Architecture

VIArts

How would you model architecture? Weld all parts -- stairs, raillings, walls, ceiling,floor, etc -- together or leave it all separate?

Mattymanx

Depends on how modular you want the set to be.

cherpenbeck

If possible, group it, but not weld it!

dragotx

cherpenbeck said:

If possible, group it, but not weld it!

My sentiments exactly, and preferably have multiple groups, like North Wall components, south Wall components, staircase A, staircase B, etc. It makes it much easier to find various bits you need to hide to make the scene work better, either for lighting or camera angles. And being able to go in and flat delete entire portions of the scene as needed is a huge time saver

Mattymanx

cherpenbeck said:

If possible, group it, but not weld it!

The problem with that is that it makes it very time consuming to hide things and far more time consuming to save stuff out.  Seperate surfaces for walls and ceiling are better and more streamlined.  The mesh takes very little vram compared to textures.

Richard Haseltine

Mattymanx said:

cherpenbeck said:

If possible, group it, but not weld it!

The problem with that is that it makes it very time consuming to hide things and far more time consuming to save stuff out.  Seperate surfaces for walls and ceiling are better and more streamlined.  The mesh takes very little vram compared to textures.

If it's a grouped figure just select the parts, which should be no slower than selecting the surfaces, and turn off visibility for all at once via the parameters pane.

DaWaterRat

I'm working (okay, mostly at the planning stages) on a small apartment (none of the ones out there meet my needs) and I plan using the Dream House setup as a guide... so each room grouped by wall, but with one surface group each for walls, trims, etc.  I just find it faster to hit the "eye" on the scene tab to turn off a given wall than to have to adjust the surfaces tab for each one.