Rock overhang with Toposurface

[GianfrancoFurlan]

Dear all,

I'm trying to model a very sloped site with some rocks overhanging above the terrain (kind of cliff) and it seems quite tricky. Please see image attached.

Does anyone have any idea how to achieve that using toposurface?

Thank you very much for your help.

GF

[RDAOU · Accepted solution]

@GianfrancoFurlan 

Not...Someone will jump in and tell you split regions/grade/stack toposurfaces ...but in the end, it is what it is. A Toposurface is a surface...That is more of a Solid Form

Hence, I would suggest that you use a Mass to model those cliffs/rocks...

You can convert that mass to a Directshape or SAT and load into an Entourage Family if you want it to host automatically on a Toposurface

[barthbradley]

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@RDAOU wrote:

Someone will jump in and tell you split regions/grade/stack toposurfaces...

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Someone might even jump in a say "Background Image!". 

he, he. 

[RDAOU]

LOL ... You always have something under your sleeve.

Well I ve heard once a better one from one D&B contractor ... he switched to a white model perspective and said "just imagine the cliffs and trees in the background...can you see it?"

[ToanDN]

@GianfrancoFurlan 

Do you need it for (1) coordination with built structures, or (2) 2D rendering, or (3) 3D visualization/presentation?

(1) a simplified mass would suffice

(2) take photos from various angles and use them as background for rendering.  I suggest placing a placeholder element such as a 1 meter pole at a corner where your future building would be, so that you can match your model with the background photo more easily when rendering

(3) there are free 3d rocks online, see if you can find something close.  You could even get several ones and stack/compose them to get close. 

https://www.turbosquid.com/Search/3D-Models/free/rocks

If you are familiar with 3Dmax or Blender, there are plug-ins to generate 3D rock models.

[GianfrancoFurlan]

Thank you guys, all valid points!

The model will be also used for coordination (structure, services and landscape) so I'll give it a go with Mass and see what I can do.

Cheers!

[ToanDN]

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@GianfrancoFurlan wrote:

Thank you guys, all valid points!

The model will be also used for coordination (structure, services and landscape) so I'll give it a go with Mass and see what I can do.

Cheers!

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To create the mass, do it similar to topo's contour lines: draw (contour) splines at various elevation, select them and create form.

If you find modeling the freeform mass in Revit difficult, you can always do it in a free-form friendly program such as Rhino, Blender, then export the model to SAT and import it in your mass family.

[RDAOU]

Why import into a mass...import into something which hosts on topo. Unless mass families host on topo in 2022 and I didn't know

[syman2000]

You can download freebie terrain from

https://sketchfab.com/search?q=terrain&sort_by=-likeCount&type=models

Use formit to import model with the texture and then link that into Revit.