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We came across this handy tip on Google Groups and wanted to share it with you. It is often difficult to draw on top of contoured faces. This tip concentrates specifically on how to work on a contoured landform for conceptual drawings. Step 1: The topo model We are not going to go into creating the contour landform here. This is most easily done with the sandbox tools. I've attached a model with a basic landform that will suffice for this process. Step 2:Create the "Tracing Paper" I normally draw vertical lines up from the corners of my model. Use inferencing to easily get them all to the same height. Then connect the tops of the lines to create a flat plane over the terrain model. Step 3: Transparency The overhead plane we just created is what we will draw on as if it were trace paper. Paint it with a solid color and then edit the opacity of the color so that it is mostly transparent. Step 4: Camera/Display Settings The camera needs to have perspective mode turned off. Camera>Perspective make sure it is unchecked. Next click on the ""Top View" icon to look straight down on the model. I find I have to turn on some sort of shading (sun shading, shadows) to be able to see the contour of the terrain. Enabling the "Use Sun for Shading" feature in the Display Settings box normally works well. Step 5: Lets Draw! Now its just a matter of drawing your conceptual design on the "tracing paper" plane and then use the drape and stamp tools to put your concept down onto the ground. As a general rule, I use drape for the lines of my roads and path....anything that will hug the terrain and follow the contours. I use the stamp tool for any building or structure that I want to create a flat pad in the terrain for it to sit on. Another medthod similar to drae is to push/pull the faces of the road and paths down through the terrain and then do Intersect with Model. The original thread can be found here: http://groups.google.com/group/sketchup-how-to/browse_thread/thread/bfe4f504acec327d?hl=en#

CADmando Design & Draughting Solutions provide 2d and 3d CAD services throughout the UK. We are based in Cheltenham and Worcester but have resources all over the UK. We can also provide CAD services to the global community as much of what we do can be done over the internet. Visit our website http://www.cadmando.co.uk for more information about the CAD services we provide.

CADmando Design & Draughting Solutions provide 2d and 3d CAD services throughout the UK. We are based in Cheltenham and Worcester but have resources all over the UK. We can also provide CAD services to the global community as much of what we do can be done over the internet. Visit our website http://www.cadmando.co.uk for more information about the CAD services we provide.

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