a simple trick in 3DC you can achieve the same effect but save a ton of polygons.
Here's how to do it:
First, you model the main building, with all flat sides, texture it as usual. You can do that in SU if you want and then import the thing to 3DC (or to where ever), the important thing is that this main object needs to have flat sides. I highlighted one face in the object below to better illustrate what I mean. All the facade detail which you see in the picture below is only a shading effect on the texture.
Then you can add the detail: Start by modeling a cube that matches the height or width of the horizontal or vertical beams, then make a few inches larger than the main object so it will overhang. Clone the cube object as many times as you need, reposition the clones until you get something like this:
This is what you get when you hide the main building from view in the first picture. This assortment of cubes that make up the facade detailling weighs in at only a bit over 200 faces. So the final polycount of the entire building is below 500.
This method also works for other detail parts like window frames/sills, awnings, chimneys, ... basically any parts which you'd like to add to the facade to add some detail. Just don't do these small or high detail parts in SketchUp.
I thought somebody might find this useful.
Please ask if anything is unclear or hard to understand.
Cheers,
Michael
