# Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique) > Building/Structure Mapping >  WIP: Kirkbride style Insane Asylum Foorplan for Mystery Game

## Robbie

Hey guys.  I need some help...I'm working on a project that i can't wait to share with everyone (I have a lot of irons in the fire nowadays, snodsy I haven't forgotten yours either)...I'm needing to map out an old Kirkbride Insane Asylum.

There's tons of information out there about Kirkbride buildings (http://www.kirkbridebuildings.com/) and lots of floorplan images, but all of the floorplan images are single story floorplans.  What I need is all floors...including the cellar/basement level and tunnels as well as attics and such. And knowing what the rooms were all used for would be helpful too. I don't care which hospital I end up using for reference, but if anyone has any connections and can find a complete floorplan of any Kirkbride style asylum, It would be super useful!

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## Mouse

I looked around a bit for you, Robbie, and I too was having a hard time trying to find anything that wasn't just the ground floor, but I think I've found a clue as to why this might be so.

This page here has a little bit about Kirkbride on it, and if you click on the thumbnail map there you will see a map of the cellar, and the 'basement or first storey'.  That last bit being the biggest clue.

All floors seem to be laid out in the same unimaginative way.  I think this is down to building cost and functionality, but it would explain why most hospitals only have a single floor plan that's readily available.

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## Mouse

This might help - a scanned copy of one of his books.  It contains a couple of plans that you can zoom right into and see all the details.

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## waldronate

> All floors seem to be laid out in the same unimaginative way.  I think this is down to building cost and functionality...


An important part of functionality that's often overlooked is familiarity. If buildings of similar functionality are laid out in a similar way, then the major cost units (people) become more fungible because there is less training overhead as you move those units from one facility to another.

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## Mouse

Sexes are divided left and right.

Wealth is divided front to back.

So in the front rooms you have the masters and mistresses who went mad, and in the back rooms you have the servants who were driven nuts by their mad masters and mistresses.

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## Robbie

Awesome, I'll take a look at that book then. That looks super helpful. 

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## Robbie

Looks like that book is probably all I'm going to need! Good find mouse! Thanks! I'll post some of my artsy maps when I'm done with 'em. Yay! 

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## Mouse

You're welcome  :Smile: 

I like investigating mysteries  :Razz: 

Looking forward to the end result  :Wink:

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## Robbie

So the image in my first post (reposting here) seems to show a different story of the same hospital in the book...But I can't find the image online anywhere anymore for some reason, and it's in low resolution...confusing!

Here's all the plans if anyone wants to help me make sense of it:




Actually, looking at it closer, thats not the same floor plan now...So I think I can just focus on the two latter images and discard the first right?

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## Mouse

Its pretty similar overall, but at the left and right extremities it varies from the book quite a lot.  

Do you think the plan in the book was a sort of a blue print for all the real hospitals that were built as a result of it, and that the hospital you chose just happens to have been built before the variations got too far from the original?

EDIT: In which case the one in the book, though it may never have been built exactly as shown, is like a classical "this is how it was really supposed to look" design.  So yes - I'd say go with the second 2  :Wink:

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## Robbie

Yeah, I'm going to go ahead and pursue the second 2, because I'd like to go with a fictitious kirkbride anyways, so if it's conceptual based on his original vision, then all the better.  Trenton State Hospital was the first constructed Kirkbride building, and I think it was based off this book, but I'm not sure.  Either way, the book is super helpful.

I've already started making a vector floorplan based on these drawings, and will do some symmetry and alignment of the final layout, then I'll probably use that to build my actual 3d building to be used in this project.  Thanks!!!

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## Mouse

I'm glad I could help, Robbie  :Smile: 

It was an interesting journey rooting that one out!

I think I should have been an investigator!  LOL!

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## ChickPea

The Google-Fu is strong with this one!  :Very Happy:

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## Robbie

Yeah I think the turnaround time was in minutes! 

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## Mouse

LOL! you are both too kind!

I'm not really much use at most things, so I try to make up for it by finding stuff  :Wink:

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## Robbie

So I should probably create a wip thread huh? I've made progress. 

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## ChickPea

I think so. I'm very curious to see what you're up to!  :Very Happy:

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## Mouse

Go for it Robbie  :Smile:

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## Robbie

I don't see any reason to make a second thread...I'll just keep it in this one.  Here's a quick export of my vector work progress.  This is the basement/first story and will be used as a template for the other stories.  Once I get the floorplan laid out like I like it, I'll use this both for an in-game reference map as well as the vector points for extruding the walls to make the explorable 3d building.  My goal will be to model this building for the game.  Without giving too much away, it's going to be a kids/young adult creepy mystery game.  Anyways, here's progress.

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## Mouse

That's quick progress!

Will you be showing us around the 3D model again?

I really enjoyed the last one you did  :Very Happy:

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## Robbie

Mouse, I will definitely be showing off the 3d model and I intend to make a full product with it...You'll see  :Wink:   I'll probably have something 3d to see sooner rather than later even.  Here's my first/basement story floorplan.  I'll work on the ward levels next and update soon.  Keep in mind, this is a hybrid/conceptual Kirkbride floorplan and is intended to be a historical fiction use map.  So if anyone wants to comment on my Kirkbrideyness, or offer feedback for layout please jump right in!

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## Mouse

That's really cool

I can just see the stained walls - feel the horror of losing your way in the repetitive structure, or of getting trapped in the basement or the ends of the wings...

Thank you for sharing your project with us, Robbie  :Smile:

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## Robbie

It'll all make more sense once exterior doors and windows are added and other stories are mapped. I've been enjoying the process and am finding inkscape to be delightful to use for floorplan building once digging into grids and layers. 

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## Mouse

I have to agree that vector drawing tools are usually the best option for buildings  :Wink:

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## Robbie

We'll see how much I can pull off stylistically with inkscape once the practical map is done. Theory here is that The vectors will import directly into the 3d program for wall extrusion. I'll still need to cut out the windows, but that's no big deal. I can't wait to see what it looks like with sun lit illumination, even without texture! 

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## Mouse

Do you use Sketchup at all?

I don't know why it didn't occur to me to suggest it or mention it before, but for outlining a building in 3D it could be quite useful - especially since you can make arrays of repeating components like windows and measure things down to the mm.

You can also export .dae files directly from Sketchup, which are openable in Blender at least...

There is also a useful push/pull tool you can use to extrude the frame, or recess the glass.  Having made just one window of type A, you've basically made them all.

The only drawback (and it is a HUGE drawback), is that you have to pay £600 for the software before you can use it commercially for anything, but that's not even a problem if you already happen to own it  :Wink: 

EDIT: Here is a collection of tutorials, so you can get a general idea of what it can do.

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## Robbie

I already have a license for autodesk entertainment creation suite. I'm also in my trial window for substance painter 3d. I've used sketch up before and it has some great features I wish Max had, but those features aren't enough to make the switch permanent. 

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## Mouse

I don't even know what most of that hi-tech 3D stuff is  :Razz: 

Sketchup isn't perfect for everything anyway.  As far as I know, bitmap textures can't be used to displace the surface, or their position adjusted to suit the orientation of the face they are on (they are stuck in global orientation mode), and the shadows are totally flat unless you export the model and render it in a more suitable environment.  

I've only ever used it to get the basic structure right so that I can export a jpg to be used as guidelines for a GIMP drawing, or made basic cities with it to be viewed from a distance.  Even then the shadows require some pretty complicated work involving layers and different types of export from Sketchup to simulate ambient backlighting  :Wink: 

Now I'm _really_ looking forward to seeing the model!  :Smile:

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## Robbie

I did some buildings in Pensacola, FL in sketchup back when google earth was a thing and used user submitted building models.  If you zoom down to Pensacola, FL - Pensacola NAS, I did 3d models of the museum, the Naval Survival Training Institute, and a few other buildings (to include a chimney monument).  Those were the days, lol

Anyways, I think I've finished and am satisfied with the basement story of my Asylum.  From here, I need to iron out the actual plan of the center admin building portion and where all the stairwells in that building will be.  I've added windows and doors to the exterior, as well as porches to indicate where the doors outside are located. I had to shrink up one of the Domestics dormitories to allow for a well placed central egress, which is probably fine because that room rather than housing multiple domestics, could house a head housekeeper or groundskeeper or some higher up person.  Any thoughts or recommendations from anyone before I duplicate this structure to the other stories?

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## Mouse

I may look up a couple of those buildings, but for now I've just realised the time!   :Shocked:   4.30 am here in the UK

Just one thing I noticed on brief initial examination:

There is no doorway into store room 'f'

Can't see anything else right now  :Smile:

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## Robbie

Good catch, f will have a stairway from the floor above it. I guess I could add a door anyways. 

The center building is almost directly copied from the reference material. I'll probably change it before I'm done. 

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## Robbie

I just copied the map to the second story and deleted the porches and copied the regular ward floorplan to cover the work ward which only exists on the basement level.  I haven't decided on the labeling as to whether or not I'll use new numbers/letters...I also still need to make the second story modifications to the center building structure.  Lots of work to do, lol.

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## Mouse

When this is 3D you could always just put door numbers on the rooms.  People would have to work out for themselves what all the rooms were.

Putting a nice friendly patient's name and a little personal history in a framed picture thing on the wall beside the door is a relatively modern innovation in care homes and such, but you could use it here if you wanted to add a bit of variety and interest along the corridor.

Is this going to be in a state of abandonment and neglect - a haunted hospital with added monsters?  If so, such plaques might be barely readable but sometimes give clues.... or sometimes be misleadingly friendly/unfriendly...  :Razz:

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## Robbie

I've finally started putting some thought into the storyline, and it will in fact be an occupied fully staffed asylum in it's prime, probably set around 1870's or so.  You as a player will possibly be a patient or something like that...I don't want to spoil too much, but let's just say it will not be an abandoned run down facility.  Quite the opposite.

Here's my current floorplan progress:


I still need to streamline and better indicate the stairs.  The rest of the fourth story of the main building needs to be laid out as well as something that shows the dome/towers and such.  I'd also like to map out the boiler/fan house and farm/barn. I'm not really happy with the floorplan of the center building portion and will probably be making some pretty large changes to that on all levels.  I'll also be adding a cellar very soon as well as indications for dumbwaiters and possibly some way to show dust flues and chutes and hoppers and such, possibly even ventilation shafts.

If anyone has any thoughtsor complaints please let me know before I start modeling this up.

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## arsheesh

I know nothing about this asylum, so I won't be of much help to you.  But the layout looks good to me.  Looking forward to seeing what you have in store for this.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

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## Mouse

Its a huge project, Robbie, but looking really great so far.

I once visited an old Kirkbride style hospital which had been converted to a boarding school/care home setup for severely disabled children.  It was set in vast grounds that were laid out like a country park.  The place was so peaceful, and so calming - it was hard to think of it as a place where there would probably have been a lot of noise and drama in its days as a mental hospital for the clinically insane!

All the outbuildings (and there were many - various prefab schoolrooms etc mixed in with older buildings) were out at the back.  A conscious decision had obviously been made to preserve the beautiful brick and stonework of the frontage, and leave the driveway (which curled into a circle around a large Victorian fountain in front of the centre door) very much 'as-was'.  You could have safely filmed footage for a period film right there, under the avenue of mature lime trees.  The impression was more 'stately home' than hospital  :Smile: 

I can't remember for certain, but I think one of the outbuildings was originally a stable with a coach house.

I don't know if this was typical of the style. Maybe this one was special because it was built out in the country, and in those days our roads would have been pretty rough!

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## Robbie

Arsheesh, I may start 3d modelling one of the wards very soon. So stick around. 

Mouse, that sounds like a treat. You're in UK right? I know the UK used a method a little different than the Kirkbride plan, or he got his ideas from the UK plans. But the UK hospitals I've seen layouts of are amazing. Rauceby comes to mind. That would be a huge undertaking! 

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## Mouse

I think the UK hospitals were based on the 'long line' layout of many stately homes of a slightly earlier period.

I have a pattern recognition thing going on in my brain that's a bit like the OCD counting thing, but a whole lot more complicated, in that its all in 3D and includes pattern, shape, form, and colour... though its not sharp enough to be able to draw a city skyline from memory after just 30 seconds of looking at it, or anything flashy like that.  

Its possible that your plan triggered memories of that visit, which was over 25 years ago.  

Based on previous experience of how well I remember patterns (which incidentally is how I picked out that link when I was googling Kirkbride for you at the start of this thread), I would say there were too many similarities between the building I remember and the hospital model you are making for it to be mere coincidence.

Possibly Kirkbride may have been influenced by even earlier architectural plans.  We'll never know for sure, though  :Wink:

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## Robbie

Well I've used the heck out of that book. The text answers a lot of questions that the plates don't. It's not written in the best organization so I have to bounce around a bit in the book but it's super helpful. The information about the admin section is pretty dodgy though, like how the stairs and ceiling heights are supposed to properly line up with the wards (note the ceiling height notations on my map). I also have very little info about the 4th story of the admin section other than part of it is open to the chapel/auditorium and there's a stairwell that continues up to the dome. 

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## Mouse

Oh yes...

Thinking about it, there would have to be at least 3 extra steps on each flight to rise through the floors that are 2' taller than the one below...

Maybe the span of the steps gets smaller, or the rise gets taller.  Pretty dangerous to change it in one stairwell!  Could be gradually smaller landings between flights?

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## Robbie

Well I'm just wondering how if the second story has a 12' ceiling in the ward and 16' ceiling in the admin section then how does the floor of the third story admin section mate up with the third story of the wards? I originally thought there'd be a hallway at the 12' level that went across from female side to left side with a landing at the 16' height, but that's only a 4' high vertical space. So it just doesn't add up when looking at the floorplan either in my map or the book plates. If you or anyone else wants to take a look and maybe sketch out a possible solution or visualization that would be awesome! I have no idea how I'm going to do it and also factor in ceiling/floor thickness. 

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## Mouse

Hmmm....

I think... and this is only thinking....

The floors in the wings could have been thicker to allow sufficient depth for drainage and sewage pipes - which need a drop on them so that they don't constantly block, though I can't remember for the life of me what the magical gradient is, its a noticeable slope.  These things might not have been necessary in the central part?

Its also possible that since the building predates H&S laws about steps and stairs in public buildings, there might have been a couple of steps up and down to get through the central part of the building.  Its not likely that there was ever a clear runway through from end to end, since they were trying to keep male and female patients apart, so there would have been doors, and quite possibly steps down into the wings on each side.

Like I say - only thinking out loud  :Smile:

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## Robbie

Interesting. That could very well be a way to look at it. In find it a little disturbing that Dr Kirkbride didn't address it in his texts or the plates. That's why I'm still on the hunt for some more floor plans that show more info about the admin section. 

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## Mouse

I have been keeping a look out for a source of actual architects plans, but haven't come up with anything just yet.

Have to go to bed now, Robbie - its 2 am over here.

I'll have another look for you in the morning  :Wink:

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## Robbie

Oh dang, yeah go to bed, lol 

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## Mouse

I've been all over the place on a very interesting mystery tour this morning  :Smile: 

No explanation for the difference in room height, but a lot of pictures of interiors here on flckr for later on when you get to the stage of fixtures and fittings. (I know - that doesn't really solve the problem!)

I did a bit of reading as well (that's actually quite rare for me, since I tend to look at the pictures!), and discovered that one of the major concerns was adequate ventelation.  Having worked in a Victorian building being used as a care home for the elderly with dementia, I can say it would have been extremely useful to have 4 ft of space above a false ceiling for boxed venting, and some of the pictures I've seen of the derelict hospitals might suggest that was the case in at least a couple of them.

A couple of other resources that might prove useful once the structure has been resolved:

This YouTube footage was one of the few that wasn't all silly with tales of the supernatural, or filmed by trespassers in a hurry prior to demolition, and shows amazing detail of interior décor and equipment - if you don't mind the fuzzy bits between the interesting bits.  Details here of wall and ceiling textures, door locks and latches if you decide to go for total period authenticity down to that level of detail...

If you decide to change the plan and make it more of a modified Kirkbride layout, this page explains the history and development of Kirdbride's plan, going from the early hospitals that adhered most closely to the plan (Trenton State Hospital and Dixmont State Hospital), explaining how the basic plan was changed over time. There was a later edition of the book I linked to before, in 1880, where Kirkbride described an improved layout.  Sadly, I have not been able to locate a scanned copy of that book!

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## Robbie

I'm glad you brought all that up about the improved and modified Kirkbride buildings, I actually prefer the improved plan, but didn't have any completed reference material, but now that I have my own hybrid plan, I realize I could pretty easily improve my own layout. I originally was targeting the one in Dayton Ohio because it's down the street from me but your finding of that book became my primary driver to start mapping. I think I'm going to make some changes. Also, good find on the interiors! I'll definitely need that later! 

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## Mouse

Now that I've absorbed so much detail about all the different hospitals that were built over the period when Kirkbride was still the vogue, I think it would be fairly easy to design your own detail and move things around quite a lot - yes.  Even it if ends up being really quite different to the original plan, the same is true of many of the later hospitals.  I really like the flying corridors that link the wards in the later buildings  :Smile: 

It may be more important to get the flavour of the architecture right, rather than the accuracy.  Convincing building materials on the outside, and period décor on the interior will probably have some visitors thinking your model is one of a real Kirkbride building no matter what shape it ends up being  :Razz:

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## Robbie

Actually separating the wards by flying corridors answers the question on how to deal with the ceiling height issue. 

I'll give that some serious thought. It also gives me an opportunity to have a 3d performance boost by not having to have more than one ward in memory at a time. 

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## Robbie

My wife and I just talked out the stairway concept of the second to third to fourth story celing height transition, and I think I understand how it works now.  She's a good help for stuff like that...An intelligent sounding board.  :Smile: 

So with that, I think I'm going to leave my layout as it is as far as overall building structure...It will make it easier to model I think.  I may create some more offset to the wards, but not flying corridors like you mentioned...

At this point, I think in order to start modeling out buildings and such, I'm going to use layers to line up all the stories on top of each other and start exporting each story as a separate image...That will also lend well to modeling.

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## Mouse

The modelling part sounds really complicated.

Good luck with it  :Smile:

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## Robbie

Well crap...I've gone and found it...which means I'm going to have to make some SERIOUS modifications because I now want to go with the improved plan...Check this out! https://books.google.com/books/about...page&q&f=false

It's the whole book!  And it has plates that show the layout/plan of individual wards!!!  Awesome!!! (But more work  :Frown: )

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## Mouse

I saw that on Amazon, but there was a really bad buyer photo of the text reproduction, which I really couldn't read at all...

I thought it would be worse than useless, and even a source of frustration.  Guess I should have mentioned it!  Sorry!

I hope the plans are good for you - and Robbie, if a job is worth doing... 

Having seen your work on the 3D dungeon, I have every confidence you will make something spectacular of all this hard work  :Wink:

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## Robbie

Well the online Google scan is very readable but I ordered the Amazon one anyways. If it's unreadable I'll just send it back. Thanks for the vote of confidence though! I hope I don't let you down. 

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## Mouse

Fingers crossed!  :Smile:

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## Robbie

So, I got my book!  It's pretty cool...Some of the plates aren't scanned well, but that's ok, I mainly wanted a way to reference the text quickly...the plates are all available online anyways.  Very helpful...but I decided not to do too much of a heavy modification of the plan.  I added a boiler house and that's about it for now...

In the meantime I've been learning blender (I usually use 3ds max) and I must say, I like it...Here's a wip of about ten minutes of work experimenting.

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## Mouse

OMG!  It took me years to get the hang of Blender, and I still haven't really 'got it' now!  LOL

Brilliant start to the modelling  :Smile:

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## Robbie

I took a tutorial that's designed for Max users to transition. Helped jump start me. I still have a lot to learn. I'm super green on selecting things in blender. Thanks though! 

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## Falconius

Pretty cool.  Although are the walls really that high or is there a drop ceiling or something they put in afterwards?  Those look like the are 4-5 meters tall on the inside.  How did you get the model that quick?  Layout a plane that follows the walls and just extrude it up (which is my preferred method so far)?

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## Robbie

> Pretty cool.  Although are the walls really that high or is there a drop ceiling or something they put in afterwards?  Those look like the are 4-5 meters tall on the inside.  How did you get the model that quick?  Layout a plane that follows the walls and just extrude it up (which is my preferred method so far)?


Yeah it's about a 3 meter extrude just experimenting. I intend to extrude it according to the actual specified height of 12 feet from Dr Kirkbrides plan. 

I've been doing my mapping in inkscape which imports directly into blender as curves. I convert the curves to meshes and select the resulting faces and extrude them. 

I organized all of my inkscape layers so I'd have references for windows and doors as well as the overall floor and other things I'll be able to use for spatial reference in blender. I need to work a little more on the actual floorplan in inkscape before I really start digging into the model. 

Edit: once I cut windows it'll look better. And fix scaling. 

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## Falconius

> I've been doing my mapping in inkscape which imports directly into blender as curves. I convert the curves to meshes and select the resulting faces and extrude them. 
> 
> I organized all of my inkscape layers so I'd have references for windows and doors as well as the overall floor and other things I'll be able to use for spatial reference in blender. I need to work a little more on the actual floorplan in inkscape before I really start digging into the model.


Cool, I tried to do that with a file from inkscape a long long time ago before I knew anything about Blender and I couldn't get it to work at that time.  Also it came  out as super tiny and I had to scale it up.  (I think the reason is it took the inkscape dimensions in which I was working in mm's and put the objects in Blender at their native mm size).  I'll have to give it another go now that I know a lot more about what I'm doing.  It seems like a very useful workflow, looking forward to the rest of your results.

  Have you had a close look at the meshes?  Are all the verts connected properly?  No face doubles?

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## Robbie

From what I saw the meshes were good and triangulated pretty well considering. I think a lot of that has to do with my retentiveness in creating the inkscape paths. The extrusion was clean too. 

I am using in inkscape 1mm=1foot so I'll need to scale up for sure when I go to do final. 

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## Robbie

Currently having a hard time finding a good layout for the boiler room/engine room/fan house assembly...Mouse if you're up for some more hard research that'd be a good find. Doesn't even have to be kirkbride specific. Here's what I have so far.

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## Mouse

Ummmmm........

I think boiler rooms just had to be large to house whatever they had in them.  I can't find any boiler plans, which would be engineering drawings, but...

Here's an old School boiler c.1930(?)
Same boiler, different angle

Here's a page about Paxman boilers, which were made all the way up to 1969.  It might be useful for the dimensions and general appearance of boilers from whatever period you decide to set your map in.

Is this any use?

(It came from a search on this page.)

Other than that I think I'm out of my depth on this one!

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## Robbie

I'm getting a lot of help from this: https://books.google.com/books?id=_C...20room&f=false

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## Mouse

Oh that looks a lot more helpful than the things I managed to find  :Smile:

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## Ilanthar

That's a big building! I really like the 3D view and I woulnd't have thought to use Inkscape to get results in Blender. In which format are you exporting your Inkscape layers?

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## Robbie

Ilanthar, because I have a BUNCH of layers and they're all now overlapping each other stacked...I usually just select the walls and such that I want to import into blender and open a new inkscape document.  From there, I copy and paste the objects into the new document and center them as best I can.  I then have to open the svg file in a text editor and remove the inkscape version tag (or else blender will mess up the origin) and then I have to do some scaling and selection/conversion trickery to get the curves all centered and scaled right.  I use a scale reference object that I make a parent for all th eimported objects and then I set the dimensions of that parent object and it scales them all to match it.  Then I apply the scale which resets it to 1.  Long process, I should write it up better so it's repeatable, lol...I'm sure there's better ways to do it, but I'm just now learning blender and have a lot more to learn still.

Here's an update of the current  model process.  Now to scale.



What you see here is the whole ground story with some color and ambient occlusion.  The ground story is extruded to a height of 12' and no windows have been cut yet, but that will happen soon.  I actually have the wards separated into individual objects, so technically, I'm only going to model 1 ward, and then duplicate it, but I went ahead and imported and extruded the whole ground story plan here just for demo purposes.

From here on out, I'll focus most of my modeling efforts into ONE ward, and then I'll import each story of the admin building and then the projections of the wings and the extreme case wards at the end of the hall...also the boiler house, and then the cellar will need to be imported and extruded as a whole.

I doubt I'll do all of this in one blend file to be honest.  Since it's going into a game engine, I'll want to keep it modular...although I noticed that blender has a scene structure and layer management...I may be able to keep it all in one...It really all boils down to managing origin points and being able to dynamically place things in the game engine when they're modeled.

Edit: i think I might finish this thread and start a new one in the level design sub forum, since that's what this WIP is about to become.  I'll post final floor plan 2d drawings in here later.

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## Mouse

Just looking at those rooms, the way they are taller than they are wide (or appear to be).  Not normal.  I think just staying there would be enough to drive a person slightly crazy.

Don't forget to leave us a link to find your new thread!  :Smile:

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## Robbie

Yeah, the average patient room was 9'x11' with 12' ceilings. And I'm accurate there...It's a little wonky looking because of the lack of door frames and openings for windows though.  Coming soon!

Also since Ilanthar asked, I've already typed up a step by step workflow from Inkscape to Blender to get where I am now.  I can create a tutorial for this if anyone is interested.

Thanks for looking though!!!

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## Azélor

That's pretty impressive. And also a lot of walking to get from one end to the other, unless employees can use bicycles.

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## Mouse

I didn't realise about the Inkscape to Blender possibilities either.  Are you going to upload the tutorial here in the tutorials section?

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## Robbie

Azelor, there's a railroad in the cellar, but it's for food and laundry mainly. Actually attendants typically never left their wards during most shifts. The building is 950' from end to end. Pretty cool.  :Wink: 

Mouse, it'll either be a YouTube tutorial or a forum post or both. 

Sent from my HTC6535LVW using Tapatalk

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## Falconius

The layer system in Blender is ... irritating, and somewhat limited.  But you can append parts from other blend files into a main file or a final composition file.  Its much easier I find to keep the bits and doodads in separate files, and also for exporting to obj files since it exports everything in the file on every layer.  https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/d...libraries.html

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## Ilanthar

Well, I would certainly be interested by a tutorial. I have difficulties to get the logic of blender (and all the vocabulary that goes with it), so if I can use an other software to get the basics before using blender, that would probably make things easier to me (or not... I'm a total noob in blender!).

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