Enterprise-D 1:1 Scale model, with decks, in Sketchup

Discussion in 'Fan Art' started by halkun, May 11, 2009.

  1. halkun

    halkun Ensign Red Shirt

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    Whee, I've picked up this project after putting it on hold for a while. Pictures follow... All the way to deck 3 (I'm working on the 4th deck now. only 38 left to go)
    [​IMG]


    X-Ray view
    [​IMG]


    Lots and lots of windows... (You can see the insides!)
    [​IMG]


    I'll post more pictures if anyone is interested...
     
  2. kitsune

    kitsune Captain

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    Sweet. Please show us the inside of deck 1! :)
     
  3. judge alba

    judge alba senior street judge Commodore

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    hey thats looking good i wish you luck with the enormous task you've set yourself. there's a lot of rooms in the ent D. I'm looking forward to seeing the completed article
     
  4. halkun

    halkun Ensign Red Shirt

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    Here are some older WIPs
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    I'm using the Whitefire plans because 1) They are the original and 2) Okuda's are unnecessarily complex. I'm most likely not going to be calling it the "Enterprise" either. I may make it the U.S.S. Galaxy (NCC-1700) in tradition that it's the original, or my own number (NCC-1683) and probably call it the "Whitefire"
    Some things that are interesting:
    Sketchup is an architectural program that uses real world units of measurement. I found that when I scaled the pans to real-world sizes, everything was too small. People would be bumping their heads on the door frames and such. Also shuttles would not fit properly in the shuttlebay. The insides, for the most part, are quite consistent in scale so all I had to do was make the ship bigger to compensate. I'm also nudging around the skin of the ship and the placement of windows to better reflect what's inside. Also, because the skin is angular, there are a few more vaulted overheads (ceilings) that I took for granted.
    By the way, here's the actual size of the ship

    Published dimensions:
    length: 842.5 meters
    beam : 487 meters
    depth : 137 meters

    Real world dimensions
    length : 1048.41 meters (a kilometer!)
    beam : 738 meters(the saucer is much wider!)
    Depth : 238 meters

    Each deck is 4 meters high with an interndeck space of 70 Centimeters (That is the space between decks)
     
    Last edited: May 11, 2009
  5. kitsune

    kitsune Captain

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    Amazing detail. It's weird though that access between the bridge and the rest of deck 1 is so awkward.

    I believe the official published length of the Galaxy class is 642.5m, not 842.5m.
     
  6. halkun

    halkun Ensign Red Shirt

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    The access down to the lounge is a ramp. The lounge sits a half-deck below the bridge. There are a lot of "half-height" levels for no particular reasons on the first and second deck. Deck 2, for example, is split into an upper and lower deck because of the "modular" bridge above and the hangar bay roof below. I'm going to run into another slew a "half decks" when I get to the separation line. You can tell that the ship insides and external skin were never really designed to be cohesive. It was just designed to look cool.

    And like I said, the published "official" dimensions don't work when you apply reality. (But then again, it's an imaginary ship and reality tends to get in the way anyway)

    I was thinking of releasing this model when I'm done so others could create something from it. The turbolift network is there, and the turboshafts are all hollow. There are no doors or turbolift cars, but I'm sure some enterprising level guy could install them. You can walk around on the ship now. The polys are all double-sided. The rooms have transparent ceilings on the outside (so you can see in), but you can't see through the ceiling when inside. Also, as this is the Whitefire plans, there is no stellar cartography, whale ops, or anything like that. Has a whole multi-level forest deck though, which is cool!
     
  7. Savage Dragon

    Savage Dragon Not really all that savage Moderator

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    Very interesting! :techman:
     
  8. sojourner

    sojourner Admiral In Memoriam

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    Good luck with this. Sketchup does not handle large files well, I would recommend breaking your decks out as separate files for the detail work and just having a master file for cutaway views.
     
  9. halkun

    halkun Ensign Red Shirt

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    Actually, I have each deck separated into multiple layers. Sketchup does an excellent job of culling when decks are not visible and even on my P4 with 3GB of ram, it is *very* responsive.
    Here's an update. 4th Deck (Hangar bay 1/Upper Phaser bank)

    [​IMG]
    This actually has the 3rd deck added and the associated truboshaft network. The turboshafts are actually on a separate layer so you can render that without the ship. Here's the turboshaft network for the first 4 decks.

    [​IMG]

    Here is the actual deck 4 with some of the rooms extruded into 3D space. I placed a shuttlecraft next to a maintenance hangar so you can get a sense of scale. Here the hangar doors are 3.5 meters tall. The actual hangar bay is quite large standing in at about 3 decks high.
    [​IMG]
    Here is a shot of the ceiling of the hangar bay (Floor removed for clarity)
    [​IMG]

    (sorry, the pictures are a little big)
     
  10. BolianAuthor

    BolianAuthor Writer, Battlestar Urantia Rear Admiral

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    This is amazingly awesome! :)
     
  11. sojourner

    sojourner Admiral In Memoriam

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    Welll, when you start detailing those decks and the poly count starts to climb is when you will have problems. Just flat decks have relatively few separate surfaces. A good example is every time you add a sphere. It may look like it is perfectly round to you, but Sketchup actually draws it geodesically with triangles. Curved surfaces in Sketchup (and most 3d programs) increase model size greatly.

    Another thing I have learned using sketchup is to save often to different file names at different stages. This will let you go back to previous saves should you find your self at a dead end and having to "back up" to a certain step or area in the drawing process.
     
  12. QuinnTV

    QuinnTV Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    Very, very cool idea. I'm looking forward to following this!
     
  13. regemet

    regemet Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    I think these are brilliant deck interiors more please.
     
  14. BK613

    BK613 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    you guys working on these various deck-by-decks are doing some great work. keep it coming!
     
  15. Capt Dazio

    Capt Dazio Lieutenant Junior Grade Red Shirt

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    It is really a magnificent work, halkun!
    Your drawings interest me enormously. I am impatient to discover the continuation.
    ___________________________________________________________________________________
    Current works: Scratchbuild of Shuttlebay 02 - TNG - http://trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=90666
     
  16. Squiggy

    Squiggy FrozenToad Admiral

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    That deck one doesn't work. The Ready Room has a window and these plans don't allow for that.
     
  17. ThunderAeroI

    ThunderAeroI Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    So this is not based on the Rick and Mike drawing set they sell in the black box with all the blue prints.

    I dont mind that you have it larger than its drawn out at either. I'd love to see someone someday actually make a set of engineering blueprints that could be used for actual construction of this thing.

    It wouldn't be practicle to build without the actual engines and a number of other key systems, but it sure would be interesitng ot have around to look at.
     
  18. ThunderAeroI

    ThunderAeroI Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    That is a good catch, it is located in the corner across from his fish. He often looks out of it when he is getting his tea. It never occured to me there was an external hallway around the dome, that just seems off.

    maybe thats deck 2 coming into contact with deck 1 because of the half-deck. Don't know, i dont have access to my ED right now.

    But like the viewscreen you could say its just a fake window, nothing would run counter to that I dont think.
     
  19. halkun

    halkun Ensign Red Shirt

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    Actually, you can look out of the ready room. The bridge you see here is actually a WIP. The window is there. I'll post pictures of how I did it when I have a chance
     
  20. kitsune

    kitsune Captain

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    Well, the hull near the window has the same shape as the wall in the Ready Room:
    [​IMG]