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First, I added the words ‘for me’ into the subject line knowing full well know body here knows my current skill level. My skill level can develop quickly, I think. Right now, it’s pretty much nil. I have never attempted to build any computer model. I would use DAZ with any model I put together. Getting assets, textures, shaders shouldn’t be an issue.
I want to make what I think would be a fairly simple model of the outside of a house. Maybe the inside later. I think modeling a house would be fairly easy, mostly flat surfaces and simple angles, but maybe I’m wrong. Could I just piece together assets from different ‘house’ models and build what I want?
I want to model a modest two-story house circa (1960/1970’s), and remodel it as it would look if it was, well, remodeled (renovated/updated).
Some things I think might be a bit more challenging would be getting the roof pitch right and getting the wall to line up with the pitches peak. Also adding roof vents, gas chimney, drain vents.
The last difficult out side part might be attempting to are land scaping to match a real-world house, but I’m getting ahead of myself with that thought.
I feel a bit silly asking this because I haven’t even looked into how to do this on my own at all. It’s also summer time for me, so this is a rainy-day project. Any help/suggestions/ideas are extremely welcome.
Do a little research on Autodesk Revit. See if it’s for you. Older versions are in the wild or you can get the latest version free by registering with Autodesk as a student (they accept home schooling as an accredited edecational institution)
Good call Rob. I know I signed up with Autodesk sometime last year. I will take another, closer look at it. Big thanks Rob!
I just looked for it in my special software spot and it's not there. I saw some other Autodesk install 'stubs'. It looks like Autodesk doesn't allow for offline installs. No big deal, I just like to keep my old software versions so I can always "play with what I know".
Again, thanks. It gives me a starting place.
Blender is a free, very powerful modeling tool and there are many, many tutorials online to help you learn.
Sketchup.. I use 2015. Its not tough at all to learn. My 1st model was the Space 1999 lunar tank. There are tutorials to get you started with the basics.
And you should be able to export as obj.
Unfortunately I lost it and all of my Axanar ships I was building when my HD crashed February of 2017.
@bobdawg I will at look at Blender for my experiment too, thanks.
@drgnmztr "SketchIt" is a new program name to me, so thanks for that. I will try the free 2018 version (currently offered on their website). I will try to hunt down a 2015 version too. Did you use the free 2015 version, or the "pro" version?Your model looks quite nice. It's much more complex then what I plan to ever do. 🙂
It's too bad about the hard drive crash. Recovering hard drives (or data) is a hobby of mine. It's partly a hobby due to necessity, mostly due to my own recklessness, and sometimes just out of snoopy noisiness (acquiring used Hard drives, etc). Recovering a crashed hard drive takes time (about an hour per gigabyte), and I often get more data then the drive can actually hold (eg. getting ~135 gigs from a 120 gig drive... which only had ~80 gigs of data when it crashed.) "Photorec" is free, and awesome from cgsecurity.org. I digress though...
I'm starting to think I might try hunting down a house model or two, and then try to modify them together. walls, windows, and such. Doing that might get me back into playing with DAZ again. I really just want to hit the floor running... When I started with DAZ I was able to figure out the simple stuff in seconds, and it looked pretty good too. I'm hoping building a house model starts out in a similar fashion.
@tucker I'm a pirate Dragon. I don't use free versions. LOL
Its easy enough to aquire.
Thanks for the tip on Photorec. I'll check it out.
Daz has houses and I think there are a few around here. Don't know if they are what you want though.
@ethiopia Great! This sounds promising too. Easy to use software is always good. I strongly believe using any computer software is NOT like riding a bike.
I've also been a huge fan of Open Source software since the days of the OS/2 operating system.
This thread has given me more options than I expected. I don't know what kind of results I'll get, if any, but having options is nice.
@drgnmztr I had to ask because in the past I tried free versions of software, really found it useful and then I tried the 'paid/pro/etc' version and found it either too complex, or simply completely different. I also like to try exactly the same software as others who have been successful.
I don't know what route I'll go. I just have ideas in my head and I'd like to try to create them.
@tucker I understand. Thats the reason I just use pro versions. If I don't like it, I can delete it. My luck also has it that free versions don't do what I want anyway so it pointless to try them. LOL
I model a lot of stuff in Bryce also, but thats mainly for personal use. Helps me with building plans like carports, deck railings, landscaping for my property.
Just experiment and see what works for you.
@drgnmztr A lot of people say messing around with 'free' versions is a waste of time (even many professional magazine site writers). After downloading the "free" version of SketchIt I discovered it's not a free version but a 30 day trial. So I will need to hunt down a proper version. There is zero chance of me finding the time to figure out even the basics of a totally new to me software program in 30 days.
Because of things like 30 day trials for some software I have collected a bunch of software circumvent such time limits. Most of that software is for more advanced hackers, but it basically finds where the trial software added entries to the Windows Registry file. Heck, if you know what words to say to Corel they will even tell you how to do it yourself for their trial software. 🙂
Anyway, I'll play about and if something works well great. If nothing works for me I'll at least have some idea of what is what in case some one I run into later asks. 😉
Thanks.
@tucker are you confusing this sketchit thing for SKETCHUP?
I'm talking about Sketchup. 'UP' not 'IT' .. https://www.sketchup.com/
I don't have time to spend circumventing crap. Been there done that.
(btw, you can learn the basics of sketchup in less than a week. I got the basics down in a day.)@ethiopia I'm just playing. Dreaming. I have seen many homes in my neighborhood get facelifts. Some awesome, others awful. Others razes and rebuilds. I just figure with a model I could play.
Some of the houses here have a fairly common style/look to them, maybe they are already modeled some place. I could give the whole 'hood a facelift.
BTW istreetview.com is gone as of June 5. But thanks anyway.
@tucker, as far as I know, the 30 day trial for Sketchup is soemthing of a misnomer. Sketchup has a basic program that does the actual 3D modeling, then addons for tasks that are essential in a true production environment but not really relevant for hobby use. For example, one of the add-ons is a thing called Layout, which takes the 3D model and creates a deliverable, printable drawing (generates 2D views, adds the title block, dimension lines, annotations, etc). This is not to say that you can't print a picture of a model from Sketchup itself, but you get a picture of the model, whereas Layout creates formal drawings. Anyway, this example is becoming a bit of a thesis in its own right so let's get back to the point ...
When you download Sketchup, youy get the basic program and all the add-ons such as Layout. The combination is packaged as Sketchup Pro, and this costs significant money (~ $400 - $500, don't remember exactly). The 30-day trial entitles you to all of Sketchup Pro but at the end of the 30 days, all the "Pro" content switches off (unless you cough up the cash) and only the base Sketchup continues to work.
If you were working in a professional archtect's office, you would need Pro, but as far as I can tell from your description, you just need base Skecthup for your needs. The so-called 30-day trial gives you ongoing access to the only part of the suite that you would need.
By the way, no 3D modeling tool works well for every task. Sketchup is a CAD tool for technical design tasks, and really excells at this, but you would struggle to create a Daz character in Sketchup, for example. Conversely, Blender is ideal for modeling a character but really not suited to technical CAD (no doubt, some Blender fanboy will jump on me for this, but I will stand by this). You need to select horses for courses, and probably will end up with a set of tools, each for a different purpose. I use Sketchup and Blender as appropriate and like them both, but I use each only when appropriate.
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