Modelling a rock ... a big rock

[studio3p]

Any suggestions on how I might go about modelling the rock featured in the attached photograph? I'm building a cardboard site model and I have no problem building in real life, but when it comes to the digital version I'm wondering if there's a good way to do this in Revit.

[Scott D Davis]

Wow! It's going to need to be modeled in another program, and imported into Revit. There were some 'rock' families somewhere, I think on RUGI, which is "in transit" to this site at the moment.

You could do an approximation in Revit, with a bunch of voids, cutting a solid. If you are creating a cardboard model, you might be able to get it digitized somewhere, but not sure what that would cost!

[beegee]

OT - If it wasn't for the trees, I'd have said that was the Freysinet pensular near Wineglass Bay in Tasmania.

[shaunv68276]

I did a similar rock water feature. all I did was use topography, with points It worked fine for me. + effortless.

[Steve_Stafford]

It's not like you need cd's for the rock right?...you should be able to create a family using solids. Make a bigger block, then carve away the features with voids...think clay and or wood with carving tools. You should be able to approximate it reasonably well.

[beegee]

Shauns right, this one took less than a minute to make with topo points.

[Steve_Stafford]

Guess that depends on how nice you want it to look? To really show the true taper and make it "believable"...you'd need to model it with solids. Either way, it should take a significant amount of time...

[beegee]

Are you casting aspersions at my rock :shock:

[Steve_Stafford]

No I'd say I was throwing a rock at your aspersions

[beegee]

Looks like I'm caught between a rock and a hard place.

[Steve_Stafford]

To get to the hard place, make a left at the fourth pine tree. To get to the rock...back up...:?

Sorry to runaway with your thread...but this happens from time to time when I'm up late and Beegee isn't...

[luigi]

I will have to try using the topography command, but it isn't too hard to use solids and voids as somebody had suggested. See attached as an example. (Rock-Big Rock.jpg)
(by the way, until just now, I never had the RPC people gray out...the thread I read earlier must of jinxed me)

[studio3p]

Thanks for the feedback. The solids looks promising. My mind was stuck on a VIZ-like mesh, and the solids may do just fine. I'm guessing (though I haven't tried) that the topography tools don't make any provisions for undercutting.

I don't think I'll try submitting for a building permit on the rock, unless they're willing to grandfather the design. I'm guessing it's somewhere around 20,000 years old, so let's see ... that would be the 18,074 B.C. version of the UBC.

[shaunv68276]

This took less than 2 min. Using Topography.

[beegee]

This took less than 2 min. Using Topography.
and twice as nice as my 1 minute one ... ;)

[shaunv68276]

and twice as nice as my 1 minute one ... ;)
Thanks Beegee! You Rock!!

[beegee]

Well we can all get our rocks off in this thread.

[PeterJ]

Looks to me like you have been modelling termite heaps, Shaun.

[cphubb]

Studio,

I think the solids will work fine. However if your are looking for a tool that makes great rocks (and other topo BTW) you should take a look at Bryce by Corel. It has a fractal topo and rock maker and can export to DXF. The entire program is only $79 US and is really easy to use. IT is somewhat of a niche programs since it only really does landscapes and such but its raytrace rendering engine and procedural materials cannot be beat. To bad it does not play well with other programs. 3ds and dxf models have serious scaling issues when imported into Bryce (my building was 6"x12") because the program has a wierd base 4 units system to make it compatible with the standard rendering resolutions. You should chek it out you could create a rock in about 10 minutes export it and be done.