SketchUp Integration news in windPRO 4.0

See all the news in the document below.

Contents

SketchUp Integration news in windPRO 4.0. 1

New features. 1

Edit elevation data in 3D.. 1

Open Street Map Building import. 1

Create photo masks. 1

Surface exporter – paint on terrain. 1

Easier to create vegetation around PV areas with new windPRO shape exporters. 1

Scaled shape point import. 1

Result layer exporter – undefined areas now transparent. 1

New setting in Photomontage exporter. 1

New default when exporting Photomontages. 1

Workflow improvements. 1

New rightclick menu in SketchUp. 1

New shortcut button in Photomontage. 1

New shortcut buttons in the SketchUp Integration Tool 1

New tabs in main GUI 1

New features

Edit elevation data in 3D

See the YouTube video about using this feature: Link to YouTube

This feature can create an elevation line object in windPRO based on the data from SketchUp. More specifically a .wpo file. When items is exported from SketchUp to windPRO it used to be always as 3D objects, but since the content is containing a set of triangles, these can just as easily be used as TIN in an elevation object. This elevation object will then contain a set of lines with a single point (the triangle endpoints) and the finished TIN. In windPRO this new line object can be used as it is for calculating elevation, it can be imported as a new layer in an elevation object, or it can be merged with an existing line object. To merge with an existing line object, the new object should first be converted to real lines in the EMD editor using “Change contour interval”, and then extended with the line object it should be merged with, also in the EMD Editor with “Extend data”.

Above animation is using the SketchUp Sandbox tools that is part of the standard SketchUp installation, also in the free SketchUp Make 2017. More sophisticated commercial plugins to SketchUp exists.
There are many resources around on how to work with terrain data in SketchUp. Here is a few links:

Sandbox tools
How a Landscape Architect Grades a Site
Top 5 Extensions for Landscape Site Analysis
https://artisan4sketchup.com/sculpt/

Open Street Map Building import

This can import buildings at any site very easily.

This is very useful when calibrating a Photomontage:

And very useful when building a 3D model of a Site:

Create photo masks

This is a tool to create image masks. This is an alternative to using the rubber tool and can be a huge time saver. An example of usage could be a line of existing trees on a Photomontage that should be visible inside a solar PV area.

See the video.

Surface exporter – paint on terrain

This is a way to enable the user to replace the exported surface texture with a transparent PNG file that follows the terrain. This could for instance be a road. See the video.

Easier to create vegetation around PV areas with new windPRO shape exporters

The OUTLINE exporters are polyline versions of the existing polygon exporters. Using these it is possible to create vegetation along the outline of areas instead of only inside. Like this:

Instead of this:

The new Object position exporter is simply exporting windPRO object positions as point shape file. This can be useful for many things like for example creating 3D models at object positions.

Scaled shape point import

Now point models can be scaled to any size. In 3.6 they would always be imported in the size they were created in.

Result layer exporter – undefined areas now transparent

windPRO 4.0	windPRO 3.6

New setting in Photomontage exporter

If this is selected the last rendered photo is used instead of the background image. This can be useful if creating 3D presentations for sharing visualizations on the net.

New default when exporting Photomontages

This makes the export look nicer in general. The old default was “Auto”

Workflow improvements

New rightclick menu in SketchUp

This gives an easier workflow than finding the item in the tools-menu.

New shortcut button in Photomontage

This creates a SketchUp Integration Tool session that is linked to the specific camera object. This makes it easier to manage multiple sessions and SketchUp projects within the same windPRO project.
If the users prefer, they can still open the SketchUp Integration Tool from the main button in the windPRO GUI, and it will work as in windPRO 3.6 where all cameras shared the same SketchUp Integration Tool instance.

New shortcut buttons in the SketchUp Integration Tool

Brings SketchUp to the front. If SketchUp is not loaded, it loads it. The button is animated when SketchUp is loading or importing from windPRO to indicate when SketchUp is busy.

If the SketchUp Integration Tool is opened from a Photomontage, then this button focusses this Photomontage. Else it focusses the last used Photomontage.

New tabs in main GUI

The introduction animation is now replaced with a permanent tab, Resources, with help, links and information about the use of the SketchUp integration tool. This page is in fact a webpage that is on the EMD server and it can be updated independent of windPRO, and it will be updated as new resources will become available.