Tree object that correctly projects both in 3D and 2D

[AlexKW]

Hello everyone,

I have been struggling to get to have tree objects that project correctly in 2D and 3D (both as view and 3D document). I have been experimenting with the assets available with archicad. What I am aiming for is a clean, stylistic look in our drawings and not having to have 2 different layers for 2 or 3 different types of visualization. We do a lot urban design as well so having a tree that projects well and looks good on 2D is important.  

In the screenshots attached: From left to right
1. The leftmost tree is a 3D tree. It doesn't look great and I can't adjust it to make it look stylized on 2D view
2. This is a "silhouete" asset from KUBUS, an archicad license provider in the Netherlands. You can load up custom profiles and have them project in the image in 3D (so you have to actually draw things or import them as dwg in the profile manager). Problem is that you can adjust the size only through the custom profile environment and I cant adjust how it looks on plan. As a 3D Document it looks great. ( https://helpcenter.kubusinfo.nl/nl/articles/413091-silhouette )
3 and 4. This is the standard archicad decidious tree asset. Which can project correctly on plan and 3d view but not on 2D view. Whats more, is that if you want it to project correctly on 2D view you need a seperate copy of it and set it to project sideways and on 3D document.

I can't figure out how to have one tree asset look decent and customizable in all three types of projection...plus I am still kinda dissapointed by the style of many archicad assets looking very outdated. I like working with archicad but I really have to put my back to it to make our drawings look contemporary.

I saw this online and seems to be exactly what I am looking for. Has anyone used it? And if so, is it worth it?
https://smart.macinteract.com/smart-tree/

Any tips or suggestions are very much welcome!!

Operating system used: Windows

[Karel Landa · Accepted solution]

I'm using the macinteract tree objects and for what I need is quite good.

It offers various style and can look good in all view (Flooplan, Section/Elavation, 3D document and 3D) but it is still a little but limited in some ways.

There is also trees from Archiradar (they have one sample for free to try for high-res and for basic). They look quite good but they are pricy.

[AlexKW]

Hi Karel! Very much appreciate your answer. Could you specify in what way is the macinteract smart tree asset limited? Thank you in advance!

[Karel Landa]

Well, mostly in the Graphic, you are limited to the selection they have (which comes mostly from 2D symbolic views of trees from Graphisoft with some added of thei own)

It really comes to what you are looking for either very schematic representation or realism.
Macinteract is very symbolic which is great for larger projects with multiple buildings. You are able to create good looking drawings regarding 2D. But if you are more focused on smaller pojects (family houses) then Archiradar would be probably better choice albeit more expensive. I'm ataching a screenshot of their post on instagram. The tree has about 1000 polygons which equals to standard chair from Graphisoft and they have settings that makes the tree symbolic for elevations and 3D document

As I wrote, best to try it yourself since they have one sample for free

[AlexKW]

Ah I see! Good to know though for realistic rendering we use Enscape so if we wish to prep the file for rendering we do make seperate layers for Enscape Assets. Our goal is more directed towards clean and stylistic 2D plans and views, Axonometric views (3D documents) and Preliminary 3D views. 

[Karel Landa]

Then I would go with macinteract 😉

[Pavel_N]

Thank you Karel for the great tips 👍

Does anyone have experience with how Archiradar (or Maciteract) trees are rendered in Twinmotion? And also what is the difference in 3D performance compared to native TW trees? I often have scenes where I don't mind less photorealism for most of the more distant trees and I only replace the trees near the camera with detailed ones from TW. But the native ones from AC are really bad even in the background of the scene.

[Karel Landa]

I can only say my experience regarding macinteract, I have't used archidar in project yet (just a quick test)

Trees for macinteract are very low poly. It ranges from 4 to 30 polygons per instance. Creating a small forrest in the background is then really simple and will not cause slowness in 3D.
3D documents car become a little heavier based on the settings since it has to draw all the lines that are in the silhoutte but still managable.

In Twinmotion I think that the import will be OK, but for what I can recall, Twinmotion is habing problems with elements with zero thickness/depth and you are not able to change material from Archicad to the one from Twinmotion - but I'm not using Twinmotion for a while now so maybe it's not the case anymore. Anyway, for Twinmotion it is still OK and will not make a heavy load.

Hope this helps 🙂
I'm attaching a screenshot of the trees in 3D and polycount 😉

[Karel Landa]

[Pavel_N]

Thanks you, it definitely helped me. I missed the fact that Macinteract is flat/cross in the 3D window, which doesn't suit me very much in Twinmotion. So Archiradar might be better for me.

It would be nice to have both approaches (the schematic nature of Macinteracts and the sophistication of Archiradar) in one perfect library element. 🙂