|
SketchUp "likes" nVidia cards, but ATi work fine as well. It needs a lot of RAM on the video card, if the model gets past a certain number of polygons. My video card has just 256MB of RAM and at a certain point the model got v e r y, v e r y, s l o w. The system has 4GB of system RAM, and I upgraded to 6GB to see if that helped, but it did not.
Tracing the photos (or vector drawings) that are taken straight on from the side, the back and if you can from the top of the car. Have a measuring tape or a yard stick in the photo at the centerline or high point of the car, so you can accurately scale the photos. In SketchUp, put those images onto rectangle surfaces; and then the fun begins!
If those vector drawings are available as DWG (or DXF), then you can import them into SU.
You need to trace the outline of the car on the rectangle surface and once it is complete (or trace the vectors), you use the Pull tool to extrude the outline a little wider/deeper than the car. Then trace another of the images, and extrude that past the first. And then there is a tool called Intersect Faces which does a Boolean-type of intersection, and then you erase the excess polygons that you don't need. Then do the same for the third view -- and then you get to do the rest by eye.
Give it a try, and ask questions if you need help.
|