This SketchUp plugin review will introduce you to SubD – an organic modeling plugin that can help you create amazing organic models.
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Short Intro
I’ve been very excited for a while to do a video about this plugin. It’s a plugin for creating more organic models in SketchUp
Plugin Name: SubD
Plugin Developer: Thom Thom
How Much does it cost? $40.
Where do you get it?
You can get it by visiting www.thesketchupessentials.com/subd
Tool Functions
Basically, the way this plugin works is by taking your geometry in your model and subdividing it to create more rounded, organic shapes.
It’s basically the equivalent of taking a circle with 12 segments around the perimeter and making it a circle with 24 segments. This makes the circle look much more smooth and organic.
This tool stores your original geometry, allowing you to go back and adjust your geometry for future changes.
It’s important to note that this tool is optimized to work with quad faces, not tri faces. What that means is usually, when SketchUp breaks a face up into multiple pieces, it breaks it into 3 sided pieces. However, in this case, for things to function optimally, you’ll need to model all your faces in quads, or 4 sided faces. This can be greatly helped by using Vertex Tools (also by Thom Thom).
It also comes with a couple other tools optimized to help you with working with models.
The first is the crease tool. The create tool allows you to adjust points and lines in your model.
The second is the quad push pull tool. This tool is designed to help you push pull faces without creating internal geometry that will make the plugin not function properly.
Ratings
Usefulness/Functionality – 4/5
Overall, this tool is designed to do one thing – subdivide shapes to make them more organic. It’s very good at this, but it’s a little frustrating because to really use this plugin to its potential, you need to model in quads, and the best way to do that is purchase vertex tools.
Value – 4/5
This plugin is great for subdividing shapes, but it’s very difficult to use by itself. To truly use it to its full potential, you have to use quad based modeling, which can be tricky to do without a couple other plugins (vertex tools, QuadFace tools) as well. It would be nice if all this functionality was rolled into a single plugin.
Ease of Use/Documentation – 4/5
Generally speaking, there is a fair amount of documentation about how this extension works on Thom Thom’s website. However, the tricky piece of learning to use this extension is learning to model in quads instead of in tris. This requires a fairly high level knowledge of modeling techniques, which makes working with this program tricky.
Description
Overall score – 12/15.
Overall
This plugin can really take your organic modeling to the next level. However, to truly unlock its potential, you’re really going to want to have a copy of Vertex tools as well, which is another $40. This isn’t a bad thing, as vertex tools is THE premier vertex editing extension in SketchUp, but it will still run your cost up to turn SketchUp into a complete organic modeling suite.
That being said, the potential of what this extension allows you to do is staggering. It allows you to draw a blocky outline of a shape, then subdivide it into a beautiful organic model.
That’s where we’re going to wrap up this plugin overview. If you liked this video, click that like button down below. If you’re new, click that subscribe button for more SketchUp videos every week.
As always, leave a comment below and let me know if you’re using this tool and how.
Finally, please consider supporting me on Patreon. As you know, The SketchUp essentials is a side project for me, and a lot of these tools and extensions cost money. By supporting me on Patreon, you help me be able to purchase licenses for new softwares to keep bringing you new plugin reviews and other SketchUp content. Even a dollar a month helps.
In either case, thanks very much for watching, and I’ll catch you in the next video.
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