Thanks for understanding Graham. Hope things work out okay for you. I'm a Mac User also. Have you checked out, Useful MAC Applications [Ongoing Updates] http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=72&t=6369 Some useful apps there in the graphics area. Mike

Not concerned about objects getting out of order, not concerned with objects that are being moved. Merely concerned with 'altering' unique objects that must change shape to fit each other. E.g. "whoops we're 2' outside the zoning envelope, let's move everything back 2' from column line 'B'" Moving the columns is easy. But each floor, partition, wall, storefront group etc. must be opened and edited separately as necessary, moving only the faces which need to move, using an 'area select' and 'move' within each group. Just want to do this in one step. I bet if this were easy to do as a plugin it would have been done already.

also, do a research for ThomThom's Vray tools. Thi plugin lets you set an aspect ratio in the model view, without resizing your window, and then you can export the image with exactly that aspect ratio

@driven said: @arcad-uk said: Just played with this and my findings don't match yours William. From what I see the results always end up on the current layer? your using SU's Solids Tool and he's using OSCoolean.rb http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=14773 Your both exactly right I went back to my Pro and it remains on the current level. In the free version 8.0 using OSCoolean.rb it uses FIFO layering .Your first interaction determines the layer and were it will reside. I didn't expect the two to be that way but there ya go. I'll check both sides before saying what is what again. william

There's also this 'surveytool' plugin by architect John Wehby, that takes distances and bearings... http://rhin.crai.archi.fr/rld/author_details.php?id=50 There are also some other useful tools by him there... Writing a script to import distances and angles is quite straightforward... can you post a text file of some example data... It could place cpoints that you then swap for components later [such tools already exist]

I will try - thank you.

Actually this has been around for as long as I can remember. And while I use thomthom's cleanup script and purge all the time, this is still a big issue because sometimes you want to forcefully delete a material that is still in your scene. This happens a lot when you bring in some 3d elements and such and end up with a few oddball materials that you don't want, but don't want to dig around and find out where they are in the model. -Brodie

I certainly dream of more than this, but this would be a great step in the right direction. The current UV tools available through ruby do me no good for just the reason you mention. When I want to wrap a stucco material around a column it scales way too large with no means of tiling it as you mention. Creating a custom material for such things is too much of a bother for me and clutters things up. -Brodie

I don't like the fact that there is no AppStore link. This leaves me to conclude that this app will be pretty pricey.

yea - a UI that's separate and doesn't lock up. That would be a big enhancement.

Okay then, in V-ray, you can set a material double sided (somehow, do not ask me as I do not use V-ray but down in the V-ray subforum on the board index). This means that while a face can be completely transparent from one side, can be a shadow caster material from the other - i.e. if you create a dummy, shadow caster face for a 2D component, it will result in a "normal" shadow from any angle. This is actually very useful in SU as well. See an example file by Alan Fraser here: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=173618#p173618 Although it is not a "classical" 2D face me component, its leaves are actually face me pieces. If you turn hidden geometry on, you will notice what casts the shadow there. You can use that shadow caster component (maybe a bit slanted towards the camera so that you can never see "underneath") with a transparent material on top and a non-transparent, shadow casting material at the bottom in V-ray.

Yup, I believe that works I guess...

@unknownuser said: The reason I want SketchUp to work this way, is because I have so many plugins, SketchUp takes FOREVER to load. And with this plugin, I don't want to wait for 20 seconds before I can edit my component. Also, why should I buy a $25.00 plugin when this is free? I would pay $25 for multiple windows in one instance of SU and I didn't know about that component editor window... that is sweet I'll have to get that.

Very good point and it does not sound like something that is too hard to implement.

hello, i'am not talking about a renderer software i use vray and maxwell and other but a shader in the window of sketchup because the way sculptris use is very light and easy try you understand what i mean it'a free programme create by pixologic . When i use sketchup i always interogate me why there is no shading mode like sculptris voila i use sketchup since the 6

Here are two ways - I added a temporary diagonal line to find the square's center. One is maximum size it will snap 'square' when the point-on-edge' is approximately square as shown, the other is fully 'inscribed'...[image: 84Kb_OctagonInSquare.png][image: rjST_OctagonInSquare2.png]

It wouldn't be impossible to work in 3d; it would make things more flexible! (by posting this, I am secretly pushing through my selective-snapping-disabling agenda)

Perhaps something from here might help http://www.freebyte.com/cad/fea.htm The free versions are usually node limited (typically 300), but for small item might be useful. Regards, Bob

@agamemnus said: Eyeballing? Doesn't sound very accurate...... It is'n't accurate indeed, but often quite enough to cut out the image part you need, say for a new 'Face Me' component. Then inferencing other than 'On Face' gets in the way. That was my point. I can't think of another time disabling inferencing would help at all. The main reason for answering here was that other axes (as in the question by OP), like R/G/B with 60/60/60 degrees is possible. If you would like to exchange suggestions about working around the orthogonal axes as mentioned in this thread: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=34690 let me know in that thread. (here we are to much off topic, sorry) Unfortunately, in that thread your uploaded image contradicts what you are writing. So I'm not certain why you cannot just do what you are after without disabling inferencing to axes or disabling whatever.

Already to contradict myself... I was assuming you had already played with the "Combine Textures" option in SketchUp. It does approximately exactly what you want. It has limitations though. It only works on co-planar faces though. So on a small model, it would be possible to rotate all faces, or use Jim Folt'z flatten script to flatten all faces, then combine the material into a single jpeg. That would be veryt tedious and not entirely useful on very large models though. But I suppose it could be exactly what you want if you only need it for small amounts of work. To use it, select to faces that are coplanar, and one must already have an image material on it. Select them both (or more than just 2) and right click, and choose "Combine Textures". That will put them into a single jpg. Then you can right click on one of the faces and choose "Texture > Edit Texture Material" and it will open the jpg into your defaul image editor (You can specify that in your SketchUp preferences to use whatever image editor you have on your computer). So that is an option if you want to go through that process Chris