ingo wrote:
> How to build a house?
> 
> Even though I actualy started using POV-Ray for that purpose I never
>  actualy did it. Now I have to renovate my house and I'd like to
> simulate a few things, especialy light and shadow and of course the
> looks.
> 
> Now, what is the easiest method, a box per wall? A prism? "brick by 
> brick"? Other methods?

   I was facing the same question some weeks ago. I'm not planning a new
house, but I wanted to model from real blueprints just to get real rooms
with realistic proportions.

   Finally, I found the most easy/fast method for me was to use Wings3D.
I just used a box and an image plane with the blueprint for reference.
Then, in edge mode, I used mostly "connect" and "slide" to create edges
following the blueprint lines. When I had all the needed edges, I
"dissolved" the resulting faces to only have one face per wall and
window/door hole. Then, I extruded all the walls and window holes to the
height of the windows start. Then deselected the window holes and
continued extruding the rest up to the windows top height, and then
extruded again to the ceiling height. Finally, I "bridged" the upper,
interior side faces of the windows and door holes to close them. It
seems a complex sequence, but it's really fast and easy with Wings3D. I
can take some screenshots of the process if you want...

Regards,

--
Jaime

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"Alain" <ele### [at] netscapenet> wrote in message 
news:44d8856c$1@news.povray.org...
> Stephen nous apporta ses lumieres en ce 08/08/2006 07:08:
>> "Chris B" <c_b### [at] btconnectcomnospam> wrote:
>>> "ingo" <ing### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote in message
>>> news:Xns9817D1F0C8D51seed7@news.povray.org...
>>> Hi Ingo,
>>>
>>> My suggestion would be to use a prism for the shape of each room,
>> [Snip]
>>

>> sharing.
>>
>>
>> Stephen
>>
>>
> A notable advantage: the prism can easily include any door and window 
> without having to use difference or union of several box.
>
> -- 
> Alain
> -------------------------------------------------
> Drive defensively.  Buy a tank.

Actually, it sounds to me like you're talking about using prisms the other 
way up to what I was suggesting.

My technique is to define a spline that follows the base of a wall all 
around the room with a slightly larger section of spline running around 
outside it, so that when you extrude it upwards it gives you a thin walled 
hollow tube the shape of the room. You can then use CSG to punch door holes 
and window holes into the sides of the walls.

The main benefit of this is that you can apply textures up the height of the 
wall and they only affect the one room. The next room along is defined as a 
separate prism and therefore has it's own textures.

If you use Inkscape (a vector graphics editor) to export bezier curves as 
POV-Ray prisms it also means you get a very pretty floor plan in Inkscape as 
a by-product.

I'll post a couple of images in povray.binaries.images when I get a moment 
to illustrate what I mean.

Regards,
Chris B.

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The technique is fantastic in Inkscape!

I had an bitmap image of (part of) the plan of the ancient city of Mohenjo 
Daro in Pakistan. Until now, I had used it as a height_field (not really 
satisfactory). In Inkscape, I used the trace function and exported the 
result to POV-Ray, and Lo! within minutes I had a 3D view of the 
archeological remains of the city!

I'll post an image when it finishes rendering.

Thanks Chris for this tip!!

Thomas

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"Thomas de Groot" <t.d### [at] internlnet> wrote in message 
news:44df232f@news.povray.org...
> The technique is fantastic in Inkscape!
>
> I had an bitmap image of (part of) the plan of the ancient city of Mohenjo 
> Daro in Pakistan. Until now, I had used it as a height_field (not really 
> satisfactory). In Inkscape, I used the trace function and exported the 
> result to POV-Ray, and Lo! within minutes I had a 3D view of the 
> archeological remains of the city!
>
> I'll post an image when it finishes rendering.
>
> Thanks Chris for this tip!!
>
> Thomas

Glad you're finding it useful.
I did the same sort of thing using Inkscapes edge detection with a plan of a 
maze and got a reasonable result in minutes.

I've written up the technique for doing floor plans and intend to put it up 
on an Internet site soon. I've written some macros that add windows, doors, 
lights and stuff so I'll post them too.

Regards,
Chris B.

Post a reply to this message

"Chris B" <c_b### [at] btconnectcomnospam> schreef in bericht 
news:44df4376$1@news.povray.org...
>
> Glad you're finding it useful.
> I did the same sort of thing using Inkscapes edge detection with a plan of 
> a maze and got a reasonable result in minutes.
>
> I've written up the technique for doing floor plans and intend to put it 
> up on an Internet site soon. I've written some macros that add windows, 
> doors, lights and stuff so I'll post them too.
>
Sounds very interesting. Looking forward to it.

Thomas

Post a reply to this message

"Thomas de Groot" <t.d### [at] internlnet> wrote in message 
news:44e02896$1@news.povray.org...
>
> "Chris B" <c_b### [at] btconnectcomnospam> schreef in bericht 
> news:44df4376$1@news.povray.org...
>>
>> Glad you're finding it useful.
>> I did the same sort of thing using Inkscapes edge detection with a plan 
>> of a maze and got a reasonable result in minutes.
>>
>> I've written up the technique for doing floor plans and intend to put it 
>> up on an Internet site soon. I've written some macros that add windows, 
>> doors, lights and stuff so I'll post them too.
>>
> Sounds very interesting. Looking forward to it.
>
> Thomas

As promised --> http://www.geocities.com/povstairs/povhouse/index.htm
with full source.

Regards,
Chris B.

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"Chris B" <c_b### [at] btconnectcomnospam> schreef in bericht 
news:44e32e1a$1@news.povray.org...
>
>> Thomas
>
> As promised --> http://www.geocities.com/povstairs/povhouse/index.htm
> with full source.
>

Very nicely done, Chris!
Thank you very much indeed!

Thomas

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in news:44e32e1a$1@news.povray.org Chris B wrote:

> As promised --> http://www.geocities.com/povstairs/povhouse/index.htm
> with full source.
> 

Had a quick look. Nice.

Thanks,

Ingo

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Jaime Vives Piqueres <jai### [at] ignoranciaorg> wrote:
> ingo wrote:
> > How to build a house?
> >
> > Even though I actualy started using POV-Ray for that purpose I never
> >  actualy did it. Now I have to renovate my house and I'd like to
> > simulate a few things, especialy light and shadow and of course the
> > looks.
> >
> > Now, what is the easiest method, a box per wall? A prism? "brick by
> > brick"? Other methods?
>
>    I was facing the same question some weeks ago. I'm not planning a new
> house, but I wanted to model from real blueprints just to get real rooms
> with realistic proportions.
>
>    Finally, I found the most easy/fast method for me was to use Wings3D.
> I just used a box and an image plane with the blueprint for reference.
> (.... good explanation...)
> can take some screenshots of the process if you want...
>
> Regards,
>
> --
> Jaime

Jaime:
Aha! I was looking at your newish "modern interior" pictures and I think
that this is the method you used, right? I am making a room using lots of
polygons and macros (i.e. window(wh,ww,wintype) windowwall(wh,ww,rh)
wall(l) ) that include molding, etc. but I now wish I had started out using
Wings3d too. Only in a visual modeller do I (personally) see the room coming
together. It's a lot faster for me than using CSG and spending a lot of time
sitting and visualizing things in my head or on graph paper as I have been.

I think I'll post an example of my project in p.b.i (can't resist) :) even
though it isn't as finished as Chris B's macros, which sound very
interesting...

Thanks Chris B! I will have to take a look at them...

Good luck Ingo. Since this thread is a few days old now, how's it going?

-Stefan

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Smws wrote:
> Jaime:
> Aha! I was looking at your newish "modern interior" pictures and I think
> that this is the method you used, right? 

   Yes, and I used later wings3d as a tool to locate the coords on the room
where I wanted to place the objects with POV-Ray: it's very useful also
for this (I still resist to use the modeller for the scene composition).

--
Jaime

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