Modeling "floors" and "ceilings"

What do you use to model a floor?? Do you guys actually create a solid with a thickness, or do you use a REGION or something? I want to add materials to it, like carpeting too.

Also, in our Lobby/Foyer we have 48x24" tiled ceiling grid. Is there a material for this or would I need to actually create the grid and ceiling tiles as models? Thanks for the help in advance.

I use a solid with a thickness... for the ceiling tiles you might be able to make a bitmap/bumpmap for the whole ceiling but I'd probably do it as individual tiles... it depends on your level of accuracy & the time you have available.

I model all the framing, and then either our standard T&G flooring or a slab for OSB and another for a finish flooring if we're doing a render. Our models are very detailed thoguh as we cut all of our beams and logs right from the CAD model.

okay cool, thanks. Guess I will follow what you guys say.

That's a question I also had before. It looks like you can use several objects for your floor or walls, like regions, planersurfs, solids, and 3d faces.

Yeah, I was just wondering what the best way was. But I think I figured it out. Plus, I found that AutoCAD had a great 48x24" ceiling grid texture I used. Looks awesome, and I didn't have to mess with "creating" a grid with separate tiles either.

Its really a basic case of naval bouyancy. Find something that floats your boat and go! Just make sure it gels with company standards and co-workers.

does MEP have slabs? You can use the slab object, and add other items to that style to get the look you want. But that is only if MEP has slabs built into the AEC content.

If you do not plan on cutting sections out of your presentation model, I would not worry about going as far as modeling the framing of the building. You can use a simple solid object for the items you need, and cut the slab in areas where you have floor material breaks.

It's always a good idea to keep your poly counts as low as possible, so any faces that will never be seen by the camera should be deleted. The rendering engine will perform calculations on every poly in the scene, regardless of whether the camera sees them or not. So, the more poly's you have, the longer your render times. Whenever possible, use flat planes instead of solid boxes.

Flat plane = 2 faces

Solid box = 6 faces

If you're just doing a small little scene, it may not matter much, but when you start getting into larger, more complex scenes, it can make a difference.

Better to develop good habits now.

Really it depends if you're coming at it from the presentation render end or from a production 3d model direction. If you want the pretty, keep the geometries as simple as you can and spend your time focusing on the materials and especially the lighting.

In my office, we create the detailed model as a matter of necessity so the information can b exported right to the shop. It does make it very easy when creating section views and isometric details though.

It's always a good idea to keep your poly counts as low as possible, so any faces that will never be seen by the camera should be deleted. The rendering engine will perform calculations on every poly in the scene, regardless of whether the camera sees them or not. So, the more poly's you have, the longer your render times. Whenever possible, use flat planes instead of solid boxes.

 

Flat plane = 2 faces

Solid box = 6 faces

 

If you're just doing a small little scene, it may not matter much, but when you start getting into larger, more complex scenes, it can make a difference.

 

Better to develop good habits now.

thnx 4 sharing tips!

Yeah, its still looking good so far. However, as SOON as I get started on this project - we get slammed. So I've had to patiently put it on the back burner for now. Maybe next week i'll get back to it and show my other progress.