I shall be interested to see what you come up with - hopefully you will let the rest of us see it when you're ready.  I just wish I could contribute to this but I think you're all rather far ahead of me, besides I know very little about Amsterdam, and nil about how you would use metres or even feet and inches, in Wings or Bryce.  So I think I'll just watch the experts get on with it.

Good luck.

i really hope you will take part for whatever it is you can do! don't think i know a lot of 3d, i don't and i even don't know if my prog will work with the other ones, but for this part i could contribute something even if i can never make a building that can be used. i started only a year ago with sketch up and could not produce something useful with this prog before january of this year.

Oh, wow Koosie, you have given this so much thought already!  Wonderful!    (I'll re-read more carefully all you wrote wehne I come home, as I can't concentrate all that well while I'm at the office), bit I'm so excited about what you've done so far, I can't resist but ot chime in in delight!

I think it would be really cool if we end up having a mix of houses, some more historically correct, others allowing for more of a fantasy. which brings me to a thought, if we're doing several city blocks, we could have, blocks with several themes to it. That way people can indulge various aspects of it, some can go with more exact look, others can indulge their fantasies a little bit.  I know for me, some days I'm in the mood for historically correct, other days I just wanna play and break all the rules LOL.

Fran, if you can handle wings, there are still a lot of things you will be able to contribute, if you wish of course!  Don't let all this precise stuff scare you!  

One of my friends (whom has seen the thread but didn't feel up to posting) offered to model a carriage, when the time comes.

Quote - ...besides I know very little about Amsterdam, and nil about how you would use metres or even feet and inches, in Wings...

I don't anything about Amsterdam either, Fran.
As for the measurements; scale is arbitrary (look at imports D|S -> Bryce6; a tree comes up to V3's knees.), you can change it any time, without affecting the contour of the geometry. AFAIK, It is only important for Poser props and morph targets' and maybe some atmospheric render effects.
Just let 'Unit' replace meter: 1.000000 Wings unit equals a meter. Or 10 Wings units = a meter, depending on how big you like to work. Numeric inputs make that fairly easy.  You can use any scale you want, as long as you keep everthing to the same scale. Somebody can normalize the scale of everything later.
All sorts of things to do besides models anyhow.

koosievantutte, I meant a grid layout to the streets from an overhead view. From your photographs of Dordrecht, you can see the streets aren't a straight grid. When stacking individual blocks(sections) together it will be hard to make the streets be anything but a grid and still have them line up with each other. Sloping streets will be a problem too (if there are any?).
The only solution I can think of off hand is to not have mix & match blocks; rather, have a specific layout. The Terrain (ground plane) contour and waterline edges would have to be layed out as a single object, then cut into pieces to make the sections. The streets would need to be layed out and 'plots' marked for the individual buildings.
I'm not a civic engineer, so I could wrong about all this, or needlessly overcomplicating it.

A question, if I may? Will this be a representation of an Old Dutch port town in our present time, or in centuries past? I ask because it will help dictate what kinds of boats, vehicles, and other props might be time appropriate, and worth modeling to contribute to the project.

@dvlenk - i did not yet make groundplan, just made clear how to go about putting buildings in the water and on land. there must be a plan of course and we will have to simplify it, but the grid could be easily adapted. the terrain has to be a single layout of course. i will make a drawing to illustrate what i mean. there are no sloping streets to speak of in this kind of town.
-----what i don't know is: in sketchup i can make a terrain and put buildings on it later, will this work for other 3d progs too?
@ dynamo - of course you may: we did not decide on what it will be exactly - the start with an old dutch port town came up because that was what looking like what conniekat started with. she was thinking about the victorian era at that time. we can go for whatever we want.

Yes, you can (and should) have a terrain, or three, to sit things on. Lo poly terrains make nice water planes too; or I also often just make a plane primitive and throw some displacement or mesh noise on it to make ripples.

you lost me entirely here! i need a lot of education i think to be able to keep up with you.

Just saying, 'Yes. Making terrains and then sitting models on them works with any 3d program."
The bit about the water is that it looks better when the water plane isn't flat, and using a small (in poly count) terrain is an easy way to make the surface ripples.

what do you mean by poly's? are they the different surfaces of which an object is made up? this may sound stupid, but the reason is i don't know the terms, just taught myself to use sketchup.

As for the period/era, I'd prefer to stick with old-time, historic look. I was planing on modeling some victorian clothes and props somewhere along the way.

Poly's=polygons (most often triangles and quadrangles) that make up a 3D surface.  I agree with you guys about the water.

yes, i agree - the victorian period which you mentioned would be a good one.

I'd certainly like to try making something.  I've made houses before - 2 actually - but I spent a lot more time texturing them than I did modelling them, so they are nothing fancy.

... well one is a little fancier than the other - a basic oblong house with 4 windows and a door.  The fancier one is a tower house, I was hoping to eventually either put it in freebies or maybe even sell it if I can get the textures right.

But I'd certainly like to have a go at a house with a dutch roof - there are quite a few in my home town - in the dutch quarter.  But I'm away from home these days, so I dunno how it would look...

Gee I hope this project lasts a while... (thinking of how slowly I model)

I was curious, so I just tried a search for my home town with "dutch" added - and to my surprise up popped a load of new images of Colchester's Dutch quarter - there's even a photo of my solicitors office!!!

Now they must be new, cos the last time I searched for Colchester just last September there was hardly anything online on it at all...

But I just know there are some much more interestingly roofed buildings than even the ones that came up, I know the rooves are ... different, more steeply pitched.

I have also recetly added a clay tile roof set to the freebie section along with multiple stone textures. Good luck with the project.

great piece of work, i could not do that. get better soon!

Thanks Koosie :)

love those - they cerainly will come in handy.

Fine models all, Conniekat, but that Victorian-era ladies shoe is particularly excellent, and authentic-looking!! I used to both work and act in a theater company that specialised in Victorian and Edwardian-era drama productions.

Awww, thank you Danamo!  The Vic shoe is my latest model, and one that sort of gave me the idea for the whole village... You kow, a girl in new shoes needs  place to promenade :)
I'm happy to say that just minutes ago I managed to rig the shoe for poser, and have it work!!!  happy dance that's been long time coming!
There's couple more textures I wanna make for it, and then release a Poser freebie :)

some very nice buildings here - it does not have to be a real dutch town, we could make anything we like, as long as we agree on something.

Danamo, that is a wonderful piece!!!! What patience!
I really like the dutch look and canals too.   I think we may have to go with several blocks, each having a theme...   Somewhere in my googling about amsterdam last week I was a picture of a beautiful victorian house (I think it said Queen Anne style, I'm pretty unfamiliar with the styles myself), and it was fronting a canal.  First a narrow walkway, then a canal.  I'll post a link if I find it again.

Anyway, what I'm getting at, is that in real life there seems to be a mix of dutch and victorian etc...

Attached Link: Queen Anne Architectural Style @ bfn.org

Queen Anne is one of the Victorian sub-styles.

Great stuff !!!
Koosie, how is the map coming along? Do you need help with it? Do we need to decide on more things?

danamo>Great work..Um..Is that house available anyplace?...:)

I've been working on a Mill - based on an old restored mill near the college, will be able to post the basic building - i.e. no windows yet in an hour or so, when I get home.  I thought it had a sort of dutch look to it - when you see the roof I think you'll see what I mean.

I've been interested (vaguely) in this mill since I first came to college here, this gives me the impetus to do something about it.

Looking very cool :)    ...and you said you're not good enough? Phshaw!

I really need better reference photos, I have just two, and when I took them I just thought, "That's nice" and went 'click' not with the intention of modelling it, NOW I find I can't see what I need to see...

just a little message to say i will be back - had computer/internet problems which seem to have been solved now.

@franontheedge: for lots of derails about this kind of mill: google for "watermolen" in images and you find lots of images and details for this kind of mill.

@franontheedge - for good order i have to tell you that these kind of mills are only found in the east of holland and that they  would not work in the environment we were talking about. to run such a mill you need a brook, which you cannot find in low lying land or land below sea level. (but i am sure we can find a solution and use it somehow)

Well really it's only a mill if you have that water wheel there, otherwise it's just an interesting house - but wait until I get some better angles of pics for it, cos there's also an odd long low building like an extended porch to it, so we'll see what happens with it...

Also, I'd really like to have a go at the more lowland sort of mill - i.e. a windmill, that would be a very exciting project...  I'll have to see what I can find for reference pics.

if you need help finding pictures or drawings i will be glad to be of assistence.

I really need as detailed shots as possible and as straight on at possible too, as well as showing all sides of the building, but if you have some like that - or can point me in the right direction to find some - that would be great.

I've found so far that those on the net that are high enough resolution to show the details only show 1 shot of 1 side of the building, and often that's at an angle that means your view (for modelling purposes) is pretty distorted, asthetically pleasing though it might be otherwise...

Of course, I may just not have found the good ones yet.

Quote - just a little message to say i will be back - had computer/internet problems which seem to have been solved now. > Quote -  

Oh, there's no hurry, really. I was just getting worried that maybe I had said something to put you off and drive you away! 
And... welcome back :))

today i read in the paper that many buildings in amsterdam have mass models on google earth - amsterdam gave the dimensions - some (important) buildings are very detailed. this can be very helpful to look at to get an idea how these old towns were built and it gives realistic mesurements, i suggest that people who want to collaborate take a look at it.

oooh, sounds like a great find :)

Had a private tour around the watermill yesterday, it's a fascinating building.  I want to re-model the bridge/porch part of it - something that I haven't posted yet, (it looks like a very long porch to me but the director who showed me round called it a bridge, it does go over the weir and used to connect two mills, one for animal feed and one for human foodstuffs - the human one was pulled down to widen the road many years ago.) 

I also have the actual textures now as well. I also want to model the drop to the water, the weir, the mill race etc etc, but it's looking good so far.

I haven't been able to come up with any all angle shots of windmills yet, only single shots - not at good angles.  So I haven't been able to do anything about modelling a windmill... and I really wanted to... grrr!!!

What's that about google earth?  I didn't quite follow - what are "mass models"?

looks good!
this would fit very well in a dutch interior from that time too - in general victorian and dutch interiors were not very different - wallpapers were very much used then.
the wood paneling was often much simpler (this type was used in expensive houses) oak and pine were used (pine very often painted)
floors could be tiles (groundfloor and basement mostly) - other floors hardwood but mostly oak and pine planks from 10 to 40 cms broad.
will try to find links for you.

O.k.
As soon as I finish this casino space station I'm making (It's for a video game), I'll step into the time machine again and put my brain in Victorian mode.
Hopefully I'll have some ref pics to work with. It's a lot easier for me to make models w/ ref pics, even if the models aren't exact duplicates of the pics. It helps a lot to have them.

Poking in to see new stuff!  Beautiful work guys.
I haven't done much new modeling wise, one of my computers is crapping out so I'm having to do some backing up, rearranging etc etc.... Should be done with it this weekend.

i have to check this thread regularly as the ebots for this forum sometimes seem not to work at all! yuk.

need help, guys! i found a way to draw a ground plan with realistic measurements, but now i need to know roughly how many houses and other objects must be planned.
maybe we shoud start with one street/corner with water on the other side and build on from there?