Greetings, new to the forum, looks full of useful info.
However, urgency drives me to start with a question. Where I work is putting in for funding for a garden, and I have used turbo floorplan 15 to draw up a garden. Looking great so far if I say so myself ;D (love the way you can print off the 3d views wherever you happen to "stop" in your walkthrough.....)
However I digress. Topiary - is there some magic that I can use to develop topiary, or is that currently a feature still to be developed. Any thoughts greatfully appreciated.
Matthew
Hi Matthew,
Welcome to the forum!
Since topiary is just a shape with a leaf texture, then you can use almost anything to create the effect.
I have rendered the images below to give you some examples. The curved hedges are simply curved walls. The round topped ends with the 'duck' shape on top are a rubbish bin (from Interior Accessories) while the duck, pyramid and oval shaped shrubs are imported 3DS shapes. I have attached the Pyramid and Ball (for shrub) in case they are any use to you (I presume you do not want the duck!!). Save them to you computer, right click in Interior or Exterior Accessories and select Add Element. Select "Import geometry from file". You can size and apply textures during import or later.
The small leaf texture applied to these is 'Leaf5' from Lanscaping Materials. You can of course use your own photos for the textures.
You can also use your own photos for the whole topiary too. This post http://forums.turbofloorplan.com/index.php/topic,771.0.html (http://forums.turbofloorplan.com/index.php/topic,771.0.html) has several examples of photos used for the trees and shrubs. If you have one that has a flat top you can simple put several together, overlap them to make a hedge, for example. This method (Photoboards) works well but you have to be careful of the sun angle. Because they are only two dimentional, you can end up with just a narrow slit as the shadow, which looks odd of course.
Yes, rendering views from different angles is fascinating isn't it. Did you realise that you can also create movies of your walkthroughs also?
Anyway, I hope that gives you some ideas. Ask if you need more details on any of these aspects.
Allan
Well Allan, you are the man. Thanks heaps for your comments. I must admit my attempts at Topiary were not brilliant, but I got the concepts (I think). I must confess to utilising the ball and pyramid.
I especially enjoyed making the movie :o
You put the icing on the cake. Brilliant.
Matthew
Hi Matthew,
Glad to help.
I don't know what sort of garden / topiary you are developing, but there are a few other things that may be useful:
BeDont forget you can stack objects. (eg a round column with a couple of the balls at different levels centred on the column).
You can cut the floor or ceiling into all sorts of shapes as in the image below. (See how to do it in the PDF instructions in this post http://forums.turbofloorplan.com/index.php/topic,1130.0.html (http://forums.turbofloorplan.com/index.php/topic,1130.0.html))
Some other shapes you can import and useful for all sorts of things - http://forums.turbofloorplan.com/index.php/topic,315.0.html (http://forums.turbofloorplan.com/index.php/topic,315.0.html)
Some suggestions for making landscaping look real - http://forums.turbofloorplan.com/index.php/topic,1286.0.html (http://forums.turbofloorplan.com/index.php/topic,1286.0.html).
Have fun (as I am sure you are)!
Allan