"SubD Extension in SketchUp”

Thom Thom’s new extension SubD has various tools for 3D modeling though the work on this extension is still under process; it is a new member in SketchUp Extension Warehouse.

About Extension Warehouse:

It is an online resource with various plug-ins developed made especially for SketchUp and these extensions help to add some special tools and features to SketchUp. These extensions can be found for any particular application like drawing or 3D printing and some industry specified tools for architecture, interior design, construction and many more. So basically in this Extension Warehouse people can do the following things:

• Users can search extensions by name or as per the functionality.
• They can also install various extensions with a single click of a button.
• Or users can also control all the extensions from easy-to-use location in the My Extension page.

About Thom Thom:

Thomas Tomassen is actually known as Thom Thom, he is a modelmaker with a large desire for physical, digital and traditional design in most kinds of the trade. He is also focused on webdesign or programming and 3D visualizations but he is specialist in 3D modeling, SketchUp, Webdesign, graphic design and web programming.

About SubD:

SubD is another extension by Thom Thom and there are various examples and about it’s working on models. It is a parametric subdivision extension for SketchUp which is optimized for quad-based workflows. It is used to create different models within SketchUp; using free tools like QuadFace Tools will help to create meshes with quad-topology and subdivide and crease with SubD.

Here are few examples the tools under SubD and their use in various models:

• Subdivide to Smooth the Mesh: At first, users have to select a group or component that have only faces and then turn Subdivision on or off. Next adjust the smoothness through increasing or decreasing the number of smoothing iterations and here turning the subdivision off for returning to the control-mesh whenever it is needed to edit the geometry.
• Refine the Mesh with Creasing: This option helps to create creases in the subdivided mesh for refining the shape without having to add extra control loops in the control mesh.
• Optimized for Quads: SubD uses a Catmull-Clark founded algorithm for the subdivision and this kind of subdivision is improved for quadrilaterals. Here for each subdivision each quad produce four new quads and each triangle produce three new quads; whether other polygons are triangulated prior to subdivision.

While working with quad based meshes users faster find the need for quads where the vertices are not coplanar and in SketchUp this is a challenge as SketchUp’s Auto-Fold feature will crack a quad into two triangles once it’s vertices isn’t coplanar any more. The extensions to work with quads that are not coplanar needed to be able determining which pair of triangles represent a quad and there is no official standard for this though the de-facto standard is the QuadFace tools type of quads. The definition of a QuadFace Tools quad is that two triangles share an edge which is soft and smooth with Cast Shadows turned off; this is very much recommended for installing QuadFace Tools for assisting to create quad based meshes for subdividing with SubD.

Video source:extensions.sketchup.com/en/content/subd



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Published By
Rajib Dey
www.sketchup4architect.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~