Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Lab 9 was another fun thing to do. I chose to model my elementary school. I went to a Catholic elementary school which is really a complex of buildings including, of course, the church. Even our gym was a separate building.
I had a blast with this one. My mom, who still lives near the school, was going to take pictures for me so that I could get the buildings as close to real life as possible ( maybe even play around with putting the photos in there), but alas the weather did not cooperate.
SketchUp was fun, but its pencil tool needs a little refinement. It is somehow recieving information from the photo and I found it very hard to straighten lines which were obviously crooked. Perhaps a orthorectified photo would be better, but I don't expect to see that on Google Earth. The result has been some crooked walls. This is what is wrong with the cross on the front of the church.
Here was an odd thing: I opened Sketch-Up and proceeded with the Google upload when I realized that I had not yet deleted the crooked cross. So I deleted the Google upload and went back to Sketch-Up deleted the crooked cross and reloaded the file into Google. The cross is still there. Apparently I should have closed both programs and started all over with the cross deleted or something along those lines in order to have the correct file up on Google.
Also the pencil does not ever stop, except for when you first bring in it down into the work area. After that, even after you have completed construction of a polygon it is still drawing lines and you have to continually go up and delete the last line that you inadvertantly drew across the entire drawing trying to get up to the task bar.
I would have liked to see more archetectural components, all in all the components were lacking. The choices were limited and kind of odd. For example it didn't have a regular double window but it did have a revolving door, and no porches at all. Now in fairness I must say that I did not go back to the website to download any more components either because of the file sizes. As I have said, I still have dial-up and a 20 meg file is not adviseable.
Also missing was the ability to scale an object that you make yourself. I did not find that tool.
Overall it was great. Even my ten year old is making 3-D objects now. We think we might get him to model his school!
I had a blast with this one. My mom, who still lives near the school, was going to take pictures for me so that I could get the buildings as close to real life as possible ( maybe even play around with putting the photos in there), but alas the weather did not cooperate.
SketchUp was fun, but its pencil tool needs a little refinement. It is somehow recieving information from the photo and I found it very hard to straighten lines which were obviously crooked. Perhaps a orthorectified photo would be better, but I don't expect to see that on Google Earth. The result has been some crooked walls. This is what is wrong with the cross on the front of the church.
Here was an odd thing: I opened Sketch-Up and proceeded with the Google upload when I realized that I had not yet deleted the crooked cross. So I deleted the Google upload and went back to Sketch-Up deleted the crooked cross and reloaded the file into Google. The cross is still there. Apparently I should have closed both programs and started all over with the cross deleted or something along those lines in order to have the correct file up on Google.
Also the pencil does not ever stop, except for when you first bring in it down into the work area. After that, even after you have completed construction of a polygon it is still drawing lines and you have to continually go up and delete the last line that you inadvertantly drew across the entire drawing trying to get up to the task bar.
I would have liked to see more archetectural components, all in all the components were lacking. The choices were limited and kind of odd. For example it didn't have a regular double window but it did have a revolving door, and no porches at all. Now in fairness I must say that I did not go back to the website to download any more components either because of the file sizes. As I have said, I still have dial-up and a 20 meg file is not adviseable.
Also missing was the ability to scale an object that you make yourself. I did not find that tool.
Overall it was great. Even my ten year old is making 3-D objects now. We think we might get him to model his school!
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Lab 8 was interesting. I was in a rush to get it done or I would have posted better pictures. I did not go very far in my special places. I chose places that are special to me like where I grew up. I miss those places. It was neat to see them so clearly on Google Earth. If I hadn't been in such a rush I was going to put real pictures up of these places that I have taken, but alas life does get in the way sometimes.
I found that this is downloading as a zip file but if you opt to "open" when given the opportunity, it opens right up into Google Earth. I tried this before posting it here in Blogger, so Blogger is not the problem.
I found that this is downloading as a zip file but if you opt to "open" when given the opportunity, it opens right up into Google Earth. I tried this before posting it here in Blogger, so Blogger is not the problem.
Monday, April 09, 2007
Lab 7 was cool. I thoroughly enjoyed making it. I like the way it turned out.
There were some problems which I think I overcame-if the purpose of the map is to learn Flash processes while making a nice map.
The scale of the base map did not match the resource map and that made placement of everything difficult. I think terrain features would have helped this problem. The base map did not have any terrain features and since the boundary lines of countries have changed since the source map was drawn it was extremely difficult to orient anything on the map. The source map also obscured the land boundaries underneath.
I liked the complexity of the map and I learned a bunch of useful routines that will help in my final project. I learned how to stop the movie right where it is, but I don't know yet how to restart from that position or to go backwards from that position. So this map is a little awkward in that way.
For all the complaining I think this map or one similar should remain a lab--it was interesting and real in a way that lots of presidential maps are not.
There were some problems which I think I overcame-if the purpose of the map is to learn Flash processes while making a nice map.
The scale of the base map did not match the resource map and that made placement of everything difficult. I think terrain features would have helped this problem. The base map did not have any terrain features and since the boundary lines of countries have changed since the source map was drawn it was extremely difficult to orient anything on the map. The source map also obscured the land boundaries underneath.
I liked the complexity of the map and I learned a bunch of useful routines that will help in my final project. I learned how to stop the movie right where it is, but I don't know yet how to restart from that position or to go backwards from that position. So this map is a little awkward in that way.
For all the complaining I think this map or one similar should remain a lab--it was interesting and real in a way that lots of presidential maps are not.
